A Short 57 Miles!

 

You know we have reached a new phase of cycling when 57 miles seems like an easy day.  We were able to sleep in, but I still got Kelli and myself up just after 0600.  What can I say, I’m always excited to eat breakfast in the morning. 

After getting a later than usual start we started our journey to Lake Michigan in order to catch a ferry the following day.  After about 15 miles I told Kelli I was going to stretch my legs a little and push it to the next rest stop.  Well, once I got to the rest stop I still felt like I had some energy left so I pushed hard all the way to the hotel.  It was a great day of riding and I felt strong the entire ride.  It was amazing to feel the drop in temperature from the Lake during the last portion of the ride.  I figure the temp dropped close to eight degrees in just a couple of seconds.  Kelli and I celebrated the completion of our day with an  ice cream treat from Culver’s. 

The really exciting part of our day was after dinner when Kelli, Maiyo (sp?), Kyle, and I went to the new Batman movie.  It was such a great film and I was glad to have an excuse to eat tons of popcorn late into the night (thanks Maiyo and Kyle for feeding my addiction).  After the movie we headed to a near by bar to have some drinks and ended up taking over the dance floor until the bar closed.  We had a great time and met some locals who thought we were nuts for riding across America. 

Tomorrow we catch the ferry and a complete another state!  We will hopefully have better connectivity over the next two weeks of our trip to keep you updated on our adventures. 

Semper Fidelis.

We Are Back…Not Really!

 

Sorry for the delay in posting on our blog, but we have been having problems with connectivity over the last couple of days which has caused us to fall behind. 

Today we had a great ride to Fond Du Lac, WI which was 84 miles of beautiful farm land.  The rolling hills were a nice change of pace from the climbs of the Grand Tetons and offer a completely new type of beauty.  We also had another fantastic lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken which is always a great end to a long day on the bike.  Near one of our rest stops was a gorgeous waterfall and pond and what appeared to be fake swans.  I could have swore that they were fake as I watched the one in the water for a good 3 minutes without the thing moving an inch.  It took me actually walking to within a couple of meters before I found out they were in fact real and enjoying the waterfalls just as much as we were. 

 

 

Tomorrow we head for Lake Michigan and get to enjoy a short 57 mile day.  We have been really lucky to dodge a couple of nasty thunderstorms over the last couple of days and I hope our luck continues for the rest of our trip.

Semper Fidelis.

50 Miles of Riding Through Dirt!

Yesterday Nathan and I biked 91 miles from La Crosse to Wisconsin Dells, WI. To date, this has been my least enjoyable day riding as over 50 miles of it was a dirt bike path. Now, in actuality the path wasn’t THAT bad, but taking my road bike through dirt and gravel just makes me really nervous so I felt uncomfortable going too fast. I told Nathan to bike ahead as I knew it was going to be a long day for me and it was.

Just as I was in the middle of feeling sorry for myself at mile 45, walking my bike through a mile long dark tunnel, I saw some flashlights coming toward me. Then I started to hear singing. A choir of about 20 people had biked 30 miles to get to this tunnel, left their bikes at one end of it, and were walking slowly through the dark, singing the most beautiful hymns. The acoustics were amazing inside this tunnel, the voices sounded absolutely angelic, and one of our riders said that he thought he had died and gone to heaven!! It was the first time I smiled that day. Shortly after I met back up with Nathan, had a fabulous lunch, and enjoyed the rest of my day.

Semper Fidelis!

We Got Soaked and Another State Down!!

 Today Nathan and I biked 89 miles from Rochester, MN to LaCrosse, WI and we got DRENCHED! It started off as a light sprinkle and got progressively worse. By the first rest stop we were soaked to the core. At the second stop we had to hunker down at a cafe to wait out a thunderstorm. Here’s a picture of us at the cafe.

It was a beautiful day of biking as we rode through the bluffs of southeastern Minnesota. One funny thing that happened today is we came upon four St. Bernards at a farm. One of them was just laying in the middle of the road when we rode up to them. I couldn’t believe the size of his head! Notice two of the other St. Bernards in the background of the picture.

We also have another state down in our journey. It was so hard to leave. Nathan and I were talking about how it felt like once we got into Minnesota that our adventure should be coming to an end. It was surreal and bittersweet to bike out of Minnesota today, but we still have 19 days to go so the adventure must continue. By the way, tomorrow looks like rain too. More then!

Semper Fidelis!