Worst: Waking up in a tent that was soaked from the dew.
Most Unexpected: Riding a portion of the ride blind.
We slept at the fairgrounds in Viroqua and to the surprise of just about everybody, I chose to sleep outside last night in my tent with two other couples. Just to clarify, I did not sleep with two other couples in my tent. The rest of the group slept inside a fair building that was like a barn. Because of the mosquitos, several tents were set up in the barn. The road next to the fairgrounds was really noisy to the extent that one of the tents that was set up next to mine moved behind the building. I had an advantage with my one deaf ear and just rolled over on the good ear. When morning arrived, the tent was soaked in dew and the inside of the fly was soaked as well from condensation, so I put away a tent that was about 10 pounds heavier.
On to the bike ride. It was cold to start with a temperature of 48 degrees. We started with hills which means climbing, until we hit a long descent that pushed us into a cloud. The fog was so thick my glasses completely failed, and my windbreaker got really wet. I was blind, but now I see. Maybe I should make the last line into a song and call it okay Grace, I mean it wasn't that amazing.
Just after the fog, I was treated to a scene out of a horror movie as I got caught in a release of baby spiders. They came across the road in the air with their webs attached and I found them caught up in my sunglasses and other areas. No arachnid was harmed in the making of this bike ride.
We climbed back out of the fog, and after wiping down my glasses, it was once again a beautiful day of riding in green hills with trees and farms. Lunch was at Pecks produce stand, and I was able to enjoy a rolled tortilla stuffed with Hummus and a fresh tomato that tasted like tomato because it had just been purchased. I made it all by myself.
Just before the next stop I pulled into Carrs Cheese where I had several samples of the product. The lady informed me that while California has Happy cows, Wisonsin has contented cows. She said because of the glaciers (long since gone), the soils grow better grasses etc. resulting in the cows making better milk. Okay, but California still makes great cheese. I bought three samples of the cheese to eat over the next several days.
We rolled into Madison around 1:30 with temperatures in the 70's and tomorrow is a rest day, thank goodness. Next week looks bad with six days of riding and three seperate century rides as part of the mix. I have done my domestic duties already including taking my once a month shower, and doing the laundry. After dinner at the dorms, (this implies that we are staying in a dorm) we plan on going to the student union and drinking pitchers of beer. Tomorrow we are going to take a tour of Trek bicycles who are headquartered in Waterloo about 24 miles (or 3000 miles if you are talking about Belgium) from here.
On to the pictures:
Really, they do tobacco in Wisconsin?
This is an unusual display in a shop window. I wonder if they sell baking products inside?
We just left the fog. Obviously there are no pictures in the fog because it was, well, foggy.
Just a cool picture of a log cabin set back in the trees.
This is where the antlers came from in the picture above of the shop window.
We are going to move to Lone Rock. Want to come along?
The mighty Wisconsin river which is actually in Wisconsin, not like the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.
I swear that nobody throws away any of their old farm equipment. They either leave it close to the road, or put it up on a stand.
This is Linda trying to sell me on the benefits of glaciers in making cheese.
It was green sock today as many of us tried the compression socks from Aerotech designs. I had good luck with my pair. I just noticed how much compression is being done when you look at my ankle on the left which looks positively skinny. Of course my shoes are 8 1/2 and the other two shoes are 12 and
I'm glad you survived the spider attack. I had my own on what I think was the same day and I can't say no spiders were harmed in the making of my canoe ride...
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