7/26 - Osseo to Wisconsin Rapids - Day 41
 

The theme for today is: "the land still changes".

I was awakened last night to the sound of rain hitting my tent. It wasn't hard rain, but rain just the same. By the time I had to get up, the rain had stopped. The skies were overcast, but with some blue sky poking through. I packed my rain gear in my bike bag just in case. The route today was mostly flat and mostly on well paved roads. By 9AM we had covered 23 miles. The distance was going to be a bit long at 88 miles.

At the 27-mile mark we pulled into the town of Merrillan. We had coffee, cinnamon rolls, some pie and even some ice cream before leaving at 9:45. The picnic stop was at 41 miles. We arrived at 10:50 and were back on the road by 11:30.

At 54 miles the rain started. Not very hard but more than a drizzle for about 10 miles. We stopped, put on our rain jackets and continued. The town of Pitsville was about 68 miles into the ride and guess what? We found a cafe called Laura's Corner Cafe, had coffee and pie with ice cream. What a surprise!

The trip has pretty much boiled down to keeping our decisions down to, when to stop and what to snack on. I think that all vacations should be so simple. The rain pretty much stopped by the 70-mile mark. By this time the pine forests were pretty frequent and we even pass some Christmas Tree farms. So many small Christmas Trees all-growing in neat rows. The sight of cranberry bogs is more frequent as well. I can't say that I was expecting to see either Christmas Tree farms or cranberry bogs in Wisconsin but now I know.

I coasted into Wisconsin Rapids by 3:30, the temperature was 77 degrees and stopped at a coffee shop called Centralla Coffee for a latte and cranberry muffin. Life is good!!!