The Pieces Come Together
Tues Apr 29: Prairie du Sac to Elroy: 62 miles; 49 at 3:00, mostly cloudy --> scattered clouds, 8:00-5:10THE SCHOOL (11 mi): the kids at Merrimac Community Charter School gave me a wonderful reception, raptly listening to my litter-vangelism. Afterwards most of them lined up, patiently waiting to get my autograph. One girl asked how it felt to be famous; one boy handed me 50 cents to help defray my expenses.
THE ROADS (28 mi): I'm finding out that Wisconsin roads are a mixed bag. One moment I'm motoring down smooth asphalt, the next I'm gripping my brakes on a downhill trying weave through an obstacle course of potholes and cracked pavement.
Even if I weren't checking my speed due to the potholes, the terrain would slow me down. Shortly after leaving the school, I hit the worst hill I've seen since climbing to Beckley, WV on the '06 tour. A one-mile grunt, with curves so you couldn't tell how far you had to go - I plodded along at a zippy 4-5 mph. After yesterday's ride, I didn't have the energy to attack it - especially not in 45-degree temperatures.
Past Baraboo, I hit WI-33, a dream to ride on - smooth, wide shoulder, flat or gentle rises, and light traffic. That got me into Reedsburg to connect with ...
THE TRAIL (23 mi): The 400 Trail was named for the '400 Train' - a train that traveled the 400 miles between St Paul and Milwaukee in 400 minutes. It lost the battle to the airlines and freeways, and closed in 1963.
The corridor is now a rail-to-trail conversion, and a biker's delight. The hard-packed crushed limestone surface was a breeze to ride, and if the trail gained any elevation, it was too gradual to notice. We passed through woods, past marshes, swamps, and occasional farms. Every four-to-seven miles we reached another quaint town with bike shops, antique stores, B&Bs, and cafes. This is what a bicycling vacation should be!
THE HOST: In Elroy, we left the trail and asked the first pedestrians how to get to 204 Riverview St. Before they could tell us, a white car driven by a man who (in his own words) 'looks like a snowman' pulled up. "Glen! Follow me."
Steve Ward was the perfect host, and we enjoyed swapping stories of adventures we'd had. I played a few of my travel DVDs for him, and (after hesitating) he played a video for me that he said he's only shown once in the four years he's been in Elroy:
In 1994, the TV show
CBS This Morning ran a series on America's Best. One day, they honored America's best clergy. On the set they'd invited a rabbi of a huge temple in NYC; a priest from a huge Catholic church in California; and a pastor from a Siren, Wisconsin - Steve Ward. "I'm only showing you this because you said you like meeting real characters."
He kept us chuckling with his tales, such as the time he married a 100-year-old man to a 95-year-old woman. "The man grumbled to me, 'Hurry it up, I want to get to bed.' I had to explain to the wedding guests that his wanting to hit the bed was not for the reason that most grooms want to get there."
Steve provided a perfect dinner of grilled brats and Minnesota sweet corn on the cob. For breatkfast the next morning, we looked forward to promise of homemade blueberry muffins hot out of the oven.
Challenges
Mon morning 4/28: Mukwonago Schools, bike shop: 9 mi, 7:15-12:30I awoke to blue skies, and guessed that the predicted showers may stay away. By the time I finished Park View Middle School and headed to Clarendon Elementary, though, clouds filled the sky. That talk ran long when the kids had endless questions, and moments after I reached the bike shop, the rain had begun in earnest.
Mon afternoon: Mukwonago to Sun Prairie: 59 miles; lots of weather, 12:30-5:50Challenging. That's the best way to describe the ride. I headed west from Rolling Hills ES into an intermitten rain,but it didn't affect my speed at first. For 35 minutes I cruised at 17.3 mph; my first hour I covered 16 miles. The second hour the relentless chill (42 degrees) and rain dropped me to 14 1/2 miles, and I finally had to stop in a C-store to warm my wet feet and change socks. The rain stopped at 2:30, replaced by a northern (arctic) wind, and I managed only 13 1/4 miles the third hour. Hour 4: a shade under 12 miles. The unceasing cold and (occasional head)wind re-directed my energy into keeping warm. Tim (who had begun riding while I hit the schools) was also ready to bag it by Sun Prairie rather than ride another 30 miles to Prairie du Sac, so we had his brother-in-law collect us.
