As I believe I mentioned in yesterday's blog, it was decided that we would drive to La Crosse today. We had a leisurely breakfast in Baraboo -- at a restaurant, for a change, as we were getting kind of tired of hotel free breakfast food -- and then packed up and got on our way. We took the scenic route, and it was beautiful and rolling. There were several hills I was most grateful not to be riding up today.
Once we got to La Crosse, we parked and walked to a likely restaurant. Our server, Tony, had a resonant voice and great elan. After he had visited the table a few times, I finally asked him whether he was an actor. He said that he might be, why? I told him that his energy and voice spoke to that as a vocation or avocation. He said that he used to do a lot of acting, but work and post-secondary schooling had gotten in the way, but he was thinking about getting back into it on a community theatre level. I daresay he's thinking about it even more after my comments.
We walked back to the car, which was parked near a coffee shop (the Cabin). We each had a coffee, and I brought my computer in and used their WiFi in order to check out the bike route from there, a hotel, and the location of the nearest Walgreen's (lanolin for my knee, and lip balm with an SPF factor), a pet store (new basket for Remy?), and a hardware store. I was having trouble staying focused on my tasks, so I asked one of the workers at the coffee shop instead. Turns out there was a hardware store mere storefronts away where, "they can solve anything!" I went there to have an extra car key made, and the wonderful woman who worked there ended up solving the dog carrier problem, as well. I was also told that there was a Walgreen's on the way out of town to our hotel.
We researched restaurants once we had brought our stuff in from the car and Tayler had worked out on the stationary bike at the hotel. I thought I had found a great place -- the Crazy Horse Saloon -- with a really interesting and healthy menu. We took off in search of it. It wasn't there anymore and had been replaced by the Silverado Saloon. We opened the door. We closed the door. We went to Olive Garden. It seems that the Crazy Horse Saloon I had found on line was actually in California, which made a lot more sense with the menu. This place in Onalaska didn't look like they'd ever heard of goat cheese, much less served it!
After dinner, we filled the car up with gas, got a couple more necessaries, and headed back to the hotel where I, for one, will soon be laying down my head for the night. A high of 81 tomorrow looks very appealing. We may try to camp partway up the Mississippi, or we may hotel it. It looks as though campsites with electricity (for my CPAP) at Merrick State Park are $85, which is more than we are paying for the hotel tonight. The next three days have mostly to partly sunny skies predicted, and winds will be tolerable tomorrow and Sunday, if a little challenging on Saturday. We plan another rest day on Monday in Minneapolis before I start on the actual Adventure Cycling route maps on Tuesday. There is quite a bit of rain predicted for next week, but the winds are ESE and SE during much of it, which would be quite helpful, so I will plan to ride in the rain, as long as we're not getting deluges and thunderstorms.
The rest felt good.
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