Riding the Northwoods

As an alternative to RAGBRAI, Jamey and I decided to try TRAM - The Ride Across Minnesota. It was the same week as RAGBRAI, but only five days, and just under 300 miles. It was an awesome ride. It's a fundraiser for the MS Society, and it was one of the most organized, well-supported rides we've done.

We were originally planning the ride with a small group, but everyone else dropped out due to lost work time because of the floods. Jamey and I had planned on it, Willa was stoked about spending the week with Gramma and Grampa, so we decided to go anyway.

On Saturday, July 20, the three of us drove to Albert Lea, MN to meet my parents for the "exchange." Willa was stoked for the week and couldn't wait to be ride of us, so we were soon on our way to the Twin Cities. We got a hotel room in the suburb of Eagan, and met up with Jamey's godson, Justin and his new wife Megan for dinner. It was nice to hang out with them, and visit them one on one, away from all the other family obligations.

We got up Sunday morning and headed for Duluth. We realized that we had not prepared for how chilly Northern Minnesota would be at night, so made a side trip to a Target for some extra sweatshirts. We hit Duluth around noon and found UMD - the meeting point for the ride. We grabbed out bikes and headed back down to the lake toward a little deli we'd seen on the way into town. After fueling up, we got checked in, loaded out bikes on a semi, and got into a charter bus for the ride to Grand Rapids. It was about 2 hours through some beautiful scenery.

In Grand Rapids, we stayed at the fair grounds. We got our tent up, found our bikes and decided to tour the town to kill some time. By the time we got back to the fair grounds, the weather was looking a little ominous. We grabbed dinner at the grounds - a church group selling spaghetti, and found shelter in some type of quonset shed so we could eat out of the rain. After about an hour of rain, it cleared off enough for us to walk about the grounds, enjoy the entertainment of a Native American flute player, and then decide we'd seen enough.

MONDAY: Grand Rapids to Chisholm. 63 miles. Grabbed some breakfast at the fair grounds, and spent the first 35 or so miles on the bike trail. I was a little worried that the trail would be crowded with 1100 riders, but it wasn't bad. I was freezing though. They had stocked stops every 10-15 miles. At the first stop we had cereal and milk and breakfast bars. 

More to come...