Sunday, August 24, 2008

Day 41 Fennimore to Madison

Distance Biked Today: 76.76 miles

Time Spent Biking: 5:22

Avg Speed: 14.2 mph

Max speed: 34.2 mph

Total Distance Biked: 2675 miles

Today was a great day, even after riding on the gravel path below for ten miles.

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Early in the morning I found a brochure for Cave of the Mounds at a local gift store that I stop and walked around in. I was excited as the route went right by, so for the next couple of miles I planned a visit. It was just off the route, so it was perfect.

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Cave of the Mounds is a cave that was found by a farmer less than a hundred years ago while he was blasting to start a quarry. He ended up finding a sizable self contained cave that was sealed off from everything. It included stalactites and stalagmites. It isn't anything as big as Mammoth Caves but it is similar.

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I enjoyed taking pictures with a long exposure (2-6 seconds) with Tyler's tripod that he let me borrow. Thanks Tyler!

Claire Kooistra also stopped and went on the tour after I left, but I was surprised none of the other cyclists stopped.

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They also had a huge garden that was absolutely beautiful.

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I also stopped at Little Norway and was going to look at the building and such. But you have to pay ($12!) to get in. That's out of the question. So I talked to the gift shop people for a couple of minutes and one lady was amazed at our trip, when I told her how much money we've raised it literally took her breath away. You can see one of the houses peeking through the trees.

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I stopped again at a bakery and had some bread pudding.

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My extra stops along the way did cause me to arrive very late.

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With all my stops today, I arrived late at the end and missed riding with almost everyone else as a big group to the church where we're staying. They did give us a very warm welcome including all these fun signs!

But Josh Krabbe was in the group and shot this video.

My bike wheel did fail last week. There are little cracks in it which is a bad sign, so I got it replaced tonight under warranty. Let's hope this one holds up.

The local church also provided tons of great food, activities, movies. It was wonderful!

Remember you can still participate by making a donation here.

Also check out more of my photos and videos.

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