Wisconsin it has been a joy! I have enjoyed the ups and downs of the beautiful countryside and the places we've stayed. When I embarked on this journey, I think Steph was afraid I'd find some new place I'd want to live. I haven't found a new place. Instead this trip has reminded me how much I love Wisconsin and how wonderful the four years were that I spent in this state. I'm sorry to be saying goodbye tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take another 20 years before I return again.
This morning's send off was one of the most unique so far. About a dozen people from the Trek Travel corporate office came to our hotel, dressed up like cows, and rang cow bells as we rolled out of the parking lot (they also gave each of us our own cow bell). Several of the people were also the ones that worked on our bikes during the rest day. My bike was nicely tuned up with new brake fluid, a new chain, and new bearings in the rear wheel. It rides like new again! I can't thank them enough for fixing my wheel.
On the bike, today was one of those midwestern fall days where the sun makes it look like fall, a few trees are starting to turn color, the air smells like fall, but it is still dang hot. In fact, it was in the upper 80s when we finished. We did have some more ups and downs today, but overall it was pretty flat and a bit less rural. We also spent at least 20 miles on various bike paths. Wisconsin definitely has many, many miles of bike paths.
And because it was so hot, ice cream seemed like a good post ride treat. So one of the guides and I walked to a local ice cream place and got huge waffle cones. We both had bee's knees, which involved some alcohol from a local distillery, lemon, and honey, and lemon cardamom. Both flavors were delicious. He thought so too and he didn't ride today so it wasn't just that I was hot and hungry.
Tomorrow is a bit different for us as we're going to take a high speed ferry across Lake Michigan. We will ride our bikes to the ferry, which is about 3 miles from our hotel, and then spend about 2 hours on the ferry and arrive in Muskegon, MI. From there we have a short ride to Holland, MI. It is supposed to be a beautiful trip across the lake. It also means we get a few hours to chill in the morning before heading to the ferry. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean we get to sleep in. The vans can't fit on the ferry so we still have to have our luggage down at 7am and several of the guides will drive the vans around to our destination.
Oh, and an update. The guy with kidney stone rejoined us on the rest day and was riding today. It was great to have him back. And I don't think I mentioned that the guide with Covid rejoined us a week ago. He's been riding and seems to be doing well. He said it was like a really bad cold, but he is vaccinated and only 24.
Day 31 stats:
distance: 87.9 miles
elevation gain: 2516 ft
nutrition:
breakfast: yogurt, brown sugar oatmeal, muffin, granola bar, NuGo protein bar
lunch: brie and olive tapenade sandwich, 4 wafer cookies, 1 La Croix
post-ride: 1 recovery drink, 1 oat muffin, 2 La Croix, 1 huge ice cream cone
gels: 2
bloks: 1
52 oz skratch superfuel, 78 oz zym
Day 32 details - Milwaukee to Holland, MI
planned distance: 40 miles
planned elevation gain: 705 ft