Monday, May 18 CycleQuest 2009 Begins!

CycleQuest 2009 is underway! Hannibal, Missouri is the destination, some 600 miles down the road. I expect to arrive there Saturday.

I departed from Stillwater, Minnesota, about 25 miles east of the Twin Cities, at 9 a.m. It was sunny and 58. The forecast calls for a high of 80 today. It's pretty windy this morning, breeze from the south. That with the hills is making for an "exhilarating" start.

Stillwater is in Washington County, which was Minnesota's first county, established in 1858. The view along the St. Croix River is beautiful, and there are lots of rolling hills through this region.

I crossed into Wisconsin briefly around 11 a.m.

By 1:15p I'd arrived in Red Wing via route 63. I rode 48 miles during the windy morning.

At one point, I was riding along a pasture and saw a newborn calf that had just been born, not more than 30 feet from the road. I cycled on not wanting to spook the cow.

I stopped at a QuikTrip for a couple of bananas, some cheese, pizza, donuts and a Coca Cola. Look, a guy gets hungry riding into the wind! I passed out awareness bookmarks to the staff members; they were very interested in the ride and the ovarian cancer cause.

By 3 p.m. I had 65 miles logged and still felt good, despite the wind.

Here's the SPOT satellite PING I broadcast around 3p.

Latitude:44.4877
Longitude:-92.4434
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.4877,-92.4434&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

I ended the first day - a 95 mile day with headwinds - in Kellogg, Minnesota, south of Wabasha. I'm camping overnight at the Pioneer Campground where I also stayed during the 2004 ride. 9 hours today with about an hour or so out of the saddle.

Here's where I am camping.

Latitude:44.3192
Longitude:-91.9469
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=44.3192,-91.9469&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

And, get this, the owner of the campground - Paul Logan - does a talk show on KFSI-FM, a regional Christian radio station. He will be doing an interview with me Wednesday. Thank you, Paul!

Tomorrow morning I'll ride into Winona for a big ole breakfast at the Country Kitchen. As I recall, the "Grizzly" breakfast plate is spectacular.

I had a great run-up to departure. I stayed with my brother John, sister-in-law Lynae, and nieces Annya and Amelia over the weekend. We enjoyed a huge spaghetti feast last night for some carbo-loading.

They live in Minneapolis on the 45th latitude parallel, which is kind of neat. That means their home is midway between the Equator and the North Pole, although it sure seems closer to the Pole. Saturday morning it was 38 degrees!

As above, I'll be sending a SPOT satellite signal periodically during the ride. You can follow the ride on Google Earth by visiting the links, like the one below, that my brother John will be posting within the blog entries.

Here's my departure point as of 9 a.m.(central) today:

Latitude:45.0374
Longitude:-92.7978

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=45.0374,-92.7978&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

It's pretty cool technology!

I'm riding for ovarian cancer awareness and Susan is on my mind as I pedal onward on another CycleQuest odyssey. Please tell your friends to visit the blog and review the ovarian cancer symptoms. Together, we might just save a life or two this week!

Thanks for the encouragement and interest in the ride. Tomorrow, I should enter Iowa. Good night!

Brad