Wednesday, August 1, 2012

DAY 9 and 10: Layover in LaCrosse

Jessi is sad to miss out on our ride.
 DAY 9: Ed Moore is a Saint!

After riding a good 35 or 40 miles the previous day, Jessi realized that she was not healed enough to continue at our previous pace yet. Ed generously offered to let us stay another night with him to let her recuperate. We eagerly accepted. Since Jessi needed rest, Ed took me on a lovely 40 mile ride up in the bluffs around the river. It was SO FUN....and hard! Steep climbs and rolling hills. But don't worry, I did it! And the downhills and amazing views made all the work worth it! Not to brag, but max speed of 38.8 mph coming down out of the bluffs- SO exhilarating!

Me and Ed, pre-ride.

Beautiful views up on the bluffs. If only I were a little better at my on-the-bike photography skills!

More gorgeous views.

Jessi's favorite trees. Too bad she missed out.


Post ride! 41 miles and a LOT of hills later!

Gorgeous view from Granddad's Bluff at sunset!
 After our ride, we decided Jessi deserved to see some of the beauty so Ed drove us back up to Granddad's Bluff (the same one we had ridden down earlier that day) at sunset. It was gorgeous. Then we went to the grocery store, got a few salad fixings, and went back to Ed's to make an amazing dinner. We had a lovely vacation from our vacation in LaCrosse!
Pretty view, Amazing people.
Jessi and I LOVED our amazing host!


We're still friends, even after 10 days together on the road.

City lights of LaCrosse.

The AMAZING grilled salmon and salad dinner Jessi, Ed, and I made together!
Our sweet little room for two nights.


We really didn't want to leave!


Angel, Ed's guard kitty.

Before heading out from Ed's.


 
We got a delicious dinner and much-needed coffee at Root Note.

 Jessi and I planned to head out early, but you know the drill.....NOPE. We went to the library and a coffee shop and a bike shop and before we knew it, it was 7 p.m. and we hadn't left LaCrosse yet! OOPS! On the bright side, a very nice man talked to me outside the library and was apparently impressed by our endeavors....because he gave me $20 and said to buy ourselves a good dinner on him, which we did! Sooooo, thank you, kind stranger!
That is not natural.



Jessi's crazy swollen legs and ankles. She rode on anyways, though!

 After our little dinner, we finally set out with a goal in mind- Prairie Island Campground in Winona, MN: approximately a 50 mile ride. It really was SO beautiful. Riding on the banks of the Mississippi was very pleasing aesthetically. Not so much physically. It wasn't too hilly, but it definitely rolled. The real issue turned out to be the BUGS. Apparently, they like to hang out around rivers! Who knew?! Anyone who's ever gone on a road trip has seen the windshield covered in bugs. Well-that was my entire body, face, and mouth. We quickly learned the cardinal rule: keep your mouth shut and scrunch your eyes! Another little tidbit: headlamps are AMAZING to light the road, buuuuut they also attract the bugs directly to your face. So that's a win/lose. Anyways, we MADE IT! Jessi went straight to sleep. I went straight to shower. I don't know how she slept, covered in a sexy combination of bug guts and OFF Deep Woods bug spray.

Crossing the Mississippi River!

A Barge in the background!


I tried to capture the beauty of biking the river valley at sunset, but I failed!


Up and At 'em at our campsite.
 We woke up to find that we had pitched our tent right next to the lake at our campsite. Gorgeous. Jessi went and showered. I went for a little run by the lake and checked out the site. It was quite lovely, but we rolled out without sticking around too long, got breakfast/lunch/coffee at the first Kwik Trip we encountered, and headed north towards Wabasha.

We had an amazing view from our little tent!

Breakfast time!
Yogurt and fruit and hard boiled eggs....Thank you very much, Kwik Trip!


I really think my on-bike photography is improving!

But then again, it's hard to make views like this NOT look amazing!

