We entered wisconsin. we were picked up by Aleece and Bri. We stayed with the family in Columbus. Bri was maries longtime friend since 7th grade. It was great to see them all. The kids grew up! Our last night there we visited Alexa, Aleeces daughter, at the hospital. Alexa went into labor and was due in 24 hrs. The day we left, Alexa gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Neveh! after 3 days at the Weyker home, we were on our way to Wales where we arranged a night's stay with Pat and Mary Jo. The next day we took the several bike trails that lead toward Chicago. They were beautiful rides. Wisconsin is supposedly the second most bycicle-friendly state- and it was! Along the trail route, we encountered a club of cyclist, turned out they were the Bay View Bicycle Club. They were hosting a lunch and invited us to join. Art and Kathy, two cyclist members, invited us to stay at their place in Racine, WI. From there we headed in to Illinois, and connected with Susan from warmshowers, she rode out to meet us and guide us through the busy streets to her house. We stayed there for 2 days and explored the city, had dinner with Marshall's childhood friend Erica, and on the way out of town had a Chicago style hot dog... We rode around Lake Michigan and through the devastated city of Gary, Indiana to the town of Portage, where for the first time on the trip the rain forced us indoors to a motel. In the morning we rode to the dunes and Marie took a dip in the lake. We just arrived in Michigan and are checking our route and figuring out where we should sleep tonight.