Well, I can’t eat dairy so…moving on to Illinois.
Just kidding-I loved Wisconsin! It was so interesting! We hit some great, great hills which were a lot of fun because we had been on the flats for quite some time. Climbing hills is a huge adreneline rush and it turns out that I am pretty good at it. I have learned some techniques from other riders and now feel very strong climbing hills. Our first day in Wisconsin was a piece of cake 65 mile day with the first 20 miles or so along the Mississippi River. It was beautiful with gentle hills and a nice temperature. At mile 17 we stopped at the Miller’s house-a family that prepares a spread for all the riders every year. It was a perfect second breakfast and I spent more than an hour there talking to the family and hanging out with the other Big Riders. As the ride has gone along we have become much more relaxed along the route. Unless its a 100+ day, the ride really doesn’t take the whole day so we have plenty of time to stop and talk to people, hang out in an air-conditioned building or stop just for the heck of it. I have spent time riding with almost all of the Big Riders and depending on the day, how I’m feeling or how motivated I am, I can always find someone who’s going at my pace. We have the most amazing discussions along the ride because there is nothing to distract us from the conversation. We passed through Amish country up in the hills near Viroqua, WI and saw some of the most beautiful farms that I’ve ever seen. Compared to farms that we had passed in other states the Wisconsin farms are really well kept and prosperous looking. If it wasn’t for the smell of the cows and the note on the license plate “America’s Dairyland” I would have thought of Wisconsin as a continuation of Minnesota’s corn and soybean fields: plus hills. I guess no one wants to put “America’s Cornfield” on the license plate though. I know that it is necessary to fertilize fields, but my nose was telling me that there has got to be something better than cow manure. Some of the smells were so powerful that I found myself simultaneously gagging and holding my breath as I was biking along. Its difficult, trust me. If that is what is making our corn and soybeans grow, than I don’t know how much I want to eat corn or soybeans any more.
Day 31 of the ride was from Viroqua, WI to Madison, WI 110 miles. We were unimpressed by the 110 mile projection, so we decided to get lost and add on an extra 3-right at the beginning of the day. The first 25 miles were steep hills so I quickly burned off 1st and 2nd breakfast and found myself searching for a 3rd breakfast or a 1st lunch. Chad, Catie,Rachel and Greg were all feeling the same way so we stopped at McDonalds for a power snack. The next 60 miles were fairly flat and we had lunch at a petting zoo/fruit stand. I never would have thought to put those two things together. It was a great stop besides the flies who apparantly found the combination of animals and fruit absolutely irresistable. Nonetheless we stayed there for a good 2 hours to rest up and rejuvinate for the second part of the day. We finished the day with another 25 miles of hills and pulled up into the worst campsite that I have ever seen. The showers were so far that we had to take a shuttle to them, and we were literally camped on a swamp. This was the first bad experience with mosquitos since Thompson Falls, MT where they can hardly be considered mosquitos seeing as they could easily take down a hummingbird in a fight. Not to bad considering it was day 31. Mosquitos absolutely love me and despite the fact that I was wearing long pants and a sweatshirt, still mananged to find places to bite me. I ended up eating dinner in my tent but I left the rain fly off so that I could still talk to people.
