Overkill: 3 or so to the Post Office, pool for showers and this restaurant that I’m sitting in now.
Road Things: A young deer split open (yuck), small yellow birds and a lot of butterflies again.
Money Spent: Ahh. This is like confession for me. $8 Omelet, toast and coffee at 11, $4 Frappacinno in Praire du Chien (They pronounce it Praire de Sheen…not the French way), $2 ice cream when in camp, and I’m going to buy supper because I need to catch up on blogging, which is a pretty bad excuse but I don’t care (and also I don’t want to have to drive back to town to call Tim), so $10. The good news is I didn’t buy a really cute $50 jersey with flowers on it at a bike store in Praire du Chien.
Most Interesting Person: Eric Stewhower. He is a third year Calvin College student who just changed his major from Engineering to Recreation/Youth Ministry; which is a pretty brave thing to do. He is very outgoing (think Bob), very innocent in a good way (don’t think Bob), and good looking in a young sort of way. When I asked him about finding a girl on this trip, he replied, “I just go with the flow”. J He’s a great rider and we rode for about 80 kms this morning, talking and pulling each other…mostly him pulling me.
Favourite Part of the Day: Breakfast (I absolutely can’t say no to omelet’s) with Eric in some little town (that’s right, I can’t remember and it’s today!). We had a good time and I found a card for Tim and sent it in the mail. Worst Part of the Day: The last 30 kms after Julie’s SAG were difficult because I was mostly by myself and I just wanted to be done. It was the first time that I thought for a brief second “I don’t want to do this right now”. It’s pretty amazing that that is the first time I’ve really thought that. About one minute later I remembered that I get to do this. It’s all a mindset. Also, after three centuries, my knees are starting to hurt.
Today I was going to ride with a larger group, namely Julia, Eric, Jon, Annette, Matt Z, Jenna and some others. We were supposed to leave at 7, but it ended up being 7:30 and the first road of 35 kms was horrible. It was actually a little dangerous to be riding in such a large group because you couldn’t see the six inch deep holes fast enough. So Eric and I broke away and started pacing up and down the hills (yes, we have hills again) at about 30 kms/h.
Eric S and I at breakfast.
My nifty handlebars and a letter on it's way to being delivered. Can you guess for who?
We had some good conversation about college, Grand Rapids, the tour and other stuff and then, we hit a highway with a very narrow shoulder. There were rumble strips to the left of us, a foot and a half of pavement and gravel to the right. Some truck driver slowed down and said someone had fallen up ahead, so we rode ahead and found Don who was dazed and had a some small cuts and bruises. We called Betsy and she helped him. When we kept going, I was a little anxious about the road, so I went a little fast and lost Eric.
After about 20 kms, we went over the great Mississippi River and then we were in Wisconsin. It was a town called Praire du Chien and I found out where the bike shop was and Peter K and Lawrence and I went. I didn’t buy anything on account of buying too much yesterday. But I did find out that Madison has a number of good bike shops where I might be able to find the carrying case I want. Also, I think I want to find a teachers store so that I can start making desk/locker name tags.
Welcome to Wisconsin.
We sat at a coffee shop for a little while and then hit the road. Right out of the town, we found this…the largest hand carved Sturgen with a saddle on it, so I had to take a picture. I rode by myself for a while, through the beautiful countryside. You could see farmland for miles and I passed a house that looked just like Randall and Elizabeth Nieuhof’s.
I rode with Lawrence and Peter K for a while, drafting at 40 km/h and it was the first time that I struggled to keep up, but we were going fast and I wasn’t going to be the one to say that it was too fast. Later when we were having ice cream, Lawrence said he was impressed that a girl could pace with them. J I’m not going to tell him that it tuckered me out.
I thought this sign was funny. We see a lot of interesting signs along the way.
So we got into Fennimore at 4, headed to the pool, showered, got some ice cream and now I’m desperately trying to get the Public Library’s wifi, but it’s not very successful. I’m at a little place called “Our Little Restaurant & Bakery” and the place is full because it’s fish fry night. I got a mushroom and swiss burger and the bun is the softest thing ever. I love small town diners.
The view from the road. Today's ride was beautiful.
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