Day 43: Sauk Centre to Litchfield, MN. 59 miles.

We started on the bike trail before 6 am. Unfortunately we only could stay on the trail 5 miles. We then turned south on Highway 4. That is a well maintained 2 lane road with very little traffic.  The last 8 miles were on Highway 12.  This was the worse road we have ridden. The shoulders are like cobblestones. The road itself had bumps about every 30 feet and there was alot of traffic.  We will look at tomorrows route to avoid a repeat. We did have good winds and reached our hotel by noon.  We were tempted to keep riding but the heat suggested not.

Some have asked about what we shipped. We still have our tent, it is now In our pannier. We kept our sleeping pads but shipped our down sleeping bags, etc.

We started with a continental breakfast at our hotel. there are a lot of differences in these. today's was quite good. it has fruit, yogurt and some healthy cereal choices. Compare that to yesterday frosted flakes and fruity loops along with donuts were the only choices.  I had to go get our own peanut butter and healthy bread from our stash. Either way we are always ready for a second breakfast in about 2 to 3 hours.  Today we were lucky and found a nice place.  Yesterday and today there was a large table of man playing a dice game.  It seems like they play to determine who pays for breakfast.

We often get encouragement from strangers.  Today a woman driving in the opposite direction rolled her window down, waved, and yelled "way to go!"  Ron was afraid she was going to say "get off the road!"

There have been fewer Lutheran and more Catholic churches.