Bloomington, WI to Warren, IL 75 miles

A nice day. Started off with breakfast at Ma's Bakery in Bloomington, WI as I noted in my earlier post. Headed to Lancaster, Platteville & Shullberg. In Platteville, I took a short break at a convenience store, & while looking over my maps, a man asked me if I needed help with bike routes. "Sure," I said, "any help I can get." He then said he was planning to go out for a ride & offered to ride along if I wanted himto. "Double sure."

While Tony went to change & get his bike, I had a quick lunch. When he returned, I was treated to an excellent guided tour thru the backroads that only local cyclists know. Tony teaches math @ the local college & it was great riding & talking with him. We covered about 3/4 of the distance to Shullsburg & parted ways after exchanging cards. We snapped a pic & in answer to Tony's question about flats, I told him, "Only 2 -1 on Jake & 1 on BOB.

Cyclist's rule #14: NEVER TALK ABOUT LUCK WITH FLATS!

Less than a mile after we parted I heard that familiar hisssssssss from Jake's rear. I was going up a slight hill & decided to walk to the crest – only to find another, albeit smaller hill looming & not a tree in sight. Now this was about noon, & the sun was blazing high in the cloudless sky & my temp gauge read 98. Jake's rear tire had a blowout in the sidewall. I could've patched that, but the rest of the tire was so cut up from all the abuse of 2500 miles of touring that I put it out of its misery & put on the spare. I also patched the tube & pumped it up & got everything back together. I was literally dripping with sweat.

And just over that next rise? A nice big farmhouse with a nice, shady front yard, not more than 300 yds from where I worked in the burningheat.

Cyclist's rule #37: ALWAYS look over the next hill.

OK, so on to Shullsburg. Well, that proved not so easy, either. The road I turned on to Shullsburg was closed ahead for construction. The closest alternate was 5 miles away, backtracking over the hills I had justlabored over.

Often, road closures are for relatively short work areas such as bridges or culverts & there's usually a way to walk around them.

Not today.

When I hit the construction area about a mile later, the whole road was torn up for (I was to learn later) realignment of two curves. I couldn't see how far the work went on, but I did notice that all the dozers & graders were parked & there wasn't a pickup or worker in sight. But there were tire tracks thru the dirt & faced with the prospect of a 10+ mile detour, I sallied forth, knowing that at worst I'd have to walk in the grass berm. It was bumpy, but I made it through the 1/2 mile noworse for the wear.

I stayed in Shullsburg for 3 hrs to stay out of the sun. Ate at a little greasy spoon, refilled my water, wrote postcards, updated my blog & gotsome route maps printed at the local library.

Unlike yesterday, I knew I had some overnight options coming up. I crossed into Illinois & shortly came upon the little town of Warren. I went straight for the only motel, only to find it open, but with no cars & no one answering the bell. I resigned myself to heading about 10
miles further to a state park campground.

Less than 2 blocks past the motel I passed a nice old house with a woman sitting on the front porch & a sign out front: Noni's Bed & Breakfast. I quickly turned around & asked if she had rooms & how much? She did & it was reasonable & the deal was struck. What a find. After a shower & short trip to town for dinner, I sat on said porch & chatted with Noni, before settling into a soft four poster bed with the freshest sheets.Awwwwwww-mmmmm.

After a great & restful sleep, I woke to overcast skies & the weather radio warning of 30% chance of storms before 7am. I left anyway not wanting to lose a minute of cool, sun-free riding. Within 3 miles it started raining & by the time I made it here to the cafe in Lena, IL where I'm writing this while sitting in my rain poncho trying to stay warm. It's still raining & thundering @ 10:30 though the forecast is forsun & temps nearing 100.

Off to the next coffee shop…