Yesterday had an interesting conclusion when some wardens from the DNR rousted me out of my tent after I had gone to bed. It turned out that they had never seen the emergency tent sites legitimately being used and assumed that I was a freeloader. After the astonishment subsided when they saw I had a valid pass, we had a very nice conversation.

This conversation went along the same lines as conversations I’ve had with many people along the way. Where did you start from? Where are you going? How many miles per day? After a few minutes they said they would like to talk longer, but they had to get on with their jobs. I don’t know why I said this, but I thanked them for keeping everyone safe. I think I noticed one of the officers get a bit choked up just a bit when I said this, so maybe this emotional thing is not just about me.

The highlight of today’s ride was the ride on the Merrimack Ferry over the Wisconsin River. The fellow that took my picture worked in a local bike shop and also was on the warm showers website and wanted to know why I hadn’t called him. He was headed to Chicago to pick up a bike.

Over the past couple of days I’ve noticed something different about the cows in the parts of Wisconsin I traveled in this summer. They don’t seem to have any interest in cyclist. Maybe the numbers make a difference as there have been a lot of cyclists on these Wisconsin rail-trails.

Todays ride was down to my brothers place which is just about 20 miles east of Madison. I tried following the US cycling route number 30 turn by turn instructions through Madison to the Glacial Drumlin trail. However they were so detailed and complicated that eventually I said forget it and decided to navigate by dead reckoning, figuring that I probably knew enough about the city to manage to get through it. This strategy worked out pretty well. I was aided towards the east side of the city by a cyclist who wanted to know about my travels. He ended up going a bit out of his way to guide me onto a bike path that lead to the road I needed to get onto to get to the Glacial Drumlin Trail.

Once at my brothers and Wendys place. we had a bit of family reunion, when my mom and sister came over. We had burgers and went in a cruise around the lake.

Todays ride was roughly 66 miles for a total of 2393.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to be doing a lot of family and non-adventure stuff, so will probably keep the posts pretty minimal.