Day 37: Wisconsin!

This morning started out like any other: Leo refusing to wake up, Dustin upset that he didn’t sleep through the night, and Pat lying straight to my face. This morning Pat decided to tell me that Winona (where we originally thought we were going today) was famous for being the origin spot of Utz potato chips. This is completely false, but let me tell you Pat has a special talent for making anyone believe anything - he’s gonna be a great lawyer. 

After we got our bellies full of pancakes and bacon, Brian’s uncle loaded us up and brought us back to where we finished yesterday. During this trip we have been seeing so many dead birds on the side of the road, which we found odd. The reasonable explanation for this is that there aren’t as many power lines out here, so the birds can’t recharge because, as we all know, birds aren’t real. However, we discovered another explanation during this car ride. The birds out here are just poorly programmed and just instead dive bomb straight into cars, like the one into Brian’s uncle’s truck. The government needs to figure out this problem with their birds. 

Today within the first 2 minutes of our ride we were in Wisconsin! Another state down! We snapped our state sign pictures, obviously, and we were on our way. The first half of our day was just filled with these absolutely awful hills that I am never a fan of. You would think by this point in the trip I would be able to handle some hills - NOPE. I was ready to just keel over and be vulture food by the end of them. When I mentioned this to Dustin, he brought up the interesting question, “if I played dead long enough, will a vulture come?” I guess we will just have to test it out. 
Right before the last hill, we made a quick pit stop at a Dollar General to stock up on some snacks and drinks. Pat noticed that there was $3 bottles of wine, so he did what any reasonable person would do and bought 2 bottles. There was then definitely some divine intervention because soon after the water in his camelbak bladder turned to wine. Hallelujah! It was decided that after the final ascent there would be some celebratory wine drinking overlooking the Mississippi River. #slapthebag
We continued to trek on until about mile 54, where we stopped for lunch at an amazing BBQ place! This was actual real BBQ (unlike the sloppy Joe labeled bbq back in Gackle). It was perfect timing tok because right when we pulled into town a quick thunderstorm rolled through and was done by the time we finished eating. This was when we decided that we would go an extra 7 miles south to Trempealeau, instead of to Winona, in order to make our day tomorrow shorter. We always love the perception of choice. 
With only 40miles left in the day, we thought it would be easy peasy. Dustin even had a lady bug land on his butt while riding, which is apparently good luck? However, 5 minutes later Dustin’s Powerade bottle unhooked from his pannier and went flying down the road, so maybe it wasn’t lucky. We then got rained on for about 10minutes by some massive raindrops that kept dinging my bell. Followed by biking straight into a massive headwind. Leo started singing “Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die,” which was such a mood. 
The last couple miles, though, were pretty cool because we went on these non-paved trails. We got to test out how these road bikes did off-roading, and to be honest we’ve been on worst roads. Dustin was not having a good time with the bugs, though, and kept getting them in his eyes. Like a true friend, I am always on standby to stick my fingers in his eyes to grab the bugs out. 
We ended up parting ways with Leo and Pat for the night because they decided to stay in a hotel, while we toughed it out camping. We are always here for the cheaper option! I mean our campsite has water, electricity, and a shower so we are high living over here. Check back in tomorrow as we are going to Mauston to stay with my boyfriend, Jon’s, grandma’s place! (Oh this is Julia by the way).