Day 94 (8/18): Redwing, MN to Durand, Wisconsin

Mileage: 39.3; 2,686 total

Today I crossed the Mississippi, leaving behind the charming towns and bike trails of Minnesota.

After a morning of sleeping late, catching up on emails, blogging, and having a leisurely breakfast, I didn't get underway until a bit past noon. I crossed a bridge over the west channel of the Mississippi (photo), and then another over the east channel.

In the small town of Bay City I had a long conversation with the owner of an ice cream shop (good, but not great), who in January had gone to NYC to see the departure of the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Queen Victoria: this was the last time (only time?) that these three cruise ships will ever sail together, because the Queen Elizabeth 2 is going to be converted into a hotel in Dubai. He had only been to NYC once before, and was eager to talk about the Brooklyn Bridge and other sights that he had seen.

I had been forewarned that the western part of Wisconsin was fairly hilly, and I was glad to put these hills behind me and end up in Durand.

The approach to pleasant little town of Durand was on a bridge over the Chippewa River -- see photo below.

I had been told that there was a motel in Durand, but found out that the planned motel had never been built. Someone told me that a wman named Audrey rented out a room behind her barber shop, so I looked her up and rented her room. I was glad to find it!

Audrey was a very friendly woman, and I couldn't resist asking if she had ever heard the old, puzzling conundrum about the barber. (There is a barber in town who shaves all the men in town who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber?). She said she hadn't ever been asked the riddle, so I told it to her. She thought about it briefly and asked for the answer. I explained that the puzzle was originally pozed to illustrate a fairly deep problem (there is no possible answer, because if the barber shaves himself, then he doesn't shave himself, and vice versa), but that a "cute" solution is to answer that "The barber is a woman." Audrey did volunteer that she had been tempted to say that she doesn't shave!