Venteicher May/June Ride Report

Andrea sent me a mass update of the chase 'round the Venteicher homestead. Enjoy!

Howdy--i kind of missed the part about updating my May rides, so I'll just do a combined May/June email.  I quite proudly conquered the Crazy Corners full century, plus a metric version of it (rained out and rescued in Caledonia, MN, by my dear sweet husband who was watching the storm roll toward me on radar as I was blissfully unaware) in May.  This route is especially cool because it hits 3 states all in one ride--Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  It's also got a legitimate 9,813 feet of climbing according to my Garmin, which was, um, special.  On this ride i rescued a baby rattlesnake, a Polyphemus moth, and a baby Ouchita Map turtle from being run over!  (I used a chopstick technique to rescue the rattlesnake.)  I'm trying to accumulate good Karma so that perhaps I won't get run over, either.  

June had a full century down to the Sny Magill wildlife area in Clayton county (or, the "Cerulean Trench", according to bird geeks), and included a nod to the Confederacy with a trip down Jefferson Davis road (turns out he was part owner of a sawmill around here prior to his Civil War days--who knew?).  This ride had a meager 8314 feet of climbing.  Got to herd a 5-foot long Black Ratsnake out of the road.  Also got to "draft" the freaking road grader for about 16 miles into a headwind as they laid down new, right off the dump truck, gravel.  Mmmmmm.  Today had a metric to Cresco; no animals needed rescuing.
So that puts Andrea at 6 Full and 6 Metric for the year, sticking to the two-in-each-month paradigm.  And, HAH, suckah--Lee failed to do any centuries in either May or June because of this "racing" crap, so he's got some catching up to do in the fall!  I'm pretty damn proud of myself that I've got over 1000 gravel miles in my legs (plus a helluva tan) this year, and I'm only half done!  And who knows what animals I'll rescue from traffic next?  Badgers?  Whales?  Wolverines?
Thanks again for the chase!
Andrea

I'm a very upset Ouachita Map turtle!!

This is a cool bluff/bridge combination along the Upper Iowa river near Bluffton, IA