Midwest Tandem Rally Day #2

Rally Day #2: 52.16 miles
Comments: Ride Time was 3 hours 52 minutes, average speed: 13.4

I sure do enjoy a mass start! The staging area was held at the Mayo Civic Center Circle Drive. All the bikes lined up and prepared for the 9:00 a.m. start. We were escorted out of town by the Rochester police—inexperience showed but we did all make it out of town with no injuries. The medium route sent us out on CR 1 towards Simpson, through Racine and High Forest, stopping at Bear Cave Park outside of Stewartville for lunch—a cold sandwich and not much else to speak of. We then continued on CR 8 into Rochester where we picked up the city trail again to return back to the Peace Plaza. This was our second great-weather day—in the 70’s with no wind and plenty of sunshine, a biker’s paradise! We intended to return to Rochester early so that we had time to visit the vendor area and as we were nosing around, Jim and Shirley Hamm found us and we chatted some and invited them to join us in the COWS' hospitality room starting at 5:00 p.m. We made introductions and before the evening ended, they decided to join the COWS tandem club. What an exciting moment for them. We did not have supper yet so made plans with Joan & John, Marilyn & Gary and Kathi & John to walk to the Canadian Honker, an excellent choice. Following dinner, we parted to return home to St. Charles with Lane and Linda. We were all too tired to sit by a campfire so went directly to bed. Thanks Lane and Linda for the gift—a photo of Dennis and I taken by the rally's pro photographer, Miles.