Jess and I in River Rider Cycle and Specialty Bike shop in Wabasha.

In Wabasha, there was a cute little street fair going on. We explored that a bit, checked out the cute little bike shop, where they helped us out in fixing a malfunction with Jessi's bike computer, and ate some ice cream. All fun, but we needed to cover more ground.
The ADORABLE and helpful owners!




































We biked to Red Wing, MN with plans to set up camp there for the night. Unfortunately, when got there we discovered that the campground was full. We couldn't find anywhere to stealth-camp in the city and after biking 64 miles, we were tired, and Jessi was in PAIN. we were quite unsure of what to do, but we found last minute hosts on warm showers! They let us sleep in their camper, which just happened to be set up in the backyard, airing out for the camping trip they were prepping for! I swear, I don't know how we get so lucky! They took us in at 10 p.m. and we ended up staying up WAY too late, yet again talking with them and their awesome kids!

Day4-8 Wisconsin is a big State


I thought this was quite nice.
Coffee Shop in Madison


We got our bikes back, expertly fixed up by Martin, the very best bike mechanic in Madison!
Chillin' in Madison in Sam's apartment.
 DAY 4: Madison
After a long, hot, hilly ride into Madison, we decided a rest day might be in order. We slept in until noon (....or Jessi did, at least!). When we finally managed to get moving (us, moving behind scehdule?!?!....never!), we took our bikes to a bike shop in Madison and got them tuned up a little bit. Our fantastic bike mechanic, Martin pointed us toward Dr. Evermore's, but gave us no clues as to what to expect. His exact words were, "It's better to be surprised." Anyways, more about that to come! Then we just tooled around the gorgeous city of Madison and enjoyed a little street fair and coffee shop. We got back to Sam's and got in another good night's rest, which we both desperately needed.


DAY 5
Day 5 was full of ups and downs, literally and figuratively!




Loved the view.

HATED the hills. Yes, we biked that.
Jessi knows what's ahead....and it's MORE hills!















 After a nice hilly ride, we made it to Dr. Evermore's to find that it is the world's largest collection of scrap metal art. And it was amazing! I apologize for the excessive amount of photos, but I just couldn't choose which to put up and which to leave off.....so if you hate cool art, then just skip this! Otherwise, enjoy them!
Creepy theme park.






These birds are awesome!
Mustache








Flute!
Sousaphone
French Horn



Bass

CLARINET!











These guys remind me of treansformers!





This whole wheel was filled with workers on strike.
Kitty cat....Meow














My camera died at this juncture in the day......so I did not get to photographically document it. But don't worry; I will paint you a word picture. We left Dr. Evermore's Forevertron in high spirits. But that would not last. The murderous hills of Wisconsin got to me....and my calf muscles. By the end of our 70 mile day, I was not in my most charming of dispositions, to say the least. We stopped at a restaurant, and even though they had JUST closed, they reopened the kitchen for us and made us a DELICIOUS dinner. That helped us both to finish out the day because we still had a few miles to go before we could set up our little camp. We set up our tent next to a cornfield and left the rainfly off to sleep under the stars....so romantic.




DAY 6 Moving Right Along.....NOT

We slept in a little late after our exhausting ride the day before, but we woke up in pleasant moods, ready for another big day, full of adventure and miles. We made it down the trail into the first little town with a post office (so Jessi could ship some weight home). We found a grocery store and had a bit of lunch, shipped 5 pounds back to Biloxi, and then realized that it was over 100 degrees out. We decided, wisely, that we could not ride another 70 miles in that. We then unwisely decided that we could make it 30 miles to my aunt and uncle's house in Necedah. We were wrong. We made it about 1 1/2 miles out of town, up a big hill, and prepared for death (which I promise you was not far off). We then decided our safest option was to hitchhike. Miracle of Miracles! The first car that passed us after our decision was made pulled over and agreed to drive us to Aunt Sallie and Uncle Gary's. Thanks, Kaylan! You ROCK! So.....we made to Necedah alive. We had a GREAT visit with my aunt and uncle, did our laundry, ate amazing food, and most importantly, escaped the unrelenting, lethal heat.


