Day 48: July 27

Over the bridge to downtown La Crosse

The Mississippi

Coffee of course...or maybe a smoothie for whistler

The fountains

We found the local bike park

La Crosse, WI

After lunch...the park of course!

And...some biking!

Checking the drinking water works...it does...

A bike ride down by the Mississippi

The best cherry beer: drinking in honor of Uncle Teva, Uncle Ido, grammie Carol. no we didn't share with whistler, he had chocolate milk!

Ended the evening biking back to camp with a beautiful sun down

Day 47: July 26

7:30 am we are headed to La Crosse. Rushford to Houston biking the Famous Root River

Houston Nature Center

bike parts used to design art!

Houston, MN about 20 miles more to la Crosse

Crossing the border into Wisconsin: roughly 40 miles biking flatter and faster we biked it in 3 hrs.

Our campground

Whistler needing to eat before we eat lunch with grandpa Mike

Camp is set up and ready

Thank you for taking a lunch break from work with us grandpa Mike

Day 46: July 25

Sunday is gone, Monday followed, Tuesday was right behind. Wednesday is closing in as well and tomorrow the three of us will return to the rode. This week has truly been a peaceful one watching Whistler play as much as he could, and enjoying good company with Aunt Donna & Uncle Buzz, grandpa Mike, and Auntie Lacey. we enjoyed one last morning on the front porch drinking grandpas coffee and eating pastry. we tried to soak up the gentle breeze as we knew the heat was creeping in quite quickly and moved ourselves to the back porch. We sat around the table chatting while Whistler played in the pool. AS much as we love family time and it's sometimes difficult to say goodbye, we know it's time to continue on and ride. We will put tires to pavement making our way to see friends, more family, and people we meet on the way.Hopefully we will be on the road early because as we have learned the heat does not wait for us.....

Hot hot hot.....

Whistler trying to convince us we too should be swimming

Down stairs to get some sleep

last minute decisions.....

Again we have found ourselves making decisions, changing decisions, only to make more decisions. We have come across points in the rode, our journey that don't always fall into place as we thought it would. We know we are carrying more than we should be; for instance the can of refried beans we began the trip with in Bellingham and have not eaten yet, but at this point we figure we are holding onto them till we reach Sarasota. We have to at this point. We did get rid of about 15 pounds in Denver and again going through another load of warm clothing items we can leave here in Rushford. As our plans are ever changing we now now the warm fleece are no longer necessary. Tomorrow morning grandpa has work and we will be leaving Rushford biking to La Crosse, WI. We will stay the night at a campground and be in la Crosse until Sunday morning, where we will bike to Eau Claire, WI to visit grandpa & grandma Nelson. A couple days there and bike to Wisconsin rapids to visits Nicks grandma. From there we continue across Wisconsin to stop in Witomah, WI at Uncle Buzz and Aunt Donnas. And here is where the decisions were changing. We ran into some issues making out way out of Wisconsin to our original destination which was Kentucky. The next available sleeper car wasn't until September when Nick was scheduled back to work. Next option travel out by car, no vehicles large enough for our gear and no one wanting us to take a car to Kentucky. Okay what to do...keep checking around.... After thought and change in plans, it now looks like the traveling three will be heading down to the Big Easy.After we finish biking Wisconsin we are taking the train to Chicago an hour or so lay over and then a 19+ hour train ride from Chicago to New Orleans. We will be traveling alongside the gulf coast through Mississippi, Alabama, and arriving Sarasota, FL. To tell you the truth we couldn't be more excited about our decision to change the route and the way things have turned out so far. it seriously has been an adventure for the three of us...

Looks like someone is ready for the Big Easy

Day 45: July 24

Here are the pink flowers Teva asked grandpa to put outside before we came. They are getting some good rain while it lasts.

Nick and Uncle Buzz

Aunt Donna and whistler

Uncle Buzz and whistler played in the yard for a really long time. Who wore out who?

after a long day of playing, dinner, more playing, the park, more playing we thought the sprinkler might help cool him off a bit!

Ice cream makes everything better after a long day

The family...Auntie Lacey and the baby in the belly and the rest of the gang