Day 3 - The Bear Ate Me (Updated)

Date: Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Time on Bike: 3:11:42

Miles Covered Today: 51.20

Total Travel Time: 7:15:06

Total Trip Miles: 156.89

Average Speed: ~11.9 mph, Maximum Speed: ~26.5 mph

From: White River State Trail, Elkhorn, WI

To: Stoughton, WI

(Uploaded from Minnetonka, MN)

So we loaded up the car with all our junk and left the Allens this morning. We drove the hour or so where I finished up yesterday, but did not pull into the Wisconsin Department of Corrections facility!! I noticed a trail head for the White River State Trail about half a mile before the Corrections facility and that was today's starting point. After all, I just talked to my parole officer yesterday!!!!

I solved (or hope to prevent) my iPhone from ever overheating again by putting a piece of aluminum foil over the screen. No sun, no heat.

So... you ever hear the expression “Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you”. Today the bear ate me!! There is a similar saying in Arabic that I like that goes something like this... yom hazel, yom bazel. I am sure Arie will jump in to help me here! Or to paraphrase, one day onions, one day meat. You get the idea.

That nice tailwind that I had yesterday turned into a strong wind from the West today… and that ended up being a headwind most of the day!!! That made it a very trying day to say the least...

Google Maps had me stair stepping my way across Wisconsin. I would take some county back road north, then turn left and go west for a while, then a right and go north, then a left and go west, etc. etc., etc., etc.!!!!! That north section wasn't too bad as the wind was from my left, but every time Google had me go west I got the crap beat out of me. I needed to cycle in the drops all day long. I hadn't done hardly any riding in the drops in Richmond as speed was never my thing. But this was a matter of aerodynamics... and survival!!!! :) My shoulder ached!

I cannot tell you how happy I was to locate Bunny & Woz for my first rest stop of the day. All I knew from her text was "stopped by old silo". Man was I pleased to find that silo!!

Woz it seemed was having a grand time. He seems to be able to entertain himself with just a tennis ball!!

The roads were generally good with little traffic. But there were cracks in the road every 90 to 100 feet. And I mean all day long! Hurts my jewels...

I was on two types of roads today. There were some nice shoulders on most...

But the ones that were 55 MPH and had no shoulder were not stress free. Google Maps should have known better.

Bunny sent me the location of a bar she & Woz were hanging out at in an area without much else to take my rest stop. But the road I needed to go on had a bike restriction. I spied a path of some sorts and low and behold it was a bike path - the Glacial River Bike Trail. It paralleled Route 26 and low and behold took me those 6 miles I needed to get to them!!

You can just make out Route 26 on the right

I finally made it to the bar!

Many of the roads were lined with wildflowers.

And the scenery was fantastic.

I realized I would not make it into Madison, WI today as I had planned. Bunny & Woz were waiting for me in a church parking lot in Stoughton, WI. I was done, finished, fried, cooked for the day!!

Between the wind & the cracks in the road, I got the crap beat out of me today! But I still knocked out over 50 miles! I was very pleased with that. Let’s see what tomorrow holds…

Some other pictures you might enjoy from my day!