Day 40 Hutchinson to Willmar, MN

Today was an interesting day.
We started out with April's rear tire going flat right off the bat. Once that was fixed, we tried unsuccessfully to follow the Highway 7 detour out of Hutchinson. Twice we stopped and asked for directions and twice we became even more confused. Finally, a very kind Hutchinson city worker stopped and asked if we were looking for #7. When we said "yes", he told us that it was very confusing and that we'd best just follow him... he didn't need to tell us twice!

We did finally make it out of Hutchinson 45 minutes after we started, and then settled into a nice rhythm and a strong cross-wind from the south. Shortly before Corvuso a car pulled off in front of us at a field entrance and as we approached I recognized my dad. He had brought us a variety of "goodies", and we had a great chat while we took a break.

We had no more than set out again, when I decided to pull over and put on my rain jacket, as it had begun to sprinkle. 500 yards later, we stopped and very quickly pulled on all our rain gear... shortly there after, I was forced to spray a couple of dogs that attacked us in the driving rain, while their owner sat on his front step and drank coffee...thank you whoever you are. I have discovered on this trip that it is probably the snapping dog's owner that needs a good spraying and not so much the dogs themselves! From there we rode in driving rain, heavy traffic, and fading adrenaline from Cosmos to the 7-71 intersection.

We took quick break at Harry's corner to remove the rain gear, stretch, and have an ice cream. Then it was a 13-mile sprint into Willmar with a very strong tail-wind. We do like a good tail-wind!