We started our adventure at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Friday afternoon, Margeaux, Rhory and I met in the parking lot, loaded all of our things into Rhory's fancy Jeep and took off to Proctor. We arrived in Proctor just before 4 PM, checked into the hotel then off to Duluth for food. We dropped Margeaux at the Green Mill to meet up with her family and friends. Rhorstar and I took a quick jaunt over the bridge to visit JP's bar, always a stop for us when we're in town. We had a quick beer then back to Duluth for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Pizza Luce. We had the usual; large pizza with artichoke hearts, pineapple, smoke gouda, minced garlic and extra sauce for Rhory along with a Ceaser salad to share. MMMMMMMMM nothing better! A girl needs to load up on carbs before a 150 mile bike ride. A couple cold frosty beers and the meal was complete. After dinner Rhory and I cruised around a bit then picked up Margeaux. Now let me tell you I was ready to head back to the hotel on accounta I had lots of things to do to get ready for the ride the next day but NO, the girls were not ready to go back. Margeaux "it's only 8 o'clock, lets stop somewhere." I should have known. We found ourselves in Dubhlinn's Pub ordering black and tans. I have to admit they tasted mighty fine. Around about 11 PM we decided we needed to get back to the hotel and get some sleep.
5:30 AM came around really quick on Saturday morning and I was none to happy about all the black and tans the previous night. After a couple presses of the snooze button we were up and ready to ride. Margeaux got a little impatient with me as I had things to do in the morning (the things I wanted to do Friday night but the pub got in the way) so anyway, around about 7:00 we got on the road. We rode our bikes over to Proctor High School and crossed the start line just before 7:30 AM. We had a fantastic day for a ride, absolutely beautiful. We took a short break at a scenic overlook, not that we had a choice everyone and their mother stopped to see and there was a traffic jam on the bike trail. The first rest stop was in Carlton, MN at about mile 13, we took a slight detour to mail a postcard then back on the road. Second stop Mahtowa at mile 26, third stop at Moose Lake, then onto lunch at Willow River mile 47.8. Ok, I will admit, it took me until the lunch stop to get the cobwebs out, but I'm not twenty something anymore and I can't drink black and tans all night and expect to be 100% the next morning. I know Margeaux would like to have ridden much faster. After a filling up at lunch we were off again, now I'm ready to ride! We picked up the pace and breezed to the next rest stop in Finlayson then onto Hinckley!
Arriving in Hinckley we found our team tent "Real Estate Riders" and grabbed a snack and a couple cold beers then met with Margeaux's family/friends for a bit. We went back to our team tent for pictures and the raffle drawings, I won two tickets to a Vikings game, YAY! Afterwards we rode over to the hotel, got checked in, took quick showers then went out to dinner with Margeaux's family and friends. In bed snoozing by 10 PM.
Sunday morning, rise and shine, downstairs for breakfast, stow our gear and on the road. Again we were one of the last people starting the ride, I think about 7:30. I thought Saturday was a good day for a ride but I have to say Sunday was by far the best riding day I have had this year. The temperature was perfect, a little cool to start out but once the sun was up and shining it was fantastic. It felt like we simply flew to our first rest stop in Pine City, home of the Pump-n-Munch (a little inside joke for Rhory). Next stop Rush City then onto lunch in North Branch from North Branch we rolled on into Wyoming then Lino Lakes and landed at the National Sports Center in Blaine around 2:30 Sunday afternoon. I have to say, I thought this was going to be my last MS150 ride but I had such a fantastic time, Margeaux and I registered for next years ride as soon as we got into Blaine.
Again I want to thank everyone for supporting me and maybe next year I can convince one or two of you to ride along with me ;)come on it'll be fun.
Peace,
karen
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