Low cloud and light rain set the mood for the day. Add in more rough roads, a steady to strong easterley headwind, and very uninspiring scenery, and this was not a day to remember. For the first time on the trip, these seemed like a very long 7 hours in the saddle. One of the things I like about cycling is just letting my mind wander – but today I had completely run out of things to think about. And it was slow, because of the headwind. Our slowest 100 miles yet at 6:55.

Breakfast had been good, overlooking the tiny ferry dock and watching very large container boats come past. Then we boarded the ferry and left the USA behind.

 Two minutes, and a very friendly border post later, and we were in Canada. Though it looked remarkably similar – but with added rain. 

It will be a short blog today – because the only other highlight was a sewage truck. Don’t you love the Canadian sense of humour!

  
Eating in the local Wimpy tonight. Actually, not bad at all. Ended up dismantling a bench to retrieve a $20 bill – but the waitress took it all in her stride! One more long day tomorrow when we should at least have Lake Erie to look at for some of the day, and then a much needed day off the bike at Niagara Falls.

Well I don’t like to moan on the blog ….  But. Those were 138 miles of the worst roads I have ever ridden – anywhere. Including eastern europe. We had to ride a lot of it at low speed, standing up. 

The problem is that all the concrete roads – presumably from the 50s and 60s – are breaking up. Not just gaping joints between sections – thats a problem across the USA – bu-bump over each joint. No, here the entire slabs have turned to crazy paving, tilted at angles and with huge gaps. Nightmare! And noone has the huge amount of money it would take to dig out all the broken concrete and start again. Michigan has a problem.

Got that off my chest! Feeling calmer now. But it did provide the chance to road test the new Bianchi carbon fibre ‘countervail’ vibration damping technology that sold us the bikes. I think it works – but it’s hard to tell, what with all the bumps and crashes! 

Otherwise, the weather stayed fair, nice temperature for riding, still air with no wind. A mixed day scenically. We rode through Saginaw – a medium sized town where the suburbs are prosperous but most of the central housing is dilapidated, abandoned, boarded up or for sale. We were only a few miles north of Detroit. And we rode a lot of rural roads through farmland. Here is one of the posh housing estates where each detached house is the size of a small palace, set in enormous grounds.

  
The highlight of the day was a total of about 20 miles on 3 separate rail trails. These had good surfaces (yippee!) and were quiet and peaceful – if unspectacular and often hemmed in by mature, line-side trees. Out of 250 miles across Michigan in 2 days we managed nearly 100 on rail trails. Excellent.

Marine City is within sight of Canada, just across the Saint Clair river that links Lake Huron to Lake Erie.

 Our motel is on the waterfront. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Canada for a few days. Today was our 30th day of cycling and we have ridden 3024 miles – so we have crept over 100 a day average for the first time on the trip. 10 cycling days left. 

Yesterday’s ferry ride was a lovely, feet up, punctuation mark in the journey. Did you know that Lake Michigan is so big that, from the middle, you can’t see either shore. It’s like being at sea! 

The steamship was built to carry railway carriages across the same route. After the line closed the ship was converted to carry cars (though the crew drive them on and off – its very tight!). 

Ludington was a lovely holiday port, with a matina, nice shops and restaurants. Unlike industrial Manitowoc, where they used to build subs for the US navy.  Unfortunately I read too much on the ferry and flattened my phone battery – so no pictures! 

At our meal last night we met a couple of enthusiastic cyclists who wanted to tell us all about cycling in Michigan. It was a really friendly evening.

Today we spent the morning heading east on a highway, with our second breakfast  overlooking a lovely lake.

  
In the afternoon we rode 65 miles along the Pere Marquette trail – this section of the rail line to Ludington having been tarmaced for cycling. It was perfect. It cut straight through woodlands, and large areas of wetlands and nature reserves. Fantastic flat cycling with no traffic noise. Just a few other cyclists for company.

  
Pulling into our hotel just now we found a London bus parked outside – with no explanation!

  
Sorry I have not been responding to comments. I can’t. The server is going offline for several hours immediately after I post anything – so its one posted item at a time. And sometimes I can’t post at all (e.g. yesterday). When I get home I’ll move it to a better host server. 

Just a brief 52 mile farewell to Wisconsin this morning, and then a very peaceful 4 hour voyage this afternoon across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger – a real steam ship dating from the 1950s. 

