The gang had a great night of sleeping in the Baptist Church

. . . and . . . emJay and I slept GREAT in the Main St motel . . .

People are ‘fleeing the ship’ for several days before we literally board the ship in Manitowoc. Doc Mike and Wade are veering off course for 4 days, heading to Green Bay for Packer weekend!!!  Jim ‘s wife Nancy is coming up for several days and they are moteling it. She will cross with us on the ferry and then drive back to Chicago. Mark has continued to have leg problems with his shin splints. His wife picked him up last night and they returned to Cedarburg. He’ll head to the doctor for some special treatments . He needed to shave his leg before he left for home. We teased him we could apply a Mustard (we have three bottles we are carrying) Poultice to his ankle as our special ‘on the road remedy’. Couldn’t hurt!!!!

This is what the remaining riders ‘faced’ on todays 74 miles ride. A string 15-20MPH wind BUT . . . it was actually a tailwind. The first we have had of this strength on the whole trip. It would REALLY help us sail down the road and eat up those miles FAST!!!!

. . . her was a BEAUTIFUL Lutheran Church we passed along the way . . . being renovated on the inside!

Lots of logging going on in the area . . . mmmm wonder forestry ‘best management practices’ are being followed here??????

Lots of grouse up in this part of the state and this is one of several improvement areas we passed . . .

. . .the nights have begun to coo la little which is GREAT for sleeping. emJay brought up a lighter sleeping bag I was thinking of switching out but am going to keep the heavier one. I hope this cover is to protect the plants from bugs and NOT from FROOST . . . too early in the year!!!!!

. . . just ahead lay this dreaded ‘DTT’ (Delaminated Truck Tire) . . .

. . . just lying in wait to jump out and bite a bikers tire . . . the group hasn’t had a flat since our riding on the Interstate system (other than Denise’s major tire BLOW out failure).

. . this was funny . .  . a golf green some landowner had created in a small forest clearing . . . 

. . . we crossed over the Wolf River which I believe is WI longest free flowing river and known to whitewater kayakers’ and canoeists throughout the Midwest.

. . . we passed these beauties along the way. I  asked them all to line up for a photo and they were happy to comply. Eddie, on the left, insisted on more of a ‘profile shot’ to show off his better side!!!!

. . . along he way we met Andrew and his daughter, Nadeja (means Hope in Bohemian), who are from Camden, Maine heading to Oregon. They are the first west bound riders we have seen since Fargo. They actually started a month later than planned because Andrew had a back issue. A great team . . . safe biking!!!

. . . we are near the Antigo area, Home of WI’s state soil . . .the ‘Antigo Silt Loam’ (yes, we do have a state soil!!!), which means LOTS of tator fields.  . . . and the terrain has started to flatten out some. Yippee!!!!

. . .some of our mbbt team spent Mondays, last fall and winter, hiking about 60 miles of the Ice Age Trail down near the Madison area. The trail follows the terminal moraine of the last glacial event in WI. Looks like we missed a piece!!!

. . I’ve been telling the gang about our ‘WI rollers’ (bumps you ride up and can just about coast down and 3/4 of the way up the next). To date they have all been ‘to extended’, large, to roll up. Finally we had a few today. Makes for nice biking!!!

. . . WI was one of the first states to come o board with the ‘Rails to Trails’ program. Most of our trail system is restricted to bicycles and hiking only, but here are trails that have been developed for ATV. Although one can bicycle on them, they are usually too rough and the stone too big,

. . . we finally blew into the Tilleda Campground, our home for the night. It is located right on the Embarrass River but it was easy to cross with this walkway. Connie REALL wanted to dip her hooves in the cool water after the big day.

. . . because of the rain from the last two days the camping area was a little ‘soggy’ and we were worried about mosquitos. No problem with either!!!

We decided while in WI we had to experience a good old fashion tradition . . . the Friday Night Fish Fry. Allison made reservations at the local restaurant and we took up all the tables they had available.

Usually a fish fry uses cod but as you can see above . . . there was a wide assortment of batter, beer batter or fried available . . . YUMMMMM!!!!

. . . I went with the fried blue gill and it was delicious!!!! After pie for desert and finishing our beers it was back to the campsite . . .

. . . along the way Rod had a call from Buzz, his wife. She has an uncanny knack of tracking him down WHEREVER he is!!!!