In the midst of a very busy year at the church, we are taking a break from regular schedules and continuing the next segment of our Ride To New Orleans (RTNO). Our goal is to do a multi-year ride that traces the Mississippi River from the headwaters in Itasca, MN to where it finds the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans. This year’s segment is about 230 miles traveling from Hastings, MN to Cassville, WI. We will be riding the Minnesota side for the first half and then the Wisconsin side the second half. Most of the route is right alongside the river which means we also get to see lock and dams, trains, river towns, and a good amount of traffic.  Earlier today we drove about 6 hours to our start point, loaded up the bikes and completed 25 miles of the route. We ended in Red Wing, MN.  Other things we did…coffee on the way, pastries from New Glarus Bakery, lunch in Prescott, WI, visited the Anderson Sculpture Garden, dinner in downtown Red Wing. Also experienced a tail wind all day, sunshine, and awesome scenery. Pretty good start to the trip. Tomorrow we begin our full day rides…so it’s time for bed. Gear is staged and ready for tomorrow.