Day 34: Fond du Lac, WI

We're kind of behind on our blogging. Not because Minnesota and Wisconsin aren't beautiful--heck, every cornfield is prettier than the one before, and there are soybeans, hay, dairy, and hogs too--but because we've been kind of tired. We've cycled 468 miles in the past five days.

Despite the seeming monotony of agriculture, it really is very pretty here. There are trees and rolling hills and winding country roads. Yesterday, we rode for 30 miles on the Elroy-Sparta bike path, which I thought was gorgeous. There are three very dark, very cool tunnels, the first of which goes 3/4 miles. An entrepreneur sells flashlights near the entrance to the first tunnel, but I borrowed a flashlight from a fellow cyclist. It illuminated about 1 foot ahead, which made the experience somewhat strange. The tunnels have giant wooden doors at each end, making them look a bit like entrances to medieval fortresses. And the coolness on a very hot day was a treat. Most of the rest of the trail is shaded by a canopy of trees. Occasionally, you get pretty views of farms or streams. Some of the other riders did not like the trail because it is unpaved. Whatever.

Paul added to his moonography by mooning the giant bicyclist sculpture at the Sparta entrance to the trail. He did this while other cyclists were distracting the very earnest representatives of BikeSparta.com. Apparently, a fully clothed picture of some ABB cyclists will be on that website. (There you will learn that Sparta is the "bicycling capital of America.")

Today's thrill was visiting Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party. Happily, Paul resisted the advice of his friends to moon the Republican museum. My guess is that such a gesture would fall afoul of the family values that are at the core of the modern Republican party. (No word on Lincoln's view of such things.) Actually, without the mooning, Ripon wasn't all that thrilling.

Yesterday, we were in the world-famous Wisconsin Dells. The high point was a good ice cream place. The low point was the Paul Bunyan buffet, where you are served family style, assuming your family is one where overwhelmed and unhelpful people serve you chicken and potatoes and look at you incredulously if you ask for a salad or any other kind of vegetable. Tonight's meal was said to be much better--validating the ride organizers' scheme to continually reinforce and sometimes exceed really low expectations.

Happily, Paul and I escaped the group feed tonight. An old friend, Doug Rice, and his family drove up from Chicago to take us out to dinner. I worked with Doug when I was not much older than Paul and had lost touch with him over the years. Doug read Mountains Beyond Mountains, visited the PIH website, and learned that someone with the same name as his long lost friend was cycling across the country to raise money for PIH. He wrote, made a generous pledge, and we got to catch up on the last 20 years. It was another high point of the trip for me.

Paul, who hates bicycling, is now in training for a race with the fast old guys. I don't like his chances, but it's good for him to have something to think about while cycling other than "cycling sucks." Stay tuned.

Apparently the record heat is set to continue for a while longer. Ugh.

Cheers,

Len