We were warned last night that the road out of New Hampton was pretty bad for the first 30 kms., and was it ever: pot holes and long ruts everywhere. It was a bone jarring ride that required you to be totally focused on the road so that you wouldn’t wreck your tires or take a fall. Once we got past that, however, the roads improved and so did the scenery. We went up and down some pretty steep rolling hills and passed through several sleepy villages. I took the picture below leaving a village whose name I forget, but I do remember the name of the church whose steeple you see: Lady of Seven Dolors Church. No, that is not a spelling mistake, although unless you knew better you might conclude that the lady who owns the church only has 7 dollars to her name! Actually, this was a Catholic church, and a very pretty one, and "dolors" is Latin for "sorrow."
The exciting part of this day was crossing the Mississippi River which divides the state of Iowa from the state of Wisconsin. It was a very steep ride down to the bridge, and a scary one crossing the bridge because it was under repair and there was only one lane, with only a cement wall at the level of my riding saddle separating you from the water below. As pretty as the river was, it’s a very commercialized area, with several casinos along the shore. I could only manage one picture because of the construction and traffic, and there’s a shot of the welcome to Wisconsin sign in the town of Prairie du Chien.
I finally had another flat tire today too. I was about 20 kms from camp when I heard a loud hiss and the bike started going wonky. No big deal, however, and I was back on the road again in about 10 minutes. A bigger deal is that another one of our riders, an older gentleman named Don, hit gravel on the shoulder, fell, and broke his collarbone. That means the end of the road for him, which is especially sad because his daughter was going to be joining him for the last 2 weeks of the tour. There have now been a total of 4 riders who have to leave the tour because of injuries.
Near the end of today’s trek I took a couple of shots of the Wisconsin countryside. It’s beautiful here, and there’s not as many cornfields lining the road anymore. You can see for miles, and it’s very obvious we’re in dairy country.
Diane had a very busy day, shopping in Waterloo, Iowa, and spending another $2000 on groceries to feed this hungry crew. She’s still busy in the kitchen at the moment, and we are eagerly awaiting Ada & Andrew’s arrival. Diane is going home with Ada tonight so that they can go to the farmer’s market in Madison tomorrow morning, so I’ll be on my own in our tent for the first time tonight. Not that I’m looking for pity! I am so blessed to have Diane with me for the whole summer, while most of the older folks here left spouses behind. Because tomorrow is not a long day – “only” 116 kms – I expect that I’ll be in Madison by shortly after noon.
I should add that there is a real sense of relief in camp tonight. We have cycled over 100 miles per day 3 days in a row – a total of 525 kms. This was the one week many of us were a little anxious about before the tour, wondering what they were thinking when they planned so many long days in a row. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as we feared, which just goes to show that we’re all getting stronger as we go along, I guess!
Today’s stats:
Distance: 162.04 kms
Average speed: 22.6 kph
Maximum speed: 57.1 kph
Time in saddle: 7.08.22
# of flat tires on tour: 7
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