Day 26, New Ulm (not to be confused with old ulm)

BEST: We had sweet rolls and donuts at our first rest stop brought by a gentlemen named Alfred who randomly met one of the ride directors the day before and decided to treat us.

WORST: Slow riders delayed the arrival of the gear truck meaning we had to wait to get settled. On the flip side, we rode into town and had a brat and a beer while we waited.

MOST UNEXPECTED: Stopping in Tracy and besides getting the huge donuts, I got to be the engineer on the train.

OMG, there was no wind affecting our ride today. Consequently we flew through the 88 miles. We might have actually had a bit of a tailwind for the first 50 miles as we were averaging more than 20 miles per hour. The temperature got hotter after this point, and the wind shifted, but overall a good ride. I took a picture of the shoulder of the road showing the loverly rumble strips which really bust you up on the bike. In this case we have to ride in the lane of the traffic, but if the shoulder is more than 2 feet wide, we ride on the right of the rumble strips. There are places you have to move back and forth, and when you cross these grooves, you either loose your fillings, or your tender bits.

We are perched above the downtown of New Ulm, and we did go down to the town after arrival to eat at the Kaiserhof where we had the local beer and a bratwurst. Unfortunately we were still wearing our bike clothes which probably did not make a favorable impression on the waitress or the patrons. We will be eating dinner at the Martin Luther College where we are staying. There is one nasty uphill to get back from downtown up to the College which does affect how often you want to go downtown. Getting there is not the problem, but getting back requires using the lowest gear on the bike.

Some cool pictures below show a trucker getting filled up with corn or wheat with steam going everywhere,, an unusual city sign, a very large grainary (Really Really big), and an unusual brick barn.

I drank a lot of water today as the humidity is above 70%, but our tour director says that is nothing. Au contraire, being a California native 70% is sticky.

Day off tomorrow after six days of riding, and I am really looking forward to it.