Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Conclusion

My first solo bicycle trip was quite successful. I am very thankful to the Lord for watching out for me every part of the way. He brought me to the right people and places at the right time. I cycled 1511.43 km or 906.86 miles in 25 days. I had 2 rest days, one of which was due to rain. During the trip, I camped at 9 campgrounds where I paid and then 2 places where I stealth camped-one in a bush and a second behind a building at a Lion's Park. I stayed in 6 motels . I asked to stay at 4 homes-the farm of Bill Buhler, the home of John Crumley (after my cracked rim), the home of Bob Daniels and by the Cooper family autobody shop and I spent 3 nights at Al and Lois Smith's where we also stayed on our last trip and the last home was Caroline's house in Ashland.  I had NO flat tires but Silver did get a cracked rim on the back tire (from the big cracks in the cement streets of the towns) and the Lord arranged for me to stay overnight at John's house and in the morning he brought the bicycle and I into River Falls, a short distance away , where the rim was replaced and where I met a wonderful Christian father and son, the Byron's. The weather was very HOT for a week but the last couple of weeks of the trip were cool and most of the rain came in the last few days when I had a house or motel to keep dry in. I only rode in pouring rain the day, I reached Lacrosse.  Most of the roads had nice pavement and good sized edges. The worst road was HWY 16 going north into Wisconsin Dells, which was also the busiest tourist place. I had a bear, many deer, a fox, a raccoon and a mouse cross just in front of my bicycle. Most of the dairy farms were in the central area going west and east. The rivers were BIG with lots of green, still waters along the sides. The most spectacular views were from Wyalusing State Park where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi River and the view is from the top of the bluff. The most satisfying time was when I reached the source of the Wisconsin River at Lac Vieux Desert. I went on 3 boat cruises and I took about 2000 photos and spent about 1400 dollars for everything including gas for the car to get to Ashland and back home. I read 47 Psalms and prayed and talked to the Lord continually and watched every car behind me through my rear view mirror as He made sure they went wide around me.

         Thank you again to everyone that helped me. I will pray for all those that befriended me and that I gave my card to .  If it is in the Lord's will, my next bicycle trip plan is to visit the country of my birth, The Netherlands next spring and/or summer to cycle there.

Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day 25

Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day 25, Wednesday, August 7,2013

Park City to Ashland    89 km.  in 5 hr.

I could hear the rain during the night and was very glad to be dry and warm in the motel. Even though it is now dark outside , my body still wants to wake up early . I had some of the motel’s continental breakfast , packed and was on the wet road by 6:30 am. The land is still mostly forest or swamp with only a few farms. I saw 2 deer again ,ready to cross the road but they went leaping off when they saw me. They are beautiful to watch when they leap through the woods. No wonder though, that many of the vehicles have bars in front of the fenders because there are a lot of deer collisions. Took long breaks every hour because Hwy. 13 has many bumps. I tried to find the least bumpy part of t he road when there were no cars around. Up to Glidden, there were a lot of lumber trucks. They were empty in my direction and full going south.   The wind was from the north and that didn’t help. I had to stop to put on rain gear as I went through drizzly , wet weather in the morning. I n Mellen, I stopped T  little park, took photos and took off the rain gear. Later at Marengo, I stopped and had a drumstick and it had warmed and cleared up. About 4 miles out of Ashland, I hit smooth pavement and it felt like heaven to my body. I cycled past Northland College and right past Caroline’s street because I they were away camping near Thunder Bay. I was hungry so I went to Burger King for lunch. Then I went to Caroline’s empty house and unpacked, did laundry, had a shower and a nap and read some of Bryon Curtis’ book, Bluffs to Bayous. Around 6 pm I went for a walk down to Chequamegon Bay and afterwards landed up treating myself to supper at the family restaurant to celebrate the finish of my Wisconsin Bicycle Trip of 25 days. Starting tomorrow, I will have to watch what I eat because I won’t be burning as many calories each day. I checked my email and Face book . The two gerbils, Hawk and Snowflake Ruby stood up in awe watching me as I am a stranger to them. They are really cute.  It is Julia’s 2nd birthday today--hooray!!. I also tried to eliminate copied pictures from the downloading process for the blogs. I am missing a lot of photos because of that so eventually I will delete the folder that I am using and reload everything from my camera to a new folder. I had a hard time going to sleep . In the middle of the night , I turned on the fan.

Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day 24

Wisconsin Bicycle Trip-Day24, Tuesday, August 6,2013

Boulder Junction to Park Falls  91.95 km in 4 hr 49 min.

I woke up at 4 am and tried to go back to sleep. I woke up again at 5 and then got up at 5:30. I didn’t have breakfast. While packing Silver in the garage, I  saw 2 little ears out of the garage window. A young deer was grazing in the yard. By the time I got my camera and went outside ,it was gone. It was 6:30 and a little drizzly as I left and turned Hwy H which was quiet and nice. I stopped at the junction of H and 51 for my first break but the mosquitoes were bad so I just took off the arm and leg warmers and put on my rain gear but rolled up the pants to the knees and considered that enough stretching and took off. The trouble with Hwy 51 besides the big trucks was that they had graded the side and the edge for bicycles was full of gravel  I took a break at Manitowish Waters and had my breakfast oatmeal bars. I like these places that have a nice picnic table to lean Silver against. I had the wind on my back and debated taking 51 all the way north to Ironwood and then follow Hwy 2 back to Ashland but I decided against this because of the truck traffic. So I decided to turn left on Hwy 47, 128 and take it across to Park Falls on Hwy 13. The land along here is swampy. I took 2 more breaks on this road which was over 60 km for me. There were periodic bumps and no edge but all along I saw only about 10 vehicles. I had the whole lane to pick and choose the smoothest line. I passed 2 big groups of ruffled grouse. When they heard me coming , they scurried  for cover underneath  the nearest evergreen trees. A young bear crossed right in front of me just as a car was coming up behind me. The bear stopped and looked towards me. I was thankful that the car waited to see what the bear would do to me but the bear decided to head for the bush. At a little stream , a little deer was drinking and just stayed there while I took several photos and talked to it. There was nothing but lakes and swamps along most of this road until near the end where there were a few farms. I had 39 km already done when I started this road and it was 34 miles or over 5o km so I knew that Park Falls would be the end of the day. AT Park Falls, I passed the Flambeau Paper mill and then asked at a gas station about campgrounds and motels. There were no campgrounds but she mentioned 1 motel going north on Hwy 13. The Edge of Town Motel had no one there and the sign said you had to pay in cash and I only had 20 dollars. I called the number and got no answer so I backtracked to a wonderful fishing store and the young man found out there was 1 more motel a half mile farther. He called and got an answer that there was a vacancy. That made me feel real good and I cycled there. At the Park Falls Motel , I got a room for 52 dollars, had my lunch, had a nap and worked on blog 16 and 17. Al Smith had said there might be rain later today and THANK YOU, LORD for bringing me to a motel because there was a bad thunder storm in the evening and it rained most of the night and I was dry and warm.