Today we were faced with a rough decision. Gravel roads, or traffic. The decision was to give the gravel road a shot, and see how it went. Well, it started out nice and hard packed.

See, this is how gravel roads trick you. As soon as we were committed, the road turned sour. We hit a freshly grated section that was about 3-4 miles long.

We slugged along averaging 1.5 MPH. Yuck. Chuck went first for much of it, using his mountain drive much of the way. I took up the rear, riding in Chucks semi-packed ruts. The girls had to walk their bikes quite often, on even the slightest incline. Chuck only got stuck once, on a 3-4% slope of really soft stuff.

After finally passing the gravel stretch, and having the group threaten my life if I don't find some pavement soon, we stopped at Village Haus Restaraunt and Cheese in Butternut, WI. The strawberry shortcake was short on the cake, but had plenty of strawberries and cream. We finished off most of their inventory.

After only 37 miles, we were tired and a very inviting sign convinced us to stop for the night in Glidden, WI.

Taters is a bit annoyed because apparently you can only use a cell phone in Glidden if you walk to the highest point in town up by the water tower. The priority that is 'texting' has coaxed her to wander in seemingly random patterns outside trying to get a signal. I missed a great photo of her standing outside on a cement block, anxiously staring at her phone.

There is only 1 motel in Glidden, halfway up a rather intimidating hill. The owner kindly allowed us to park our bikes in the lobby. I highly recommend the Glidden motel. Dinner at the Green Lantern was decent, but really slow. It took over an hour to get our food, and there were very few customers. They also seemed to not be interested in bringing us water when we asked for it. At least Glidden has a cool bear that likes to pose for photos while eating cyclists.

37 miles today, 207 total