What number state are we on now? Welcome to Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes and a LOT of water. We had a great time playing in the mud, crossing the Mississippi river, and getting some long climbs in as we rolled to Rochester. Unfortunately, our adventure was cut short by some severe thunderstorms, which forced us to shuttle the last 14 miles of Friday’s ride (always better safe than sorry). We enjoyed a lovely rest day today, and saw some of the sights in our last big city for quite a while. 

Ride Overview

Mileage: 81.9

Elevation: 2,686’

Points of Interest: La Crosse Hy-Vee, Trempealeau Public Cemetery, Great River State Trail, Onalaska WI, The Mississippi River, Entering Minnesota (!!!), Winona MN, The Blooming Grounds Coffee House, Viola MN, Rochester MN, The Mayo Clinic, Midwest Vintage Toys, Janky Gear, Central Park, Rochester Cycling, New Spin Bicycle Shop

Quote of the day

Tales of the Trail

Friday morning saw overcast skies and an ominous weather forecast. We bundled up in our rain jackets and took to the trails with excitement, after a quick morning activity from Claudia. Claudia, president of UIUC’s Crossword Club, had us split into small groups and complete the daily New York Times mini crossword — some teams had much more success than others. We rolled onto the trails for the first portion of the ride again, and saw a more or less completely dry first stretch.

Our first rest stop brought us a beautiful surprise at the somewhat spooky site of a foggy cemetery (we’ll stop to snack anywhere and everywhere!). Our lovely van crew for the day had stopped at a local Hy-Vee to pick up our staples of pasta and peanut butter, and received a food donation of truly too many baked goods to count. We had an amazing picnic full of muffins, cake, bread, and cookies — all of which was quickly covered when it started to rain on us. Our team is happy to embrace every type of weather — a lesson we learned quickly after the downpours of our first day in New York City — and we splashed through the trails energetically as ever as we rolled through our last few miles of Wisconsin.

We crossed the Mississippi river shortly before our second rest stop, and were abruptly welcomed into Minnesota by a delicious coffee shop and a flat tire for Logan. The rain let up and gave us a break as we stopped at a gas station for snack refills and our first MinneSODAs of the trip (see what I did there?). The landscape of Minnesota has proved to be beautiful so far, with huge rolling hills and small towns in between. We’re reminded of Illinois but with some sort of elevation — not nearly as aggressive as the Appalachians, but enough to give us an equally beautiful view.

The past two days of our trip, we’ve had some lovely Wisconsin stayovers, but have been largely unable to shower. Apparently, the weather gods above decided we smelled a little too bad, because oh my goodness did we get the shower of a lifetime. As we rolled out of our third rest stop, the rain began to pour relentlessly. The pros of this? A free bike cleaning! The cons? The thunder and lightning that quickly followed. Our small groups pulled off wherever they could — one group was incredibly lucky to be sheltered in the garage of a very kind family just outside Viola, thank you for keeping us safe!!! We waited for SAV to retrieve us and our bicycles and shuttle us to the stayover, and took the opportunity to meet a lovely cat and some equally lovely people.

The stayover itself has provided us with a large and beautiful space, which has allowed us to spread out last night and during our rest day here in Rochester. As we journey across the country, we’re running into assorted family members of our riders — we saw Logan’s family in La Crosse, and Izzy’s family was incredibly kind in providing dinner for us last night. We had a watch party of a documentary of the first ever Illini 4000 team in the summer of 2007. It’s amazing to see where this organization started and where we are now — still advocating for a beautiful cause, sharing lots of love, and eating many PB & Js. 

We took our rest day today as a genuine day of rest — less sight-seeing, more sleeping, eating, and visiting the assorted bike shops of Rochester. We made McDonald's runs, saw some movies, did laundry, and cleaned bikes. Some members of the team ventured to the nearby Mayo Clinic for a self-guided tour — it’s awesome to be staying so close to such an important hospital!!! I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and include a mini-photo diary of the day we had.

We enjoyed an amazing meal provided by our stayover hosts, as well as visit from 2013 rider and 2016 ride leader Catherine Kemp! It’s always lovely to chat with past riders who have experienced the journey we’re taking right now. We loved hearing her advice, her stories, and some encouragement for the miles ahead. Tomorrow begins an eight day stretch of riding, which will bring us to two new states and even a corn palace! We look forward to some (hopefully) drier weather and more beautiful people and places :) 

Cyclist’s Corner

Today’s Rider: Emma Darbro

How are you feeling today?

