keep on trucking.

We're in Wausau now. 12 hour day yesterday.

Left Spooner at about 11 on tuesday. Beautiful ride down HWY 8. Gorgeous. Windy, though. A whole lot of headwind so far this trip. Saw a bear swimming across the Chippewa River just outside of Bruce. Rode south a bit more looking for a hotel. Turs out the hotel we were aiming for was "closed". That sucked. So, we went across the way to the Cenex and got some bad coffee (Oh, and it's dark by this point...and getting cold)Turns out there is another hotel about 6 miles down the road (Paradise Shores). We go there. Just keep on turning pedals. THat's the name of the game this week. Hotel was expensive, but it had a ton of neat stuff that we didn't use. Like the pool, hot tub, fitness room, sauna, arcade, bar/restaurant. Oh well. It got down to about 40 last night. Bit too cold to be camping.

So we stayed there (Oh, this was in Holcome)and then headed out to here in the morning. We went throught the forest. It was supremely dissapointing. Just not close enough. People live in there! There are "cities"! Seems like a crime. Never were we just enveloped in trees and other neat stuff. Did see a LOT of pheasants being held hostage. A lot of corn. We went past a rode to an emu ranch, but I gave up going down it (gravel) before we got there...

We rode over near Athens, where some lady offered a us a place to sleep (she's puts up drivers for the amish...something about when they have to go far, they sell out and hire cars.) But we declined and kept moving. Made it to Marathon city at dark. Ate a toasted subway. Nothing worth doing here, and it was supposed to rain. Only get down to about 50 degrees though. I was ready to camp, but Neal wanted to hotel. He paid for it, so I'm ok with it. I'll have to retension my wheel before we go today.

Oh...rode across NN in the very dark and didn't get hit by cars. The silhouette of Rib Mountain in the near horizon. Looks big. Don't want anything to do with it on this heavy bike!

Oh well. I'm ready to find some bagels and then head to Amherst. 50 or so mile day today, but we can't get there until after 6. Works for me! Trip is winding down. Few more days. Another 240 miles or so. I think we've gone 285 or so. Stupid Trek computer reset itself somewhere between mile 248 and 253 or so. Jerk.

YES! legs coming around and feeling good. Just keep em turning. Piece of cake.