We woke to thunder and steady, occasionally heavy, rain. We also needed to try to mend my mudguards, blasted apart at the rivets by a twig on the Great Rivers Trail yesterday. We had some plastic ties ready. But the rain and the thought of the mosquitoes waiting in their thousands outside slowed us down. In the tent we managed to lash my front mudguard together very securely with cable ties neatly threaded through where the rivets had been, two cable ties per rivet hole. We then emerged at about 10am or so, and wearing long trousers and rain macs we started to pack up. I put the mudguard back on the bike. We were off by about 11am-ish. We chatted to a man sleeping under a tarp strung between two trees - with a sort of hammock / chrysalis / mosquito net slung underneath. It seemed to solve all the problems of a mosquito ridden campsite in rain. He was travelling by bike but just from La Crosse, visited yesterday. Jim Kavanagh was just the sort of alternative, do it intelligently, type of American that we need to meet. In fact it made us reflect about where is alternative America in an age of Trump's 'Take America Back' (where to? 50s?), and the rather heavy materialism of trucks and RVs... (heroic materialism as you might say)...? We agreed that the co-op in La Crosse was superb - real live town centre stores - and that Bikes Limited is the sort of (slightly higgledy piggledy) bike shop we love... We set off via the bike trail then got on the road for the sake of swiftness (highway 35). We went through some picturesque towns today - Fountain City (no fountains... they meant springs apparently), Cochrane, Alma - rather pretty and where pizza slices kept us going - Nelson, Pepin (nearly stopped for the day but the threat of rain had eased so we carried on to) Stockholm where we stopped by the Mississippi in the city (hmm, this is a village surely) park. I swam briefly in the old muddy river, carefully taking no water internally - visibility about two or three feet.
We've seen banks of wild bergamot - monarda fistulosa - growing as a wildflower across the NE of the USA. Very impressive - I think the Native Americans made tea out of it. It smells very herby. See the photo.