I’m feeling good! I put the “rest” in “rest day” today and took it very easy. That has not always been the case for all our other rest days, but rest days are when I feel like a normal person. I went to Walmart and a bike store and watched some junky TV, so, feeling good! 

You’ve fundraised thousands of dollars for our cause. What has been the most impactful fundraising experience you’ve had?

During winter break, I called businesses like it was a full-time job. My mom works from home, and so when she would clock in at seven o’clock in the morning I would clock in too, and we would sit in different rooms and I would call people all day long. I struck some gold with DICK’S House of Sport in Champaign and they did an in-kind donation for a gift card, but we were able to directly pass it off to one of our beneficiaries, the Prairie Dragon Paddlers. I found out that they were able to use that to buy life jackets from there for their Friends and Family Day that they have in the fall… they let us come paddle with them as well, so we really saw firsthand that it’s something that is tangible and helpful for them so that they don’t have to go by on their own now with their own funds… it was a really fun experience for me, and I’m excited for their families to get that too with the life jackets and be safe! 

What keeps you going when it gets difficult to put in all of those miles or even to get on the bike?

We’ve done I think seven or eight Portraits so far and I’ve helped with the majority of them — I do the paperwork or the logistics since I am the Portraits chore. Majority of them, whether it’s current patients or survivors or family members, have been impacted by breast cancer — that is the predominant cancer we’ve come across… and the common consensus on a lot of these Portraits is, “oh, I didn’t know enough” or “my doctors didn’t provide the best advice,” so I think about those women a lot and I think about how I am fighting for them and fighting for equity in the healthcare system. When bikes were used in the suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony said bikes have done more to emancipate women than anything else, and I think we are still emancipating women and emancipating all people who are impacted by breast cancer. Bikes fighting for women times two! 

Do you have a favorite accessory to wear with your ride uniform?

I love my pink bandana. Neal recently taught me how to use it properly. I’m very embarrassed by some of the photos that have been taken of me without my helmet prior to Champaign because I really didn’t know how to wear it! So I love that, and I have a bracelet that my boss gave me from the Women’s Resources Center for Violence Prevention Professionals Appreciation Week, and it says “I love consent.” And I made another one that says “Illini 4K!” So those are my favorites — they’re getting a little stretched out from all the swimming, all the water, all the submersion we’ve been doing lately, but it’s a good problem to have so we’ll preserve them. They’re little reminders of home, of pre-I4K Emma and how excited she was for everything. 

What’s your rest stop routine?

First, I just thank my legs for getting me there! Like, “thank you legs for getting me these last 20 miles!” I check in with everyone and make sure their last 20 miles have been as splendid as mine have, because I feel like if I don’t see my teammates at rest stops I don’t see them at all if I’m not biking with them. We get to the stayover and I’m like, “where have you been?” So that’s my rest stop — I go be social and then I actually take care of my human needs and get myself a snack. I try to do one savory, one sweet, I try to balance it out. I’m always a little slow! The three most important things — bathroom, water, sunscreen — those always get done last, and like maybe we need to bump those up a little bit!  

In the remaining portion of the ride, where are you looking forward to visiting the most?

I’m looking forward to the places that have snow. I’m a Florida baby in that essence because I’ve never seen snow in the summertime — we don’t live where that happens. But I know it does happen and it’s like somewhere in Wyoming maybe? I’m very excited for Wyoming! There’s not a lot of people there, but there’s a lot of land, and I want to make a snowball. 

Is there anything else you want to talk about?

I was wrong about Wisconsin… I think it had a lot to do with all the bodies of water we were in or near that made me love it so much. My sister has lived in Wisconsin for so many years and I was really hung up on the fact that she betrayed Illinois to go to Wisconsin, and I was like “Wisconsin has nothing on Illinois!” We spent two days in Illinois and they both looked the same. We spent four days in Wisconsin and all of them looked totally different, and I’m like “maybe there’s some biodiversity here!”

(A reminder that any unfamiliar terms can be found in our handy I4K dictionary.)