Week 5: So Alive

Connor, asked if he could ride for Camilla. 

Land of Corn

Week 5

Day 28

La Crosse, WI-Rochester, MN

The bike trail extravaganza continued as we crossed into Minnesota. Most of the trails were packed sand, but we had some near spills when we hit loose sand pits. That morning, we counted off into random groups of three and were assigned an accent for the day. Group one was British, group two was Irish, and group three was Southern. It was a struggle to stay in British persona while yelling “car back” or “gravel left”, and I found myself speaking in a western accent more than once.

In regards to the scenery of our ride, the Wisconsin/Minnesota border is very diverse. We started next to the Mississippi, and rode through thick forests, past swamps, through the Whitewater State Park, and finished the ride with 30 miles of corn fields. Bike trails are beautiful but they are secluded and make it hard to meet and connect with strangers during the day.

Day 29

Rochester, MN-Minneapolis, MN

Van day. I took over van duty for Mike because his dad was going to ride the last 25 with the team, and it turned out that his girlfriend also drove up to surprise him! We also had another dad join the team. Aaron’s dad, Alan, was on a business trip in Minneapolis and he rented and rode a bike 108 miles to Rochester, and turned around and did the ride the opposite way with us. He also bought us bagels and coffee for breakfast. THANK YOU!!!!

While bike trails are great for the bikers, trying to drive the van to chalk the route is a nightmare, andHalle (my navigator) and I had a few meltdowns as we struggled with incorrect directions, one way streets, and construction zones. All the teams made it, however, and we were welcomed to Minneapolis by a community who took us into their homes, fed us, and gave us beds to sleep in. They also hosted a bbq for us, and after a delicious dinner, we shared our reasons for riding, and they shared their connections to the cancer community. Gino, Hannah, Rachel, and I where hosted by Michele and her husband Phil. Michele is a cancer survivor, hula hoops, recycles, composts, and uses aluminum free deodorant. Basically, she is my idol.

Day 30

Minneapolis, MN

Rest day.

4th of July.

4th of July tour of Minneapolis

We woke up early to the smell of breakfast cooking downstairs, and started our day with a bike ride tour of Minneapolis lead by one of the hosts, Kris. We just can’t seem to get enough of biking, and 30 miles later, we arrived back at the hosts for lunch. After swimming in Michele and Phil’s pool for a while, I blogged until it was time to drive to the nearby Hope Lodge for our service event. The Hope Lodge is sponsored by the American Cancer Society and is a free place for patients to stay while they receive treatment. We made them a spaghetti dinner and cleaned some of the communal rooms at the Lodge. I took a break from vacuuming to sit and talk with Mary, who is currently fighting cancer, and her husband. They primarily wanted to know about how our program works and how biking across the country was going. Mary never stopped the smiling the whole time we were talking, which was good, because she had a beautiful smile.

We continued to talk with more cancer patients during the spaghetti dinner and then we headed out to eat our own dinner. Erin Reisfeld is the sister of our teammate Jen who had a terrible bike crash during our first day of the ride. She is still in recovery in Maryland, but her sister works in Minneapolis and welcomed us to her 4^th of July bbq with open arms. We ate (veggie) burgers, watched the fireworks from their rooftop balcony, and we once again couldn’t believe how fortunate we are to be making this journey.

Day 31

Minneapolis, MN-Lake Lilian, MN

Lake Lilian, population 238, is a remote town in central Minnesota. We sadly said goodbye to our hosts, and biked thought a really beautiful area of rolling hills, forests, and lakes. The weather was also perfectly overcast, but there was a chance of thunderstorms later in the day. We should have known our luck would run out, and by the afternoon we found ourselves slogging along a flat, bare, windy, traffic heavy road in the brutal heat. After lunch, we rejoiced when the air suddenly cooled off until we looked north and saw ominous clouds forming. As we were leaving, a biker stopped by our lunch spot to inform us of the tornado warnings and invited us all to stay in his house if we needed to.

We only made it 45 more minutes before the vans made the call that the weather was getting too extreme and it was time to rack all the bikes. I was upset because I hate not being able to finish a ride,
but as soon as we were all loaded, the storm from hell hit us. Buckets of rain, thunder, lightning, hail the size of grapes, and wind battered the van. Since we had a dinner planned for 5, our ride was done for the day, and headed (SLOWLY) through the storm to the host.

