A taste of reality

Well, coming off a triple-long day marathon, we were much in need of Saturday's ride. We were blessed with Eric Stehouwer as our riding buddy for the day. We started out on a retarded bike path made of sand and mould.. that Eric happened to like.. but I hope people of Wisconsin do not actually pay to use that path. We were hit by a few rolly polly hills, but all in all it was a beautiful ride in to Madison. We got to the park where all the bikers were meeting at to ride in to the church there together and who should meet us there, but some of the fam! It was such a surprise to see mom and Emily and Aunt Grace and Anita there in the park right around the same time we got there. This means we got to hotel it for the night! We always forget just how wonderful bed really is. We enjoyed Saturday night and most of Sunday with them. We even hit up a mall on Sunday, however, despite my convulsing desire to be in a mall for the past month.. none of us were much in a shoppy mood and saddly we walked out of there with not much. I am not sure this is a positive effect of the bike tour.. confusing is what it is. So we were spoiled all weekend and were almost ready to just stay in that world with them. But then we realized we still had a few weeks to go here.. so it was back to the grind today.
Today's ride was perhaps our most delightful ride of the tour to date. The entire ride was beautifully painted through the backroads of Wisconsin; the weather was absolutely perfect for biking and I think we can honestly say we thoroughly enjoyed biking today, which is not something I can say every day of the tour. A church prepared a nice lunch for us and we cruised right in to Illinois with smiley faces! We are really feeling the home stretch now and can not wait for the next two weeks as we enter the homeland and then finish up the tour! It is amazing!