T1 Day 38 (Liz)

 7/14/23: Hayward to Mercer

This morning we treated ourself to a breakfast of potatoes, eggs, and veggie sausages before we left our wonderful little airbnb in Hayward. The rest day really worked, I actually felt rested and happy to be on my bike this morning and my bike felt like it was new again!

Route 77 had some morning traffic, but as the day went on the roads got quieter and quieter. We were excited to listen to the new episode of The Retrievals. Podcasts seem to help me forget about the never ending pedaling.

We stopped to make lunch at Clam Lake and then we continued on through Glidden and Butternut. As we were passing through Butternut, a woman appeared from behind a car and called out to us “where are you from?” It was getting late and we weren’t in the mood to chat so we yelled “Connecticut” as we continued biking. But she insisted we stop to talk to her. Shelley, a Butternut local, was so excited to hear about our trip, but she was even more entertained by our New England accents. She would ask us to say certain words and then she’d laugh and laugh at our pronunciation. She told us all sorts of stories before she let us continue on our way. 

The road following Butternut was beautiful, lined with trees, lakes, and colorful flowers. Most of the road was lined on both sides with yellow flowers. Unfortunately, though, I think we’ve finally found the smoke from Canada and its pretty thick. 

Just a few miles from our campsite it, of course, started to rain. Then, as we arrived at our campsite, it started to pour. We stood under the bathroom awning until the worst of it passed. At dinner, Keelin mentioned how her spirits were still pretty high despite the rain. She then proceeded to knock over her mac and cheese which spilled all over the picnic table (but we scooped it back in and pretended it didn’t happen). We did enjoy some Wisconsin cheese curds with dinner (they are so squeaky!) and then we decided to curl into our cozy, mostly dry tents.