Written by Dave

Day 58 – July 25 – 71 Miles, 1,134 feet climbing (Tilleda Falls to near Wrightstown)

Sometimes in life, if you want something you have to ask. That’s not to say that you should break rules or not follow instructions. More that when someone or something says “no”, you have the right to ask or negotiate a different outcome. We had a couple cases of this in living color today.

The first case came about 8 miles into the day when we came across a couple Road Closed and Road Closed Ahead signs. Normally riding past these signs is not something that Nancy wants to do. And Chris is a definite “no”. I had stopped for photos and was a bit behind them. When I caught up, Nancy was suggesting we “give it a go”, Chris was not convinced. We rode past a couple more signs and caught a glimpse of the detour road (it had a big hill). Onwards we rode towards on the closed road.

As we approached the closure, we could see a digger moving dirt and what looked like most of the road torn up and/or blocked. At this point Chris made a U-turn and headed back towards me. I convinced him that we should at least ride to the digger and check things out. Nancy suggested that I go up and have a chat with the two guys that were sitting on the tail of a truck watching the digger work.

I approached them first and told them that we were not local and would like to continue so that we could meet our sag (Laura). This was a bit of a fib as we could have probably gotten back on track with the detour, we just didn’t want to add any more mileage with a backtrack. After more chatting with all three of us about the trip, Nancy asked if we could walk our bikes around the construction. No worries, the guys thought doing so was a fine idea. We didn’t wait for them to re-think this potential OHSA violation and scooted past with many “thanks”. Last thing we heard them say was, “no problem, next time bring donuts.”

Our second no to yes moment came at the end of our ride. Chris was not feeling well this morning. He thinks he had a dodgy sandwich at the servo in Phoix yesterday and wasn’t able to eat much throughout the day today. He really needed to have a quiet place for a rest this arvo. Laura beat us to the campground and was told they had no cabins to rent for one night. It was looking like a tent, and afternoon heat and freeway noise was going to be Chris’s fate.

We didn’t really like that answer and decided to give the gal at the front desk another try. I told her the full story – food poisoning, retirement trip, getting in car not allowed, crossing the USA, needs rest out of the sun, we’d clean the cabin ourselves, etc, etc. She ducked into the back room, talked it over with someone and what do you know, we got a cabin. Chris had a shower and is now resting in the AC – way better than trying to sleep in a sweltering tent.

Aside from no to yes theme, today’s other issue was in fact Chris not feeling well. Nancy and I took the lead riding most of the day, keeping a close eye out for his orange jersey in our rear-view mirrors. Chris never lost the wheel in front of him and even though he barely had the energy to speak, rode pretty strong all day.

The ride itself today was nice. We had more beautiful Wisconsin dairy farm scenes pretty much all day. I took a bunch of barn photos in the morning. There aren’t many cows in the photos because I think they mostly keep the cows in the barns here. Either that or we passed the farms when the cows were in the barns being milked.

We only made two stops today. The first one was right at 20 miles in the town of Showano where we stopped for a proper second brekkie. I asked Chris if he thought he could eat anything. He said “no” but that eggs and toast sounded good. He didn’t have to ask us to stop twice. Both Nancy and I had the cafe’s morning special, eating more than we needed in solidarity with Chris.

Our second stop came in the town of Black Creek where we found a nice cafe, Mile 22 Coffee. Nancy and I had iced coffees and baked items. Chris picked up a 7-Up across the street at the servo and watched us enjoy our treats. It was only 20 miles from Black Creek and at this point Chris’s voice was inaudible. Still, he hung on to Nancy and I as we rode the last spell. Well done mate, when Chris Crossing is all done, today will be a memory worth forgetting.

Having Laura’s car means we can head to town for dinner tonight. A nice air-conditioned car and restaurant will no doubt help Chris’s recovery. Tomorrow we have a short ride, 40 miles, to reach Manitowa and the ferry across Lake Michigan. I’ve had this day circled for a long time. We’re hoping that the ferry sail is smooth as both Nancy and Laura are not boat people. Chris says he doesn’t really care too much as he’s looking forward to taking a nap for most of the 4 hour sail.

Tomorrow night we’ll be in Michigan and the eastern time zone – woohoo, only about another 1,000 miles more to ride!