Day 30 Winona to Viroqua

Day 30 Winona to Viroqua

Essence - Making time to be a Be’er.

Waking up in the dorms made today an easier start.

The morning was farily uneventful. The biggest dilemma was Alision. She sprained her ankle leaving the bar last night after only one beer, but her ankle had swollen up pretty well. So we were concerned if she would be able to ride. After straining my right achilles I had also wrapped my leg with an ace bandage and we were starting to sprot a new teeam uniform for “Team injured”. Right leg ankle wraps for everyone!

Breakfast at the student union cafeteria looked tempting, but as we have discovered, the tempting sweet rolls and donuts are just the Devil’s toys when we are on the road. Generally I try to stick to the Eggs and maybe a little sausage and a pancake or toast.

This morning’s ride down the Mississippi River valley was really beautiful. Probably my favorite part of the whole day. WE were on the Western Side where huge bluffs rose up and yet the Mississippi had done her work and carved them away.






Along the way I was very entertained by this sign. Finally the Bike Camping Sign that should have accopanied us every night.



Right after taking this picture is when I noticed that I had lost a bolt in my chain rings that holds my chainring and pedal set together.



Fortunately there are 5 in a star pattern and one wasn’t necessarily going to be the end of my ride, but I was a little surprised. I have no idea where I lost it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had lost it during the Ka chunks yesterday.

Rolling to catch up with the “Scott Train” after my photo stop I was enjoying the the smooth and fairly clean shoulder of Hwy14. A nice smoothly paved and wide shoulder, allowed for a very comofortable 2 abreast ride that was just rolling and smooth. In my head I kpet hearing and seeing Jeff, singing Johnny Cashs’s “Big River”. Over Iand over I lyrically floated down the “Big River”. The cool morning hung with river moisture and low clouds and seemed almost foggy. In the afternoon it would become sweltering, Mississippi River humidity, but in the cool morning it was just like my imagined version of Germany, cool and damp.

Rolling through small towns the greenery was phenomenal. Coming over a little rise with Scott and Tom, I saw all the cyclists stopped at a house on the side of hte road, milling about and with cones in the shoulder to give us space.

We had come to the Meyers’ Family Water stop, now a 9 year tradition.



The Meyers’ owned this house and the attached auto repair shop and they had set and then rooled out the welcome mat for us. Starting back in 1998 the Meyers had seen the cyclists come through before and decided to support the ALAW BIg Riders, after losing a Grandfather to Lung Cancer. The Meyers have missed a year of 2 they say, but now they have it down to a full famlily frontal assault. The young girls who have, grown up with the ride every summer, read the blogs, do interviews, ask for autographs on baseball card sized pictures, and turn out fruit and food and beverages and make a regular oasis. Mom, Judy offers tours of her garden which is absolutely fantastic! Coming from Phoenix, where so many things are brown, the garden with its layer of colors and textures is a real pleasure to walk through.



Megan, the Meyers daughter in her mid teens, said that as soo n as teh riders all leave, the family quick brainstorms new ideas for next year and edits the bad ideas from this year and starts planning again. One os Megan’s sisters had 3 comfortable living room chairs out and was conducting interviews! Their admiration for waht we do, matched our gratitude for the truly “Above and Beyond” water stop. The Meyers put in as much heart and planning for the year as the riders do in their training and fundraising and for me, the Meyers are just as much a part of this riding team as any one of my fellow riders.

Eventually though it did come to go and continue our quest for miles under the tires. Shjortly after leaving, the Meyers’ we were on a bike path along the the river, so the Route guide said. What we were actually on was an old KA-chunky road that ran next to the dual railroad tracks that were shieded from the river, by thick reeds and vegetation. So what sounded like a beautiful ride was more like riding down and alley. Emerging from the “alley” Scott, Tom, myself and David Lambert (my usual dorm roommate) headed off and shortly were crossing into Missouri



and then over the Mighty Mississippi.





Crossing the Mississippi is one of those moments when you can’t believe you have done it. I am sure many people had similar feelings at the continental divide. For me however, the Mississippi is something I have rarely seen and only once before crossed via bridge. It was alway so landmark to me as the center of the country. To me, things east of the river were Eastern and things west were western. And now I have ridden my bike from the West edge passed my line of demarkation and into the East! WHOA!

And from here things would generally be uphill again until we were over teh Alleghanys in Pennsylavnia.

