Day 43 Madison to Woodstock

It was a nice sunny day today. It's probably in the low 70's, with a little white cloud mixed in with the sunshine. The wind was a non-factor today.

We left at our usual 7 AM from the Madison Crossroads CRC. We are now heading south east as we begin to make our way around Lake Michigan. We will be in four different states this week, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.

The first little town we came through was Utica, WI. It had a general store with one gas pump in front (pic), and a really old, small fire hall (pic). We were on nice quiet country roads for a while and I got pictures of Wiebo and Hans V as we came by them. Also took one of Fred and him of me. No high speed film required for those.
At Julie's stop there was an old school house (pic) which is now part of a golf course. We had Russ J (MI) hook up with us there for the rest of the trip.

Another small town was Milton where we came by a neat looking SDA church (pic). The next town was Delavan WI (pic). The main street was in cobblestone and was decorated in American flags and had plenty of antique stores etc. (pic) There were plenty of fine looking older homes to look at as we pedalled in. Here at Delavan we had a pit stop at the Delavan CRC (pic) and were treat royally. Lunch was served in the church
basement and consisted of Italian beef on bun, sloppy joes, salads, and dessert. Thanks very much Delavan CRC!

We passed into Illinois shortly after that. As we are on country roads, there is no state sign, so a State Line road sign is what we all used to mark our entrance into this our 9th state. The country roads continued (pic) until we got to our destination for tonight, Woodstock, Ill. We made the usual choc milk stop and spoke to a local mom and daughter who said we were no's 23, 24, and 25 in. The school looks like a grand old building (pic) but the gear truck was still beside the road (pic) waiting to find parking. So Fred and I are currently at the library doing the blog thing. It was a good ride today.

After setting our tents up, we walked back to town with Billy D and Bert S. It turns out that the town square area is where the movie Ground Hog Days with Bill Murray was filmed. Might have to check that out later on.

Totals for day: 135 klm (84 mi), 5:09 saddle time, 26.2 kph avg (15.7 mph)

PS the collection at church yesterday brought in $ 3,100 to be split between the Sea to Sea causes and some local Madison WI ministries. Thanks again to the church in Madison, we appreciate you!