MS 150 Post:2

This was the end of the first day. The bikers successfully rode their bikes just shy of 75 miles. Jon and his friends got to the first stop at Grand Casino Hinkley around 2pm on Saturday afternoon. The group had left the start in Proctor at 7:30am. Not too shabby!

Notice Levi's long sleeve shirt and hat? Levi and I followed Jon on Highway 61 which follows the bike path and met him at nearly every stop. Before the first stop we made a run to Walmart. The only Walmart for about 30 miles. We got raincoats and the only outfit with long sleeves they were selling for babies.

Here is an attempt at a family photo. Both Jon and I were pretty tired from the night before (and the previous 75 miles) as the wind had whipped our tent around and kept us awake, along with rain pooling where Jon's bicycle was on the tent floor. Levi slept peacefully through every bit of it.

Since there were over 3,000 people that rode in the MS 150 bike tour, they needed someplace safe to keep all the bikes. So, they devised a system of numbering each participant's bike in a corral of sorts. Once the cyclist made it to the intermediate destination they laid the bikes in rows. They were to find their bike by number and row. They also had a Rent-A-Cop or two patrolling all those expensive bikes (no joke: some of them were upwards of $8,000).

Each company that supported the riders had a tent of their own. Here is RMS's tent. There were 11 riders plus support (Levi, myself and the husband of another rider). RMS supplied all the food for their crew of people. Since this was RMS's debut year, we had a tiny little tent. Some of the other business's like General Mills (whose jersey's were full of Cherrios) and Cargil had massive tents with beer gardens and big screen Tv's and massage therapists. There was also a VIP tent for the captains of each team. KS95 also made their presence known with a WIDE variety of music. :)