(This is Sunday’s post - that is, yesterday.) I did not sleep well last night, as I was fretting about today’s ride. I knew it would be long, and I feared that getting out of that enormous city would be difficult. I just couldn’t quite imagine how we could ride bikes all the way out … Continue reading Day Eight: Chicago, IL to the Tippecanoe River, northern Indiana: so many miles

Dan’s smile when we arrived last night at the hotel continued throughout the day today. It was great to see the sun shining when we woke up, though it was still crazy windy. (And who would expect otherwise in the Windy City.) The day started with a little bike cleanup and review of the map … Continue reading Day Seven: Chicago: Art, friends and naps

Not a nice day at the beach So, not to make too fine a point of it, but yesterday was one of the most difficult riding experiences we’ve ever had - the very strong headwind, driving rain and dropping temps combined to make for a slow and miserable ride. We were so lucky to relatively … Continue reading Day Six: Racine, WI to Chicago, IL: the Gales of May

We started the day knowing that it was going to be dramatically colder, and probably rainy, with about 85 miles of cycling between where we started and where we planned to end the day. All of those things turned out to be true...except for the cycling part. Earlier in the week, after discovering that the … Continue reading Day Five: Lake Mills to Racine: Kindnesses, beauty, and a little hypothermia

Ringling Brothers’ Barnum and Bailey Circus came from Baraboo. (Note: real elephants should never be in circuses.) Our job today was to get from Baraboo, where we slept last night, to Lake Mills, a little town on Rock Lake about 30 miles east of Madison. I’ve done this section before (in 2019, I did a … Continue reading Day Four: Baraboo, WI to Lake Mills, WI: Elephants, Lakes and Drumlins

Today’s ride ended up being 86 miles, and started on a wet parking lot adjacent to the Americinn and Peterbilt Trucks in West Salem after some morning rain. We felt good and left ahead of schedule and crossed the highway to get to the Lacrosse River bike trail, with big trucks driving all around us. … Continue reading Day Three: West Salem to Baraboo: Tunnels and trails