Ride Across the USA: 7/20/10 -- Stratford to Emily Lake CG -- 62 mi/ 2279 total

This day is what adventures are about. Our free CG was nice but the water was locked so all we had was what little we carried in. At night, someone came and locked the bathrooms. Hmm. Wake up to light fog and Di has a flat, valve. Fog lifts so we head down the road only to run into heavy, soupy fog on this busy hwy that had good shoulders. We turn off on our county road, have the bright clothes, lights and now no shoulders. We do not like this at all but plug along to Rozellville for brkft at a 125 yr old bar (one of 4 bldgs in town). The bartender tells us his problems, wife will cook but is busy with grandson. She comes out & I can't figure out what she is doing with hair but I take baby so she can cook. Good meal & then she says she has to finish her hair -- she was in the process of coloring. Fog looks better, off we go. About 1 mi out, it is soup again. In all we rode about 15 mi in the mess. Stopped for a break, ready to go, Di has 2nd flat of day, valve again. K spent some time working on valve opening to help prevent further flats: Kirk=3, Di=4. I miss the turn to our next county road and we end up on hwy 10 (4 lane) but we didn't "see" the sign that said prohibited. Unfortunately, this eventually turned into I39 and now we REALLY know we aren't supposed to be there. Getting closer to Stevens Point we take off-ramp and then zig-zagged our way into/through town. We need to buy tubes and found a shop, he gave us directions to a trail and campsite so off we go. Riding along -- sign says "road closed". Of course, we kept on riding and only had a short distance to push the loaded bikes thru heavy, loose sand. All in all we felt the day ended up smelling like a rose as it cut some miles off for us. Campground is a county park with a lake and was nice until we were notified that we were in a thunderstorm warning until 7. The storm went around us so we were able to have a decent night.