TRAM (Day 5 - July 27, 2007)

Fergus Falls to Alexandria, MN

Distance = 47.07
Time = 3.32.45
Max speed = 20.5 mph
Avg speed = 13.3

Our last morning! We got everything packed up then headed down to the Viking Cafe from last night. The dive! They serve a pretty good breakfast! A bunch of old geezers hanging out eating breakfast and drinking coffee. You know it's good! We all took off together but were quickly separated again. Lorrie and I were just taking it easy and wanted to make sure we took in all the scenery. It was almost completely on a trail so the riding was nice. There were a few little hills but nothing major. We skipped the first rest stop and were promptly passed by Brian after he'd stopped there. A little while down the road Tim and Heidi passed us. It was weird to think we had been ahead of them at all! lol But they said they were taking it easy as well. We started seeing riddles along the sides of the trail. I was reading out the riddle and Lorrie was yelling out the answer. She was riding with Heidi and I was with Tim. It was still too fast to get all the answers. But they all had to do with Christmas and Santa Claus. We decided to stop at this rest area and get Lorrie's gears checked out one more time. The mechanic told her if that didn't work to check it out at the next one. lol Good quality work eh?! We also had our photo taken with the Claus Family. It had to have been hot in those outfits. But they looked pretty cool. I can't remember the name of the town but it was very cute. There was a bed and breakfast for sale as well. They were serving breakfast and coffee on their porch... or what it their patio? Got some food and water and took off again. The trail, I think it's the Heartland Trail, was really nice. I think I heard that it was relatively new, which explains the lack of cracking and such. The scenery was nice too! Yes, it was mainly still farmland. But I *am* in Minnesota ya know! And some of the are quite picturesque... if you ask me. The last rest area was very small but they had a lot of watermelon! Bonus! Lorrie had her bike checked out one more time since it was still making a chinking noise. He determined that it was the pedal and not the gears. Said she needed to have her bearings reset. Sheesh! So we decided to embrace the noise! lol I grabbed one of the milks they have been giving out the past few days and put it in my pocket to save for later. I had wanted some before but can't imagine how milk would sit in my stomach while cycling. It doesn't sound promising! Lorrie took one too but after about a mile stopped and drank it because it was harder to carry than to just drink! lol Nothing major happened between this point and the finish. We just took our time, talking, and enjoyed the end of the ride together. It was kindof exciting to get to the finish! We had to stop and take a few pictures of course! This was the entrance to the Douglas County Fairgrounds... and the unofficial finish. But we didn't know that. So we were excited! lol There was another gentleman who was also finishing so we took a photo of him as well! So we did it. Together. And we still like each other. That's pretty cool. We continued on that road and the official finish was there. They had an inflatable arch, cow bells, a radio announcer, etc. It was pretty cool. There was a small crowd but nothing major. Heidi came running out to greet us. She said they'd been waiting but got hungry so were in line for food. We put our finishing medals on and went to line up for food. It's always about the food eh!? lol Burgers, chicken, watermelon, salads... it was all there. So we all ate together and hung out. That was nice. I was under the impression that as soon as they got there they would disperse and we wouldn't see each other again. Nice surprise! They all left shortly after we finished eating. Except Jan. She had to wait for Brian to ride someplace else to pick up his van. Poor guy! We stuck around and waited for the last rider to finish. I thought maybe they would have something for the volunteers like at the AIDS Ride. We waited for quite some time. I did get a cowbell out of the deal. Some guy saw me dancing and said I could shake the bell too! lol Cool! A kid next to me wanted one too so I went and found one for him to keep. I wasn't giving up my swag!! Well... I would have. But I didn't want to! lol Anyway, the last riders were what I assume were a mother and her son. It was pretty cool but, I have to say, slightly anti-climactic. And then we headed home. And the
last photo on my little disposable camera was one of my trucks in a parking lot in Alexandria! (= Works for me! It's been a great week and I'm very glad that I got talked into doing this ride! I'd be happy to do it again next year. The Minnesota AIDS Ride, called the Red Ribbon Ride here, was the week before this year. Maybe I can do both and just ride all during July!

