Day 29: Stevens Point, WI to Kaukauna, WI; 86 miles

Thursday July 14th

            8:00 A.M; the first stroke of the pedal and we were off. It was an extra-ordinary day. The morning was cool for a brief period of time, and then the temperature soared into the 80s and 90’s for the remainder of the day. The first few miles, of what has become our daily routine, we maintained a steady pace-line due to busy roads. For those who don’t know what a pace-line is, it’s excitement level is equivalent to watching grass grow. Thanks to Kathy and Nicole we had plenty of caffeine in our systems to continue the pedal stroking until we reached a course of our trip that was not so busy. Once we had reached back roads our boredom ended just as our caffeine supply ran out; conversation while riding two by two helped wake the group for the many miles ahead. Despite the heat we only made three stops, one of the stops was at a veteran’s memorial park we took a few pictures in from of the memorial ate lunch and continued on our way to Kaukauna. Like I said, today was extra-ordinary; no crashes, no storm, no cool stops, just pedaling east. There was one aspect of the day that was out of the ordinary, but it’s not too exciting; we had a major head wind blowing in our face. It slowed our pace quite a bit; it was rather disappointing because we actually got to stay at a hotel that night. Tucker pulled us the last leg of the trip without help from another rider, and we quickly settled in to the Settle Inn motel. After taking our warm showers and getting dressed the group gathered in the lobby of the hotel and we all headed out to dinner. Walking into the Lazy Dogs Sports Bar, Kathy got caught up in conversation with another costumer, who was rather curious about where so of the kids got their tan lines. It was a great question for the lady to ask; it gave Kathy a perfect opportunity to talk about us cycling, which leads to why we are cycling. Kathy returned to our group and we continued the, going out to eat, process. After we put our orders in the curious costumer, named Mary Romenesko, who talked with Kathy came over and dropped a hundred dollar donation on the table. People like Mary remind me how kind people truly can be. After she came over and gave us her donation we all introduced ourselves and joined in some small talk with her. Our meals came out and Mary went back to her respective table. I had a Bison burger with BBQ sauce on it. Bison burgers are much better than beef burgers and BBQ sauce completed the excellence of my meal. We returned to the Settle Inn and snuggled up to watch the 6^th Harry Potter movie in preparation for part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. 

Aaron Weiss