A "recovery ride" is defined as a easy going ride one might take the day after a hard ride to get more blood flow through the muscles to help them recuperate. This can dispel muscle soreness and stiffness more effectively than not riding at all. So its a bit facetious to use that title on today's ride but it still feels appropriate because of the comparative ease of today's riding both physically and mentally.
In more than one conversation in the last month a wag within earshot has jokingly described a transcontinental bike trip as "all downhill from the top of the Rockies to the Mississippi River." Today that notion finally proved true as most of our course was following the winding Root River which joins the Mississippi just downstream from La Crosse Wisconsin, today's destination. Mostly downhill, mostly with a tailwind, lots of shady stretches, temperatures in the low to mid 70's, mostly low traffic smooth roads or bike trails, good company: my current definition of heaven.
So thanks be to where its due for the great weather conditions we keep getting. We are surfing a primo weather wave across the country, so far...
One of the striking things we've noticed at our slow pace is the change in monocrop agriculture to an idealized state which I'm presuming is thanks to genetic engineering for expanded herbicide and pesticide use. I tried to capture it with photos of this field of beans:
The link to cycling is the various performance enhancing drugs that have been used, and continue to be used, in the professional domain. Some of them, such as steroids, have had a clear detrimental effect on the long term health of the athlete. For others, such as blood doping (transfusing red blood cells extracted at a previous time to artificially increase the red blood cell count), its not so clear to me that permanent damage is done. From what I've seen of the former pro riders that have confessed to this type of cheating, some of whom live in the Asheville area, they seem to still be strong and healthy.
So I don't know for sure that this ultra-industrialization of agriculture which is occurring right now will result in a crash down the road, but the risk is certainly there.
Here's another couple movies for you showing the bike trails we got to ride today.
And photos showing beautiful landscape of southeastern Minnesota in the order from the flatter west to the more varied east to the typical busy road with which we end every day:
Approaching La Crosse
The mighty Mississippi River:
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