Day 35

JULY 13 Elk Mound to Neillsville MN

We said goodbye to Ann and Flynn the next morning and hit the road around 8:00, a rather late start. Ten miles up the road, we stopped in Eau Clare to pick up some post cards to send to Aunt Kathy's first grade class (while in Minneapolis they sent me another batch of letters, so I was in the process of responding to all of them). At the first hotel we stopped into, I picked up 5 of the 7 post cards I needed; I figured there would be more hotels, so I only took the better post cards. As we rode away, dad told me, "In the future, you might want to consider getting all the postcards you need, just in case you can't find any latter." How prophetic he was.

The next hotel we stopped at didn't have any post cards, and neither did the 15 after that. At each hotel, I would walk up to the desk and ask, "Do you have any postcards?"

"No, but you might try at the...." was always the reply. I became more and more frantic as it became apparent that no where in Eau Clare had any postcards; hotels, gas stations, grocery stores... nothing.

Finally, dad and I gave up and began riding out of town. Suddenly dad shouted, "STOP!" Off to the left was a little run down shopping center with the name 'Hallmark' written on the facade in glowing letters. Beneath it, we found postcards in the 'variety' hardware store.
"Oh, thank you!" I cried when we found them, "we've looked EVERYWHERE for postcards, and you're the only place in town to have them!.
"Yep." the woman behind the counter agreed, "Only other place is the university, and they're closed on Sundays." I bought 5 postcards... 3 extras just in case!

Later that afternoon, we stopped at the Wisconsin State War Memorial, known as the High Ground. As we dismounted, an elderly man with a bent nose came up, "Are either of you veterans?" He spoke in a thick voice. Both of us shook our heads. "Well, I am."
He said, gesturing to his baseball cap, which had the emblem of some branch of the armed forces, "This is the High Ground. We- we call it that because in a fight, you always want the high ground. This is the highest ground around. You need some place to stay tonight? You can stay here off in the bushes..."
"Thanks." dad said, but neither of us were seriously considering it; the winds were strong enough that day, that to go 5 miles into Neillsville to get groceries, and then come 5 miles back... into a headwind... would have been excruciating. However, when we got to Neillsville, we began to think we might have to go back to the High Grounds: the next closest campground was 15 miles down the road, and we were both spent. After asking all around town, we ended up camping out behind WCCN radio station, after talking to Kevin, the DJ.