Tensions can run high when a small group of people are in close quarters making lots of decisions every day.
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| What is John doing with that Knife? |
John is a minimalist (Myna is too but I want to focus on John). He believes in having as small of an impact on the Earth's resources as possible. In the picture above, he is doing his version of the hair stylist.
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| John's ultra high tech cycling/hiking/walking footwear |
John wears a pair of flip-flops that he found and repaired. His pedals are simple platform pedals, so he has no benefit from the pulling muscles in the legs. The bike is a vintage bike which has seen hard use--the handlebars vibrate. From the start in Anacortes, WA, his rear tire has had places where the threads are showing through. Somewhere around Idaho, Ellen and I began warning him that the tire would blow out, damage the rim and could cause him to crash. He insisted he could get 500 more miles on it. Our warnings probably helped to cement his position that it would last. I was impressed when he rode 105 miles in one day on it. It finally blew out on our rest day, so luckily he was not hurt and the bike was not damaged. He was short of his 500 miles, but I was amazed that the tire lasted more than ten.
Unlike John, I am pretty high tech about most things. The bike is a Bianchi Volpe. I bought the "Fox" specially for this ride. Although it is not very light (23 lbs with the pedals, rack and fenders), it has a more upright position than my carbon fiber road bike and has attachments for panniers and fenders. I could ride this bike fully loaded if I wanted--and I may want to at some time. I expect this to become my commuter bike when I begin school again in the fall. I also like to have clean clothes and usually do wash each night. In this picture, Myna is drying my clothes.
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| This is how we dry our laundry, so early in the morning. |
From Old Bogies, we rode south. Part of our ride was about 20 miles on the Old Abe trail. The trail is a beautiful wooded rail-trail. It is pancake flat and straight, with a few bumps in the pavement.
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| Myna and Dawn on the Old Abe trail |
We saw a variety of crops in Wisconsin. There was plenty of corn and soybeans; but I also saw oats, wheat, alfalfa, clover, potatoes, and what I think was cucumbers. It was nice to see the diversity of crops. We also saw cows and horses, but I was also pleased to see the once-endangered bison (although we have a bison farm near our home in Whitehouse Station, WI)
We may have bison in NJ, but I have never seen a sand hill crane in our farm fields.
We stayed at John Dobyns house in Oshkosh WI on the 4th of July. John is a Wisconsin public school teacher I met at the AP Biology reading. I do not intend this to be a political blog, but I'm sure you can imagine how he feels about Gov. Walker. The food was protein-rich and tasted--wow! The Dobyns have two high-energy girls which made me wish mine were there--but I would see them the next day.
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| The Dobyns |
The next day, we rode to the ferry at Manitowoc. There may have been a slight tailwind, but my legs felt really good, and I had motivation to ride--my little girls were on the other side of Lake Michigan. The ferry costs about $50-60 for a car. I assumed that that included any riders. When we got there, I found out differently. Apparently, each person also has to buy a ticket for $71. I felt ripped off, but paid the price and got on. I would NOT recommend this ferry to anyone for the price we paid.
But wife and my little girls were waiting on the other side, so I would have paid much more if I had to.
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| The best part of the trip so far. |
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