Miles 4 Melanoma

A short ride of 62 miles today, in near-perfect conditions. It was cloudy, which kept the sun at bay, but still warm. The wind was out of the south, which only affected us occasionally when the route turned south, but every time, we would almost immediately have a left turn eastward again. The rolling farmlands were peaceful and beautiful. Lunch was at a picnic shelter next to the lovely Fox Lake.

The town of Waupun is home to four prisons, but despite this, it’s a pleasant place. The staff of the high school, the Future Farmers of America club, and the Chamber of Commerce gave us one of the best welcomes that we’ve experienced on the whole tour. The indoor sleeping area was in the school gymnastics room, which provide lots of soft and cozy mats to sleep on.

I rode all day with Colleen, Molly, and Marisa. I had another slow leak in my rear tire today; I decided to fix it when we got to the first water stop around mile 24. When we got to town, we all had different errands to do; I rode to the east end of town to find a coffee shop, then rode a couple of miles to the west side to find the ACE Hardware to buy a big nail for Huck’s award.

On the way, I passed the local bike shop, so I stopped in to take a look around. It was an odd little place called Ron’s Lawn & Sport. They had a surprisingly good selection of mid-level Trek mountain bikes, surrounded by an assortment of new and used lawn mowers and weed wackers. After I left the hardware store, I got caught in a few raindrops on the way back to the school, but nothing major.

After I got showered, we still had a couple of hours to kill before dinner. Molly, the three Appleton ladies, and I decided to go back into town for a drink at a bar called The Last Chapter. One of the Chamber of Commerce ladies offered to give us a ride, but could only take four of us, so I told them all to go ahead, while I went on foot and met them there. I had a Leinenkugel Red. The three Appleton ladies left, but Molly and I decided to have another, so I had a Leinenkugel Cream Dark. As we walked back to the school, we got caught in a pretty heavy downpour.

After dinner and Tour Talk, they showed the movie "Cold Mountain" in the school’s auditorium.

Filed under: Coast to Coast 2004 |