Steve and Cathy arrived while we were at dinner last night, treated Scott and me to dinner, and then bought me a motel room for the night. What great friends! However, the most important was that they brought Bugsy, their Cardigan Welsh Corgi. Bugsy said hello to every person and tent in camp. He really spread the love around, and was a terrific camp guest. All of them are welcome anytime!
Today, we had as many miles as our other long day, 112 of them. None of them were easy, but many were beautiful. We’ve heard that Wisconsin is a pretty state, and today really bore that out. We started out in spectacular farm countryside climbing in and out of an early morning fog that set off the land Our first 40 miles were on steep rolling county roads in this farm country. After that, we got on to our familiar highway 14 for much of the rest of the day. Our usual southeast almost headwinds also showed up about that time, and we fought into the wind for the rest of the day.
We’re staying southeast of Madison, a city of 250,000. We spent much of the late afternoon skirting around the city on a bewildering combination of city and country roads.
The temperatures were in the low 80’s, a real blessing for the riders, but the wind and the long distance made the day a long one. We pulled into a nice campground around 4 p.m., the staff, the faster riders already showering and setting up their tents. Mary and Dennis, my cousin's-in-law picked me and Scott up at the campground, took us to their home, fed and entertained us, then brought us back after forcing us to accept a batch of homemade cookies. This is the first time I've met them, but I sure hope it's not the last, as they were wonderful hosts and very interesting people.
We have two more centuries in the next three days. We’ll cover almost 500 miles in a five day period in one of the longest stretches we’ll do all summer. Another challenging day on the Big Ride under our belts. Up again at 5 a.m. we start all over again.

The fat old men's club is going to kick us out if we don't gain some weight, so we'll be eating this ear of corn to pack some on.

David is at his best here in this fetching picture taken over my shoulder. As rider of the day, he has a certain responsibility to provide a good picture for the website, and I think he delivered.