I'm back. O boy o boy. I know I'm back alot earlier than expected, but that is a good thing isn't it? The trip was absolutly amazing, and I can't wait to do another one. I ended up going to lake michigan and back on only 9$ so heres my story.
The first couple days have already been covered, but theres a couple pictures from Niellsville. Marshfield was awesome, Craig hooked me up big time with lots of food, beer and company. It was a really good time all around. The ride to Stevens Point started out really foggy. I guess this was a precursor to the wierd weather that I experienced the whole trip. Hot foggy days, or cold rainy ones. The roads were still wet, and covered in worms trying to escape the rain puring through their homes the previous night. As a result by the time I stopped the bottom frame of my bike was coated with dead worms. It was a pain to be riding then look down at my shoe and see that my tire kicked up a dead worm into it. Then the shaking and kicking that foollowerd terying to get the thing out without acctually touching it. 
There is monsters in the fog.
Rough road was an understatement.
The reaction of the amish while I rode through the countryside was priceless. One kid stopped his horses in the field turned around drop jawed and stared as I rode by. I waved and moments later recieved a stunned wave back. I can't imagine how hard it would be to try to explain that to his familey and friends later in the day. About 10 miles outside of Marshfield in Chili I rode by a house that had thousands of bikes laying in the yard. I jumped off my bike and knocked on the door of the house nearby. No one answered so I walked around the yard and checked out all of the bikes. There must have been at least one of each type of bike ever made laying in that yard. I walked down rows of bikes fell in love with them, turned the corner and hundreds more were laying there, it was incredible. 
As incredible as it was it was also kind of depressing to see so many of them neglected completly. The picture above was a sprocket rusted so badly that when I flicked it it fell apart completly. More than a few of the bikes were complete rust from the rimes to the bars. It reminded me alot of all of the old cruisers sitting along roads and in yards around the country used as decorations. Every one of those bikes has a story, and years of history. The rows of kids bikes were hundreds of kids first bikes, and hopefully will be someone elses. People loved them and hated them and now they are left laying in a field unapreciated, and will probobly just lay there for years to come. When I finally left I ran into the wife of the man that owns them all taking pictures of my bike. I asked about certain bikes, and she was pretty oblivious to any of it. Stating simply "I don't know much but the good stuff is in all of those trailers." Refering to 4 or 5 trailers sitting full to the ceiling with bikes among the field. I found out later that these people really have no idea what they have, and spend most of there time fixing huffys and taking them to yard sales. The rest of the trip to Stevens Point was smooth despite some pretty gross hills. When I got into town I asked around if there was anything interesting to see or do. The answer I always get to this question at every town I go to is a laugh followed by a no. I eventually got the information that there was a coop in town so I headed for it and asked around for a place to pitch a tent or crash. Everyone was really cool and I got hooked up pretty easily, the only stipluation being that I would have to wait untill later that night. I rode over to a bike shop and talked for a while and a couple of the guys were nice enough to give me a few bucks for lunch, so I headed over to noodles and filled up. After that I rode to a park to give my bike a once over and realized that one of my welds had cracked. Fuck. 
I rode back to the bike shop to see if they could recomend a welder to me, and they gave me a couple numbers to call. I eventually got ahold of a kid named Jerry. "Hey my bike broke and I was told you could weld, could you help me out?
Rough road was an understatement.
