Day 5 - Waconia to Stillwater - TOM

June 20, 2024

Day 5 - Waconia to Stillwater

Twin Cities

It rained for 15 minutes at 4:30 am. Even though it wasn’t raining at 5:15 I practiced taking the tent down from inside the fly. It worked reasonably well.

Breakfast was from a food truck. I had a veggie breakfast burrito.

The first 20 miles went pretty quickly. Most of it was on a rail trail, and I rode with a fellow from Houston I met yesterday. He is an engineer who worked on the same big project in Kazakhstan that I worked on for Phillips Petroleum at the end of my time there but for Shell. He worked on it after I already left Phillips, so we never met then, but we had a great conversation about it anyway.

The first rest stop was on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. I’m not sure why the train horn sign is pointed at the sidewalk instead of at the train track.

While at the first rest stop I called my friend John down in the Woodlands north of Houston to ask him where his house in Minneapolis is so I could figure out how close I would pass to it. If it was close, I thought I might try to stop by and say hello to his daughter Andrea. To my surprise, I discovered that John was in Minneapolis visiting his daughter. I got his address and figured out that I would pass within about a quarter mile of his house. We arranged to meet somewhere along the route in downtown Minneapolis John arrived and we walked to a coffee shop where we sat and talked for almost 2 hours.

John and I have known each other for almost 45 years. We met in Norway in early 1980 and worked together for several years John‘s wife Linda rode the Tour of Minnesota (then called the Jaunt With Jim) in 1977. The ride was started by Jim Klobuchar (father of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar) 50 tears ago, when he was a journalist for the Minneapolis newspaper

Saying goodbye to John. The rain began while we were in the coffee shop and continued for the rest of my ride, about 30 miles.

When I left the coffee shop, I hurried to try to catch up with the rest of the riders. I was sure I had fallen behind even the slowest riders, and I was right! When I arrived at the lunch, stop at 42 miles they were just about ready to pack up and leave. There were about a dozen riders there, including the two sweepers for the day, and Doobie asked me how I could possibly have fallen behind them.

Turkeys are often seen on the roads, but usually they’re driving cars.

Luckily, the radar guns weren’t out today because I was definitely exceeding the 10 mph speed limit, but in my defense, I was riding in only One Direction.

A Minneapolis work of art called Spoonbridge and Cherry.

It looked like some sort of street fair was getting started as I went through downtown Minneapolis.

Keg of 1919 root beer at the lunch stop. Tasty!

I arrived at the Stillwater middle school, confirmed that my gear was inside and dry, and rode to the Lift Bridge Brewery for my reward for a rainy ride. The rain stopped while I was there, and I stayed inside long enough for my clothes to dry. Except for my socks. And my shoes. I’m happy I have dry socks in my bag to put on tomorrow.

We have to sleep outside in our tents tonight, and the forecast for tonight, tomorrow and Saturday is abysmal. I’m getting used to it. 😱

Today's ride: 70 miles (113 km)
Total: 215 miles (346 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	3
Comment on this entry	Comment	0