Tuesday, July 23rd- Menomonie to Black River Falls

We are fortunate to have 4 webteam members on Team Oz this year. Day 2 turned out to be a 110 mile trek into the wind. Late that night we received 3 small text reports and many pictures.
Edie Kalweit has been a St. Joan of Arcer for 25 years now. Now that her children are grown, there is time to participate more fully in activities taking place at St. Joan's.	and Rick Spaulding is a photographer specializing in digital photography for the theater and works for National Camera Exchange. He is also an antique dealer and eBay afficianado who enjoys collecting marbles but his true joys in life are his two boys and his beautiful wife, Tinia.	Michael Reinbold is a professional photographer and banquet caterer with an extensive theatre background in acting, writing, and directing. He loves all aspects of the arts, staying fit, and helping and inspiring people. A passionate believer in St. Joan of Arc's mission of social justice, Michael is a continuing AIDS Ride participant, Grace House volunteer cook, mass reader, and Joan of Arc choir member. He looks forward to web reporting and photographing for the website.

A GoodNight Note from Rick!
Hi Jeff,

Here are some pictures for now. It's getting late so I will write something tomorrow.

The "Church Ladies" at the Squaw Valley Lutheran Church are one of the most popular pit stops on the ride. They make hotdogs and muffins and cookies and donuts etc. It's their second year with the Heartland ride.

"Shower Day" at the lunch pit was a popular stop as well.

Editor's Note: Rick called from camp at Black River Falls last nite using his cell phone to clear up some technical difficulties. He reported that the ever helpful AIDSRide folks has even set up a little table with a light outside the main control center to allow Rick and the rest some writing/transmission space. We have known for a couple of year's that the Team Oz Ride pages are being read by more than St. Joan parishioners/friends.

Hills Begat Hills
Hills Begat Hills, they multiplied and prospered until the land we're presently riding through came to be. So it seemed today as we rode our bikes from Menomonie to Black River Falls. It is hard to find fault with the beautiful countryside, though. On a bicycle one develops a love-hate relationship with the lay of the land.

Our route was 108 miles long with hill after hill to traverse. Hills were prominent once we completed the 30 trail miles that started our day. Needless to say it was a day of hard work and mental challenges for bikers of all ability levels. Dinner was served to long lines of hungry crew and late arriving riders until past 9:30 PM.

We were again blessed with perfect weather. I saw a sky that had delicately sculpted clouds worthy of photographing it seemed so unusual and gentle. We experienced the traditional spirited Pit Stop themes (Looney Tunes among others).

We leave you mostly with pictures today, as we are all quite tired tonight and face another 108 miles to conquer tomorrow.

Edie

Many Were "Sagged"
After camping in Menomonie, we woke up to 55 degree weather, freezing for me. Our gang of 1190 riders hit trails for the first 27 miles of the ride. Vibrations permeated my trembling hands after the first ten miles. Ouch! The day turned into a steady durge of high winds for most of the day. Truly, the worst was the agonizing hill just before approaching White Hull, WI. To be blunt, a sign was posted before you started riding that simply read "Big Friggin' Hill"!

I took off at 7:00AM and didn't get into camp in Black River Falls until 6:30 PM. Exhausted, we rode 111 miles today--six miles more than intended. It turns out that a bridge was demolished near Pit Stop Three so we had to take an alternative route. A record number of 400 people did not make it into camp by the cut off time and had to be transported or what we call "sagged."

Michael