DAY 7 Spills and Thrills

Late start? Me and Jessi? Hahahaha. Yes, we left my aunt and uncles at 1:30. It's just hard to hit the road when you don't want to leave the great place you're at. Plus, we're slow. But, nevertheless, we started off in a drizzly rain but made great time. There was virtually no wind and the big hills were mostly behind us. We made it to.....luxury of luxuries.....WALMART in Tomah. We stocked up on some essentials and hit the road again with the hopes of making it to Minnesota that night.......hahaha, oh, you naïve girls. We started out from Walmart making great time, the drizzly rain cooling us off as we rode. I was a couple miles ahead of Jessi when my phone rang. I pulled over, listened to the voicemail, and heard, "Hi, Annie. It's Jessi. Turn around. I got in an accident." Well, I immediately called back and found out that I was several miles ahead of her, and figured it would take quite some time to reach her. Luckily, the accident happened right in front of Fort McCoy, and a whole slew of army gents rushed to Jessi's aid, and one of them even came and picked my bike and me up in a pickup. These men were so great. They not only helped patch Jessi up, but they gave us a ride to the hospital so that we wouldn't have to take an ambulance, and we would have our bikes. Turned out.....Jessi was fine. Just a bit (admittedly, a lottabit) of road rash and one pretty deep gash. But still, a champ. The people in the hospital were also wonderful. They let us stay in the family waiting room since it wasn't being used so that we wouldn't have to ride out that night and try to find somewhere to camp. We had a good night's rest, and Jessi was adamant about wanting to continue our trip, for which I commend her.

DAY 8 People are Great

We didn't leave the hospital until around noon because we had to go through the grueling process of dressing Jessi's many wounds and cleaning the hospital waiting room that we managed to completely trash in a matter of hours.
So Happy to have a place to stay!
Changing Jessi's dressings.

She's taking it well at this juncture...but it gets worse.


The expression means PAIN, in case you couldn't tell.
Jessi was a very brave girl. She deserves a lot of ice cream.

Yes, I cut the bandages off with a leatherman. We are hardcore.


In my spare time I used my wonderful sewing skills to fix my gloves!




Other side, total mess.


The Room we trashed!
















...But we clean up well.









Ready to head out for the day!


We finally left the hospital around noon (our typical start time by this time.....we pretty much realized we are never going to get the earlybird special!). But....we left with a plan. As fate and chance would have it, one of my mother's friend's father works at a bike shop in Sparta, WI....which was on our route for the day-LUCKY. We called him, and he generously agreed to take a look at our bikes and help fix Jessi's up since it did not survive the accident completely unscathed. Hank, recumbent cyclist extraordinaire, met us when we got to Sparta, led us to the bike shop, got our bikes fixed up, let us try out a recumbent (FUN!), and took us in for dinner at his house.


Us with Hank and Darlene Fetters before hitting the trail again.






We made it back to the trail with one goal in mind: LaCrosse! LaCrosse was where we would finally hook up with the Northern Tier, and we could start using our maps. We already had a place to stay that evening. All we had to do was get there. Jessi was in quite a bit of pain, but she barely complained. I was quite impressed. Our host for the evening, Ed Moore, actually met us halfway with a car and picked us up. It was so nice of him. He took us out to dinner, then back to his house for showers and sleep. But first, we had to clean Jessi's wounds and redress them (No infections on my watch!). Jessi did not like this one little bit. Tears were shed. Luckily, at the end of it, Ed soothed her with ice cream. Jessi went to bed and cried herself to sleep. Ed and I stayed up and chatted until 2 a.m. OOPS! How does that happen? Great end to an exciting day.
Jessi, in extreme pain and trying not to show it. Also, probably cursing me and the day I was born.