Ride time - 3 hrs. 16 minutes
10.7 MPH
Total miles from home 347
Total miles biked from International Falls, MN - 807 miles
Another wonderful day! The kind of day only another biker can fully appreciate, I’ll try to explain. Last evening was to be the last night we would be spending with the tandem bikers at Amber’s Hideaway so we all decided to go to Marley’s for one last meal together as a group. So 15 couples hopped in vehicles and drove to Marley’s and had a very pleasant two hour dinner. Then after we got back to Amber’s Hideaway there was a campfire going with about 30 chairs set up around the area waiting for us. It was close to 9:45 by the time we got back and quiet hours started at 10:00 so our time around the fire was rather brief.
We had told everyone that our plan was to leave this morning at 7:00 so we all said our good byes and we were some of the first ones to quietly retire for the evening. Our plan was to leave our friends and Wisconsin Dells without any fanfare or big ta doo with Deb and Dennis Veerkamp to ride with us to Denny’s for breakfast. Come 6:30 this morning we packed up our gear, loaded our BOB (Beast Of Burden) and rolled it all out into the parking lot about 6:50. Sure enough there is Deb and Dennis ready to go and no one else in sight. We stood around talking for a couple minutes and pretty soon Deb starts ringing the bell on our bike like a little kid ringing a bell for the first time. Ding ding ding, Deb just smiles, ding ding ding, I'm thinking, Deb your going to wake people up, ding ding ding! Pretty soon doors start opening up and people are coming out in night clothes and others half dressed and then everyone hollers GOOD LUCK JOHN AND KATHI!! What a wonderful sendoff! Talk about a tearful good bye. One of the nicer comments made was "thanks for sharing your stories of your cross country adventure with us - it sure gave us all a great buzz"! And we hope the buzz was enough to get some of our friends to take the same plunge we did and give real touring a try.
Most people would not understand the bonds of friendship and camaraderie bikers enjoy after only a couple of day biking together. It truly is something special.
After our breakfast at Denny’s we headed out of town for Reedsburg about 8:00AM. We were expecting a more challenging ride than it turned out to be. We had driven the route about a month before and had made note of a few hills and we still had memories of last Thursday’s ride through the same area from Mauston to Sauk City. As it turned out it was a beautiful ride on a very pleasant day with only a few moderate climbs. We arrived in Reedsburg about 9:30AM and killed some time at McDonald’s before going to the local super market and picking up a few supplies that we needed before checking into the Super 8 at about 11:00AM.
Checking our mileage on the odometer we only had 18 miles for the day and we were feeling like “Slackers” so we decided to ask the motel clerk what there was to see in the area and he recommended the 400 Trail. We had never heard of it before but decided to check it out. As it turns out it is a “Rails to Trail” route from Reedsburg to the southern end of the Elroy-Sparta Trail and the combination of the two trails would take you all the way from Reedsburg to LaCrosse. We just biked the first 8 miles from Reedsburg to LaValle. On the way we did our good deed for the day and cleared several branches that had fallen on the trail during the last couple of days. While in LaValle we checked out the “Treasure Mill” antique shop and saw some really neat stuff to be had but obviously we weren’t going to be purchasing anything that we would have to cart to Baton Rouge.
On our way back from LaValle, just by coincidence, we came across a factory where sweet corn was being processed. We stopped and talked for a while with an employee, Steve, that indicated that this time of the year they process approx. 600 tons of sweet corn per day which is about 30 semi loads. Now that’s a lot of corn. So now we know where all the trucks we have been seeing going through the Dells were headed. Steve also said that this is where the history channel filmed Modern Marvel’s Corn.
Back at the hotel we got cleaned up and did some laundry and now we are going to go swimming in the pool. Tomorrow we will bicycle to Muscoda and spend the evening with Ron and Jodine Roh (friends that we met in Orange Beach, AL last winter).
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