In Memory of Warmer Summers

July 22 and 23
Bunyan, Wisconsin; Cumberland, Wisconsin
Look Out Cheeseheads Here We Are

The last night in Dalbo, we shared space in the Bunkhouse with a father and daghter team, Norm and Amy.  They are from Michigan and North Carolina, respectively.  The two are on the Northern Tier headed for Bar Harbor with some deadlines involved, so they are averaging about 70 miles per day.

Meanwhile, after pushing out of Dalbo, we entered Wisconsin crossing the St. Croix River near St. Croix Falls.

Unlike Minnesota’s hundreds of miles of trails, we rode the Gandy Dancer Trail for about six miles or so ONLY after paying a user fee of $5 per bicycle.  The good news is I can never be accused of not paying taxes to ride my bike ever again.  I have the receipt.

Sallie on the Gandy Dancer Trail. $5 and it's not even paved.

Finally, we capped off our night at a campground near Bunyan, WI where we went to the campground’s tavern to get some dinner.  The place was packed to the rafters with folks engaged in a meat raffle.  That was a first for me.  We had pizza and watched large sums of money exchange hands for everybody in the place to take chances to win packages of meat that seemed to be procured from a local grocery. 

Rolling hills and corn fields welcome us in the Dairy State

The next day turned out to be a short one as we got into Cumberland after only about 25 miles and the locals were cautioning us about proceeding on as a storm was coming that was getting severe warnings.  We holed up in Cumberland for the day and we’ll hit it again tomorrow.  By the way, this storm is supposed to flush out the hot humid weather the area has been getting.  That’s good because I don’t think these snow machine and ice fishing Packer fans around here go for that stuff.