We entered our 4th and  final time zone, and had an excellent meal in Ludington, outside and enjoying the sunset, before heading, late, to our hotel. I’ll write more tomorrow. 

It’s exactly a month since we left Seattle – but it seems more like a lifetime ago, and a very long way away. And there are only 2 weeks left until we roll into Boston. The trip is suddenly flying by. 

Last night’s hotel made a huge fuss of us, and we did an interview and posed for photos in our gear. We didn’t mind at all because it was a really nice place, brand new, and with a good restaurant. The Marshfield Hotel. 

Of all the states we have crossed, I would say that Wisconsin has provided some of the best cycling. The roads are almost car free, (off the few main arteries obviously), and they roll along gently through some lovely countryside peppered with lakes and waterways. It doesn’t have a ‘wow’ factor – but for relaxed cycling, this is very pleasant. Previous states have had so few tarred roads that we had to share them with the trucks.

Farms are typically wooden, painted in gentle Farrow and Ball colours, with mansard roofs and, incongrously, a couple of concrete silos for cattle feed sticking up highest.

Today’s second breakfast was at Steven’s Point. We stopped to admire a huge steam loco on display in a shaded shed.  Earlier on we had been racing the real thing – waving to the driver and sprinting past!

 We were directed to the local diner, which was more like a busy community centre. There were 60 people, at least, all having a cheap breakfast and a chat. We caused our usual stir just by walking in – and they were all very friendly. 

The remainder of the day passed pleasently enough – though I think I may have drifted off, because I have already forgotten about 50 miles of it! Though I remember another excellent chicken salad and ice cream for lunch, and posing for yet another picture for a hotel/restaurant facebook page!

Now we are in the delightfully named town of Neenah – I am still waiting to hear my first emergency vehicle siren – beside Lake Winnebago. Tomorrow morning we will leg it across to Lake Michigan for the afternoon ferry. 

Another day in paradise! The sun shone, the wind blew from behind us, and a variety of low key, but very beautiful, Wisconsin scenery rolled past our bikes. It has begun to feel very much like that. That Tim and I, pedalling our bikes, are the static centre of everything, and that America itself is slowing moving past us. Perhaps that’s why I’m feeling so calm and peaceful. 

Anyway – here’s a picture of Alma, on the Mississippi, next to Lock 4 (a gigantic boat lock next to a hydro weir. I’d have been impressed if Helen and I hadn’t ridden over so many of them on the Danube). 

 
There was no breakfast to be had in Alma, so last night we stocked up with a giant, sticky cinnamon bun each. So fueled, we set off up the side valley of the Buffalo river. The early morning calm was stunning: dew on the grass, deer emerging from the woods, buzzards overhead. The valley had steep wooded sides, but the valley floor was flat and about half a mile wide. The river was totally unmanaged and wandered freely about the natural floodplain. There was willow and alder, and lakes with bullrushes and wildfowl – all in the mellow early morning light. And hardly a car to break the spell. A lovely 25 miles of cycling before a huge pancake breakfast in Mondovi. 

After breakfast the land became more agricultural, but with areas of natural deciduous woodland. Logging trucks reappeared on the road, for the first time since the Black Hills, but this time carrying hardwood logs. At one point we came upon a war vets memorial field with a Cobra attack helicopter stuck, rather incongruously, on a pole.

  
I had a second huge meal at lunchtime in Neillsville. Here a lovely gentleman called John wanted to know all about the trip. He made a donation to Yorkshire Cancer Research and, as we got up to pay, we found he hsd settled our bill as well. Thanks John – we’ll remember your kindness. 

After lunch the scenery changed again. Now we were crossing an area of giant glacial moraines – arable land with cattle in vast sheds – and the road constantly rolled up and down. Wisconsin is, in a quietly understated way, really very pretty indeed. 

Now we are in a very nice hotel just outside Marshfield. 105 miles today in 5 and a half hours. Our 7th consecutive day over 100 miles. I love a good tailwind! 

Early Sunday morning in Minneapolis was very quiet. We found a classic cheap diner as an alternative to the  expensive hotel breakfast, and then we were off again. But, what with red lights, bike tracks with diversions, joggers, walkers, and really intricate navigation – this was not the blast along a straight road that we have become so accustomed to – and it took ages.

The first highlight was crossing the Mississippi, above a weir and some locks.

