Day 5 - Hayward WI to Glidden WI

Today’s Miles: 65

Total: 251

I’m going to continue on yesterday’s post. Both Ethyl and Monte have done many marathons and cross  country ski events in their life.  In fact Ethyl has run the Boston Marathon and done the Birkebiener 32 times. I guess it is a pretty well known cross country ski event.  I had never heard of it, but Tim and Nancy say everyone in Seattle area know what it is. She just kept saying that she wished she could try the type of touring that we are doing, but realized she is probably too old now.  Monte is 78 and I’m not sure Ethyl age, but she and he are quite the couple.  Also, on the making syrup from the Maple trees.  When they boil that syrup down, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  Now I understand why the real stuff is so expensive.

A picture of Ethyl and Monte at the Birkebiener.

Them today.

They served us wild rice infused waffles and had their maple syrup that they made.  It was delicious. They were the kindness people.  We mentioned that we would probably ride into Hayward because we needed more bagels and Ethyl goes and pulls a bag of bagels out of the refrigerator and gives them to us.  There are many wonderful people in this world.

Again, not too much to mention about the ride today.  It seemed there were a lot fewer hills, but we did have many to climb. We had a lot of miles to cover.  Stopped for lunch at this little quant café and had a pesto and tomato sandwich and wild rice soup.  I have to say that Ethyl’s soup was better.  Also, the pesto sandwich probably isn’t what I normally would get, but it hit the spot and gave me the fuel I needed for the afternoon.

I actually thought how crazy it is that I was in this place in the world at this spot.

We actually averaged about 11 miles an hour today, so that is our new high.  I mentioned this once before, but you can’t believe the number of lakes in this State.  They are everywhere.  Ethyl mentioned that people from Minneapolis come in here and buy up much of the property around the lakes.  We did meet a group of them that were on a bike ride and we were taking a rest by the side of the road and they stopped by to see what we were doing.  They were very nice and in fact, invited us to spend the night in their vacation homes.  It would have been fun to do so, but we had many more miles to cover.

We are staying in Northern Lure Resort just outside of Glidden tonight.  It is on the shore Gordon Lake.  Another pretty view.  I did talk with a fisherman and he was a little disappointed in the fishing.  There are not that many people in the resort.  We had dinner in the lodge and I just couldn’t resist the double hamburger.  It really was delicious.  But maybe, it was the hunger that made it so great.

Beautiful Lakes.

Dinner tonight!!