Day 38: plus 30 eventful minutes from the night before
Soon after Julia posted the blog yesterday and just before we were both going to fall asleep we suddenly heard a rustling… Julia, in what might have been the most aggressive whisper I’ve ever heard called over to me, “Dustin, what is that? Go look!”
The rustling was coming from the direction of our campsite picnic table, exactly where Julia and I decided to leave our food for the night (in bags of course, we aren’t heathens). So I grabbed my glasses so I could see the animal that was about to maul me and set out with my portable sun in one hand and my bear spray in the other. Just as a walked out of my tent I saw what appeared to be a raccoon running off into the bushes - and I thought - ha, I got him, little guy knows who’s boss in this campsite - and then I saw a flash of yellow sliding along with him into the bushes… Julia’s food bag… I tried to catch up but he was too quick - and so I just kind of stood there - peering into the shrubbery - trying to see if I could find where he went, but it was a losing battle… raccoons: 1, Julia and Dustin: 0
So as I stood there with my flashlight and bear spray in my underwear - because some kid decided to pee on the bathroom floor and I didn’t notice until it was too late while pooping - I thought, well… if he took Julia’s he will probably try to come back and take mine too… so Julia and I spent the next 30 or 45 minutes trying to loop my rope around a branch so I could tie my food up (there weren’t many good branches so it took a lot of tries). After our long struggle, and listening to the sweet sounds of a raccoon eating Julia’s pretzels in a bush about 30 yards away, we finally got the food up in the tree.
It was a good thing too because at about 2am Julia and I were again woken up by the sound of rustling - again by the picnic table - but this time I thought, ah ha, we got ‘em boys, ain’t no food for those rascals to pilfer! Raccoons: 1, Dustin and Julia: 1
But then the raccoon that came back must have brought a friend and told him about those dumb kids that left their food out because after they learned there was no more food to be had - they began to tustle - I didn’t know raccoons could make some of the sounds they were making… barks, growls, hisses, screeches… it lasted for at least an hour - and since I was getting up at 6:30 - that meant I was only getting 4 hours of sleep tonight.. pretty vindictive little buggers aren’t they? So unfortunately I think the final score ended up being raccoons: 2, Julia and Dustin: 1… btw brian slept through just about all of this and he left his food in his tent and wasn’t bothered…
Luckily - as bad as the day started off - it actually turned out pretty amazing. I got up and out of the campsite early (because I was being eaten alive by bugs) and went to a bike shop to check out tires and a gas station for some breakfast. Julia, Brian, Leo, and Pat caught up to me later on in the morning and we set off for our short day of 85 miles.
Man Wisconsin is beautiful - today we saw some amazing trails, tunnels, valley overlooks, and beautiful blue skies. We spent most of the day on the trails - where we first saw some weird birds that were making some really crazy noises and they were also like 4 feet tall - some prehistoric type guys - and as we biked they just kinda ran down the pathway in front of us before taking flight and veering off.
Next up, we stopped for lunch at a drive in restaurant - and they had some pretty awesome burgers, glizzies, root beer floats, and my personal favorite - flavor burst soft serve! Then we got to this crazy long tunnel on the trail that was raining inside because it was on like a natural spring or something, oh and there were no lights either so it was pitch black because the tunnel was long enough that you couldn’t see either side at some points.
It honestly was one of the highlights of the trip because it was just something none of us had ever seen before - a cold, perpetually raining, pitch black, bike path? It was wild!
The rest of the day we mosied along on trails and roads until finally getting to our destination - Julia’s, boyfriend’s (Jon’s) grandparents’ house. After stopping in we had a nice chat, I played some piano (or tired to at least), and then we had a wonderful dinner capped off with another round of root beer floats! Big shoutout to Jon’s grandparents for opening up there home to all 5 of us and giving us a delisous dinner - it’s always a game changer on a trip like this.
All in all, today was one of the best days of the trip, and Wisconsin is growing to be my favorite state so far - even rivaling Washington which I honestly didn’t think would be beat - it honestly couldn’t be better - everything is beautiful, the people are nice, the Minnesota accent is gone, and of course who doesn’t love dairy? We’ll see you tomorrow for hopefully another great day! Until next time!
The trash pandas will be calling their friends down the road so make sure to hang your food every night. BTW that tunnel looked epic.
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