Day 36: Fennimore, WI to Madison, WI

Actual Kms: 116

Overkill: 2 or so going to the church and back to the park so we could travel as a massive group.

Road Things: Dead racoon and small birds.

Money Spent: $0 so far. It's a miracle.

Interesting Person Pick: Julie. She is a 29 year old gal who has done a bit of everything. Wilderness Guide, teacher in Prague and she's going to Japan soon. She has a nice Trek bike, very similar to mine and wasn't supposed to stay on the tour but decided in Denver that she just couldn't leave. We had some good conversation on the bike today and she is really easy going.

Favourite Part of the Day: Having Jess Fox pay for my amazing Raspberry bar and coffee. Mostly that was my favourite part because I knew that my "money spent" column would be $0.

Worst Part of the Day: Realizing I received 12 letters/packages from people and 0 from Tim. This makes you look bad Tim. :)

This is the bike path we (Jess, Julie and I) rode on today. I think it was the first time I have ridden the whole day with girls and it was kind of relaxing. We went at a 25 km/h pace or slower and it was nice.

This was on the wall at the little Norweigen bakery we went to. I had the best raspberry bar (actually 2) and enjoyed some good conversation. Pres. Kennedy had visited this place in 1960.

A very excited Sarah opening her mail when she got to the church. I recieved two packages and ten letters. This one is from my parents.

Finding my very old Powerpuff Girls lunchbox in the package...hopefully there is something inside?

Oh yeah! Red P.E.I hat and empty Tim Hortans cups....

And $20 of Tim Hortons money...score!

Here is the entire group riding together to the church.

Here are some pictures that Tyler took of us on the day we did Bertha's pass. They are pretty cool.

This is when I got to the top.

Day 35: New Hampton, IA to Fennimore, WI

Actual Kms: 168 kms YAH TO THREE CENTURIES IN A ROW! (And hopefully no more).

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.

Day 34: Algona, IA to New Hampton, IA

These are some pictures from last night. After blogging, I went to a pub, ordered a beer and met some 50 something guys who wanted to know why I was wearing a helmet (sometimes I just forget to take it off). J They bought me a beer and invited me to join them but I choose to have supper first and read. Then I joined them and when I tried to leave I said, “Well I’m off to go find some cheesecake”. They said that I wouldn’t be able to find any cheesecake in this town and proceeded to offer to drive me to a restaurant twenty minutes away to get some cheesecake. I politely said no, but then they said that they would bring me cheesecake at the Elementary school (where we were staying). I thought they would probably forget.

The cheesecake and people enjoying the cheesecake.

Someone sent us a box of lifesavers.

Wrong! Forty-five minutes later, Julie comes up to me and says “There are people in the parking lot looking for you”. Sure enough, there are the guys and they brought me an entire cheesecake, whip cream, chocolate sauce, plates and forks! They said “Thanks again for doing this Sarah” as they left. So we had cheesecake.

Playing Euchre. Art and I won.

Actual Kms: 188 kms

Overkill: 0

Road Things: Honestly can’t remember.

Money Spent: $8 Amazing Beef Philly Sandwich and coffee, $125 batteries, bike lube (the wax kind), two red and black road tires ($60), new chain ($40), and inner tube, $4 ice cream/smoothie.

Interesting Person Pick: Denny O’Flattery…a 66 year old bike mechanic who is short, hard of hearing and a very generous person. He spent 3 hours with me, teaching me about my bike, talking about his biking days, and cleaning my bike with me and didn’t charge me a cent.

Favourite Part of the Day: Cleaning my bike with Denny…see below.

Worst Part of the Day: The middle kms, from 80 to 120 when we were going slow because of Brian’s knees. I wanted to go faster, but I also wanted to wait for Brian. It was just boring…a 40 km road of not a whole lot.

Today I woke up and Brian and I decided to leave around 7…which means 7:30. We booked it, pulling each other for about 80 kms. We did that in about 2.5 hours and it was great. Then we reached Julie’s SAG and Brian said that his knees were starting to hurt, so we decided to take it slow.

There were lots of air turbines in Iowa and Wisconsin.

We both hit the music and rolled onwards at about 23-25 km/h. Then we got to a little town and found the only restaurant open…Zak’s. I had a great sandwich and mashed potatoes, Brian had a burger and iced his knees.

Len, our chaplain in Bill, our motorcycle guy's helmet.

Then we headed out and after about 40 more kms we reached Charles City. We decided to look for the bike shop that the waitress had told us about. It was in a Radio Shack basement and we almost didn’t find it. The bike guy wasn’t there, but I saw some beautiful red and black striped tires that looked decent and matched my bike. I asked the lady at the counter and she said that “Denny” would be back in 10 minutes, so we waited and sure enough, a short Irishman returned and asked how he could help.

Denny helped a lot. First, we decided to put the new tires on my bike. Then we measured my chain and Denny showed me that it was quite stretched, so we put a new one on. We took off the cassette, sprockets and cleaned them furiously. We cleaned the clip on pedals with air pressure and I wiped the entire bike down. Denny was quite excited that I was cleaning my bike because he gets so many bikes into the shop that are so dirty. We spent three hours talking about his racing days, what kind of rides he does now, his bike, our trip and how he is helping some people ein the area with bikes of their own. One gentleman came in to get his inner tube replaced and because Denny was working on my bike, I did that for him. The whole experience was great. When he brought me to the cash register to pay, he said, “And it’s nothing for the labour, thanks for a wonderful afternoon.”

Denny and the other guy (the one whose inner tube I fixed).

So after the cheesecake incident and the bike mechanic blessing, I have to either admit to strangers generousity or my ability to get anything I want from older men. Maybe a little bit of both?

My clean bike. Notice the handle bar tape.

After that, I still had a 30 km bike ride into camp so I booked it and hoped to catch up with the Sweep team. I saw Josh and Gayle in the distance about 10 kms from camp and talked and joked with them until we got into camp at 6:30. Then I got to brag to the entire camp over my very clean, beautiful bike. After eating, showering, setting up the tent and phoning Tim, I went to bed.