The rain continued through the night as did the “action” around the motel. What a difference ear plugs can make. I walked out of the motel about 7:30, the air was still and the humidity hit you in the face like a wet blanket. The forecast was for a repeat of yesterday. High temps, high humidity and a 70% change for thunderstorms in the afternoon. I had everything dry and packed away. Might be a motel again tonight. We’ll see.

I joined the LaCrosse River Trail and headed west. Easy riding.

Still no other riders on the trail.

Traveling art show along the way. FREE admittance.

The storm brought down lots of trees along the trail. Made me thing of George’s unfortunate encounter along the Badger Trail. I was able to ride around most of them.

Nice!

A good example of bridges from another era.

Lots of flowers blooming along the way . . . made the riding even more enjoyable.

 

. . . and soon I was in LaCrosse where I joined up with the Great River Tail.

Reaching LaCrosse, it was time to head north on the Great River Trail.

Ready . . . Set . . . GO!

Finally . . . my first sighting of Mississippi River which I will be following all the way to Prescott, WI. Nice riding and great vistas.

Lots of great little towns along the way. As usual one of the highlights for me in touring is the SLOW ride through the sights and sounds of rural Americana. Momentarily passing through the lives and times of local residents’.

Downtown Bangor . . . a Main Street without too many vacancy signs.

Their other claim to fame is the annual New Year’s Eve frozen catfish drop. Similar to the lighted descending ball in Times Square, NY (on a smaller scale of course!)

The final miles of the Great River Trail passed through the federal Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge. Great riding and scenery but I stay on their main gravel road. The relatively new bike trail paralleled the road but was too soft for Connie and her heavy load.

A nice ride for the last 3 miles of the Great River Trail through the refuge.

New bike trail on the left, vehicle traffic on the right. No wonder he Fed’s have budget problems!

Not sure if these are the remains of a turtle hatch or a racoons lunch. Hope the little fellers made it!

After basically riding on crushed lime rock trails since leaving Madison, it was time to exit onto paved surfaces. Easy rolling!

As I left the road behind I headed north on Hwy 35, the Great River Road. Lots of traffic with MN license plates  heading home. Thankfully most of them turned west at Hwy 54, heading over to Winona, MN. From that point north it was just as I remembered on  my Mother’s Day ride to Minnesota three years ago. Great road, great scenery, little traffic and easy riding.

I soon arrived at Merrick State Park, which was going to be my home for the night.

This was the planned overnight . . .

Seemed I was drinking a bottle of water every six miles and felt I still could not keep up. The weather was still VERY humid. If it was going to be a repeat of last night’s weather, I did not want to be in a tent. So . . . onward another 15 miles to Alma where I hoped to find inside accommodations.

The 4 Mile Gentleman’s Club. Didn’t see any gentleman this morning, of course it was Sunday morning. Never did figure out what it was four miles from!

With the high temps and humidity, I have REALLY been going through the water. It’s always a hunt to find the local water source in town. If they have a local park, there is usually a source there. I hunted for some time in this park until I finally found the “bubbler” (as we call it only here in WI) inside the lion!

Some of the locals are not too crazy about the boom in sand mining.

Nice digs . . . catering to the fishing crowd. Separate fishing cleaning building with a large kitchen and outside eating area.

Comfie!