Pactour Day 16 "Pactour Power Source Revealed"

As Pactour rolled out this hazy and beautiful morning we went by a graceful field of power generating windmills.

Upon closer inspection the "company" behind the power generators is "SUZLON" Aha!! The source of Susan and Lon's power on the bike and interminable energy driving this group forward each day!! There had to be something like this explaining these seemingly supernatural people.

At rest stops, Jim's job is to fill water bottles.  Each Slauson has 2 bottles, color coded so we know what to put in each.  Jim generally prefers gatorade in both (1 coke after lunch stops.)  JW 2 waters or 1 water 1 coke.  Turk 1 gator 1 water or 1 coke 1 water.  Liam (Will's new name on Pactour) 1 gator 1 water without fail.  Red matches JW's handle bar tape and saddle, White matches Will's handlebar tape and saddle.  Blue matches Turks handlebar tape and bike.  Green is Jim's favorite color.

At night the bikes find a designated sleeping area in the hotel rooms.  Here are Terri and Jim's Cannondales, snuggling of course.

Like a good business women, an hour or 2 each night in the hotel is spent by the Turk doing B-H business.  Using her iPhriend, natch.

Tonight for dinner we ordered in Mexican food.  Not a great idea in Minnesota.  It was absolutely the worst mexican food on record.  And we were so hungry, it was the best meal of our life (since lunch today - hamburgers...)

Today we rolled from Worthington, MN to Austin, MN (spam capital of the free world.)  Very little climbing and much less headwind led to a happier bunch, for sure.  Will and JW set Personal Records (PRs) at 148 miles, thanx to Lon.  More on that later.  Turk sagged in after 110 miles, not bad eh?  That might be her M.O. from now on.  The boys have signed a pact to ride all the rest of the miles from here on in (10 days to go.)  We were going to sign the pact in blood, but the Turk hasn't knocked Will off his bike yet.

More Milestones today.  We brought 5 kits, so each day we wear a kit this go round, we only wear that kit 1 more time (since there are 9 more riding days!)  We are now down to single digits (9 days of riding) to go.  Again, this type of "compartmentalization" is key to getting across the U.S. - sane and talking to each other.

Our Theme today was "Patience." We have a Swedish proverb to reflect on "The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected."  This was timely on several levels - first Minnesota probably has the highest concentration of Swedish descent folks in the U.S.  Second last night we watched Cat Berge's 30 minute video of her RAAM ride 2 years ago.  A copy of that will definitely be in the shop for your viewing pleasure when we get home.  What an awesome accomplishment that was - 3500 miles racing across the U.S. finishing in Atlantic City in 11 days 11 hours.  Remember we are doing Pactour in 26 days, so this is like an afternoon joyride with friends for Cat.

Jim decided to try on the Patience theme from the gun this am, his front tire was low.  So he sent the family down the road and changed it (twice since he must have pinched the tube with a tire lever the first time.)  So he got to chase for 8 miles, no problemo.

The whole family got to try on Patience with a rerouting 15 miles into the ride.  We hit a junction and were directed to go right (we were supposed to go straight) because of road construction.  After 1/2 mile we saw 25 riders coming back at us so we made a U-turn to join them - turns out we had to go Left.  Fortunately Turk had stopped to pee in a cornfield or we would have been 2-3 miles into the wrong way corrigan.  

We had the pleasure of a tailwind for our detour (course meant straight into the headwind to rejoin our original course.)  And we added 6 miles.  Turk must have been trying on Patience, because there were no screams or cursing from her when she found this out (of course we didn't tell her til mile 50 or so.)

Clever Lon.  Adding miles to the planned 143 mile ride to ensure Will would PR.  Will's previous was 145 a couple of days ago (when JW was sick.)  So both PR'd today with 149 miles!  I'm sure Lon was trying Patience on the whole Pactour group, whom I'm sure were absolutely thrilled to ride up to 10 extra miles today!!

Tonight we did body measurements.  Jim has lost 2 inches on his chest and waist, 1 inch off his hips and calves.  Turk has taken off 1 inch of her hips and 1/2 inch of her thigh, none off her chest (thank god.)  Will and JW's measurements are pretty much stable, they did take 1/2 inch off their calves.  Looks like the calves are gonna be the big winners during Pactour, certainly increased definition.  Jim might be loosing a bit of his manteats.

Dinner is here (order out Mexican in Minnesota?)  so we're out for the night.

Thanx for reading.

Til tomorrow or so.

Slauson's