    
 
 
This section of biketrack followed a green ‘parkway’ above the river and was crowded with Sunday morning athletes. Heading down river we soon reached the twin city of St Pauls.

    
Here we saw a proper Mississippi paddle steamer.

    
We tried to save time by riding the main road, but came unstuck when it turned into an Interstate. We ended up carrying the bikes across a field to get back to legality! 

The best section came in the afternoon, when we reached Lake Pepin. Here the broad river winds between wooded bluffs about 200 feet high – very like bits of the Danube that Helen and I rode. Unfortunately, the lake takes all the valley floor and the road was a rollercoaster on the side. Over 3500 ft of climbing today.

  
The rail line comes through here too – so we are back to the hooting of gigantic trains. I loved the lifting rail bridge across a side river, the St Croix, at Prescott. Crossing this river at lunchtime brought us into Wisconsin, our next state.

  
But its the motorbikes that are the noisiest. This scenic river road is plagued with them. Lets hope they don’t follow us tomorrow when we leave the river.

Just had a lovely sunset on this beautiful stretch of river, outside our motel.

This really is a great city. In many ways it feels quite European. There is a pedestrianised centre, bikes and bike lanes everywhere, and there are slim, beautiful people of all ages and ethnicities. Gone are the exclusively white, wobbling human mountains of the mid west. 

The bike shop, One to One, was fabulous – really helpful – and sorted us out with a service, new tyre and spares, and diagnosed and fixed the bad noise on Tim’s bike. So the bikes are good to go again. I particularly enjoyed the way the bike frames were displayed in the shop. You have to careful riding past those wild animals.   

So then we continued refueling our legs – an expensive business in this city  – and now I fancy an afternoon nap …. 

Followed by steak and ale pie and an actual real pint in the Brit pub. Its enough to make you feel homesick. 

Another fabulous day’s cycling – thoroughly enjoyable throughout. The weather has been absolutely perfect for the past few days – 60F soon after dawn and mid 80s by mid afternoon and not a cloud in the sky. And yet more westerly tailwind, today running at about 15mph this afternoon. Yippee!

So the 150 miles, or three hours by car, (as explained to us in horror by last nights landlady), took just over 8 hours by bike – at nearly 18mph. And we were still feeling good enough to race the local hard men on the cycle track coming into town!
Place names have been fun for several days. The geography of western europe seems to have been torn up and scattered randomly across the entire area. Tim has always wanted to see Vienna, and I want to see Naples, so when we saw them both signposted down a turning to the right … well! But we were deterred by the fact that, as with all the side roads, it was gravel. And they were probably 200 miles down the road! One day perhaps. Actually, todays maize fields and dutch barns could easily have been in northern  europe. 

Another feature is the way that many roads are ‘sponsored’, 2 miles at a time, by local firms, community groups, churches, or even families, for litter picking duties. They get their names on a board. So imagine my delight when, in a well heeled suburb of Minnesota (called Minnetonka, by the way), a section of road was sponsored by the Explosive Suicide Punk Rock Band! Punk Rock ain’t what it used to be! 

The first 85 miles this morning were a continuation of yesterdays dead straight road riding across not quite flat arable land. This morning we were entertained by ariel crop spraying by very acrobatic pilots.

After yet more chicken salad for lunch, this time in Hutchinson, we left the main road as the Minnesota-bound traffic levels began to increase. First some quiet back roads past lovely lakes. 

  
Then 30 miles of a beautifully surfaced, brand new cycle track following an old rail line. This weaved its way through between what felt like most of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. Many had swimming areas, or marinas, or just posh houses beside the water. This was where we caught up with a huge guy travelling fast on a road bike. He didn’t like being overtaken and accelerated and drafted behind us. But, on reading the shirts, he wanted to chat. Then he offered to work for us, so we stuck him on the front and encouraged him to show us what he could do! As I said, he was huge, and we got about 5 miles of a fantastic tow! Thanks Luke! 

Our final stop was at Wayzata, a posh commuter town beside another lovely lake. The area reminded me of the lakes around Berlin. There was a row of cafes fronting onto the lake, where we had our most expensive Coca Cola yet!

And then the final few miles, down another bike track. Seeing skyscrapers in the distance was amazing since its so long since Seattle!  

 
We are checked into a posh hotel – we’ve eaten the usual huge steak and washed it down with plenty of celebratory beer. We have covered 620 miles across the prairie in 5 days riding. Tomorrow is definitely a rest day.