I Am Cow

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland. I've only gone through a little bit of it but it has been quite enjoyable. It sort of reminds me of a bigger, flatter and less pretentious version of Vermont — The Green Mountain State on steroids and Prozac, maybe.

Good food has been easy to find here. After my satisfying steak, I left Superior with a nice bowl of wholesome organic granola in the morning. It was a bit slow going as I explored some of the lakefront bike paths and was soon lured into eating a Butterburger™ at a Culver's.

Watch out for see-saws on the road!

Fascinating rusty stuff

Looks like a giant Angry Birds structure

US Highway 2 has thinned down to a two-lane highway with only a couple of feet of shoulder which has made cycling less pleasant, but it's somewhat preparing me for the bad roads in Ontario. Checking my rearview mirror has become automatic when I see on-coming traffic.

Aside from the dairy, Wisconsin is also well known for its beer, not just from the big breweries in Milwaukee, but smaller microbreweries with strong Germanic traditions. I stopped for lunch at a road house and couldn't help sampling a couple of mugs of local draft.

I was casting long shadows on the road by the time I got to Ashland. It was a beautiful clear afternoon and I decided to camp out. I found a nice city-run campground which had a terribly posted self-register system and found out there were no showers after deciding to pitch my tent. The bathroom had a good supply of hot water, though, so I filled up my collapsible water container, snuck up behind a shed, and hung it up on a post. The thing was like a black udder, and with my swim trunks on, I opened up the little valve and took a shower on a steady stream of warm water in the darkening twilight. It was a good thing nobody was there to witness this ugly sight, except the vast expanse of Lake Superior. I went out to an excellent Mexican restaurant after, El Dorado has the best Mexican food I've had north of Texas. I crawled into my tent and soon crashed out for the night.

The next morning, the campers across from me, Guy and Susan and their lovely kids, snagged me into their web of kindness and invited me over for breakfast. They had cooked up a big pot of oatmeal with all sorts of dried fruit and nuts. I had a fantastic time talking with them about almost everything under the sun. I hope to see them again when I do the Mississippi, as they live close to the river in La Crosse.

Bless this beautiful family!

I've lost at least 15 pounds but Wisconsin's threatening to pack some of it back on. Awesome bacon, apple and blue cheese quiche for lunch!