One of the perks of being on this trip is that you can take a shower outside of a church using a hose in a pretty metropolitan area and it is at least somewhat socially acceptable.

The rides into and out of Madison were the hottest days ever, both in the mid 90's, which made it tough.  In Madison, I got picked up by David and spent the night at his place.  We jumped in the lake in our underpants and then walked down the lakeside trail in just our sexy briefs to dry off.  We had some beers at the UW-student union... I think its awesome they serve beer at their student union.  Its outside, right on the lake, has a stage for live music, and is perfect for a summer night... After a few beers, we got some ice cream and then had an awesome sleepover.  Joe Silberschmidt is sweet.

About 15 miles outside of Madison we ran into the largest pile of tires I'd ever seen so naturally we stopped for a picture and some climbing.  That night we were in Reedsburg, nice little small town.  I got in a solid 6 mile run with Brad on a really nice trail that ran parallel to some railroad tracks.  We listened to some live music in the park, very reminiscent of the free concerts in Heard Memorial Park in North East.

The next day we headed to Lacrosse.  I had some bike issues that day, but I got them takin care of at a bike shop as soon as we got in.  I really liked the town of Lacrosse and the UW-Lacrosse campus.  Great town right on the Mississippi River with great biking and running in every direction, according to the locals I spoke with.

Crossing the Mississippi yesterday was pretty epic, plus we just had an epic ride that day itself.  We had a tour scheduled for 2 O'clock at the Mayo Clinic so we all woke up at 4:15 AM and were on the road just after 5 as the sun was coming up.  Luckilly, we had no trouble getting all the groups in by 2 and I even had some time for a run before the tour.

Touring the Mayo Clinic was awesome and a great opportunity.  It is one of the highest profile cancer research facilities in the world and since thats what this trip is all about, it was interesting to see the types of things the money we are raising is going towards.  The lab we toured was a molecular biology lab that focused primarilly on pancreatic cancer and they had some really cool stuff to show us.  Being around all the lab equipment reminded me too much of being back in Champaign.  It was more science than I planned on participating in this whole summer... really cool though.

This weekend is Rochester-fest so good timing on our parts.  Since we had a rest day today, it was game on last night.  The festival was great, complete with very typical parade, carney food, and bad live music.  The good news was they had beer.  I went out with a group of 5 or 6 other guys and we had a ball.  After the festival we ended up at this bar called Kathy's, which turned out to be pretty nice.  They had an open rooftop on the third story that we chilled on for a long time, trying to impress girls with our summer endeavor, but no amount of good deeds could cover up our gross facial hair.  Mine is beginning to fill in quite well, at least if I was a middle schooler... I also managed to get into a few conversations with people about my Bills shirt, including one with a great Bills and Sabres fan from Cheektowaga that I high-fived repeatedly... Bills fans are the best.  After the bar we ended up at some strangers house for way longer than I wanted to be, which was weird.  He did give us a couple of beers, a granola bar, and a twenty dollar donation.

Today I slept till noon then went for a 10 mile run.  Nice long bike trail here.  I think tonight a bunch of us are gonna hit up thise Chinese buffet. 

From here on out is the part of the trip I'm looking forward to the most.  Time to conquer the west.

Johnny Flynn got draft #6 overall-  Thats nuts.