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| Day 141 - February 18, 2006 |
I'm in Madison now, and it's cold here. Overnight lows below zero Farenheit. When I started this morning, it was 5 or 6 below and a minus-15 wind chill. Wind out of the west, and I'm walking right into it. Got my toe warmers on, heat pads in my mittens, and one more layer left for the really cold stuff. Still a pretty good day. Covered 12 miles in five hours. More if I hadn't slowed down for interview with Wisconsin Public Radio. Reporter was willing to walk with me, cool. Quite the media week. Andrew Krueger, formerly of Juneau Empire and now with a small paper in Manitowic, found me. First Alaska license plate I've seen. Worth a big howl!!! Also got interviewed by the Janesville paper. Guests there of the Severings for a few days. Between there and Madison it snowed so hard one day I had to put on the brakes for a day. Now starting to see some hills and trees.
The further north you get, the people are friendlier. People stop and ask if I'm okay. Cops still stop me, and they're friendly. One introduced herself and shook my hand before asking me for my i.d. I get offered rides and help, all by women, a trend I hope will continue!
After I got to Madison, I walked through the capitol. Huge. Beautiful. Staying here with the John and Shelley Hoffmire family. Very, very nice. And they set me up for a place down the road. Also got hold of Wisc. public radio. Guy asked me about my relationship with cows and cheeseheads. Had no idea what he was talking about. Then he said he saw it on the website. Nice going Pat and Jan (at web hosts PR Services) - you got me! Dairy cow riding cheesehead? How do you come up with this stuff?!
By the way, in addition to cheese, Wisconsin is one of just three states so far that carry my favorite, Diet Mountain Dew Code Red. I load up at the convenience stores. My day pack increased 10 extra pounds this state, but it's been worth it.
From here I head to LaCrosse. There I'll be meeting Todd Worple, formerly of Skagway. He's driving 370 miles from the other corner of the state to meet up with me next weekend in LaCrosse. Todd tells me the prettiest part of the state is ahead of me this week. Looking forward to it.
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