America's Dairyland

Day 119, July 29, 2011, America’s Dairyland

Route from Hayward to Port Valhalla Campground, Amery, WI

94.9 miles, averaging 13.3 mph

Worst Moment – I don’t know whether these hills are getting to me, or what; but now both knees are screaming instead of just my left one.  The hills certainly aren’t as steep as the ones in New England or the Texas Hill Country, but there are a lot of them.  Advil & ice.

Best Moment – Neita bought Elephant Tracks!  Last night at the KOA Kampground, there was an ice cream social.  I got a dish of a local chocolate ice cream that had all kinds of stuff in it – elephant tracks.  When I got back to the RV, Neita wanted a bite then she wanted her own dish.  I went back.  Well when I got to the RV this afternoon, she told me that she found Elephant Tracks!  Mmmm, Mmmm, Good.

The scenery today went from lake country to farm country.  After all, Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland.  This hasn’t always been the case.  In the 1840’s wheat and hops were king.  However, there were several things – pests, soil exhaustion, and a price collapse that led to the decline of the area as a prime grain producer. 

It wasn’t until the late 1890’s that a majority of Wisconsin farmers had dairy cattle.  (In the 1870 census, only 25 farmers listed themselves as dairy farmers.)  Things that helped lead Wisconsin to become the Dairy State, were the invention of the silo for winter grain storage, lower transportation rates, and the establishment of cheese production facilities.  (If you have all of that milk, something has to happen before it turns sour – so you make cheese, but it is difficult for cheese making to be done on a family farm.)  Today, Wisconsin produces 16% of the nation’s dairy products. But dairy production is not the state’s leading source of revenue - other industry including beer production is.  (Information from Adventure Cycling Association North Lakes Touring Map.)

This area of the state, the sense of smell and sound are especially keen.  There is nothing quite like the smell of the cattle lots and there were a lot of them today.  I could even hear the cattle lowing.  

Thought that you might be interested in seeing Neita’s new method of pest control inside Ruby.  We have three of these things hanging in strategic places to catch any adventurous flying insect that dares to enter the RV - like mosquitos or fruit flies.  So far I think that it may have scared them all away since there aren’t any bugs on the fly paper, but I’ve not seen any flying around either. 

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.