Gig Harbor Washington to Bar Harbor Maine 2001

Kept happily going back to sleep until I could tell through the curtain that the sun was really up. Gridley hadn't slept well in days so I let him sleep while I updated and uploaded pages. I had another flat, BOB picked up a piece of wire. Don't tell anyone, but it was nearly 11 by the time we hit the road.

Arthur Town Hall. Maybe they need a finance director and city attorney?

I was pretty sore and we took it slow for awhile. We stayed on county roads. There were some beautiful farms and barns. Some of the cows even looked more like pets than premature hamburger.

I stopped at a wayside rest and called home. I just wanted to get Amanda's address to send her something for her birthday in a few days. Jake answered the phone and we had a lovely talk while I laid on a picnic table in the shade. Talked to Lisa and everything sounded good at home. She told me about getting the hot tub worked on and how well it was working. There's no place like home.

I think I'm going to name my bike "Nice Bike" because that's what nearly every kid says when I ride by. We were riding up a long hill today and I saw a kid leaning out into the road trying to figure out what we were. Then he ran back toward his house. As I got closer he came riding back to the end of his driveway on a brand new red mountain bike. The tires weren't even dirty yet. I said, "Shiny new bike you got there." He grinned a big two-front-teeth-out grin, looked at my bike and said, "That'th tho cool!"

Riding became work by early afternoon. The day after a marathon is just hard. The wind was light, but out of the NNE and we were heading east. Our backroads kept finding hills, even had to get into granny gear a few times.

Nice farms.

We finally got to our amended goal, Colby Wisconsin. Guess what they make here. We wanted to camp and Mike was willing to pitch tents in the schoolyard. I wasn't. I feared a bad night's sleep and I need another good one. So we went a couple more miles to a highway intersection motel. There was a laundry across the street and a couple of fast food joints to choose from. Then we jumped into the pool and whirlpool. They had just refilled the pool and warned us that it was cold. It was perfect. The whirlpool actually had jets that massaged our legs. Motel hot tubs usually just make bubbles.

Garcia called. They made about 110 miles today (plus a few miles in a truck) and almost to our original goal. They may beat us to Manitowoc for the ferry.

Clean laundry, bellies full of fast food, muscles that have been massaged, boiled and iced. Guess what we're ready for.