We crossed the river at Le Crosse and went past La Crosse Brewery, where they have 6 storage tower tanks painted to look like the largest 6-pack in the world. I did not care to photo op this.

In La Crosse I was starving. It was too early for us to really eat. So I coordinated several successive stops at traffic lights, so that I could get a aPB&J out of my carry bag and maniacally eat 3 or 4 bites of PB&J at each light. Undoubtedly the light would turn green and I would be caught trying ot clip in to my pedals, shove the left over sandwich into one of my rear shirt pockets and trying to breathe and exercise around this choking mass of Peanut butter, bread and jelly glob now filling my mouth. It was pretty comical but in a few moments I had downed the sandwich and was feeling better ans til hanging with the group.

Only about 5 miles down the road from the PB&J incidents, we found Mark manning his first water stop!



Mark is Pollie’s father who had thought he might come along jion his daughter Pollie for a few day son the ride to keep her compay. He had no idea that he would become our replacement 4th support vehicle, filling in fo rthe Kosicks who had to leave the ride. Mark is certainly behind the 8-ball on our well rehearsed 30 day water stop rhythm, but he is catching up fast, learning people’s names and fiinding out all our moans and groans and physical needs. In only 2 more days I bet it will feel like Mark has been with us for a month.

Leaving Mark we started to head inland, climbing hills and then loosing them again. Now I was riding with Steve and we saw a local creamery on our right and decided to be “Be’ers”. We thougth this was chance to get Ice cream at the factory and so we poked our heads in.




As it turned out it was a working creamery where they mostly made butter and “ghee”, a kind of clarified butter often used in East Indian cooking. Indeed we only got a glass of milk, but we did get a tour of the creamery. And this wasn’t some highly publicised, commercial tour. We had hairnets and were out on the production floor, jsut as they were cleaning up for the shift change. Being that this creamery sold under the Organinc Valley label, it was fun to see the lengths and effort they go to, to ensure the organic label.

The sun was getting hot, so we started our climbs out of the Mississippi river valley and back up on top of the bluff. Passing really healthy looking Amish farms, we waved at all the smiling children even passed a hourse carriage on the road. Seeing the hand picked and stacked wheat and the men working in the fields and the size of the horses, we were suddenly reminded how much work traditional farming was. What a contrast though to the huge mega wheat farms we had seen in South Dakota.

Climibing our last hills I was in serious discomfort as my achilles warp was now created a blistered raw spot on the underside of my foot where it wrapped. I was only too happy to making it home.

We did have the joy of one decidedly steep downhill where without a single pedal stroke I hit 44.7 mph and Steve cracked 45mph. At the bottom though was a hairpin turn, with gravel in it and just ripe for a wipeout, so we were on the brakes and slowing before it, instead of going for personal speed records.

In camp at the local fairgrounds, I laid out and took a qiuck nap in the “showing” barn on the cool concreet floor. Letting hte concrete soakd the heat out of me, I set out my tent in delayed layers so that each layer would have a chance to dry out, since it was still wet from being put away, during the rain, morning before last.

After a shower, I haed off to the post office just before 5pm to ship some stuff home. The Post Office windows were closed. However as I was trying to figure out what to do a clerk came out to lock up and saw me there in my conundrum. She stayed late and helped me package my stuff and billed me for it, promising it would go out tomorrow, whidh was just fine by me. Package shipped and a few postcards in the mail and I was on my way.

Be-bopping through old downtown I found a Bluedog Cycles, a small cycle shop. There were still open and remembering my cranks bolt problem I stopped in and got the replacement and a bit of a deraileur tune-up. I talked with Pete, the shop owner about what we were up to and he took a little extra time, going over my bike making sure it was in good shape. I also asked him about his shop jerseys. The shop jerseys wre actually part of a fundraiser to help provide monies for the construction and maintenance of some mountain biking trails in the local parks. A few years ago the city approved his plan, to form a group to build, maintain monitor some local bike trails as a recreation tourism idea. The jersey proceeds went to fund the project. All to happy to have a local jersey and something new to wear, I bought a jersey and got a little bit of retail therapy.

In the end a productive afternoon, and a good day. Tomorrow’s 109 is our 2nd longest ride, so I will end this blog here and turn in at 10p.m. to ensure a good nights rest. It has cooled down now and the “muggy”ness has relaxed so I hope I can fall asleep pretty easliy.

Planning for a big day tomorrow. But at least I have a new jersery to wear.



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