A wet willie day - The Metal Hip Club attempt the Northern Tier. - CycleBlaze

July 24, 2021

A wet willie day

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We woke up today and it was pouring outside. We looked at the weather radar and it looked like it would be clearing up around noon. We took our time getting ready and eating breakfast. Since the radar did not show thunderstorms in the area we decided to ride and got going around 8 am. It was pouring. After about 20 minutes it stopped raining and we were thinking we made a good decision to ride. After another 20 minutes it started raining again and it was heavy rain for 2 more hours. Fortunately the road today was flat. When riding in the pouring rain you get soaked through and through. After a while we could feel the water sloshing around in our shoes. Fortunately we were riding very low traffic road. When cars pass they spray you with the water on the road, so you get a nice road grime shower. Lucky we didn’t get much of that. When it is pouring rain all you want to do is get out of it. The only way out of it is to ride faster, which is what I do, but Janet has a hard time keeping up and we tend to burn ourselves out early in the ride. I tell myself to calm down and not go too fast. We rode 20 miles to our first stop in the town of Shiocton. We stopped in a C-store to get out of the rain and have some snacks. After the break it stopped raining for the day and eventually cleared up and got hot and humid. 

The roads today were very small back road. They were smaller than the county letter roads with names like 12 Corners Road. These small roads have no traffic and I love to bike them. We navigate our way through these small roads and eventually get to Appleton. We talk to Janet’s brother Dale and he invites us to lunch. He is on the far side of Appleton and it takes us 45 minutes to get through Appleton to his place. Appleton has a good system of bike routes and bike lanes so it was easy to navigate and ride to their place.  After a nice lunch and visit we go the final 7 miles to Janet’s nephew Michael and Vicky’s house.  They are hosting us for tonight and our rest day tomorrow. Ross shows up after an hour, riding down from Green Bay. After cleaning up we go to niece Kris and Corey’s house for dinner with the entire family in Appleton.   A great evening!!


Tomorrow is a rest day with more visiting with family. No posting tomorrow.  

One wet cyclist
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Another one
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Saw these birds while resting at a gas station in Shiocton
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Janet’s brother Dale & Gail
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Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 2,469 miles (3,973 km)

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Rachel and Patrick HugensHi,
We are in Sparta having done 2 of the 4 rail to trails. We see you will be taking the ferry tomorrow?? So we will be a week behind you then.
Did you need reservations for the ferry?
Racpat
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2 years ago
Terry OBrienTo Rachel and Patrick HugensHi Racpat,
We pre- paid our tickets using the SsBadger web site. Not sure you need to do this because we had no issues with pre-ordering our tickets. The ferry runs once per day leaving Manitowac at 2 pm and arriving in Ludington at 7 pm.

FYI. You are in the area where Janet was born and raised. She was born in aromas which one town east of Sparta.
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2 years ago
Terry OBrienTo Terry OBrienJanet was born in Tomah Wi.
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2 years ago