A lovely day for a bike ride

Today we set off on the Lake Wobegon Trail from St. Joseph. What a wonderful change from riding on the roads and highways. All day we cycled without cars passing by (although many times we were within ear and eye shot of Interstate 94).

About half hour into our ride we were met by Pia and Rosemary who had started in Avon and biked out to meet us and ride along for awhile. Soon Mary joined us also having started from Avon. Now we were six with many more opportunities for conversation since the trail allowed us to comfortably ride side by side. The miles seemed to fly by. Paul from Austin, TX caught up to us on the trail and we joined in conversation for awhile as well. On we went through Avon and Albany – where our new friends turned back for the day (after sharing a bite at the local bakery). We continued through Freeport, Melrose and on to Sauk Centre where we met our friend Craig Neal who was visiting the area and came to visit while we ate our lunch at the beautiful band shell next to Sauk Lake. (Thanks to Bob for helping us find the trailhead where Craig was waiting for us!)

The weather continued to hold at a pleasant temperature with mostly cloudy skies that kept us not too hot and not too cold, but just right. Yes, a beautiful day for a bike ride.

On we rode through West Union then stopped to stretch for Osakis as we were now over the 52 mile mark for the day. There we met Ricky and had another enjoyable conversation – bikes, climate change, hope, living simply, health. Off again through Nelson then turned off the trail for the last few miles to the home of our hosts Ken & Jean near Alexandria.

Now at our hosts we enjoyed refreshing warm showers and a pot luck dinner with friends old and new. Then we were off to the library (a short car ride this time) for our evening conversation. The group of about a dozen gathered in the library community room and shared successes, challenges and new ideas to talking with others about climate solutions. A big theme of the conversation was helping people see the impacts of climate change all around them as many do not think they are impacted currently – we are working on our local climate stories.