I left Galena at 6:41, to psychologically face a tough day of hills that Carrie alerted me to by email.
Sure enough the first 9% grade showed up before the Wisconsin border, followed by several more walking hills during the day, and many lesser low gear stretches. This area was not glaciated and you have hills and hollows in abundance. It’s called “driftless”.
The trick is to have no time or speed goals and hunker down to a comfortable riding and walking rhythm that I can keep up for extended periods, and voila, I eventually warm up, get into an altered state of time and space, and I ended up doing 70 miles instead of my planned 50, and I feel good. Mind you, pushing this loaded bike up grades of 9% is always work.
Of course having the 30 kph headwind of the last 3 days reverse to a tailwind helped a lot. See the flags in the soldier memorial blowing straight out in exactly the right direction.
Many towns have a memorial like this, and when I think of all the conflicts the US military and economic powers have got themselves into over the years I feel sorry for the soldiers and their families, because every person I’ve met here has been as decent and helpful a human being as you can get.
Up out of the river valley there are suddenly lots of dairy farms. Wisconsin must be home to the Cadbury cows.
My day happened to end in Bagley, which has this family oriented Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Campground with as many kids as gnats, and I cooled off in the pool.
At 9 p.m. we had 30 minutes of “The Yogi Bear Show” cartoons.
“Hey, hey, hey, Boo Boo.”
