This morning was planned as a later start with a shorter day on the schedule. We all met at the hotel  in Winona at 8:30 for departure and even had a guest rider join for the day! A couple things to explain here…. 1. Mel and I are riding with our bikes fully loaded with our gear, but also doing hotel “camping”.  Using hotels saves us about 20 pounds total weight by skipping the tent and all the stuff needed for camping. Since we had a very busy year at church, we didn’t get the training miles needed for the extra weight – thus “meeting at the hotel”.   2. Our friends who are riding/traveling with us have amazing camper vans, so they are staying at various campsites along the way and joining us for the starts, various parts of the ride, lunches, and finish spots.  Plus they are the “uber” for cool places to eat in the evenings.  3. The “guest rider” is Mike, the brother of Marcy, who is on our riding team this trip. Mike lives in La Crosse and is a big cycling nut like the rest of us.  

Ok, back to the bluffs…. today we road some very pretty areas.  Bluffs along the river on both sides providing shade and highlighting God’s creative beauty.  Besides just seeing them, about 20 miles in we diverted from the highway and did a 1.4 mile climb that took us about 500’ high above the river and the town of La Crescent, MN. We had many miles of wonderful views of the river, trees, clouds, and blue skies with puffy clouds. I really found myself slowing down my pace and just soaking it all in while cruising down the road. As we got towards the end of that bluff (where we would later descend, coasting about 35mph back to river level) we had two treats. We had popsicles at a rest stop and then visited a friend of Mike’s who has an amazing home at the edge of the bluff (unofficially called Eagle Bluff) overlooking the entire river valley. We took an extended break as he showed us around the property and told us the history of the house.

Once we descended from the bluff (much faster than we climbed) we had a late lunch and then made our way to the hotel for the night.  

The second bluff encounter was one we drove up* called Grandad Bluff. We were almost opposite Eagle Bluff but a little over 5 miles across, as the eagle flies. Here we saw the entire river valley from the Wisconsin side and learned about the history of the valley.

We followed this up with some great homemade ice cream at a local place in La Crosse.

For the day we ended up riding about 43 miles.  This was our short day in prep for our longest day of the trip tomorrow…

*Some of my readers may question why the second bluff was driven up instead of ridden up. Especially if you know how much I seek hills to ride. Well… sometimes wisdom happens. It would have added about an hour overall to the day and we had a big next day. When in touring mode, it’s not just about knocking off miles or achievements.  It’s about making sure you have the legs for the entire trip as there are no “off” days. However,  I will be back here in the not too distant future and not on a tour. I will crush Grandad Bluff at that time lol.

Ok time for bed…