Welcome to Route 2

We have now hopped on route two and will be traveling along it for more days than I'd like to discuss. Today we pedaling 82 miles, 62 of which were on a single road. As dreadful as I thought it would be, I actually enjoyed it. The sides of the road were pine and aspen forests, a big change from what we came through in the lower midwest. The road was mostly flat and we averaged high speeds.

This morning, however, the first 5 miles were far from flat. In order to get out of Duluth you must climb up from Lake Superior. We climbed for a solid 2 miles before seeing any sort of flatter terrain.Once at the top we had a lovely break at Caribou Coffee, where I enjoyed a nice iced latte!

We've instituted a new activity called "Sweepstakes," which involves sweep (the two riders who ride in the back) coming up with a challenge for the day. At the end of the day all of the entries are judged and the winner gets something special (i.e. first in line for dinner, massage...etc).Well we have a common phrase that we use in Bike and Build, "Safety is Sexy," to encourage and promote safety on the road as much as possible. So, today the sweepstakes were to take pictures inspired by this phrase. You can only imagine the fun we had...I won't go into more details, but it made the miles pass very quickly as we brainstormed for the most creative picture. Tonight our sweeps, Caity and Hanna, will determine a winner. I cannot wait to see everyone's submissions.

Tonight we are in Grand Rapids, MN, birthplace of Judy Garland. The church we are staying at is right next to the Judy Garland Children's Museum!

 And to back track quickly, here are some pictures from the past couple of days. 

 

Finally, to answer some questions from the comments...we have planned many times to use the slackline that I brought, however, other things have sounded more interesting. It awaits much use in North Dakota and Montana as we enter the land of small and tiny towns.