Goodbye Wisconsin! Hello Minnesota!

We only spent 2 nights and 150 miles in Wisconsin. They were beautiful miles though. I will remember my time there fondly.

I realized that we haven't really told you what our daily routine is like. It can vary significantly, of course, but generally.... We wake up at 6:30 am and biking by 7:30 am. Three packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast (Quaker Oats only. We both prefer the fruit and cream flavors. We have tried other brands but they don't compare well). We take a break about every 90 minutes or so and eat a granola/trail bar or dried fruit or nuts or some combination of that stuff). We have eaten lunch in a town every day of the trip. Might be a little extravagant, but delicious and helps us get a better balance of nutrition. Also good for charging electronics and cooling off in air-conditioning.

The afternoon is much the same as the morning, except that one of the breaks often includes ice cream. Waffle cone, please! When we get tired in the evening we look for a camping spot. We have been having good luck in the last few weeks since we have been going through so much forest land with lots of little access roads that make it easy for bikers to get into the forest and away from the road. We cook dinner at the tent (aka "the bug-free zone"), write in our journals, and then we have been taking turns reading out loud from a couple of books we have with us. We had serious, reflect-on-your-life books in the first part of the trip, but have traded those in for the light and comedic voice of Bill Bryson. Once this one is done we will move onto the adventure of "Into Thin Air".

The daily routine may be broken up by various sight-seeing things we find along the way, and also mundane things such as grocery shopping and laundry. No daily target for mileage. We averaged about 40 miles a day for the first part of the trip and have bumped it up to about 60 miles per day for the last few weeks. Stronger and faster every day.