All right.  It’s now 8pm, CST, and I’m here in my deluxe accommodations at the BestValue Inn of Beloit, Wisconsin.  I have also spent time today in the bustling metropolitan centers of Chemung (which I believe is in Illinois), Delavan (definitely Wisconsin), and East Troy (no idea–based on the weather, perhaps somewhere near Seattle?).

Major sighs of relief:

1–Only one dog chased the whole day (well, two, but the first one was a pug, so it didn’t really count).  That was a MAJOR relief.

2–The sun finally came out at about 95 miles.  This is good.

3–Can’t think of a third.  But the first two were really good.

So the morning started out cold:  it was predicted to be 51, but it felt colder to me.  I was afraid to check my thermometer, because I knew that seeing 40something would just make me feel colder.  8 minutes out from the start, it started to rain–a very cold, very hard, very wet rain.  It poured for exactly 6 minutes, then stopped.  The rain went off and on like that all morning, and some of the afternoon, too.  It finally cleared up and warmed up a bit in the late afternoon.  Luckily, I started out wearing my rain jacket because of the cold, and my fabulous new fenders are GREAT!  Butt stayed dry and clean all day.

I learned two interesting things about Wisconsin today.  First, what one sees from an airplane doesn’t necessarily correlate with what one experiences on a bicycle.  Looks mighty flat flying in from the east.  Feels much less flat down here.  It was rolling hills (incredibly reminiscent of the hills on PBP, amazingly, which are actually very different from our hills) all day, except for one section about 8 or 10 miles long which was brutally steep rollers one right after another.  I finally switched over to my inclinometer screen and realized it was 13%.  Oddly, the first time I rode the section, on the outbound leg, it seemed to sort of wake my legs up, and it was the first time that I felt pretty good.  Too bad I didn’t hit it till 55 miles.

The reason I hadn’t felt at all strong up to that point was the other thing I learned about Wisconsin today:  it’s really, really windy here.  I’ve never really ridden in wind like that.  Not the gusty, knock-you-off-your-bike stuff that we have at home, but just a strong, steady headwind.  It’s pretty draining.  Somehow, it’s not quite the same as the constant climbing that we get on the Morrisville brevets, because that stuff makes my legs feel like hamburger meat.  This evening, I don’t hurt terribly much anywhere, but I’m EXHAUSTED.  I’ve been wanting to go to sleep ever since I got off the bike.  I would’ve, too, but apparently one is supposed to eat after an effort like that.

So here I sit, feet up, eating the spaghetti with grilled chicken from the local Italian-place-that-delivers.  My official brevet time was 10 hours, 5 minutes.  Oh, I forgot to mention the flat tire 10 miles from the finish (told you it was a huge relief that the rain finally stopped and the sun came out).  My new friend Marcella did most of the work changing it–thank you, Marcella!–apparently she’s really proud of her tire changing skills.  I would say that pride is justified.  The only glitch was that neither of us had any cartridges, having dutifully removed them from our saddle bags prior to flying on Saturday.  When we got to the finish, we went straight to the PAC Tour trailer and bought 4 cartridges each.  A must-have item–that frame pump stinks.  Handy in an emergency, but insanely difficult to use.

The best thing I saw all day (which Marcella pointed out):  the dairy farm of Fred L. Schmuck.  Seriously.

Okay.  I have to go to bed now.