So, What Happened the Third Day?

The next morning, I woke up at a nice Holiday Inn just northwest of Minneapolis/St Paul, set to head to the north country, and determined to make it work. I did my stretches and exercises, got my ass out early, and tried different techniques to keep my shoulder stretched and limber during the day. Two Aleve, some Lidocaine, and a Tylenol. It was a crisp, cool morning under bright sunshine, and North I went. It was a beautiful chilly ride through some gorgeous wooded country up to Baudette at the Canadian border. It really is the land of 10,000 lakes.

I turned to head West, hugging the border to the next crossing nearest the Northwest Angle and the northernmost point marker, when I suddenly got a sharp burning pain in my left chest. For the love of God, what is going on? 

I immediately went into worst case mode, keeping an eye out for where I'm going to pull over when everything starts turning white. But nothing happened, and it went away relatively quickly. So, I'm alternately questioning the wisdom of crossing the border,  but also comparing it to the pain that was moving all around my upper left back. Contrary to what you may have heard, my heart is in perfect health. Within a few minutes, with the border crossing quickly approaching, I decided "fuck it." If this is how my story ends, then put it on my tombstone. I'm going.

I crossed the border, headed for the dirt road leading to Northwest Angle, crossed the border again, and made my way to the blessed ground for a picture with the buoy.  I then rode 25 feet back to the "resort" bar and posted up on a stool. This is all good stuff, and should be another post. 

The close of this post is that it's all related to the same mess in my left shoulder, it's only happened once, maybe twice in the two days since, and I can actually make it happen by tensing myself a certain way. 

So if I could figure out a way to keep all of that manageable, without getting the other side involved, I could probably make it. And, that's exactly what's been happening over the last 2 days. I'm on that regimen of Aleve, acetaminophen, and lidocaine, I figured out the best ways to keep it unstressed, and the last two days have actually each been better than the day before.  Tomorrow is only 6 and a half hours of actual saddle time. 

I'll try to get another post out in the morning.

Unintentionally ended up along the Great River Road for a period on Sunday. There's not much to it all the way up here. 

A sign montage that you'll only see in Wisconsin.