Originally Posted by
Dirt Farmer
Any bar or tavern (in Wisconsin, every little town has at least one). They will fill it up no questions asked. Well, sometimes they'll ask a typical Wisconsin question, i.e. "Beautiful day for a bike ride, ainna? Where youse guys headed?"
When I rode across the country with a small group we found that to be the norm in the midwest. We usually got offered ice if it was available. One warm, humid morning in Minnesota a couple of us stopped at a bar because we were desperate for water. Place wasn't open yet, but the owners were there. They saw us outside, invited us in, filled our bottles with water and ice and chatted with us for a bit.
In Iowa, two of us who were ahead of the group stopped into a senior center to get water because there was no store in town. The guy who ran the place, after checking with the town's mayor, invited the group to spend the night there. To have A.C. was heavenly. Another extremely hot and humid day. They refused to take any money, but we left our night's camping budget as a donation to the center, which had been built entirely with donated materials and labor.
In extremely rural Illinois three of us stopped at a school that was holding extracurricular classes on a Saturday. Temperature would top out that day at over 100. Filled up out bottles from a water fountain. The teacher asked us if we would talk to her class. At first we were hesitant since we had nearly a century that day. She pleaded with us. She wanted the kids to know that there were all sorts of opportunities in the world. We couldn't resist after such hospitality and spoke and answered questions for maybe 30 min. She took this photo. She also had each kid write us a thank you letter and mailed them and the photo to Bowling Green, OH, which is where our next rest day was scheduled for.
Later in the trip someone remarked about seeing a "Restroom for Customers Only" sign. I think that was somewhere NY.