Richard Treks: BALM Day 3

The ride from Milwaukee to Kohler-Andrae State Park was wonderful: temps in the mid 70s, clear sky, and a headwind that now and then shifted to our backs. Our cat and mouse back and forth with the Bikers for Jesus continued. We BALMers were climbing a hill out of Port Washington when the BJs saw us and started shouting. The we ran into their sag wagon here at the park, and we all had a nice visit.

That pleasantly was preceded by a dude we somehow pissed off on Sauk Trail road. We we were riding single file with not a car in sight except for the a Ford Ranger behind us. So we waved at him to pass us. He stayed behind us for a mile, so when we came to a stop sign we pulled over to the the side some would pass. He did, then stopped and got of the truck. He was a large man, with a large belly.

" You guys know the rules of the toad?" he asked.

We didn't say anything.

"You guys are stupid," he said.

We didn't say anything.

"You signaled for me to pass in a no passing zone," he said.

"Sorry," we said.

Did he think we would signal for him to pass into a heads-on collision?

"You're clueless," he said.

Thus we named him Clueless, Wisconsin.

We have also seen sandhill cranes, red-winged blackbirds, deer, turkey, and raccoons. We have passed several colleges: Loyola of Chicago, Carthage University, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, and Concordia University of Wisconsin.

We have been riding through a second spring. Here in Wisconsin the forsythia have just bloomed, and the trees are just now beginning to leave. Here is like three weeks ago in St. Louis.

We have met the Bikers for Jesus. Most likely we'll see them again as they are also heading north to Door County, Wisconsin. People all day have asked about our ride, and they have shown a genuine interest. A guy here at the camp sight told me about a ride across Wisconsin. RAW?

Finally, we had to move our camp. Our first site was in a reserved spot. We set our camp there due to a misunderstanding of the reserved slip. We thought the camp was reserved for the 17, but the site was reserved through the 17th. So we moved to an adjacent site.

The campground host gave us a bucket of firewood for our trouble.