Stillwater, MN (Rest Day)

We were looking forward to this rest day for a while. After a long week of biking, we got to rest in the beautiful town of Stillwater, Minnesota. Following our long night out celebrating, I was ready to sleep in. I got up at 10:30 this morning, and I only did so because I really had to go to the bathroom. While the cyclists were sleeping this morning, our hero Mark Richardson was already on the road, hitting up the local “Bikery” downtown. This local shop has earned praise for its status as a bike shop / bakery. Mark later told us that he met this really interesting guy named Oliver that was the bike mechanic / pastry chef / owner of the place, who was apparently debating with his coworker as to the consistency of his brownies while he was fixing Mark’s bike. What an impressive dude.
That morning, we had a great breakfast at this cozy place next to the hotel. Honestly, I was pretty impressed with myself. I was able to throw down three eggs, sausage links, hash browns, and four pancakes (by the way, I weighed myself two days ago and I’ve gained eight pounds on this trip... I wonder how much of that is actually muscle).
Afterwards, we visited the bike shop and did some laundry. Then, it was time for some serious relaxing. The girls wanted to watch a movie, and unfortunately, my fellow male cyclist Parker was missing. As a result, we ended up watching P.S. I Love You. I’m not going to lie. It was pretty good. You know, it stirred a little something inside.
Donna Richardson and her two daughters soon arrived from New Hampshire to join us for the next week of the bike trip. We’re all really happy to have them and are looking forward to another week of excellent support.
For dinner, we went off to the city park, where Mark Grayson had found us a great place to have dinner. The spot overlooked the St. Croix River that separates Minnesota from Wisconsin. During the cooking process, we decided to reorganize our support trailer and Tahoe. It was pretty rough. At the end of it all, everything was neatly arranged and properly stashed. I feel as if we probably should have let the support adults in on the reorganization though, because later Mark Grayson was trying to find zip-lock bags and he told me, “I can’t find them. They really organized this trailer!”
Oh well.
While we were having our delicious meal of lamb and mashed potatoes, these folks walked by with some huge ice cream cones. Intrigued, we flagged them down, and as always, we somehow got to talking about our bike trip, and they were very interested. Later, as we were finishing up some pie, they came over again and told us that they were the leaders of a church nearby and that they really appreciated our efforts. One man said a prayer for us right then and there and boy did he get into it! I remember him saying, “These kids are biking across the country and oh my god! That is awesome Lord. Bless ‘em!” That was a first.
It’s getting kind of late now, and we’ve got a 95 mile ride ahead of us tomorrow. So finally, I speak for all of the cyclists when I thank the Graysons for their support this week. Their home-cooked meals were delicious and we very much enjoyed their fun personalities. Thank you so much guys. Without the support vehicle, I wonder what state we’d be lost in right now.