Day 10 – Hot, Hot, Hot!

Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Time on Bike: lost data

Total Travel Time: 8:04:11

Miles Covered Today: 73.98

Total Trip Miles: 581.2

Average Speed: lost data, Maximum Speed: lost data

From: Osceola, MI

To: Milaca, MN

(Uploaded from Fargo, ND on 24 Jul 2016)

We say our goodbyes. Patty is a great friend. We may not see each other that often, but we share a special bond.

She is also a good Jewish Mother, in the best sense of the word! She is warning us about the heat and humidity before we even get in the car!

My philosophy is if you are out in it all day long (e.g. not going in & out of AC), it isn’t really that bad. Start out in the morning and stay out all day and you get acclimatized to it. Well… that is my theory.

Before we even got to Osceola about 1.5 hours later, it started to rain. And storm. And lightning. We sat in the car a bit and hoped to wait it out.

I tried to pull up Weather.com. Hard to do on AT&T E (Extended). Slower than dirt! But looked like the storm had passed.

The sky slowly starts to clear. I am committed to today’s ride.

Then I get to a detour for HW 95. I have no idea how far out of the way I needed to go. I ride on.

By my calculations, I estimated an additional 6 miles that morning due to the detour. It could have been worse… I rested up outside Almelund, MN.

I cycled on and met up with Bunny & Woz in North Branch. It is a McDonald’s.

It is another hot, hot, hot day! I started to lose it and needed an intermediate break in Cambridge, MN. Hard to stay focused. Harder still to kept hydrated and eat enough to keep my strength up when it is hot. But that is when I need it the most!

I finally got to Bunny & Woz at Pinebrook Resturaunt & Bar in Pine Brook, MN. Bunny had already struck up a relationship with Jill, our waitress. All Bunny does at this time of the day is order cold drinks and hang out in the AC.

We had a hard time finding a place to spend the night in Milaca, MN. Since we have Woz, we needed to find a dog friendly hotel. We received a tip from a Super8 Motel to try the Phoenix Hotel & Banquet Center. They were dog friendly! This no doubt will not be the last time we have to scramble to find accommodations!

At ~6:30 PM that evening it felt like it was close to 100 degrees. Woz was done for the day. Too hot and too many places that Woz had to go into today to keep cool.

I had been in touch with Sam and he and Laura were going to come to Milaca to take us out to dinner. Bunny decided to hang back with Woz. But that didn’t stop me from grabbing a picture!

Sam, Laura and I ate a local place that was recommended by the woman at the desk at the Phoenix. I was looking for carbs.

I quizzed Sam and Laura about the upcoming sections of my route. They had done the Northern Tier route and had a wealth of details and information for me.

I returned to our room and crashed.

Other pictures from the day.