ABBN34: Wisconsin Bells to Fond du Lac, WI

For the past two days we’ve been in much more forested areas, even overhanging trees, and much less farming.  Where are the dairy cows and the cheese factories?  --  Another change, starting when we arrived in Minnesota and getting better each day is that we’re mostly travelling on county roads.   The western states just don’t have that many roads, particularly in the mountains, so we were on state high ways, even interstate highways, much of the time.  I much prefer the county roads.  Speaking of which, Minnesota’s county roads are designated by letters, not numbers.  Yesterday, the highest I saw was “O” but speculated surely there are more than 26 county roads and sure enough, today I saw “CX”.

Today was an improvement on yesterday, in spite of weather forecasts of 50% on both ends of the ride. We saw no rain. There was a lot of wind but since it was predominately behind us no one complained.  So it was a fast 84 miles to Fond du Lac which was welcome after the previous 4 days averaging over 95 miles.  We’re staying in a Ramada Inn high-rise downtown, an old hotel which has been modernized.  When is the last time you’ve been in a hotel with ornate brass numbers on the doors? 

Without the farms, there were no barns or silos to photograph today.  As I rode up to one church (left) it looked like it had Arabic letters on it so I thought “Great, a Muslim Mosque”. But it turned out to be a Presbyterian Mosque.

After dinner tonight we’re having a t-shirt swap. No one has a clue as to how this will work but I’m ready with a t-shirt from the Red River Road-kill Rally. Tomorrow is supposed to be a short day followed by a rest day which includes a ferry ride across Lake Michigan.

Day	Miles today	Feet climbed	Hrs in saddle	Miles so far	Miles to go	Days to go
34	84	1,705	5.3	2,606	1,121	16