Wisconsin may get into my record books, for having the most people stop and offer assistance. When I finished riding just past Sun Prairie, I had to wait five minutes for Tim and Larry to reach me. In the interim, a cute blonde pulled up and asked if I needed help. Even though she was far cuter than Tim's brother-in-law, I turned her down.
The next three days are forecast for much nicer weather. I've had rain on every tour, so it was nice to get it out of the way. I tell myself, that's the worst weather I'll see all trip...
Return to Mukwonago
Sun Apr 27: Gurnee to Mukwonago: 51 miles; 58, thin clouds, breezy, 11:00-5:10If there's one thing more ubiquitous than media on these trips, it would be the friendly, considerate people.
As I sat on the shoulder of WI-142 waiting for Tim to catch up, I noticed a sports car barreling south on WI-75. As I watched, he made a big U-turn on the road, came back to turn onto 142, and pulled up to me. "Do you need any help? Is there anything wrong?" It's heartening to know that people everywhere look out for you.
I spent a bit of quality time today sitting on the road shoulder, waving at all the passing cars. (What can I say? I have weird hobbies.) Just outside Mukwonago one van stop after I waved, also asking if I needed assistance.
The one problem with overscheduling myself on this trip - and for me, Mukwonago is synonomous with booking myself heavily (four schools there last year, three this year) - is that it makes it difficult to adjust to crises. Twenty miles shy of Mukwonago, I busted a spoke. Unfortunately, the only bike shop along our route (in Mukwonago) was not open on Sundays. Thus, I must delay my third school to get it fixed tomorrow morning. Which increases the chances that I'll have to accept a ride from Tim's sister or brother-in-law in Prairie du Sac, our destination 90 miles from Mukwonago.
Our night's lodging came courtesy of one of the teachers who'd arranged last year's talks. I hadn't written down the directions, and working from my memory (always a bad idea), I turned one street too soon. As I called Shannon on the cell to find out where I went wrong, who should roll up but Jasonn and his family, who had hosted me last year. He'd made the same wrong turn I did, trying to get to Shannon's. (Didn't someone once say that great minds think alike?)
We got to Shannon and Josh's to find the cookout in full swing. Beside Jasonn and family, the principal of Shannon's school and his family, and another teacher from Rolling Hills (and her family) had come. Good food and good company - what better way to end a glorious day!
Thru the Endless City
Sat Apr 26: Chicago to Gurnee: 57 miles; 58, blue skies, windy, 12:50-8:00As I stood outside the Subway outlet, about to mount my bike to roll over to the train station, a person toting a professional-looking camera attached to an oversize microphone walked up to me. "Hi! I'm with the local paper." All I could think was, "How did the media find me already? I haven't even started yet!"
Turns out he was getting local man-on-the-street interviews, asking, "How will you spend your rebate check?" I chuckled at that, turned to Tim, and said, "He wants to talk to you!"
Today's ride started late due to an emergency fix on Tim's bike. By the time the train got us to downtown Chicago, the time had neared 1:00. The ride north treated us to a smorgasbord of urban, suburban, and wild terrain. Two miles of rolling among skyscrapers segued into a long cruise along the Lakeshore Bike Trail. After that ended, we cruised through neighborhoods filled with brick apartments and quaint cottages, passing through Loyola University and beside Northwestern U.
Eventually we escaped traffic on the Green Bay and Skokie Valley Trails, packed or soft-surface paths paralleling train tracks with thick shrubbery on either side. As evening fell, we found ourselves on the Des Plaines River Trail, a dirt track through the river bottomlands, past forests and swamps, surprising two herds of deer and scaring a turtle slowly lumbering across the path. Due to the slow going as we had to continually check directions, we didn't end until 8:00, well after the sun had set.
The Dichotomy of Vacations
Sat Apr 25 - Palatine, ILHow can it be that vacations never come soon enough, but they always come too quickly?
There comes a point when all the travel planning is done: all the reservations made, the activities planned, the plane tickets bought. At that point, the urge to leave, to get the grand adventure underway, gets so strong. Still you must wait. Then it comes time to depart, and you end up running yourself ragged, taking care of last minute details. Then you must just hope you don't exhaust yourself too much to enjoy your first few days.
Nearing departure
The weather has finally turned the corner. Last week's snow is behind us, the sprinkler system is turned on again, the lawn is waiting for its first 'manicure'. And I have only 2.5 days before I fly to Chicago for my latest peregrination...
