Comfortable and quiet night at Don’s Bunkhouse and we hated to leave. Great Hospitality, Thank you Don!!! On to the GREAT State of Wisconsin!!!

We are entering lake country again after several days of riding through ag country.  Nice scenery around every corner!!!

. . . going to have to look this one up!!!

Who knew . . .

. . . boy, now that is a ‘stretch’ for fame, even for the Village of Sunrise. Who was Frank O. Lowden? see the end of this entry.

We crossed Interstate 35 as we head for the Minnesota border . . .

Around this corner we came upon this 40 acres of solar panels . . . wonder how many megawatts it puts our????

Don had told us about a great restaurant in Harris, so of course we had to head in for a second breakfast . . . here was the place to be in Harris after 8:00pm. Mingle, Dance, Lounge . . . not necessarily in that order!!!

Kaffe Stuga was a hopping place. We tied up with Dan who recognized the ACA maps on our bikes and joined us for breakfast. He had ridden up from Mpls.

. . . typical of our group, after a full breakfast, several had pie!!!!! (no names mentioned to protect the innocent!!!)

Janie was MORE than willing to help us out . . . bring it on!!!

. . .  other highlights of Harris included this tattoo parlor right next to the Kaffe . . .

. . . with another repurposed VW bug!!!

. . . Anne arrived with might have been the ‘find of the day’  . . . nice patina on that spring!!!!

. . . as we vacated our space at the Kaffe, the second crew rolled in just in time!!!

. . . riding sweep is tough business and even Allison had to stop in for a piece of pie!!!!

Lots of Swedes in this area . . . and lots of Swedish words to say “CLOSED”!!!

Here was sort of a unique place for sale . . .  sort of  a ‘handyman special’, considering there had been an EXPLOSION in the house . . .

. . . wonder if it happened before or after it was listed??????

. . . we entered Taylors Falls, MN and had our final climb of the day into Wisconsin.  Here we are sitting in MN . . .

. . .  looking across to WI where we had a BIG climb up to Interstate State Park, on the Wisconsin side, our home for the night. It was a lot steeper than it looks, averaging 8-10% on the way up . . . after looking at it and plotting our strategy for about 15 minutes, it didn’t seem to be getting any less steep so we headed up . . .

. . . half way up I had stop to get this shot. Looks like we are still  ’Open For Business’ . . . not very unique. Allen has a photo of him entering the state of Florida and they have the same type of sign . . . I wonder if Scott Walker is still Governor in WI?????

We are staying at Interstate Park, which probably is the hilliest park in the Wisconsin system, nothing is flat. We are in the group campground on the south side of the park and the showers are two miles to the north in the park and up and down 6 hills.  Had to ride in granny gear back to camp after a shower so you didn’t get all sweated up again.

Only two days until Smoochie ties up with us in Hayward . . . YIPPEE!!!!!

Who was Frank O. Lowden? Frank Orren Lowden (January 26, 1861 – March 20, 1943) was a Republican Party politician from Illinois, who served as the 25th Governor of Illinois and as a United States Representatives from Illinois. He was also a candidate for the Republican presidential nominations in 1920 and 1928.