We had a community dinner put on for us by the Lake Lilian community. We stood in the front of the gym and talked into a karaoke microphone about why we were riding. During dinner, I sat next to Betty who is a breast cancer survivor, and was an incredibly special woman. After, we hugged, and she told me I had a special shine. I proudly dedicated my ride to her the next day.

Day 32

Lake Lillian, MN-Marshall, MN

This is a special day because I started the tradition of collecting the life stories of my teammates. Kelly was my first victim when I asked her if she would tell me her life story, starting from birth. What is so interesting is what each person chooses to include in their stories. Some ask for my life story back, and I change what I include every time as well. Every day, I wake up excited to learn more about these awesome people.

Special entry:

Riding for Dana's friend Mimi and her wonderful father, Gary. 

Two years ago, I was riding on a bus in Peru with my friend Christina, who also happens to be doing the 4K for Cancer San Diego ride this summer, when we decided we would stop using Styrofoam products. This summer has been a test of my will because many of our hosts serve dinner on Styrofoam plates and coffee in Styrofoam cups. Here is a list of sneaky ways I have avoided using Styrofoam on the 4K. 1. Random lids 2. My camping mug 3. Other people’s used plates 4. hamburger buns 5. My hands

My team started to notice my hate of Styrofoam, and the other night, 4 of them opted to wash their own dishes and use a real plate instead of a Styrofoam one. My heart almost burst of happiness. We also are a hardcore recycling team and people happily pack bags of cans and boxes around in the vans until we can find a recycling bin. What spurred this enthusiasm was Gino saying “every time you throw away something that could be recycled, a little bit of Kate’s soul dies.” The team took that to heart, and every morning consists of a discussion of what items can and can’t be recycled.

Everyone has also been extremely supportive of the three vegetarians on the team and we eat great veggie burritos of sandwiches every day, and an obscene amount of peanut butter for the extra protein.

Day 33

Marshall, MN-Sioux Falls SD

Another century day, and we also had a 6:30 deadline to make it to a community dinner at our host-church. One hundred miles before 6:30pm should be completely doable by now, but there was a chance of thunderstorms all day, so we knew would have to hole up at times to let the storms pass. It did indeed start to storm and luckily there was a nearby overhang when the rain, lightning and thunder stopped. As soon as the storm passed we were racing on our bikes to make it as far as we could before the next storm hit. This same process happened again and this time a friendly man opened up a church for us to use as refuge. The last 22 miles were rainy and hilly, and when we the host with a big bowl of watermelon waiting was a miracle. Total mileage for the day: 101.8 miles.

After dinner, we all drove to the actual Sioux falls and explored nature without our bikes. Sioux falls was pleasant, and had some riparian zone for me to poke around in. I found a leach and a few mayfly larvae. We all shared our highs and lows of the day while sitting on the grass with the roar of the waterfall behind us. It was another unforgettable kind of 4K evening.

Day 34

Sioux Falls, SD-Mitchell, SD

Mural made of Corn Cobs

I continued to collect life stories, but it was difficult because we were on a skinny road with fast cars that didn’t respect bikers. SD does not have much of biker community, and they were unsure of how to treat us, so many of the acted as if there weren’t 6 humans on small metal objects 3 feet from their cars. We did get to stop at a garage sale where I picked up a travel sowing kit, Adriana bought a scary moose toy to tie to front of her bike, and Josh scored on a Phil Jackson book. Although the day was hot and we were on the same rode for 50 miles, it was a great day because we got to visit the CORN PALACE. See photo with murals made out of corn cobs.

Day 35

Mitchell, SD-Chamberlain, SD

Tailwind in SD

Another all-around great 4K day. My group was Connor, Gino, Liz, and Hannah. First off, the whole team super grouped to the nearest coffee shop to get our caffeine fix. A quick stop turned into a leisurely hour of conversing until we had enough energy to keep riding. The busy roads turned into barren roads through prairie-like fields. We also had our first tail wind!! By traveling from East to West we are working against the prevailing winds the entire summer. However, weather patterns switched up, and we were biking about 19 miles an hour until lunch when the heat slowed us down. Biking through the middle of nowhere on blistering roads felt like a real cross country        bike experience.


To pass the time we told more life stories, took photos of people’s scary yard art, and had photo shoots on hay bales. The Missouri River greeted us in Chamberlain, and my group rode straight to the beach and jumped in the perfectly cool water.

We watched the sun set over the river, and I wrote post cards.

Side note: during the ride, we stopped for a bit and met three women who had just gone to their high school reunion. Two of their husbands, Randy and Barry, past away from cancer, and we ride for them.