July 25 2014 Beaverdam to Plymouth WI

Breakfast this morning was down at the Ponderosa.  This meant that it would be at 7:00 am rather than at 6:30 Am.  An extra 30 minutes to lay in bed yahoo.  I still woke up at 5:20 even though the alarm was set for 5:50 but laying there in the sleeping bag was so nice. There was a sprinkle of rain at about 5:30 but it only lasted 10 minutes or so. However it was enough to make me re-evaluate what I would wear today.  So I pulled out the heavier arm warmers and the leg warmers.

Breakfast was really nice at the Ponderosa.  No egg casserole, no coffee made with one spoon of coffee for a 10 gallon urn. Instead we had fresh French toast, very nice pastries, real bacon and good coffee.  It was hard not to over eat and then regret it when you had to get on the bike.

The morning was over cast and there were a few spits of rain but not enough to make me pull the rain coat.  It was nice on the bike as there was no sun load and the cooler air made it quite pleasant.  There was a good wind out of the south which was a cross wind when we headed east and a tail wind on the north legs. 

The route was a different one from the 2010 route. In 2010 we rode down a crushed limestone rails to trails route for the first 50 miles.  This year we rode down a lot of back roads alternating east and north.  The back roads were generally very nice but some of them had a lot of cross cracking which gave you a rather harsh ride.  There was an option to ride  about 4 miles out to see this bird sanctuary  which I did but all I saw was some Canada geese and  a lot of squirrels.  The bird sanctuary was on the migratory route but I guess everyone had flown north.

I got to within 4 miles of picnic when the rain got hard enough to make me pull out the rain jacket.   After picnic there was only 20 miles to ride in and it was down a lot of tree lined roads. There were almost no traffic and a person had to remember to watch for approaching vehicles.

It was a very nice ride and after I go to the school the sun finally peaked out. Best part is that tonight Ken C and I are meeting Colleen G for supper.  She has some reservations and I am really looking forward to this.

Terry