The reaction of the amish while I rode through the countryside was priceless. One kid stopped his horses in the field turned around drop jawed and stared as I rode by. I waved and moments later recieved a stunned wave back. I can't imagine how hard it would be to try to explain that to his familey and friends later in the day. About 10 miles outside of Marshfield in Chili I rode by a house that had thousands of bikes laying in the yard. I jumped off my bike and knocked on the door of the house nearby. No one answered so I walked around the yard and checked out all of the bikes. There must have been at least one of each type of bike ever made laying in that yard. I walked down rows of bikes fell in love with them, turned the corner and hundreds more were laying there, it was incredible. As incredible as it was it was also kind of depressing to see so many of them neglected completly. The picture above was a sprocket rusted so badly that when I flicked it it fell apart completly. More than a few of the bikes were complete rust from the rimes to the bars. It reminded me alot of all of the old cruisers sitting along roads and in yards around the country used as decorations. Every one of those bikes has a story, and years of history. The rows of kids bikes were hundreds of kids first bikes, and hopefully will be someone elses. People loved them and hated them and now they are left laying in a field unapreciated, and will probobly just lay there for years to come. When I finally left I ran into the wife of the man that owns them all taking pictures of my bike. I asked about certain bikes, and she was pretty oblivious to any of it. Stating simply "I don't know much but the good stuff is in all of those trailers." Refering to 4 or 5 trailers sitting full to the ceiling with bikes among the field. I found out later that these people really have no idea what they have, and spend most of there time fixing huffys and taking them to yard sales. The rest of the trip to Stevens Point was smooth despite some pretty gross hills. When I got into town I asked around if there was anything interesting to see or do. The answer I always get to this question at every town I go to is a laugh followed by a no. I eventually got the information that there was a coop in town so I headed for it and asked around for a place to pitch a tent or crash. Everyone was really cool and I got hooked up pretty easily, the only stipluation being that I would have to wait untill later that night. I rode over to a bike shop and talked for a while and a couple of the guys were nice enough to give me a few bucks for lunch, so I headed over to noodles and filled up. After that I rode to a park to give my bike a once over and realized that one of my welds had cracked. Fuck. I rode back to the bike shop to see if they could recomend a welder to me, and they gave me a couple numbers to call. I eventually got ahold of a kid named Jerry. "Hey my bike broke and I was told you could weld, could you help me out?"Yea, of course, I'm actually a brazer but what do you need?"
"Well, actually it's a tall bike, I don't know if you've ever seen one before."
"Hell yea, I've built one before, I can help out no problem. Want to meet me down at the bike coop?"
Bike coop? really? here? Fucking awesome!
We met up and I rode over to The Stanley Project. A big wareshouse space on the outside of town that was like heaven to me. This was what I've wanted to do ever since I got to Eau Claire and here is an awesome model for it in Stevens Point of all places. Aparently these guys fix up bikes, and give them away, or sell some of them to help buy tools and stuff. They have given away over 1300 bikes in just a few years and no plans to stop. It was so cool, there were dozens of bikes sitting around waiting to get tuned up and given away. Fixed gear frames getting painted, and worked on. Really cool people woprking on stuff, and none of it was about making a buck. It's reaally inspirational to see people who have their shit together so well, and it makes me super jelous. Eau Claire has so much potential, but it seems like projects like this never seem to get their foot in the door here. Why is that? Anyway, while my bike was getting worked on I walked around and checked out all of the bikes, and parts.
FIXED! Afterwards Jerry and I hung out and talked for a long time about his plans to move down to Madison and start building frames. He showed me some of his work, and it really blew me away how good it was. Once again it made me want to learn and do so much work with frame building and modification. Someone ordered a pizza and I got fed, which ruled. Everyone eventaully took off, and I rode around town some more killing time untill I my place for the night opened up. I was told to check out a bar called The Elbow Room, so I did. As I was riding a guy waved me in so I got down and followed him in. I brought my bike in and could barely get through the crowd of people looking at it gawking and asking questions. I got some fee beer out of it though and went to then end of the bar to talk to my new friends. We sat and talked for a while about our towns and all of the things about them that we hate and we love, and how we wish we could just leave sometimes, and how sometimes you never want to. We talked about bikes and Stevens Points alleycats and how much fun it is to ride your bike aoround with friends and dink around on it for hours. Eventually we parted ways and I rode to the river and layed down looking at the water untill I got a phone call and headed over to the girl I was staying withs house. When I got there we made afort out of a vacuum some sticks, and a blanket. Fort building skills have lessned since I was younger, and it's now another thing I have to hone in on again.
The ride out of Stevens Point the next day was really pretty and I spent alot of it sitting up eating pretzels while I rode in awe at how wide open the sky looked.
That was the best tomato I've ever eaten in my life.
Well thats all for today. My stomach is making tons of noise and I need food because people in the computer lab are starting to look at me. I'll hopefully post the rest of the trip tomorrow. In other news the Outdoor Festivle of the Arts is Saterday and I'll be there with a bunch of bikes and stuff, you should be too.
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