"If that nerd can bike for five years without getting a flat then we sure as hell can make it thirteen miles... talking to other cyclists is depressing."

As we left our campground around 10am this morning, another cyclist came into camp.

"Ah shit, let's go, quick!" I whispered to Josh. I was eager to leave and not very eager to have the similar cyclist conversation that drones on.

Matt was cool. He was too cool. He was smarter than us. We took it personally. We're only human.

"Psshhh, I don't pay for campgrounds. That looks like what's weighing your bikes down. I got a hammock. Sleep anywhere at any time, all I need is two trees," he said as he unraveled breakfast; walnuts and bread.

Goddamnit, he was right. How had I never thought of it before? And he's eating casually in a park... and simply. At a time where I've been struggling (and failing grandly) to keep my expenses limited to $20 a day, Matt had all the answers. And I didn't want to admit it. It bothered me.

A friggin hammock. I'm rolling around with two half-broken tents, a sleeping bag, and a sleeping mat and the easy solution was right there. A modern day Gilligan rolling around. It bothered me that I hadn't thought of it. Matt was smarter than I was. It bothered me that that bothered me.

We biked fifteen miles back onto the ill-fated Highway 61 with the big shoulder; aka the Highway of Hell. No more burst tires. We made it without problems to Lake City, MI, home to the origins of waterskiing.

The road wound out in a peculiar fashion and took a less than direct route, rewarded with this view.

The route criss-crossed through the old town of Frontenac, where there was a state park. I yearned for a swim but I got a call back from Nesbitt's Nursey, a place on the maps for free camping.

"Ya know, if you get here before 7pm, there's a fish boil tonight," Lee, the son of the owner told me.

"Ohh my buddy's a vegetarian, he'a gonna salivate when he hears about this," I chuckled.

The race was on.

I didn't listen to any music for the rest of the day. The roads that we took were quiet and there were no cars creating the crick in my neck that comes from watching for motorists. It was a breath of fresh air. The roads went up and down, through corn fields, and farms again

It was so goddamn hot though that I stopped at a DQ in Red Wing, MI. 

We went back into Wisconsin.

But not before I got onto the wrong road and realized I was going up an interstate. Josh accidentally took a picture of the road (we had our own travels for the majority of the day).

We met up again, ten miles away from Nesbitt's Nursey. 

I finally plugged in headphones for the final stretch and we made it to our destination around 5:30pm. We met Lee and his father, Leon.

Lee's dad was an interesting character, talking about a lot of financial things that I pretended to understand. He grew up in Winona, MI where Josh and I had our bicycle breakdowns. The one thing he made sure we remembered, dubbing it "the most important thing you'll here on your journey." Northerwestern Mutual... I dunno what it means but I have the name.

Lee and his family were amazing. We got the fish boil, which the nursery does every Friday and it came with live music; The Ditch Lilies. The band played music until everyone was gone except for Josh and I. The two ladies played all the guitar instruments you could imagine, and were jovial all the while. They gave us a free CD as well. You can (should) check out their music at theditchlilies.com

I had my tent without the rain cover outside as it began to drip down. Lee kindly gave me a tarp to throw over the thing and here we are. An interesting tidbit about Lee. He reminds me of some surfers I know from Cape May; his Minnesota accent seems like it could double as a surfer one. His mother also told me that he used to be the Minnesota State Mountain Biking Champion. 

Tomorrow, we'll be in The Twin Cities.