I rode about 600 miles this week. I am getting close to 2300 miles total for this trip. I think I am a little over half way complete but I am not sure.
Pretty tough day today. Last night after I ate and wrote my email, I tried to find a place to sleep. The city park had a big sign that said closed at 10:00 PM and there were a couple of cars parked there with people when I got there at 11:00 PM so I did not think it wise to try and sneak in.
I rode on past and found a little nature trail in Cambridge and went down the trail a ways and found a little clearing in a patch of woods and put my sleeping bag down there. I washed up in my Tupperware bathtub with a little warm water from the restaurant and went to bed.
I woke up about 7:00 AM and was a little stiff and sore from the day before – Whaaa Whaaa – Whine Whine -- No cheese to go with my Whine. I got packed up and got on the road at about 7:30 AM. It was cold, windy, and rainy all day long. The wind was gusty and was blowing in every different direction but mostly right in my face. 
I did not see much in the way of animals but I did see a flock of 6 Tom Turkeys (see photo), a few cows and horses, and 1 rabbit. The cows and horses were just staring at me like I was some kind of Alien Fat Guy on a Bike as usual.
I found a cell phone on the road. I located the battery and put it back in and it had just enough juice to get the guys name off the phone. His name was Keith. I called him and left his phone at a restaurant in Taylors Falls to pick up. He was glad I found it. His phone was a little beat up but it seemed to still work. I passed by a lot of other road treasures like wrenches, c-clamps, tractor pins, tie down straps, etc. I just left them. Oh the pain.
The country side has changed. Lots and Lots of rolling hills and more pine trees and woods. About 1 ½ miles before I got to Cameron, WI there was another detour around another bridge. 8 miles out of my way to go 1 ½ miles. I went to get on US Highway 53 to go down to Bloomer, Wisconsin and to travel toward highway 64 (about 25 miles) so I could get to Gilman and there was a big sign on the on-ramp: “Restricted Highway, No Pedestrians, NO BICYCLES” Now what? I would have to back track about 4 miles to get on another highway and ride an extra 15 miles on top of the 25 miles I already had to ride to get to highway 64. I was too tired to do that so I just drove past the sign and got on highway 53 and began to ride. Very nice highway with 6 foot shoulders and much flatter grade than the country roads.
“PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR I HAVE SINNED!”
I prayed for 25 miles that a Highway Patrolman would not pass me on the highway. None did. See Praying does work – although I have to admit that I am not convinced that prayer is necessarily a good way to solve a problem when you are breaking the law.
At that point where I saw the No Bicycle sign I had already ridden about 81 miles and most of that was directly into pretty strong head winds. I was just too tired to ride the extra 20 miles and my vision was just too blurry to properly read the stupid sign. Who knows what it really said? I figured if a policeman stopped me then I would have to just Beg for Mercy. Since no one did stop me, Now I will have to just work out a little repentance and I should be good to go.
By the time I got to Bloomer, Wisconsin on highway 64 it was pretty dark and I was sitting on the side of the road fixing the sock in my shoe when a policeman stopped to see if I was ok. I was fine. Especially since he didn’t drive by a mile earlier when I was on highway 53 which incidentally was Incorrectly marked for “No Bicycle” traffic. Two or three other people also stopped to see if I was ok. One of them offered to let me pitch my tent at her father’s house a couple of miles away for the night. Apparently her father was a preacher at one time. Once again there are a lot of nice people around this old world.
I said thank you but I had ridden a little over 100 miles in the gusty wind and rain and I was just not in the mood to pitch a tent in the rain 30 miles from my Aunt Polly’s house with a nice warm bed so I decided to just keep on riding. I ate my leftover pizza from the night before and kept on going. At about midnight the sky cleared up and the weather got calm, nice, and peaceful. It was a little cold but very peaceful and beautiful. The stars were very beautiful and I saw a rabbit in the headlights of a car passing me. No he didn’t get smashed. There are hardly any cars on the small county roads at midnight.
