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Ouch!  4 people fell today, 3 while riding a non paved trail on our route.  The most serious broke her shoulder the others were scrapes and bruises.  Falls happen but 4 in the same day in a group of 26 is unusual.

Another 70+ mile day with great weather and favorable winds.  We saw more dairy farms with a couple of them being industrial size.  Many barns with “barn quilts” painted on them.

In the town of Wittenburg, WI they have established an organization that promotes the painting of murals on buildings downtown.  It has become very successful and they have now repurposed a building to display artwork inside and a sculpture park outside.

A good nights sleep and on the road at 6:30 from the Eau Claire Sleep Inn heading east to Abbotsford, WI.  Weather was cool and sunny with a slight tail wind.  Early on the route took us to a bike path which ended up going through a grass field to gravel and back to asphalt.  The route took us on another gravel road later too.  But most importantly we went through the small town of Cadott where we found a bakery with great rolls and donuts. Most of the group stopped there prompting a reporter from the newspaper office across the street to come over, get our story and take some pictures.

The landscape continues to change and is more rolling.  The crops are mostly corn and hay grown to feed dairy cattle although some cash corn crops are raised.  There is an ethanol plant in Stanley where corn can be a sold.  We also passed many Amish and Mennonite farms.  We stopped at one that built and repaired buggies, wagons and carts.  The owner. who was Mennonite showed us around and explained how they were made.  He went on to say that the members of his church use tractors but they put steel wheels with steel cleats on them to discourage using for transportation on the roads.  They do not have or drive cars but use horse and buggy, bicycles or walk.  The farmer we talked to just returned with his family from visiting Glacier National Park.  They took Amtrak to get there and back.

 Most of our route for the day was on the Yellowstone trail.  Developed in 1912 this road was planned to be a transcontinental auto trail from Plymouth Rock, MA to Puget Sound, WA at a time when most roads were poorly constructed, badly marked and few maps were available.  The route was only partially completed

road through beautiful countryside with birds chirping early this morning. I took a video just to hear the birds chirping. I love riding early as it is so peaceful . As the day progresses we hear more cars , trucks, trains and planes.

We had a nice tail wind all day. We met s group of 3 bikers who were self supported heading to Upper Wisconsin and back. They hope to some day cross the country.

we made it to Eau Clair and had a great pizza downtown at the Impersonator  Restaurant. A nice ending to a nice day!

Today a few of us went into Minneapolis to see the sites of Foshay Tower modeled after Washington Monument, Mary Tyler Moore Statue, Sculpture Garden, Guthrie Theater, Stone Arch Bridge and rested at Dusty’s for dinner and blues country music..

today 3 bikers had flats this morning before the ride. It is actually a lot easier to fix a flat before you leave the hotel because you can check the flat tire in water in the hotel to see where the hole is in it and then you can  compare the spot to your tire and find the cause of the flat. In the people’s cases it was a wire, a stone and a piece of glass. Our group decided to take the route north of Minneapolis. It was a nice ride along the Mississippi River and there was very little traffic. We passed many lakes and beautiful lake homes. We crossed over the St Croissant River into Wisconsin and the town of Hudson. We ended at Dairy Queen.

Today we headed out of Fergus Fall by the way of the large Otter in a downtown park. We then got on the Central Lakes bicycle trail. It was fabulous to be on a bicycle trail with no cars or trucks. There was very little wind today. We stopped in Alexandria along the way to see the large Viking, go to Jakes Bike shop, and eat lunch  at Le Ferme, a great organic restaurant! Delicious! We got back on the wonderful bike rail and made one more stop for ice cream and on to hotel. Nice easy ride!

Today started out this morning  early as the wind was supposed to be right in our face all day. Unfortunately   I had 2 flats but they were at the  beginning . We did come across the rather large Prairie Hen statue. I guess the Prairie hen had been hunted to near extinction. I guess they are making somewhat of a  comeback. It was quite nice to arrive at the hotel!! 

 

 

 

Bob, Mark and I rolled out at 6:30 from the Fairfield Inn in Jamestown planning to beat the heat.  We had a tail wind and shared the lead and had done 20 miles in short order.  The heat didn’t show up til later in the afternoon when we were safe inside the comfortable motel in Enderlin after the 74 mile ride.

It was a Green Day:  Beautiful green landscape, very large green tractors, sprayers and equipment (definitely John Deere country) and very small frogs 🐸 on the road.  Many people were said they were green too but they weren’t.

Midway of the route we rode into the town of Litchville, population 168, and stopped at the town gas station/convenience/hardware/restaurant for coffee and  baked goodies made by the woman working there who we enjoyed visiting with.  The banana cake with cream cheese frosting was the best!  You can tell this was once a thriving small community with at least 2 banks, grocery and other stores.  Now only the store we visited a grain elevator and post office remain….sad.

Dinner at “Cafe by the Tracks” restaurant with several of the group was very tasty and there was ice cream!

Thinking of Jack Walleck