The Journey Day 3

Another day in the saddle. I think that I must have thought all day about what to write in this journal entry. Would I talk about the rains that pleted down on me for most of the day, or the feelings of stepping into a warm shower at a kind soul's house after stinking it up for a few days.However, probably the most fundamental realization that I made today was how small we are. This is somthing that were told over and over again by our society but it never really seems to sink in. We still tend to be driven by our egos and ourselves at every level of the journey that each and every one of us is taking. I came to this realization after traveling 100 miles on the bike today into an amazing tailwind, and as I was getting closer to the destination for the night. I looked at the map and could put my fingers in between where I had started now and where I will stand when I get to Voyageur National Park; your body seems to want to tell you that you've already ridden to the edge of the world and back.At the beginning of the ride today, I went through vast wide open farming fields, where you could see for miles almost seeing the curvature of the earth as you gazed into the landscape. You could see the dust being picked up by the wheels of a tractor spiral through the air. It seemed that the earth just floated through the air, only to be guilded to where it was headed by the winds. When you got closer you saw the drivers of the tractors, unlike the dust, both you and the farmer driving the tractors, despite the environment were being guided by somthing besides the environment. We were being guided by somthing other earth's desire. Ambition toward the goal, ambition toward getting the field plowed were what we labored toward; the dust just played in the wind, no direction, all play.The farmers however seemed to me to be the most friendly people in the entire world, for being guided by some ambition, they seemed to be the most laid back easy going guys that you could have ever seen. Every farmer decided that waving and smiling was the correct way of passing someone else on the way to their goal. Funny when compared to the cycling community that I encounted leaving Milwaukee, you would think that a brother in arms like myself riding my bike would at least get a wave or a smile back... I bet that less than 1/2 of the cyclists that I passed would never consider responding to a wave, while every farmer would. As I got north of Berlin, the scenary completey changed. You also realize the intracies of mother earth, how she changes and how she molds her viewable landscape. No longer were the vast fields of Southern Wisconsin embodying my every turn, but instead I was the emergence of somthing called "Pine Trees" the farms turned into lakes and hills, the roads became twistier. Beautiful to see the change.Went to a website called warmshowers.com before I left and found a list of people that I could possiably stay with if need be. As I entered Wisconsin Rapids, I gazed down at the list of names that I had accumulated and discovered two names of people in Wisconsin Rapids. Bank shot! I called the first on and Ms. Ann Reutsch was more than happy to take me in. Ms. Ann is a Nursing Professor at a small technical school in Wisconsin Rapids and spends her summers bicycle touring. Her goal is to ride her bicycle in all 48 contential states. She lives with and takes care of both of her parents. After i got all showered up we sat in the living room and talked for about an hour about our past experiences with cycling/ life and "Creating the Army of Peace," Somthing that have idealistically thought about for a long time.Good day on the bike I suppose.