Day 34
Fond of who?

The day started out fairly early as we had 82 miles today.  We scheduled an earlier than normal breakfast to allow time to eat at Perkins before a 6:45 load.  The order of business before departure this morning was to photo everyone who had a college jersey.  Wisconsin was well represented as was Stanford, Ohio State, Navy, Notre Dame, Penn State, Florida, and Slippery Rock (not all made the photo time).  Wisconsin probably had the most jerseys with the big "W" plastered on the front and back.  Richard P. wears his about every day so he's easy to pick out while he's riding, but today there were several so he was more incognito.  I found out why we had so many Wisconsin jerseys...seems Richard and Bill have several each and they loaned them to other riders to up the representation. 

The talk of the day other than college jerseys was figuring out how to get in early enough to watch Levi race the time trial at the Tour de France on VS.  We've been following the tour at most of the stops since reaching Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Thank you motel staff for upgrading to our favorite July channel.  I got in just in time to see Levi start and watched nervously as he snaked his way though the roads of France.  It's just not the same without Lance in the race...it looks like the tour is still wide open.

Today we rode to Fond du Loc...Fond du Lac means "foot of the lake."  It's located at the south end of Lake Winnebago one of the largest fresh water lakes in the country measuring 28 miles long and over 10 miles wide.  It's not very deep (only about 21 feet), but it holds the largest Sturgeon population in the world.  The Sturgeon is a finicky fish that's hard to catch according to the locals.  Regular fish bait doesn't work most of the time, but they've found green peas to be the bait of choice for the discriminating Sturgeon palate.  Seems the fishermen sprinkle the peas along the shoreline and when the Sturgeon come up to take a pee, they hit them in the head with a mallet...sounds pretty sneaky to me, but it works for the locals in the know.  Oh, I get it.

Let me digress a moment from a previous subject I brought up a few days ago.  I know I've been harping on Wisconsin's contribution to the defense of our country with all their secret missile silos, but as you can see at the right, they also cleverly disguise their early warning radar as a TV satellite dish.  I'm sure these "satellite dishes" supply target information to the "farms" in the background.  I just have to point this out since the "untrained eye" may miss the subtle little nuances that distinguish a small family farm plot from a highly secret government early warning system.  It's hard to comprehend how many of these farm lots are really just clever disguises for weapon launch pads that are still active since the Cold War.  But beyond being involved with strategic systems, Wisconsin is also way ahead of the rest of the country in air/ground tactical systems too.  As seen in the photo below left, Wisconsin has the never before seen, first ever prototype Sherman Helo-tank.  I just happened to see this one as I rode by a National Guard Armory and was surprised they were just flaunting it out in the open...I thought these systems were Top Secret!  When Marv (prior army) saw this, he couldn't believe how far the army had come since he'd left the service.  He said, "When I was in the army, we  had to drive these things to the battle!"  Yes they have come a long way with new technology, but I wonder what its glide path is if the rotor stops spinning?  It probably then becomes an inadvertent tactical bomb.  After seeing all this, I'm of the opinion Wisconsin is one of the best defended states in the union.  Seems like a lot of money invested just to guard a lot of cheese.

Another successful day on the road and this weather is really getting boring...sunny, cool, dry...it's like a broken record but no one wants to get it fixed.  We are staying at a really nice high rise in old downtown Fond du Lac where we held our famous T-shirt swap after dinner.  This one turned out to be the "Mother of all T-shirt swaps" just because of the sheer numbers.  Just so many activities...how do we have time to ride?

Tomorrow we leave for Manitowoc...a short 57 miles.  I scheduled load at 9:00 to not get in too early in town.  The next day isn't really a day off with the wedding and the ship ride to Ludington.  We're ready for a change of pace though...tune in tomorrow and see what's up.

PS:  Thanks to Diane Harrington (North '05) for stopping by and bringing goodies for the SAG...and Jean's family for the second day in a row for also providing calories for the riders.  I've probably missed someone who's brought goodies over the last few days...sorry, but thank you, thank you, thank you all!  We always appreciate caloric supplements.