7/25 – Osseo, WI to Wisconsin Rapids - Day 40
 

Theme for the day is: "Biking can be pretty fun even with a bit of rain".

It rained last night and we woke up to overcast skies.  However you could see that there was blue poking through.  With a bit of luck, no rain today. The ride is mostly east today and the distance is 88 miles.  The temperature is very comfortable for biking, and by 9AM is about 70 degrees.

At 9:10 we’re at the 27-mile mark, time for coffee in the town of Merrillan. Would you believe that at the Merrillan Café we had coffee, common rolls and pie? I’m not sure how I’ll ever return to “normal” eating habits!  We’re on the road again by 9:45.

The picnic stop is at the 41-mile mark. We’re there by 11am and as we’re staring to leave you can tell that rain is threatening.  As the 54-mile mark the rain slowly starts and by 68-mile it can be called a drizzle.  Not a lot of fun to ride in, but still better than riding in a downpour.

We reached the town of Pittsville by 1:30.  The town had two cafes, both of them loaded with riders from the tour.  No better to wait out the rain than in a café I guess.  We had some wonderful raspberry pie and ice cream with our coffee.  As we left the café, the rain was starting to wane and had stopped completely within a couple of miles.

Yesterday and today we’ve been riding along cranberry bogs occasionally. One of the nice parts of riding across the country at this pace is that you can, if you wish, stop to take a closer look at things.  We stopped for a couple of minutes to investigate how cranberries are grown.  We were kinda surprised to find that the cranberry plants were only a couple of inches high.

We arrived at the school by 3:30, but I continued on to the town to find a library to update my log.  It day had not really warmed up, a bank sign indicted that it was 77 degrees and so I couldn’t pass up a coffee shop called Centrealla Coffee where I had a latte and a cranberry muffin.  I also received directions to the library where I had a chance to update the trip logs.  This trip I’ve really depended on the local libraries to access the internet in order to update the trip and to send and receive e-mail.

Jim Young has had this idea for sharing tea and cookies some evening after dinner at the tents.  This evening we had dinner at a hotel and he managed to have the hotel staff provide hot water in a thermos so that when we get back to camp, we all can have tea.  Erika provided the sweets.

As the sun was setting, a ground fog started to form.  It was eerie to see the brightly colored tents shrouded in fog as the sun started to set.