Day 100 (8/24): Dunbar, Wisconsin to Escanaba, Michigan

Mileage: 68.0; 3,024 total

This morning I was stiff and tired from the rides of the last few days, and while eating breakfast I was thinking up excuses for limiting my ride to 15 or 20 miles. But once I got started, and had covered several miles, I fell into the pleasant rhythm of pedaling and didn't want to stop. I was reminded (as I have been many times in the past), of a comment that Steve S. made several years ago when talking about the cross-country bike trip he had taken (in about 1990?). He said that no matter how tired he was from the day before, it was always terrific to get back on his bike and start pedaling. I'm not sure what it is -- the clean, fresh air? the trees and flowers and lakes that glide by? the sense of making progress, mile after mile, even though the pace is slow? -- but it is easy to become entranced by these long bike rides.

Today I really felt that I am getting close to home: I passed from Wisconsin into Michigan, the last state before New York State (but of course I have to go through Ontario, also); and I entered the Eastern Time Zone.

I enjoyed riding through the north woods of Wisconsin, full of pine trees and some hardwood trees, and lots of recreation areas on the many lakes along the route. Three photos of typical scenery are posted below. And I really enjoyed eating fried cheese curds (I wish they sold these in NYC), and thought that walleye and whitefish were both very good. And as noted previously the people in Wisconsin have been great!