Another gorgeous but windy day and another zigzag in and out of the wind.  Many lakes, ponds and picturesque farms; noticeably more farms than in Minnesota.  Again the day was spectacular,  if it were not for the continuous hills and very feisty wind.  While the hills are considerabley more taxing, the scenery was infinitely more interesting.Speaking of interesting…!On very few occasions our route is under construction; do we try to make it through, or take the (inevitably more mileage) detour route?!  We conferred with the locals and they “assured” us we could go through the construction, after all, it was Saturday….obviously, we made it.

The fields were filled with flowers, the farms loaded with horses and cows.

We are still looking for the local cheese, as this the the “country’s dairyland” and home of the “cheeseheads”. A few occasions today, we wound through thick forests, hearing the wind whipping through the treetops; we were happy to have the break, but not looking forward to facing it directly.  For miles we rode through winding roads along the Chetac Lake past weekend and resort homes.  The hills we climbed were short, but constant and super tough grades.  We felt like we had just done the Glacier climb and still had 20 miles to go.  It didn’t help that we could see the ridges in the distance.

We stopped at noon after 40 miles, more for a break from the hills and wind, than to eat, which was a good thing as the bar/grill where we stopped was selling a lot more beers and bloody mary’s, than food.  After lunch the clouds had darkened and wind increased and we prayed we would not get rained on.  We don’t remember much after lunch other than the wind and hills, but then, we don’t remember much of the day except the wind and hills.  Thank goodness for photographs to remind us what we saw.

We rode all the way through Hayward, passing the Fresh Water Hall of Fame as well as what looked like a darling town.  But our “in town” hotel was almost within the city limits.  Sixty three tough miles and six and a half hours on the bike seat; we would not be touring the town.