Home at Last - For a Day

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[Ben, Lyndsay, Diana, and David]

[What happens when you take a caveman to the big city?]

[Ben, Guido, and Joe at Minnehaha Falls]

[How to clean a Caveman 101 - a Tim Robbins impression]

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Saturday we left the wonderful hospitality of David and Diana's home to ride southward to the "big city" life of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Ben and I were warned of the possibility of severe storms, but the morning began innocently enough. Our ride from St. Cloud took us through Becker, Big Lake, and Elk River before highway 10 began to closely resemble a freeway and the shoulder on which we were riding began to resemble the landscape from the scary parts of the Land Before Time movie (cracks you might drop a T-Rex in). So we wandered south along the west side of the Mississippi River on a road the carried significantly less traffic. It was a very picturesque ride through Dayton and Champlin. We crossed the river at 169 and took East River Road the rest of the way to Minneapolis. There we met up with my brothers, Mike and Andy, and had a quick bite to eat at Stub and Herb's on the University of Minnesota campus. After we ate, my cousin Robert the Bruce joined us and we all rode the river trails through Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling State Park before crossing the river once more and climbing the bluff to my girlfriend Megan's new house. While the weather had been wonderful all day, within one and a half miles of our finish at Megan's house the skies decided to open up and rain descended upon us as if our sweaty steanch had reached the heavens and offended the God's themselves. Luckily home, warm greetings, and towels awaited us at our destination and once again the inconvenience of the rain was minimal. After a quick shower Ben left for Pine City with his sister and her friend, Mike took Andy and Rob home with their bikes and I was left to enjoy all the comforts of home for about 30 hours. The evening and day off were filled with dinners with family, movies (Despicable Me is fantastic!) and relaxation. Sunday evening Ben returned and we prepared to leave on the second half of our quest the following morning.