I set the alarm for 5:30am. We were downstairs and drinking coffee by 5:45am. Bill had loaded all of his gear on top of the bikes for his canoe trip up to the Boundary Waters and by 6am we were on the road. We made a quick stop at Walmart so that Matt could pick up a new pair of sunglasses. He lost his pair diving into the water yesterday. We made it to Prescott, said goodbye to Uncle Bill and headed south along the Mississippi River on the Wisconsin side. At around 9:30 we crossed the bridge and entered into Red Wing, MN. As we came down the gradual slope off the bridge, there were a ton of construction and detour signs. I slowed down quickly, crossed through an intersection and heard a loud crash and screaming, “are you okay!!???”. I quickly looked back and saw Matt sprawled out in the middle of the intersection. I pedaled over to a parking lot, jumped off my bike and ran to Matt. Matt was starting to stand up and pull his bike to the side of the street. His camera equipment was all over the road. The cars continued to stop, until he was safely off the street. I quickly picked up the camera parts that had flown into the middle of the street and ran to his side. He had a deep scrape on both his knee and his arm, but his head was unscathed. Thank God he didn’t get hit. The cars that were lined up behind him could have easily not been able to stop and roll right over him. After he checked his bike out, Matt looked up at me and said with a smile, “I got it on film.”
“What?!” I said a little confused.
Matt then told me that he was filming us riding over the bridge and entering into the cute little town of Red Wing, but that when I went to break and slow down due to the construction, he couldn’t get to his brakes and just went down like a rock. He got the whole thing on camera, or at least until the camera flew out of his hand and landed in the road. He showed me the clip, and there in real time is his great fall. His arm was pretty bloody and so we started to look for a place for him to wash up. As we came to a stop light, a car pulled up next to us to warn us of the storm that was approaching. I knew that they were calling for 60% chance of rain, but the lady said that this storm had 50 to 70 mile an hour winds. Matt still a little shaken up from his fall, and me not wanting to chance the next 10 miles before the next town, we decided to head down Main street and pulled into a little coffee shop. There from the protection of glass windows we watched as the streets darkened with rain and the winds whipped through the shop signs. At one point the wooded board that the coffee shop used to display specials flew 5 feet and almost hit a small kid running into the coffee shop. I quickly got up and ran outside and Matt and I closed the board and brought it inside. As I sipped my coffee, I kept my eye on the bikes that were resting along the wall outside. Around 11:30am, the wind had died and all that was left was rain. We put on our rain gear, saddle up and headed back on the route. We biked the rest of the afternoon in pouring rain and pulled into an auto repair shop in Wabasha to call it a day. I rung out my socks and we hung our jackets over the bikes and sat leaning against the outside wall waiting for Kathy to come pick us up.
That night we drove to Winona, MN to stay the night at Matt’s cousins Lynnea and Tess’s house. They live in a huge farm house with a lot of animals. They have 3 goats, two pigs, three dogs, a ton of chickens, and a lot of cats. I was a little nervous about Lily and how she would do with all of the dogs, but she settled right in. Micah even drove down to spend the night and brought his dog, Edie and so we had a big family gathering. I got to work helping Joseph feed the pigs and milk their goat, Tilly. I had never milked a goat before, and it was quite the experience. It was great to be in a house full of animals, kids and family. After dinner we played a new board game called Ticket to Ride.
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