Evergreening.

Overcast skies and 58 degree temps kept my motivation to get out and ride yesterday morning a bit low.  Thus I had a couple more cups of coffee and perused the internet. By 9:30 I decided I needed to get going.  I left the house with arm warmers on but had them off in 10 minutes.  It was still pretty humid.
I didn't have an agenda other than ride North into the wind.  If I wanted to turn I'd turn or if a certain road looked interesting I'd take it.  I was on the Evergreen, which was running quietly since I gave it some loving!

The gravel I was on in Benton County was pretty chunky and soft.  It appears they recently laid new gravel.  Combine that with the wind and I wasn't setting any speed records.  Reaching Morrison County the gravel firmed up, allowing the pace to quicken and the effort to lessen.

I rode through Morrison County into Crow Wing County.  Jen and the girls are up at her folks cabin (I will meet them there on Saturday) for the week.  They planned to head to the small towns North of Brainerd for the day since it wasn't ideal lake weather.  As I was ending on a gravel road to take my turn onto county road 2 they passed me!  What are the chances?!  We chatted a bit before we headed our separate ways.

I was a bit off on how far away I was from highway 371 and highway 10.  It felt like I was heading West for a long time.  From riding up this way in the past I remembered between 371 and 10 is the Mississippi River with not many bridges across.  Either Brainerd or near Camp Ripley.  So I started to head South as well to meet up with the road that crosses the river.

I passed the gas station we stop at during the Summer Solstice Century and continued on to Randall.  During the 8 mile stretch it started to rain, lightly, on and off for the next couple hours.  At Randall I stopped to top off the fluids and resupply my food stash.  I pushed on a bit more West before finally making the hard push South and East for home.  I took mostly paved roads from here on out as I was running a bit behind schedule.  Not that I had a schedule I just told my folks I'd be home around 5.

Well I made it home around 6:30 for 146 miles in 8.5 hours.  I felt really good.  Not fatigued, bored, frustrated or any of the nuances that can come with long days in the saddle.  I was stoked.
Living with your folks has a lot of advantages but one being having supper ready for you when you walk in the door!  Some call it spoiled, I prefer loved!

Happy Weekend.