{"id":926,"date":"2021-08-24T22:03:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/?page_id=926"},"modified":"2021-08-24T22:03:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T02:03:22","slug":"day-26-onalaska-to-friendship-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/day-by-day-trip-log\/day-26-onalaska-to-friendship-wisconsin\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 26: Onalaska to Friendship, Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh no! Major equipment problems.\u00a0 No, the bike is fine.\u00a0 I am fine.\u00a0 The laptop, however, is dying.\u00a0 I bought this ASUS laptop only 7 months ago.\u00a0 It is all solid state, so it has no moving parts to be destroyed while bicycling.\u00a0 However, the battery is having problems and this morning it took over five minutes to get the machine to power on.<\/p>\n

This is a big problem because I charge my phone (needed for maps), camera (so you can see the pictures), and my lights (so cars can see me) all off the laptop.\u00a0 Plus, I write this blog each day on the laptop.\u00a0 If it will not boot again you will hear less from me.<\/p>\n

It is interesting how life has changed.\u00a0 The last time I cycled across the country I needed no electricity, Internet and I phoned home once a week.\u00a0 My maps were physical pieces of paper from AAA.\u00a0 I am not set up that way today.\u00a0 Montana was difficult because it had tough terrain, few services, few people and also because I had three days of no cell-phone coverage.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, but if my posts become shorter it is not because less is happening on the road, but because I don\u2019t have a full-size keyboard to type out what is happening.<\/p>\n

+++++++++++++++<\/p>\n

It is now night time.\u00a0 The laptop booted.\u00a0 The battery is clearly dead but if I get a good wall outlet I can get the machine to stay on.\u00a0 I also bought a separate cell phone charger at Office Depot.\u00a0 I found a store near the motel and jogged over.\u00a0 No, I did not take the bike.\u00a0 I want to spend as little time sitting on that saddle as possible.\u00a0 With the separate charger, even if the laptop dies, I can still keep going.<\/p>\n

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After the technical issues were dealt with, I started pedaling on the same rail trail as yesterday.\u00a0 They renamed the path the La Crosse River Tail, but I didn\u2019t notice much difference.\u00a0 This trail ended in Sparta, Wisconsin which claims to be the cycling capital of the USA.<\/p>\n

I went into the tourist information office which was located beside the rail trail to ask why they are the USA\u2019s capital.\u00a0 The lady behind the desk told me that in the 1960s they were the first place in the USA to buy an old abandoned railway line and convert it into a bike trail.\u00a0 There is a picture above of the first bike rail trail in the USA.<\/p>\n

I then pedaled another 60 miles on the shoulder of a local highway.\u00a0 It was busier than I expected.\u00a0 After looking at the map I discovered that Walmart had put a distribution center in the middle of Wisconsin along the highway I was traveling, which explains all the tractor trailers from food companies like Nabisco whizzing by.<\/p>\n

I ended the day with another small crisis.\u00a0 I try to book motels a day or two ahead of time. \u00a0Oshkosh is about 80 miles from Friendship, Wisconsin where I am presently.\u00a0 Looking at hotels on the Internet shows no vacancies.\u00a0 Going 30 miles north (Appleton) or south (Fond du Lac) shows a few vacancies but the prices are unreal.\u00a0 One hotel was asking about $500 per night.<\/p>\n

My wife found out that Oshkosh this week is having a major old-time airplane show.\u00a0 Every antique plane buff in the country is in Oshkosh this week.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time trying to find a room and finally found one for $265.\u00a0 It is about 10 miles off the bike route and has no restaurants close by.\u00a0 Given I have no tent, sleeping bag or mat there really is no choice but to pay the going rate since sleeping on a park bench in sweaty bike clothes is not a viable option.<\/p>\n

I lecture every semester about supply and demand.\u00a0 I clearly state that when demand shifts dramatically, prices jump.\u00a0 While I understand the theory, I hate it when the price jump happens to me in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh no! Major equipment problems.\u00a0 No, the bike is fine.\u00a0 I am fine.\u00a0 The laptop, however, is dying.\u00a0 I bought this ASUS laptop only 7 months ago.\u00a0 It is all solid state, so it has no moving parts to be destroyed while bicycling.\u00a0 However, the battery is having problems and this morning it took over … Continue reading Day 26: Onalaska to Friendship, Wisconsin<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5335,"featured_media":0,"parent":766,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":927,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/926\/revisions\/927"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}