DAY 39--Urban Adventures

Cool, sunny day! Tailwind! WOO HOO! We had a 79-mile day to the Twin Cities. There was something that felt very familiar about riding along the Mississippi River. We stopped in Monticello for a little extra breakfast. The terrain started to be a little more hilly. As the day went on, the clouds rolled in but still no rain. We were following the designated Mississippi River Trail, which was mostly along roads, but ended up on trails through some very nice neighborhoods as we got closer to the city. The directions we had from a guide book ended up being very outdated and basically wrong, so we were just following the MRT signs for quite a few miles. It was fun seeing the city as we approached it, with the interesting architecture and the many different bridges across the river. We expected to end up at the point where we had started the MRT ride in 2012, but came to a halt where the road and trail were closed due to a mudslide. We were routed into downtown Minneapolis and had to make our own way through the streets. We finally found some smaller streets to follow and made it to our cousin Sylvia's  house where we stayed the night. She and Doug took us out to a fabulous local Italian restaurant for dinner. When we got back to their place, who should show up but MIKE PAHL! This was a delightful surprise, very spur of the moment.