Alia stepped up to dedicate today’s ride to her friend Jasmine’s mom, who recently passed away from cancer. Jasmine attended Lake Forest High School with Alia.

Dylan’s breakdance Mosher this morning surprised us: Colin “Lil T” Tainter is an avid breakdancer. Who would have thought…

Simple 60 mile ride today from Minneapolis to Hutchinston Minnesota. Luckily a rain shower only lasted for about 10 minutes as we rolled out in the morning and we had warm breezy weather the whole way through. So far I have been very impressed with the landscape of this state and it has been cool to see the “10,000 lakes” slogan in action.  We rolled through a ritzy suburb today and had our first rest stop in an upscale downtown area off of Lake Minnetonka.

After finishing up the ride we were surprised with passes to the local water park and everyone got to dip a toe. We took turns swinging off of the zipline into the pool and jumping off the diving boards. After a pizza dinner some of us got frozen yogurt while others (Tyler) completed the “leg waxing challenge” as Alia took off his leg hair to “make him more aerodynamic while riding”. Sure…

While eating our frozen dessert Nick Su, David, Analisa, Schuchen and I were discussing what it is about I4k that makes it so enjoyable.  We were saddened at the thought that it would probably never be possible for all 27 of us to be together again after the ride (unless someone on the team gets married, which we’ve seen from alumni that it is). Towards the end of this talk we agreed that the unexpected things that happen every day like getting to go hang out in a random water park in Minnesota, are what make every day memorable, and the ride overall awesome.

There’s water parks in South Dakota right?

MB