102 Miles in a Heatwave

Today we rode 102 miles from Worthington, MN to Mankato, MN.  Yes, Mankato - the "big city" from Little House on the Prairie and yes, my fourth century ride.  First, I should let you know that I actually rode 103 miles, because I missed a turn. This is not one of those days that extra miles were welcome.  We are in a heatwave - with the heat index at 121 when I arrived in Mankato.  Luckily, we left early and the ABB team was out in full force with tons of water along the way.  We are loving Mankato - we are in a really nice hotel with an elevator and the pool area is also really nice.  It was a welcome change from the Super 8 from last night (although they did have the awesome fruit spread that we talked about all day today.)

 I know you are thinking "why would an elevator be a big deal?"  Well, many of our hotels do not have an elevator and when you have all of your luggage and your bike - schlepping everything up 3 flights of stairs after riding all day is the last thing you want to do.

Today we had a nice tailwind for most of the morning so we were moving along.  The breeze helped distract me from the heat.  I do believe the tailwinds have come along because I have been singing my new song:  "I love tailwinds" to the tune of "I love Candy"  -  it starts something like this:

I love Tailwinds....
I want Tailwinds.....
Tailwinds make me go, go, go
Tailwinds help me when I'm slow...

The other thing about Mankato is that it has real restaurants, so a few of us bypassed the buffet and went out for a wonderful meal.  Great company, great food and time to get ready for 99 miles tomorrow.  What more could we ask for?