Welcome to the humid mid-west...

 

Minneapolis skyline between showers as we left town

We have now hit some seriously warm, muggy weather this week as we made our way across Wisconsin.  There were a couple of days that I literally took my sopping wet shirt off and rang the sweat out of it.  Our first night of camping after leaving Minneapolis was at Mr Sippi Campground right on the Mississippi.  It was an OK campground with a bar.  Right after we arrived there was a serious downpour.  Several people had tried to get their tents up before it hit and failed.  I had looked at the radar view on the phone and saw it was probably better to wait, so several of us took shelter in the bar to wait out the storm.

Riding the Rail-to-Trails across Wisconsin

A lot of our riding this week has been on Rail-to-Trail paths that are scattered all over Wisconsin.  Beth and I have ridden on several over the years.  We rode down a section of the Elroy-Sparta Trail that we did just 3 years ago on our last vacation together.  I went and checked out the city park at Wilton where we had stayed in the van and were the only people in the park.  It was a little different scene last Saturday than when we were there.  It was packed to overflowing with visitors who had come for a big town celebration that included sand volleyball, a big cookout and I'm not sure what else.

Riding through the longest tunnel on the Elroy-Sparta trail

Sheri taking advantage of a rest stop water bottle shower to cool off

The group's moral is hanging in there, but we have lost another of our original group.  Marianne, who has been riding her electric recumbent bike, that we lovingly call "The Tank" has decided to leave us here in Milwaukee.  The battery attachment to the bike broke a couple of days ago and that was kind of the last straw for her.  She had been thinking about leaving because of the hot humid weather and some the camping facilities have been less that comfortable (no showers on site or flushing toilets), plus the mosquitoes have really increased this past week.

Again the route planning by the tour company has been less than fully thought out when it comes to a multi-week, cross-country tour.  You can put up with some less than ideal conditions every now and then, but when it gets to be 3 out of 7 days, it gets really old quick. Especially after a long hot day of riding.  A couple of days ago we took advantage of Chuck's significant other, Katy, coming to visit from Chicago.  She ferried bags for 4 of us to a hotel 8 miles down the trail from the campsite so we could avoid another night without showers and swarming mosquitoes.

Joel Pundmann came up from Chicago yesterday afternoon for a short visit here in Milwaukee.  He gave me and my broken bike a lift to a local bike shop.  The bike will get boxed up in a couple of weeks and then shipped home.  It was good to see him and catch up a little since we had been at the Masters practice day back in April.

This next couple of weeks has more of the same type of planning.  Remote campsites with limited facilities and no hotel options.  We'll see how everybody's mood holds up as we are now into week 8 with more hot, humid weather in the forecast.  But in general, still having a good time with the group of riders.

Route completed as of July 14

Current stats:

  Current Location:  Milwaukee, WI

  Miles Ridden:  2748 Miles

  Feet of Climbing:  108,110 Ft