Day 30-(102 Miles)- Tuesday, July 17, 2007- Worthington, MN to Mankato, MN
In an earlier post I referred to an expression that I once heard my aunt use. She was describing something that smelled bad enough to "knock a dog off a gut cart". Today, I experienced that smell repeatedly, apparently coming from some agricultural process. I suspect the smell had to do with the rearing of either hogs or turkeys. It was so stunningly awful, so achingly sour, so painfully potent that it nearly paralyzed this rider. Sometimes it seemed to come from an empty field, other times from what appeared to be a poultry house, and at times from passing trucks. Whatever the source, it was awful beyond belief. I pray that we have passed through the region in which it is produced.
This part of Minnesota is purely agricultural. And almost purely corn and what we believe to be soybeans. As you ride along you see either soybeans and corn, corn and corn or soybeans and soybeans. They are occasionally spiced up with a turkey house and maybe a windmill or two. That's about it.
Today's ride was a century and I joined the Miller Mob as our leader has called them. Mike Miller started at the front and lead at a brisk pace for the first 10-12 miles. I stayed with them, but I think the early pace set me back a bit as I spent the rest of the day trying to recover. The route today was flat, and the weather was warm, humid and we had a bit of a headwind all day.
By about mile 70, I was praying for help- and finally got it at mile 90, when we discovered our third sag was co-located with a Dairy Queen. We each took a private booth, slipped off our cycling shoes and stretched out our legs, and ate our cold, creamy treats in nearly total silence.
There were a few locals who wanted to hear how far we'd come and Mike, always the cycling statesman, was happy to provide the details. I listened in, offered nothing-just focused on the next helping of my Chocolate Extreme Blizzard.An update on my ride stats: Total miles completed are about 2,200 (69% of the total), remaining days 12 and remaining miles are 1,000. We'll ride another century tomorrow (my first back to back centuries) and have one more century after that. The ride is passing us by quickly and I have mixed emotions about the end. Part of me is ready to return to the real world and my family and farm-part of me wants the rolling circus to go on forever.
