After my last post, I bypassed all the hotels, stopped in Wally-World and stocked up on Naproxen (Aleve) and a couple of cold packs and headed east. The 35 miles was eating at me, and the meatloaf I had in Marquette kicked in, so I decided to keep going.

I set out with the intention of hitting a state park or private campground, and there were two in the area. However, 5 miles out of Prairie du Chien (pardon my french, but I misspelled and mispronounced it earlier it's Prayer-ee due Shayn), I got off of the main highway which appeared to have a big climb and went on a county road which *HAD* a big climb. Zoomin' up at 4 mph & being eaten by flies to boot. (I did do this voluntarily, right? 😉 At the top, the routes to the campgrounds obviously went downhill back to the Mississippi, so I kept the high ground and headed for Patch Grove. At this point, I've got about an hour of daylight left. Patch Grove turned out to have nothing but two bars and I asked at one of them about lodging further down the road, and was told there was a park in the next town — about 4 miles. That, I could make, so I headed off to Bloomington.

And there was a park. However, it was local softball league night, and the place was swarming with people — in the pavillions, the volleyball courts, the playground, not to mention the ballfield. The concession stand was selling beer and at 9 PM, there was a game going on and two other teams warming up. It was already dusk and the next town with a motel was 14 miles away and this was the best I could do — so I bought a Sprite and sat down to watch the game and wait until the festivities ended. As the first game ended, the crowd did thin a little bit and I started chatting with a man who had been sitting there. Charlie, it turns out, was the father or grandfather of about a 1/4 of the next team (slight exaggeration, but not much). We talked for quite a while about his kids and grandkids, my kid and grandkid, his job, sports and army exploits, his retierment, and me and my trip. About 11 PM, the park had cleared enough that I could walk about 100 yds to the next pavillion and set up, and that's what I did. I said my good-bye-nice-to-meet-you to Charlie (after getting a pic, of course) and he recommended "Ma's Bakery" as a good breakfast spot. I made my way to the pavillion, parked Jake & BOB against a table, put my pad & bag on the concrete and put in my earplugs.

Did I mention that I thought the beer selling was going to mean a long night? It did. Even though the games were over by 11, the hangers-on hung on to midnight. After that, I did have a quite peaceful and restful night. I got up in the morning, packed up, and while filling my tires, found that my front tube had a big hole by the valve base that only leaked if it were turned a certain way. I changed the tube and got to "Ma's" by 6:40. And Charlie was there. It's really cool to walk into a place where you don't know anyone, but yet you do, and I almost bellowed, "Hi, Charlie!" He sat and talked with me while I ate my breakfast ("Ma's" was very good & cheap, BTW), we said our goodbyes again and off I went.

That's why I didn't stay in that hotel last night watching the weather or re-runs of I Love Lucy! Just little slices of Americana like that make the extra miles worth it (I finished with 60 for the day).

Today, on Day 33, I'm sitting in a library in Shullsburg, WI, just cooling down a bit. I'll get to today's report later though, gotta get back out on the road soon.