7/25/05 A great day for Bob. They did 40 miles on Rails-To-Trails paths. Bob says if there were Rails-To-Trails all the way, he would ride across the country every year! They crossed the Mississippi today. The group is in Pipen Wisconsin tonight. Bob reports that there is a four-star restaurant, The Harbor View, in Pipen that people come to from all over the world. A favorite story in Pipen is about King Hussein and some US Senators who arrived there for dinner one night, but they had to wait in line like everyone else.

7/26/05 Bob says they had another good day today. The ride was 94 miles long, and with a little biking around Sparta, it was over 100 miles total. They rode along the Mississippi River for 30 miles. The wind was from the West and the temperature was only 69 degrees when they rode into Sparta. Bob reports that todays ride started looking like Vermont, with rolling hills and farms. The towns are getting closer together, more services are available. Bob says he is starting to climb hills like a champ!

7/27/05 Another good day today. The group road 60 of the 74 miles on a bike trail. This bike trail is the first Rails-To-Trails bike path in America. Wisconsin is very bicycle-friendly, and Sparta is known as the Bicycle Capital of America. Bob was happy to ride into camp with the main group, instead of always being the last one into camp at night.

Bob says there is lots of gently rolling farmland here, with very well-kept farms. They even mow the edges of their corn fields!

7/28/05 Bob is in Amish Country. That probably accounts for the neat, tidy farms and low road traffic. They had good weather all day which made for a very nice day.

7/29/05 Although there were headwinds they had a very pleasant ride with gently rolling hills and winding country roads. The last 20 miles were on a bike trail. They are in Kohler Wisconsin, and have a tour planned through the Kohler facilities. Kohler makes bathroom products such as faucets, sinks, toilets and bathtubs.

7/30/05 Bob is officially close to home! He is on Eastern Daylight Time! They had good weather and nice roads today. They took the ferry from Wisconsin to Michigan, which took 4 hours to go 40 miles. Tomorrow is a day of rest, and then the strike out to cross Michigan into Canada next week.