It was about this time that my tire slipped off the road and began to dig in the soft shoulder sand and gravel. I tried desperately to get back on the road but it wasn’t going to happen. I was not in the mood to wreck again so I steered straight onto the shoulder trying to keep my balance in the pitch dark with my little bike headlamp. The shoulder sucked me into the grass. I hung on trying to get my feet out. I was staying up – barely- but I was headed into the big grassy ditch. Down the hill about 15 feet into the tall grass. I finally got my feet out but Too Late. Down I went on my back with my bike on top of me. At least this time I wrecked in the nice soft grass. No major damage.
I still have a pretty big bruise on my right Butt cheek from the last wreck. (I know you really wanted to hear that) Anyway I just laid there for about 5 minutes resting. The stars were very beautiful and I was glad I could see them after riding in the wind and rain and dark clouds all day. I could have easily gone to sleep right there but the grass was a little wet so I finally got up and pushed my bike back up to the road.
This trip is so fun – I think I will do it every year if I can just find a job that has 8 o 12 weeks of vacation to start with my first year. Anyway, I got going again and was trying very hard to steer in a straight line and stay out of the ditch. I little tough when you are very tired and it is pitch dark outside. Whine – Whine. By now people must think that I am very uncoordinated with all the time I have spent in the ditches with my bike on top of me. But sometimes this bike riding stuff is not quite as easy as it might appear. I haven’t really gotten hurt bad from these stupid wrecks, but my ego has suffered a little and my “Macho Image -- that never existed” seems to be taking a beating. You would think I could ride a bike a little better, but I have struggled with that. Whaaa – Whaaa – Please pass the cheese.
I saw another policeman in Cornell, Wisconsin. He asked me if I was ok, which I was, but he drove past me several times to make sure I was minding my P’s and Q’s. He probably thought it was a little weird that I was riding my bike with all my packs at midnight. Whatever! I finally got to Aunt Polly’s house about 1:30 in the morning on Sunday. I was a little tired and sore and had ridden about 134 miles. I don’t think I will try that again. It didn’t really feel all that great. I don’t care what they say. Whaaa, Whaaa, --- whine, whine, blah, blah, blah.
It took me awhile to wake up Aunt Polly after I got to her house. You would think that with all that riding I did she would have been sitting on the porch waiting for me. Of course it would have helped if I would have told her I was going to ride to her house that night. I didn’t tell her or Lori that I was going to keep riding that night because they would have just worried. You know, it’s dark outside, there are too many drunks on the highways, the cars can’t see you, it’s dangerous, whaaa, whaaa, whaaa, --- Women! 
Anyway, I knocked on Polly’s door for awhile and wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get her attention. What, you never had a Fat Guy on a Bike knock on your door at 1:30 in the morning before? --- Whatever ! I finally called her on the phone and she graciously let me in. For a while there I thought I was going to have to sleep in the barn.
I took a bath, soaked in the tub for awhile and went to bed. A bed feels soooo good. You don’t really realize how good a bed feels until you haven’t slept on one for awhile.
Anyway, before I get a lot of lectures about riding in the dark, I don’t plan on doing that again, unless I need to of course in which case I will. It really is very calm and peaceful out riding your bike at midnight though.I had a good nights sleep and had a nice visit with Aunt Polly on Sunday. I will hang around here on Monday and rest up a little and send some stuff home from the post office (trying to lighten my load a bit) and then get on the road Tuesday morning and start working my way to Manitowoc. I am near the central part of Wisconsin (North and South wise) and I am not in the mood to ride clear up and over the great lakes or drop way down and ride underneath them so I am just going to ride to Manitowoc and see if I can take a Ferry Boat across lake Michigan and go from there down to the top of Lake Erie and on to Buffalo, NY.
Things are going as fine as Frog Hair.
Later,
Dan
