June 22 - Prescott, WI to Osceola, WI (53 miles)

 What do you all imagine riding across the country on a bicycle is like?  Do you imagine lazily swaying from side to side as you pedal slowly along, seemingly without worry and unaware of time?  I think that is the fantasy that most of us have about doing this sort of bicycle tour.  The reality is that each day we have to worry about the basics - food, water and shelter.  And we are out in the elements most of the day and nature is not always kind.  Today, however, was more like a fantasy.  

Prescott to Stillwater is fully beautiful in scenery.  As we enjoyed our morning ride, we could smell strawberries in the air.  It turned out that we had come upon a pick your own strawberry farm!  So Jake and I stopped for a while and picked a couple of pounds of strawberries - alongside what looked like a group of kindergarteners out on a field trip.  It cost us $3 and we ate all our strawberries before continuing the ride.

We crossed into Minnesota just briefly today but returned to Wisconsin.  Stillwater - super nice town in Minnesota.  Happy, friendly people and the downtown is full of charm. Everywhere we go, people approach us about our adventure.  No different here... even the beer guy got in on the action.  After eating lunch at a place he was supplying, the beer guy ran across the street to meet us and give a a couple of fresh, cold Lagunitas IPA's.  Seriously!  

Stillwater is also the endpoint of Section #7 of the Northern Tier Route!

Then we pedaled onward to our destination Osceola.  On the way into town, a lady (say lady 'A') briefly talked to us as she passed us riding her road bike into town.  When we arrived, while searching for a place to stay another lady (lady 'B') came up to us and said she had just talked to lady 'A' about us.  Lady 'B' then proceeded to offer letting us pitch a tent at her farm.  Wow!  So nice - however we'd have to back track 6 miles... but what a gesture!   Then we go to a place for dinner (finally, we found super excellent food -see pics) and what the heck - lady 'A' comes up to us and talks to us again, giving some good local advice for breakfast food.  I'm telling you - throw panniers on a bicycle and people are immediately disarmed - it brings out their friendly self.

June 21 - Pepin, WI to Prescott, WI (45 miles)

 It was a cool, windy day for us with a direct head wind.  There is very little to mention about this day because for the most part our heads were down pedaling against the wind the whole time.  There were 3 tough hills also, so we cut the day to a relatively short 45 miles.  

The one interesting event - today marks the first spill taken after over 2000 miles.  Jake rolled his bike into the borrow pit.  It was slightly freak accident.  He was drafting me.  A duck flew out directly into my path and there were cars passing in both directions.  So, I freaked a bit and braked.  Jake, drafting, couldn't react in time and rear-ended me.  Next thing I know, I hear his bike hit the road.  I looked back and Jake was picking himself up from of the side of the road.  Kinda scary, but he didn't get hurt and he quickly got back on his bike and we continued our ride.

Also, we scored the best hotel of the entire adventure so far.  We rolled into Prescott with no place to stay. We stopped at an intersection and looked across the street.  The building had a vacancy sign.  It turned out to be a boutique motel and by far the best accommodations we've had to date.  At only $129, it has 2 king beds, a fridge, microwave, washer/dryer, ice machine and super clean and nice!!  We completely lucked out on this one.  It's called 'The Port of Prescott'.  It's amazing.

Juneteenth and then June 20 - La Crosse, WI to Pepin, WI (72 miles)

Juneteenth - solidarity, a day to celebrate.  We are fully embracing this day with a day off in La Crosse!

June 20

We paralleled the Mississippi river during most of the ride.  The first ~25-30 miles ended up being on the 'Great State River Trail' which was really smooth with lots of scenery.  The rain began to come down after about 15 miles which scared both of us due to our experience with rain on the Erie Canal trail where the trail became saturated.  However, in the end, the rain was relatively minor and we had no issue.  

The remainder of the ride was on paved road.  With a small tail wind and fair weather, we rode 72 miles today quite easily.  By the time we rolled into Pepin (small town) it was obvious that we would get caught in a heavy rain storm, so we found an inn to stay at.  Being father's day, we enjoyed dinner at a small french restaurant near the river.  The short clip of us on the porch of the inn is pretty funny - well timed.

Check out the picture of the fence made out of skiis.  Kinda interesting because I'm pretty sure there are no hills big enough for skiing anywhere near here (maybe I'm wrong).  Anyhow - interesting fence for sure!

June 18 - Marquette, IA to La Crosse, WI (62 miles)

 Happy Birthday Julie!!  We are missing you😘

We finally arrived at the Mississippi river yesterday and now have some scenery besides corn!  

Both Jake and I are near full strength now and didn't have much of a struggle to complete the 62 miles today.  We passed by a lot of houses near the river on stilts, had 3 difficult climbs all of which totaled 2000 ft and also rode past a very large coal fired power plant.  This segment was really pleasant, but the final 10 miles coming into La Crosse was on a fairly busy highway.  

But we are here (La Crosse a nice city), feel good and have a rest day tomorrow.  The plan for our stay is to get a tune-up for Jake, get haircuts and explore the local craft beer scene.  Also, Iowa just went down!!

States Completed:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania 

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

Iowa - CHECK!!