Pactour Day 15 "JW back in the game"

Today's ride was very monotonous, so Will tried different styles of pedaling for kicks.  Didn't make Mother too happy....   Notice the corn in the background.  Forcast for the next 4-5 days of riding is 80% corn 20% soybean.

Cattle in Wyoming and South Dakota seem to always huddle as close together as possible.  I guess to keep warm in the winter and persists as a habit year round?  We do see lots of cows each day, this is certainly beef country.

Tonight we stay in a Travel Lodge.  Pretty cool little poster they customized out for our arrival.  You may find this hard to believe, but PacTour is considered the world's hardest cycling tour.

Today we rode into Minnesota, overnighting in Worthington.  The ride was killer, small rollers all day with constant 10mph nagging cross headwind.  We noticed the wind immediately heading out in the am so looked for the first available wheel to draft off.  Kurt Searvogel came by and we jumped on.  Kurt is an enthusiastic triathlete from Arkansas and being a big man blocks a lot of wind.  I personally hold Kurt responsible for the 100 degree days we have been having since on Day 1 he announced he had signed on for Pactour because "It's too hot in Arkansas in the summer to train."  Anyway, we rode Kurt's wheel for 20 miles towards the rest stop at mile 30 which gave us a nice jump down the road on the day.

The day heated up really quickly and we had ridden hard to the first rest stop.  So at mile 90 lunch we decided to help clean up lunch and take the lunch van to the next rest stop 20 miles away.  (Jim had noticed, on the days map a 10 mile stretch due south which would have taken us straight into the wind we had been pushing all day which helped the decision.)  

Once we got the bikes in the lunch trailer, and learned of the 5 mile stretch of unimproved road we somehow decided to take the trailer all the way into the hotel.  Probably a good decision since we had a chance to do laundry, and the Turk went immediately down for a 2 hour nap on arrival.  Hopefully we'll all be a bit fresher in the am.

Tomorrow we ride to Austin, MN (home of SPAM - the "food" not the email.)  Supposed to be an easy 150 miles, but looks like the wind will continue to pester us.  By the way, JW was on the bike all day with only an occasional bout of mild vertigo, and we'd get out of his way when he'd veer off course towards us.

Tonight we ate at Lon's favorite restaurant, Perkins, so that should supplement us with some superhuman strength for the morning.

So far 3 riders have bailed from Pactour - a 70 year old New Zealander who sagged with us on day 4 or 5 from lunch and announced that he had never had to get into the truck during the 5 Pactours he had done, and he was old enough to leave if he wasn't having fun.  Another fellow left today because of foot tendonitis.  A 3rd rider left after a week of riding (he only signed on for a week.)  So we're still here, Haldeman, so we must not be doing too badly.  It really is a difficult Pactour because of the heat and the winds, but the spirit of the riders, and Susan's suggestions to keep us from overdoing it, is making it doable.

Thanx for reading.

The Slausons