TRAM (Day 4 - July 26, 2007

Wadena to Fergus Falls, MN

Distance = 54.44
Time = 3.35.48
Max speed = 30.5
Avg speed = 15.1

Lorrie decided not to ride today. Her left hand, in the pinky area, is quite swollen and sore. She's been taking ibuprofin and icing it but it's still sore. Yesterday was a very hard day so I thought it was a good idea that she not go. A bonus was that she could have our tent set up and get us all a good camp site for the night! It was weird saying goodbye to her in the morning. We all rode downtown for some breakfast. But I can't remember where we went! lol Must be starting to all run together. lol We all took off together. Actually we all rode together longer than usual. The road was pretty busy so passing wasn't terribly easy. That also made gaining speed difficult. Eventually I heard Heidi said, "I can't do this anymore. I'm going." and she was off. (= Tim followed. It all started to spread out a little eventually. I stuck with Daryl and Jeanie and we got past the crowd pretty well. It took awhile for my legs to get warmed up this morning. They didn't have quite the spunk they usually do. We passed by the first rest stop so that we could thin out the crowd even more. Daryl was singing and telling jokes the whole way as we rode. That seemed to cheer people up as we passed. It was pretty hilly, which I thought was fun. My legs did start to liven up a little bit. The scenery was very pretty... lots of flowers along this part of the road. We got to the second rest stop and decided to take a little break. Daryl asked Jeanie something about bonking and told her to get some water. She laughed and said she'd been trying to hide it. He's been biking in general and with her too long to be fooled. (= Daryl knows so many people after doing this ride for 17 years that every rest stop with him is like a party. It was fun to meet new people. I'm horrible with remembering people with helmets on. Maybe in 17 years I'll know the names too! (= While we were there, we ran into Bill who had apparently taken a spill. He was still steaming! Apparently one of the Ride Marshalls had cut him off or something. He said that instead of braking suddenly and taking Tim and other down with him he just let himself take the fall. He got up and wasn't hurt. But was PISSED! lol I asked him how fast he rode after that incident. He said, "Pretty damn fast!" lol I can laugh because he wasn't hurt. We didn't stay at the rest stop too long. Enough to do a little stretching, refill our bottles, and get a little food. I had put some bugles in my pocket to save for Lorrie. They take up a lot of room those things! Well, as we got going, we got back into some hilly sections. And one nice steep descent had me tucking in pretty tightly. The air swooshed around me and my bugles flew out. )= That was sad! Daryl came up next to me and said he was sorry to tell me that I had lost them. Someone also ran them over. Geez! I guess it's the thought that counts! (= It was actually pretty funny! On to the third rest stop, if I remember correctly, is one where skinny dipping is not uncommon. My finger was thinking about skinning dipping. But then chickened out and decided to just get into the photo of the skinny dipping dock! The line to the bathrooms is a funny thing at some rest stops. When we got to this one Tim and Heidi were still there. Tim came running down to us, real secretive like. He told us there was a bathroom up on the hill that was unlocked that we could use and there was no line. He was so serious about it and very quiet! I appreciated that so off I went! It was still just a hole in the ground. But no wait! Always a good thing! It seemed like we stayed at this rest area for a very long time. We gave each other shoulder massages and chatted with various people. I think I also ate too much. I hate when I do that. Finally we were off again. More hills! It started to look like it might rain. It wasn't cool or anything yet but it did sprinkle some as we got into the final rest stop. When we were there, I met a couple who is celebrating their 50th(?) wedding anniversary and they've been celebrating on the ride for many of those years. I thought that was pretty cool! They're both still riding strong! I hope I can be that way!! In the marriage thing and the riding thing! While we were at this rest stop, someone announced that Fergus Falls was set to get a downpour in about 30 minutes so if we wanted to beat that we'd better get going. I don't think there was anyone there who could make it the approximately 12 miles in 30 minutes. But we took off just in case. It did sprinkle and rain at one point. But it stayed off pretty well. I don't think I ever got completely wet. There were a few hills up to the finish and I actually had fun with those. I just decided to kick it to the end and see what I could do. I haven't done much of that this season so it was interesting. The finish in Fergus was very cool. There was a nice crowd of people cheering. Lorrie was there with her video camera filming us coming in. That was nice. She showed us to our site and it was wonderful! Good shade, close to the edge so we didn't have to walk as far to get to town, and flat! I got my stuff arranged and went to take a shower. The line was pretty long but seemed to go fast. Then we explored a little. They had computers set up for us and power strips so we could charge phones if needed. I love when host cities think of those little details for us. There was a tree that Lorrie was dying to show me! It was full of egrets! She said she'd spent some time sitting and watching them earlier in the day. These photos don't do them justice at all but they totally took over this little island! They are one of her favorite birds so she was extremely excited! We checked our email, plugged in our phones, and did some laundry. Meanwhile the rest of them had gone downtown to scope out some food. Daryl left a message saying they were at some Viking Cafe or something like that. So after we'd done our chores, we headed down that direction. It was still early in the day. So we had a good amount of time. When we got to the cafe, no one was there and it was a bit of a dive. We called Daryl again and he explained where they had decided to go. Just down the street. It was an Italian place that was usually not open except on weekends. They were going to be open at 5pm but Daryl et. al had talked their way in a little early and had been siting drinking wine. I was extremely hungry but knew by the time we found someplace else to eat the pasta bar in this place would be started. I'm also not fond of pasta! But I felt like spending time with them was more important that having the food I would prefer. I just hoped for good meatballs! (= They weren't! lol And I wouldn't call myself a picky eater. I just wasn't thrilled with the place. Daryl and Jeanie had deemed themselves hosts and servers for the evening. So they were seating people, getting water, pouring drinks, etc. I couldn't tell if the owners were thankful or irritated. But that was their deal! lol When they finally opened the pasta bar, it was a mad dash! Great salad! Great sauces... the clam sauce was really good. But the meatballs and sausage weren't great. Didn't matter, I was hungry and this was food! More wine, more people joined our group, good conversation, great energy. It was fun! We sat for a little while and then needed to walk around some. Lorrie and I paid then headed out into the heat again. We ended up at Pamida where we got mosquito nets for our boundary waters trip and I got a tarp to cover our stuff in case it continued to rain through the night. Then we sat in the outdoor area on a porch swing for at least 30 minutes. I might have actually dozed off for a few minutes. lol It felt good to be in there. Then we needed some fresh air so out we went. Fergus Falls was hosting a street dance in our honor that night. But before that the teams on TRAM had contests for best song, best t-shirt, etc. So they had those competitions and results before anything else. We watched that for a little while then started walking around again. There was also a concert in town that Heidi and Tim had gone to in an old theatre. Prudence Johnson was playing. I had no idea who she was but Daryl went berserk when he realized she was in town. So off we went to the theater. We ran in and asked if we'd missed her and they said to hurry and go in. She came out just then. It was good. A combination of oldies, jazz, and blues. I was falling asleep though. So after the intermission we decided to leave. We found out later that the others had to pay $12 to get in! I probably would have stayed awake if I'd paid that! lol We jumped on one of the buses provided by the city to get us back to the park and headed to our tent. I covered everything up with the tarp and off to bed we went. It was nice because we could still hear the music being played down at the dance. Our last night on the ride! Weird! Just when we were starting to get the hang of things!