Day 31: From Viroqua, WI to Madison, WI: 99 miles

We woke up this morning and Team 3 (my team) was on breakfast duty which means I was up by 4:40AM. After Charlton gave us an extended pre ride talk (about 20 minutes because some people have not been texting him when they stop or get lost which sends everyone into a frenzy), I was a little worried about the ride and the rest of the trip. We didn't end up leaving until 6:30am and by then, it was already blazingly hot. We have two stretches of 6 days coming up and mentally, I am kind of done with cycling. I am missing my everyday life of cooking my own meals (with variety), going to the gym for one hour for a solid sweat session, lounging with friends, seeing movies, going out dancing in Buffalo, etc. The routine of early morning wake ups, lunch at 9:30am, and dinner super early is wearing on me just because of the monotony. Luckily, today's ride broke that up.

Early morning fog

After the first 20 miles, I looked like I had just showered...showered in my own sweat that is. The sun and humidity was brutal, but bearable. We had rolling hills for most of teh day, with a couple of steep climbs that I seemed to conquer pretty strongly. I was out in the lead (minus Jeff, Tim, and Kendall), until the last 10 miles when I decided to stop to get frozen yogurt. The cue sheet indicated a smoothie place about 15 miles from camp but turns out it closed down and t'was a blessing in disguise because I got my fro yo. I climbed very well today and very fast and needed that to show myself that I am indeed getting stronger. I rolled in behind, Jeff, Olivia, and Tom who were in a pace line for most of the day so I was pretty proud that I kept their pace without the draft. On my weaker days, I am sure I will take advantage of the glories of riding behind another person to expend less energy, although sometimes I feel like I am sprinting to catch up with them and end up expending more. It is cool to see other riders improving as well. Olivia has gone from being in the later group to roll into camp to today being one of the first. Melanie is climbing like a monkey, Jenny is super speedy on the flats, and Nelle will appear from nowhere when she turns on the gas. I think my niche is rolling hills and that's what today was.

We had lunch at Peck's Farms, a crazy establishment equipped with market, petting zoo, a million oversized games (lifesize hess, dice, etc) and rides.
  



Madison is AMAZING and everything I expected and more. I really wish I could have gone to medical school here (damn you out of state statistics). The city is built around the University of Wisconsin and thus equipped with cafes, bars, restaurants, gourmet food carts, and shops all on one street (State St), leading up to the Capitol Building. The food carts blew my mind, sushi, fresh salad, smoothies, HIBACHI?!, basically all non greasy, non hot-dog esque carts that seemed to outdo some of the restaurants around here. And they are all stationed in a pedestrian mall that has chalkboards asking the residents to write on the board what they like and dislike about the city in order to make changes. The city is very bike friendly and has entire streets devoted to cycling in hopes of pushing cyclists off main streets but giving them alternate, safer, less trafficky routes (it's called bicycle boulevard and signs encourage cyclists to use the whole lane). We are staying on the 11th floor (penthoussse) of Chadbourn Dorms.

State St

Chalkboard things I was talking about

Last night, we went to a bar that Melanie works at called the Buck and Badger for trivia and stayed there the whole night because, to be frank, the bartender was quite the stud and it was his first day on the job so we had fun teaching him how to make specialty shots (and we got discounted prices). I've already had frozen yogurt 3 times and just tried the famous Wisconsin dairy in the form of ice cream from the Chocolate Shoppe. They have about 50 flavors and of course, I sampled many, but went with the Elvis which is banana ice cream with real banana, peanut butter swirls, and chocolate chunks. It is not as good as Lake Effect but is very close and the best on the trip so far. We went to the Great Dane for lunch, a pub restaurant with amazing local food and brews.

              The Buck and Badger                                              The Great Dane

                      

I am about to head to the Terrace for dinner. It is a beach located right in the student Union (how cool is that), with live music on the water every Thurs, Fri, Saturday. There are places to eat, buy pitchers of craft beer, go swimming. sail, lounge, and is really all a student could ever want. It's so weird being in a city built around the college because I came from an undergrad where the student life was all on campus, rather than in the hopping town of Claremont. Made for great, close knit friendships and was what I needed at the time but for graduate life, I think Madison would be absolutely ideal.

The Terrace (stage for bands on left)

 Giant Chair