August 1, Crow Wing State Park, Crow Wing County, Mn

 Today was our last 80 plus mile day of the ride.  There are still 9 days over 70 miles left in the trip.  It was relatively flat with only 1,500 ft of elevation over the 81 miles.  We saw many livestock farms along the way.  The weather was good until about 60 miles into the route that we encountered a storm cell.  The pouring rain drove us to search for cover.  Laura saw two men heading for their garage and asked if we could shelter there.  We spent the next twenty minutes in the garage with them.  They were both farmers hoping for lots of rain for their dry crops.  The rain slowed so we said our goodbyes and jumped on our bikes to try and beat the next wave of rain closing in.  Several miles down the road a pickup truck pulled in front of us and stopped.  Out came one of the farmers telling us to put our bikes in his truck so he could take us to the campground.  The second farmer was in his own truck behind us.  They loaded our bikes and off we went.  Just then the second wave of rain hit so hard the farmer could barely see through the windshield. His name was Kenny and he told us how he and his wife watch a 3 year old Mexican child during the week so the single mother could work at a dairy farm.  He got us to the campground a little soggy but safe and sound.  We had just enough time to set up our tent before the rain started again.  Colleen, one of our cyclists, took a spill in the rain and had to be shuttled to the hospital. We are waiting to hear her status The rest of the team ate dinner under our group canopy.