the end of a low

Wednesday was a long day for some. We started from Trusted Earth in Calamine, WI. Calamine is about 10 miles south of Mineral Point and 17 miles south of Dodgeville. As we started we were excited for our day. Pictures were taken with Steven and Yvonne and our belongings were packed up. I took off right away as i always tried to do because of my usual slow pace on the bicycle. If i had a head start on the first hill perhaps my team mates wouldn't have to wait for me at the top. This particular morning Davin was not quite ready as we all rode out the driveway. He still had to attach his tent to the bicycle. After about 5 minutes we realized he wasn't behind us. Our start this morning was around a corner and up a large hill then the hill repeated. It wasn't obvious if we were all together. Barnacle cruised back to see where he was and found him (i am guessing, slightly agitated and slightly lost). We got on the right track to the dairy farm for Uplands Cheese. We stopped at Prairie Ridge Store (i thought Davin might enjoy) and had a beer then proceeded to Spring Green. When we arrived in Spring Green i bought local organic beef for the meat eaters and Davin bought the best (not good but the best the store offered) veggie burgers for himself. We cruised over to the site of the Shitty Barn and started to unpack. Our tents were not in the best location (a bit of hillside and along side a metal shed that belonged to a different property) but we were happy to have a place 25 feet away from our beer drinking location! As we were preparing our beds i stood outside observing our tent city when all of sudden Davin burst out of his tent to the side of shed. He turned a knob against the back of the shed then ran about 60 feet to grab the hose end. He quickly pulled the hose to a spot between the shed and white delivery truck then started to spray himself down. I consider myself extremely lucky to have taken this photo of him because this was his turning point for the day. We bought some beers then went around saying each of our day's highs and lows. For Davin his low was the entire day up until the moment this photo captures.

Throughout the trip we all had moments/days that required something (not always so dramatic as a garden hose shower) to help us pull through and come out the other side better.

Heidi