Last night was not a good night for sleeping. The temperature only got down to about 27C (80F) and it was still very humid. Combine that with lots of bugs and limited screened ventilation in VanGo and sleep just doesn't happen. It only felt reasonable at about 7am, after I had gotten up and was getting ready to go. It didn't get any cooler but the humidity dropped a lot.
The ride itself went very well. There was a bit of a tail wind and it was overcast most of the day with relatively low humidity. It did reach about 30C (86F) by the time I was done my ride at about 1pm but it felt pleasant compared to yesterday. I guess I'm already getting acclimatized.
I started the ride by driving through the little town of Cannon Falls. It looks like the carnival is coming to town this weekend!
I got back on highway 52 and started heading south southeast. The terrain was mostly rolling hills with some good down hill sections and some reasonable climbs. With the tail wind, I kept up a pretty good pace.
About 1 hour into the ride, I broke another spoke. I didn't have the tools or another spoke with me to fix it so I used a bit of duct tape from a glove repair job to tie it to another spoke and I continued on with a slightly wobbly rear wheel.
I beat Rochelle to the Rochester/Marion KOA, got a spot and started to take my rear wheel apart while waiting for Rochelle.
Once Rochelle was here, we had to take advantage of the pool. It was a nice, clean pool and it was just cold enough to counteract the midday heat.
The spoke was on the cassette side of the rear wheel so it's a fair bit of work to replace it as the cassette needs to be removed. It was a good opportunity to do some cleaning.
Right now, I am feeling like I have a cold coming on. It might be allergies or the lack of sleep last night or some effect from the heat yesterday. A good night's sleep is in order and I'll be doing that very soon.
Tomorrow, I ride to La Crosse, Wisconsin, 110 km via some backroads (highways 52, 30, 16, 61) that look more appealing than the interstate. It adds some distance but should be much less trafficked.