Prescott, WI to Wabasha, MN

Friday, September 12, 2003
Distance Cycled: 57 miles
Total elevation gain: 1,725 feet

All last night, whenever I woke up I could hear the rain falling outside our motel room but this morning it was not raining. The sky was very gray and it looked as though we could still have more rain. We went to a grocery store to get food to carry on the bicycle. The only problem was that the grocery store was uphill from the motel and in the opposite direction that we would be going to leave town. My legs protested the abuse that I put them through to get up the hill. Even after a night's rest my legs were still tired. We bought our food and headed back down the hill to meet Gary and Ann at an information center. When we got to the information center, they informed us that it did not open until 10:00 AM. That meant that we would need to wait over an hour before it opened. We did not wait but headed for Red Wing, MN.

We were traveling on a very nice road but it had some more of the climbs that we encountered the previous day. On one climb we went up a section that was about 50 yards long at a 10% grade. All of these climbs were shorter than those encountered yesterday. Mary Kay and I only walked one of the climbs. We did find several friendly cornfields, (or restrooms). As the day progressed and we worked hard going up the climbs, we grew hot and began to remove excess clothing. Ann removed her leg warmers at one stop and just placed them loose on her bicycle. 5 miles later the second leg warmer fell off her bicycle. She and Gary rode back to the place where she removed her leg warmers to pick up the other one.

We crossed the Mississippi River into Red Wing, MN and ate lunch. We found out that we could not follow the Adventure Cycling Association map because Hwy 58 was closed. As a result we traveled from Red Wing to Wabasha on Hwy 61. It was much easier riding on Hwy 61 since it followed the Mississippi River, had no big climbs and only one or two small climbs that were 5% grades. We did not have any headwind and were able to travel at 15 to 18 miles per hour from Red Wing to Lake City where we stopped for a rest. Ann did not stop but kept on going like the wind all the way to Wabasha. We had a few more hills after Lake City so we were not going as fast but we were still going faster than we did the two previous days.

When we got to Wabasha, we cycled into town and Scott and Barbara stopped at a grocery store to replenish their food supplies. Mary Kay, Gary and I headed for the motel where we had reserved a room. When we arrived Ann was already there but she did not like the motel. She had stopped at a brand new motel across the Hwy and wanted to stay there. Mary Kay, Gary and I all went to the new motel to check on the price. It was $7 more expensive but included breakfast. We cancelled our reservations at the one motel and moved to the new motel.

We took our showers and Iris, a college friend of Mary Kay's, drove from Minneapolis to take us out for dinner. At 7:00 PM we all piled into her car and went to dinner, at the Anderson House. It was a special time and a great treat to go out to dinner in a car.