Home!

We arrived home on Sunday, July 18 (our 29th anniversary!) around noon. From Melrose, we rode the rest the of the bike trail to St. Joseph, MN (home of the College of St. Benedict-Rita's alma mater) and then we followed the Mississippi River to Monticello where we spent the night on Saturday. As we were entering Monticello it was starting to rain. We met another "trail angel" on the road; Lois, an older woman on a bike. She offered to lead us into town and show us where the motels were. She was very quick on her 3 speed bike and kindly took us to the Community Center; looked up the 4 motels in town, wrote down their phone numbers and gave us directions. Thank-you Lois! She told us that Monticello was her home town, but she had taught for 40 years in Quito, Equador.
We checked into the motel and asked the owner if we could bring our bikes inside. At first he said "No", but after more conversation we realized he thought we meant motorcycles. When he learned we had bicycles, he said, "of course, leave them in the lobby".
It turned out we made the right decision to stay in the motel that night, the worst storm I've ever seen rolled through around 7 pm. We had wind gusts up to 86 mph and a wall of rain. It didn't last long, but our tents would not have withstood that.
On Sunday morning we continued on to the Coon Rapids dam where we crossed the Mississippi, then we rode a bike path. Due to the storm, there were many branches and sticks on the trail and in 3 places very large branches or trees which had to "portage" our bikes around.
Rita and the cats greeted us at the door. Before the guys got in the house, I was in the shower! It is good to be home. Jerry and Barb, Scott and Cayley arrived and the eating frenzy began. Barb made us homemade bread, apple pies, homemade ice cream, orzo salad, fruit... We had Root Beer Floats and Pie for dessert! Anne Rykken came later with chicken (she was sure she brought too much-we ate it all!) and we ate some more. Sue Thomas arrived with Margaritas and beer!
Andrew, Don, Jeff and Joe are staying with us. They will take off tomorrow morning with Doug and head for the East Coast. I'm very grateful to this group. They provided friendship, safety and motivation to see me home. I have no desire to continue the trip beyond this point, but I'm happy that Doug has a good group to continue. Riding the tandem is more stressful than riding a single bike...he wasn't able to let go of the handles even to drink. It will be so much easier for him on a single bike. They plan to ride across Wisconsin this week, take the ferry across Lake Michigan maybe on Friday, then continue across Michigan to Sarnia Ont. Cross Ontario into Niagra Falls, cross New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I wouldn't be surprised if they finish in three weeks or so.
I'll probably add more thoughts later....
Love,
Therese