Days 6 & 7: Friday & Saturday, June 20-21, 2003

Boris left for work about 8 AM. Elyse and I went to Starbucks for coffee. But Starbucks in Minneapolis did not have T-Mobile Hot-Spot installed yet. So we went to a Borders store nearby. No T-Mobile there yet either. But we ordered a bagel and pastry to go with our coffees and did a little book shopping. Then I looked at the listing on my computer and found that Borders Books in St. Paul apparently did have the Hot-Spot service. We drove there, and I spent the better part of three hours wrestling with the email programs on my computer trying to get the group-mailing feature to work properly. I finally figured out the problem and got the mail to go, but I fear my intensity in problem solving generated a little stress for my daughter.

We returned home and did a few things around the house including setting up Elyse's new hammock in the back yard. Boris arrived home about 6 PM. We went out in the evening for a good dinner, took a walk across the Stone Arches bridge on the Mississippi afterward, then up the river a mile or so and back across a brightly lit suspension bridge. Returning home after our walk at Midnight, we all settled down for a good night's sleep.

Waking up a little past 9 AM on Saturday, Elyse, Boris and I went out to Maria's Mexican restaurant for breakfast, then to a motorcycle store to pick up a Corbin seat Boris had ordered for his ST1100 Honda motorcycle. Elyse wanted to go to the farmer's market, but it was almost one o'clock, so too late. We went back to the house. Boris had some errands to run. I cleaned my bike -- lots of bugs from the Thursday ride across the plains -- and did some laundry. I hooked up the the internet via phone modem and sent some e-mails, then played with my GPS unit until I figured out how to enter a route specification for my trip to Maine and calculate the distance -- roughly 1340 miles, a three-day ride. Elyse went to the market, then cooked a delicious grilled salmon dinner, with corn on the cob and salad. Boris had a party to attend. Elyse and I stayed in for the evening. Looking forward to another good night's sleep and hitting the road again in the morning.