Joe and Lily - Our hosts in New Ulm, MN

We arrived late in the evening at Joe and Lily’s home in New Ulm. It wasn’t a hard ride, comparative to some of our other daily rides in terms of distance and elevation, but it was a particularly hard ride for me. I think it was because of all the junk food that I ate the pervious day. Our host in De Smet, provided us with a huge box of Danish for breakfast, in which I ate four. No one else in the group was eating them, so I did. Later in the day we stopped at a bike shop that had an ice cream pallor affiliated with it and the ice cream parlor offered free ice cream. I didn’t say no. Continuing I also downed a bag a potato chips. I did, however, buy them at a health food store, but I really don't think it make a difference were you buy them. Typically, I limit my junk food, and try to snack on trail mix and fruit between meals, but not yesterday.

When we arrived in New U;m, Joe and Lily had a sweat lodge (pictured lower right corner) prepared for us. Joe is a Native-American and practices the Native-American rituals of sweats which include individual prayers, stories and song. The heat in the sweat, plus the grueling day, was a bit much for me. I only stayed for 3 out of 4 of the sweats. After dinner and a shower, I laid out in the hammock in the middle of the front yard staring at the stars. They seem particularly bright to me that evening, and then I went to bed early. The next day I also felt a lot better the next day.

Eating right and rest seems to makes a big difference in how I feel during riding the next day. I have been eating a lot of vegetarian meals on this trip and not paying attention to my protein intake. Reallizing this I started to eat more a little more meat, I feel a lot stronger now. I typically eat vegetarian meals at home, interspersed with meals with a little meat in them about three times per week. This seems to work best for me.