Day 41 - Biking through Barneveld

Day 41 - Saturday, August 9

Fennimore to Madison —72 mi, 116 km

Today was a beautiful day and a great ride. I woke up at 4 a.m. and it was raining. Not a very nice idea to have to pack the tent in the rain and everything else being wet too. Because the ride would not be that long, I decided to stay in my sleeping bag until 6 a.m. Just by that time the rain stopped. Of course the tent was wet, but for the rest we would keep things dry.

I left camp at about 7:30 and it was still wet and cloudy. It rained a bit when I passed an Amish man with cart and two horses (and the cart was riding on iron wheels without tires), so I decided not to take a picture. Later I passed a whole battery of windmills, but the picture is not that impressive, probably because of the condensation on the camera lens.

Slowly, we got out of the rainy area and it even became sunny. The wind was Northwest and we were going east, so we had kind of a tailwind. The biking was great, I was flying. I biked alone during most of the day and I couldn’t stop. I only took a few breaks to eat and take some pictures.

We passed the town of Barneveld and so I had to take some pictures. It reminded me of my mom and dad de Blaeij, who visited this town with “uncle Jim” and of my sister, Marleen, who lives with her husband Adri and two sons in the Dutch town of Barneveld. The water tower of Barneveld looks like the model of water tower we have seen in many of the towns in Nebraska and Iowa.

In the middle of the town was a nice church and the American flag shows that this is Barneveld in Wisconsin.

There is also a picture of the police/fire/rescue squad station in Barneveld.

We passed another town that was started by people from Norway. I only took a picture from the very “Norsk” church that was still in that area.

I arrived at the Crossroads Church in Madison at about 1:00 p.m. I put up my tent and it all dried fast. We are camping on the sports field beside the church. Nice members of the church shuttled us to a high school where we could shower. Later they shuttled us to a laundromat where we did our laundry.

I also received mail and a package. Thank you all for your support and your encouraging mail. This week we did many miles, but I biked them all by the grace of God. Have a blessed Sunday.