July 28- We started our day by sleeping in juuust a bit longer than usual to avoid the torrential downpour that graced our campsite this morning. Once it stopped, we crawled out of our tents and made the best breakfast of the trip- bacon and eggs on English muffins. We set out shortly after, armed with cold water bottles that had been gifted to us by an old PE teacher, to crush some miles before lunch at a bike shop in Mankato. Branton led the way and we arrived in great time. Lydia headed toward the bike shop, where she was greeted with a caramel roll and free bike maintenance, while the crew grabbed lunch makings. We lounged at the bike shop for lunch; Katie took home some goofy socks and Branton revamped his tire, and both proclaimed it the best bike shop we had visited thus far. The head mechanic gave us a great bike map that we used to get out of town, so we set out biking along nice country roads. As the golden light of the day began to appear, we stopped in at a tiny gas station just about 10 miles out of camp to grab water. We met an awesome older gentleman who tipped us off onto the newly paved, not yet vehicle accessible, old highway that would take us into town. He also suggested we check out the town's fairgrounds for a great camp spot (with warm showers!) We headed off into the sunset and spent the last few miles of our day riding blissfully alone along the aforementioned highway, listening to John's music and watching the sky churn through hundreds of shades of purple. We headed straight to the grocery store to grab dinner and treated ourselves to birthday cake ice cream and fudge sauce. The fairgrounds were amazing, as promised, and we went to bed squeaky clean.
