Madison to Woodstock —81 mi, 130 km
This was a fantastic day. It was quite cold this morning when we got up at 5:20 a.m. I had to help with serving breakfast and later with cleaning up and loading the gear truck. We left at about 9:00 a.m.. I was riding today with Ed Gringhuis. By the time we left, it was sunny weather, but not too warm, so ideal weather for biking.
We were doing good speed. Officially, they had announced a wind from the east, while we were going in the southeast direction, but the wind didn’t bothered us much. Probably the wind was not strong and this area has many trees. Around 1:00 p.m., we arrived in Delavan, a beautiful town. The local CRC had prepared a great lunch, so we ate there and talked with some people of the congregation.
The town was green with many trees and nice houses...
...and, of course, all the other American things: mall, many fast food places, and the Super Wal-Mart.
Not far after this town we got to one of our support vans. We had not seen any official sign, but we heard from Cory, the driver, that we were already in Illinois. One of the other cyclists had made a sign to mark the border to Illinois.
If the officials don’t do it, we have to do it ourselves, they must have thought. Cory is holding up the sign for the camera.
So we already left the state of Wisconsin. I realized that this was my first visit to this state, where my great-grandfather is buried. My great-grandfather, Jacobus de Blaeij, emigrated in June 1907 from the Netherlands to the US and ended up in Wisconsin. He left the Netherlands with his 4 younger children, while my grandfather (who was married already) and three brothers stayed in the Netherlands. And that is why I was born in the Netherlands and not in the US. Someday, I hope to visit the American branch of our family, who live in the Sheboygan area, in the eastern part of Wisconsin close to Lake Michigan.
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