Today was another great day for riding a bike in Wisconsin. It was sunny all day and not too cold and not too hot.
It was a little hilly at the start – just to make sure we were awake. After that the terrain was rolling hills except for one steeper one as we got close to Merrill. Somehow I thought that the group was ahead of me so I was peddling hard to catch up just before lunch but they were behind me. Anyway we all got together again at lunch.
Brian had a problem with the rear cassette (shifting mechanism) and the bike mechanic at the lunch stop said they could fix it in a few minutes once their parts truck arrived – which should be in about 30 minutes. So the rest of the group left and Brian and I waited for the parts truck. About an hour later the truck arrived, the bike was fixed and we took off to try and catch the group. Unfortunately my bike developed a loose spoke and the wheel went out of true and the tire started rubbing on my brakes. We fixed it the best we could and continued on trying to catch the group. We passed several strawberry fields that were actively being picked and they smelled really good too.
We caught the group at the 2nd lunch stop and joined them for a bite to eat. We checked into our AmericInn motel and each went our own way on activities. I finally got yesterdays blog and pictures done after having a terrible time with Internet access yesterday in Rhinelander. I have several different options that I use, and none of them worked. Other people could connect so it was some cockpit error on my part – but I don’t know what. We walked to dinner at a nearby restaurant to the motel.
The official distance for the ride today was 57.5 miles. We rode a little more because our motel is on the far side of town from the school.
Tomorrow we head from Merrill to Steven’s Point. We are having breakfast at 6:30 and should be on the road shortly after 7:00am
kws