Wisconsin has been a lovely state, much like Vermont and home with rolling hills and dairy farms. Yesterday we rode about 90 miles from Wisconsin Dells into Fond du Lac. This was our 5th long day in a row in which we have covered over 500 miles in 5 days. For the most part I seemed to have settled in and like many of the others established a rythem that is comfortable.

Much of the state we crossed on bike paths or on well kept county roads. Yesterday we finished in Fond du Lac on the foot of Lake Winnebago. Beside the many farms and lakes there were many wind mills.

I actually found the windmills to have a gentle grace and beauty, certainly less optrusive and unsightly than the ubiquitous telephone poles and wires that we all accept and take for garnted. The Wisconsin farmers live side by side with their windmills and I heard little or no noise, except for a gentle whooshing and far less damage to wildlife than the road kill carnage that is normal and accepted due to automobiles.

Yesterday I had a nice swim in Lake Winnebago and today in the much nicer and colder Lake Michigan.

This is me at the light house where we swam on Lake Winnebago.

As a reality check rather than a rider profile today I wanted to rave about how great this ride is, but also to give a list some of the everyday things that I will not miss at all when the ride is finished.

1. Spending 50 straight nights in 50 different motel rooms.
2. Packing up and moving every day
3. Eating breakfast in a hurry without time for a newspaper and a 2nd, let alone a 3rd cup of coffee.
4. Putting on sunscreen at 6 AM
5. Getting up at 5:30 AM
6. Having dinner at another "feed bag buffett" ... pronounced buff-it.
7. Listening to another "safety lecture"
8. Fake scrambled eggs without any toast and rubbery under-cooked beacon.
9. No fresh fruit 
10. Iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing.
11. Sleeping in a bed all alone with only a lumpy pillow to hold on to.

..... but every morinig when I settle into the saddle on my trusty "old gray mare" as I have begun to call my blue Cannondale bicycle, I feel like I am 8 years old again and starting out on another fresh day of adventure, and wouldn't trade this ride of a lifetime for anything.