Catching up...

Just so we are all clear (including us), we arrived at the following places on the dates indicated:

Frontenac State Park, Red Wing, Minnesota July 19

Holmen, WI whispering pines campgroun July 20

Sparta, WI biketrail walk-in spot July 21

Reedsberg, WI city park July 22

Columbus, WI county camp site right on route with horse poop July 23

Muskegon, Ken and Ken's house July 24

Grand Rapids Bob and Gayla's house July 25

Williamston, MI Susan and Jack's house July 26

Ann Arbor, MI Mindy's house July 27

Sylvania, OH Seneys' house July 28

Lakeside, OH July 29th arrival



Now for some more details...

We arrive in Sparta, WI and as we are passing a huge Wal-Mart, biking on a road with no shoulder and lots of traffic, we look up and see a big billboard with a picture of a man on an old-fashion bike - big back wheel small little wheel set up - that says 'Welcome to Sparta, Biking Capital of America' HA! Is this a joke, we wonder aloud? Did they mean to write Once biking capital of america? Because of all the places we have biked, Sparta is pretty low on the list as far as ease and quality and safety goes. We still do not know why they get to call themselves that. Maybe it is like the contentious 'Geographical Center of America' title that Rugby, North Dakota gave itself. As I mentioned before we had some really really really good carrot cake (mom, it is still not as good as yours, really). And we wound our way to a camping spot right at the beginning of the Sparta-Elroy rail to trails bike trail. As we were arriving Dave, a fellow cross country cyclist, was coming from the other direction and so we shared a camp plot as well as lots of sage advice to take East and West. Dave gave us two particularly good recommendations: try honey and peanut butter sandwiches sometimes just to mix it up and call the police station in towns that you would like to camp in because mileage-wise it just works for you and ask if you can camp in a city park.



The next day we were going to be faced with either an exceptionally short day or long long day based on the campsites we had found online so we thought we'd put Dave's advise to the test: we called the Reedsberg police (from a landline borrowed at a store because the area we were biking in was a cell-phone dead zone) and they direct us to the city hall who gives me the cell phone number of the city park and rec head. I call him and he says well, ok, that's fine, sure. So we camped in Reedsberg in a very nice city park. This park was like the town social center with a big swimming pool and tennis courts and plenty of green space. And we are pretty sure they left the bathrooms open over night just for us, because we saw a police office come by in the morning to lock them. Thank you, Reedsburg!