30 miles: wabasha, MN, to red wing, MN

our day was absolutely picture-perfect weatherwise & scenerywise. we left the americinn in wabasha at about 8:15. US61, which had been 4 lanes from winona to wabasha, became 2 lanes northward from wabasha, & the shoulder was sometimes narrower than before. there were a few more hills in this stretch, too, but nothing major. we continued biking along the base of those beautiful tree-covered hills with the river stretched out on our right. many of us feel that this ride along the river in wisconsin & minnesota is the prettiest of our whole trip….so far, at least.

here’s a group stopped at an overlook with lake pepin in the background. that’s the name of this very wide (3 miles) section of the mississippi. a story board at this rest stop gave interesting info about the rafts early settlers made & floated on the river; the rafts were sometimes up to 3 acres in size. you can learn more about lake pepin here.

i like this photo taken further along the lake’s edge; the white spot in the background is a tall building at lake city, where we were headed. as so often happens, there are railroad tracks running alongside our road between us & the river. i love watching & hearing the trains go by.

lake city is absolutely beautiful. we rode into town & quickly spotted moz’s lakeside coffee emporium. many riders had found it before we did. laura, clark & i got our treats inside, then sat in the courtyard out back, where quite a few locals were also enjoying this beautiful morning.

sitting nearby were simon & schuster & their owner. the owner said these names were given to the dogs because a friend of theirs had her first book published at the time the pups were born. they’re a cocker/bichon mix.

the dogs’ owner offered to take a photo of clark, laura & me sitting on a bench near some roses enjoying our coffee (except i had gelato — a dark chocolate & an amaretto cherry). i bet you’re thinking, ‘those bike tours don’t look very rough to me!’

here are the women from our group who stopped at moz’s this morning, along with moz’s owner, dave. the shop has been open just 9 days & doesn’t yet have a web site, so i can’t provide you additional info, except that it’s at 402 south lakeshore drive in lake city. mosey into moz’s when you’re in the area.

after leaving moz’s, i came upon this duo enjoying a ride on their electric scooter. this is tim & son colton. i gather from the plethora of sailboats in the marina in the background that sailing must be very popular in these parts.

there were no further towns along US61 between lake city & red wing, so it was a quick trip. at about 1:30, my dear friends, the cins, arrived at our motel. they brought along their bikes & a bike trailer for their children. we loaded up, then headed down the road to a trailhead for the cannon falls trail, a beautiful, paved trail that winds through this lovely countryside. wayde took this photo along the trail of stephanie & me with the kids, emma & isaac, peeking out of their trailer.

we rode about 10 miles, then we all cooled off in the motel’s pool for a while after our ride. later, after a short walk down the street, it was time for supper in the parking lot. the cins joined us; other riders also had guests this evening. stephanie & emma had baked a large batch of chocolate chip cookies for our dessert; they were heartily enjoyed by all.

after dinner, emma got onto her little bike to ride around the parking lot. she did that when she first arrived in the afternoon, too. she was anxious to show me what a good biker she is … & she IS a good biker. clark took this photo of us all just before the cins had to leave for home (south of metro minneapolis). emma is almost 4-1/2 & isaac is 1-1/2. it was great fun having them visit.

at the map meeting, laurie told us that we’ll be crossing THREE bridges tomorrow as we wend our way to stillwater, MN. i guess i really jinxed things by writing that the winona bridge was our last of the trip.