Things are heating up here in the midwest. It’s 95 degrees as I start writing this at 4:30 in the afternoon. The locals are not happy. Their plush green lawns are all brown. We came north to escape the heat, and the heat has finally found us.

To beat the heat, we start our ride at 6:30AM because our bodies are habits of Eastern time and we are up anyway. Plus, it gets light here at 5:30AM, so why not start early.

Our destination today is a state park on Yellowstone Lake. The road goes right around the lake and we are actually treated to some flat riding for awhile.

This comes to an end with a 15% climb away from the lake, but overall, today was much flatter than the hard ride we had yesterday. We are done by 9:30, which gives us plenty of time to get breakfast at our B+B.

It’s another travel day and today we are headed to Soldier’s Grove, where there is a very nice B+B nestled in a hollow.

On the way, we pass a windmill farm that we saw from a distance yesterday.

These things generate enough power for 9000 homes. Pretty cool.

We stop in Fennimore for lunch. They are really into their railroads here and have a big train display in the center of town.

Lunch is at an old-style restaurant that has been there forever. It is rather disappointing as the food is so-so.

However, today (July 15th) is National Ice Cream Day, and we do our part to help celebrate at an ice cream place down the street from lunch.

There is a cheese factory here which is open on Sundays.

We pick up some cheese curds here because who doesn’t like the squeak of cheese on your teeth as you are relaxing with a beer. And at 100 calories an ounce, our 1/2 pound bag should provide many opportunities to gain some weight. We still haven’t gained any weight. Why? Because we haven’t been on a scale and we have no idea what we weigh!

Dinner is at a small restaurant in Soldier’s Grove. We haven’t had pizza since we left, so why not do it here, with beer?

There are way too many poorly-behaved children running around the place and we can’t wait to get out of there.

Coming up next: a two-state ride, where we start in Iowa and ride into Minnesota. We are really a long way from home now. We love crossing state borders, so hopefully there will be some good photo opportunities. Stay tuned to see how it turns out…