63 miles. Avoided the rain but never found the predicted tail winds. Rats!

We awoke to thunder and pouring rain so after breakfast we postponed our departure for close to two hours while the storm raced through. Weather radar was very helpful in timing our leaving since I could see the clean air behind the rain. We were anticipating strong winds from the south and we were headed north for most of the day but except for a half hour at the very beginning, the winds weren’t much help.

26 miles of our route today was on the Wild Goose State Trail, another rail to trail project with a crushed limestone surface. There were many holes dug by various animals so we had to be attentive all the time. One 500 yard section was all grass and we would have abandoned the trail for the road if the grass had lasted any longer. We only saw three people in the entire 26 mile run, two of whom were walking dogs, so we had that world to ourselves.

We encountered several downed trees on the Wild Goose Trail so had to do a little bushwhacking

The trail dumped us into Fond du Lac and our Google map directions were incomplete, leaving out about 3 miles that we had to decipher on the fly but we made it through and rode on highway the rest of the way into Chilton.

The Lake Winnebago harbor at Fond du Lac.

We stopped in front of our hotel, The Rang Inn Thunderbird Motel, a 60’s throwback, and saw an ice cream shop! You had me at chocolate malt! Inside we met a woman in her 70s who had ridden the Southern Tier across the US, another woman who was curious about our trip and a guy with his daughter who also asked about out trip. I gave him the blog info and he logged on there on the spot then linked Bikewright.org to his Facebook page. He also pulled out his wallet and tried to give us cash for the Foundation! Our nephew Andy who is administering the blog says that one or two people a day click on the donation link!!! As we checked into the hotel, two women approached us to ask about the ride. They are sisters and one of them had lived close to Spring Green so was very familiar with Wright. The other sister had her house designed by a Taliesin Fellow!

Pizza at Papa Don’s (not John but Don – maybe Papa John’s little brother!) and now we are settling in. Tomorrow we are off through Green Bay to Oconto, our last stop in Wisconsin.

The obligatory farm shot, the barns standing in a sea of soy. Note the threatening clouds but all they did was threaten.

The windmills were turning.  Too bad the wind was coming from the wrong direction for us.