Day off in Duluth

Buckets of rain. Buckets of tears. Got all them buckets coming out of my ears. --Bob Dylan

And it's a rainy day off in Duluth, Minnesota - the birthplace of Bob Dylan. Buckets of Rain is a natural song for the day.

Yesterday, we biked from the small town of Sandstone, Minnesota to the moderately (okay, a lot) larger city of Duluth. Dubbed the San Francisco of the North, it's been a nice place to have a day off in.

We spent 65 of our 73 miles on a bike path yesterday. Given the limited stops and flat terrain, I was able to cruise into Duluth with an average speed of 16.7 mph. Crazy that 12 mph used to be my comfortable speed. Our lunch stop yesterday was amazing! The picture below was taken at our stop - specifically at a wonderful oasis known as TJ's Country Store. Tony was able to score some donation magic in the form of the best nectarines I've ever had, and presumably some of the best sausage (kind of falls outside my veggie diet) in the midwest area. Thank you Tom for making our stop so much more enjoyable! If I could eat those nectarines every day for the rest of my life, I think I'd be a pretty happy camper.

I arrived into Duluth around 1:45 yesterday afternoon - which gave me an opportunity to take a much needed nap. We are staying in our first Jewish Temple of the trip. We had a lovely dinner of fresh vegetables and little pasta accompanied by some great speakers who came on behalf of Duluth's Habitat for Humanity and the city land trust. I love learning more about the affordable housing cause from those who spend their careers in an effort to alleviate the problem. It serves as a reminder of how important Bike & Build is to them - an opportunity to raise awareness for this cause with far-reaching impacts in many facets of society.

After dinner, an unexpected highlight of the trip occurred. Two members of the temple offered to show us their sanctuary and the Jewish biblical text - the Torah. None of us on this specific trip identify as Jews, and many of us only have a small understanding of Judaism. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about the Jewish faith and to learn about the principles and history of the religion - and how those principles are similar to and different from Christianity. It really piqued my curiosity in theology.

Later in the evening, a large group of us walked over to a nearby popular hangout called Burrito Union. They brew their own beer there, so many of us enjoyed a delicious pint and a great atmosphere. Despite no curfew last night, I was beat by 10:30 and headed back to the temple, but not first without walking down to look at the full moon shining over Lake Superior with Leisl, Jess, and Gramelly. The moon lit up the sky and the lake was glowing. It was kind of a magical feeling standing beside a lake so big.

This morning was an opportunity to sleep in, which I fully took advantage of. I woke up at 8:44, thinking it was only 6 am, and arrived to breakfast 15 minutes late. However, breakfast was still hot and plenty. After getting myself together, and realizing it was going to be a rainy day in Duluth, I was itching to get to a coffee shop to write in my journal and write some letters. After strolling down the Superior shoreline, I found a cozy coffee shop called Jitters and plopped myself down with a hot cup of joe and a brain full of experiences and thoughts to fill a good few hours with  journal writing. It's nice to keep an online blog to keep track of the trip's events and a journal to write down personal feelings about the trip. Hopefully, someday, I'll be able to look back at both and remind myself on two different levels on what an experience this really has been.

With continuing rain, about half the group decided to walk down to the harbor to catch a movie. We all decided on the popular flick, Inception. 2.5 hours later, my brain hurt with confusion. Still not sure exactly how I feel about the movie, but it was entertaining nonetheless. As we left, it occurred to all of us that we had not eaten since breakfast. Feeling famished and soaking wet, we cabbed it over to a popular restaurant and filled up on some grub.

Now, I am enjoying being dry and comfortable back at the Temple. I tried to upload some photos yesterday, but my patience with photo uploading is slim at best, and it's starting to look like photos might just have to be a project post-trip, which is crazy to think that that's only a month away. Where does the time go!?

I'll see how much time I have later tonight for photo uploading. But! It's time for a Town Hall meeting, so I must depart. Back on the bike and into Grand Rapids, MN tomorrow.