billwatson58

Amtrak to La Crosse, then ride home.

On September 27th I boarded the 2:15pm Amtrak train from Union Station in Chicago for La Crosse with my Novara Randonee in a box, and arrived in time to watch most of the Bears-Packers game with my couch surfing host Kyle at a local pub. Tuesday morning I started my ride back to Chicago by riding 35 miles to south and east to Viroqua and got there in time to have a delicious lunch at the Viroqua Food Co-Op. Tuesday night I couch surfed again, and my host was Bjorn who works for AmeriCorp and teaches local kids how to eat healthy. Bjorn is an avid cyclist, and is car free. We walked to the Driftless Cafe for dinner.

Wednesday I headed mostly east on a 83 mile ride to Baraboo, where long time friends of mine Marc and Lollie who own and operate Wheeler's Campground which is very near Devil's Lake State Park. Lollie's mom and my mom were college roommates, and so as kids our families spent a lot of vacations together.

Thursday's ride was 68 miles from Baraboo to rural Princeton. The wind shifted Wednesday night to the northwest which made for a challenging day. Two hours after I arrived at my friends Johan & Sara's place they got picked up for a trip up to Bayfield to go sailing for a few days, so I had their country retreat to myself except for their four cats. A little after 8pm the coyotes started their loud high pitched calling. The first three days had some steep hills, some long hills, and some steep and long hills, the final two days got progressively flatter. By couch surfing and staying with friends, I was able to travel sans tent and sleeping bag and front rack and panniers, which definitely helped.

Friday I headed mostly east toward Oostburg, stopping for some yummy fair trade organic Alterra coffee at Sugar Lips in Green Lake. Friday's ride was the longest of the week thus far, 92 miles, but my average was nearly 16mph (thanks to a decent tailwind) with previous daily averages being 11.85, 13.1, and 13.5 respectively. In Eden WI I stopped for lunch at the Eden Cafe which had been recommended to me and and enjoyed a great veggie omelet. Upon my arrival in Oostburg I asked a local where the best fish fry was (Wisconsin + Friday night = fish fry) and to my dismay he informed there wasn't one anymore since the place across the street from where we standing closed. Bummer! I rode on to my couch surfing hosts Bob and Diane who had a nice house close to Lake Michigan with it's own hiking trail on their 13 acre property and a hot tub which I took advantage of.

Saturday turned out to be quite a day. A front came through on Friday so Saturday the wind was 20mph+ out of the north. Early in the ride I figured that with a 20mph+ tailwind friend in my corner I should just go for it and ride all the way home in one day. North of Milwaukee, three roadies out for a morning spin caught up to me and I rode with them for about a half an hour. Riding into Milwaukee with car traffic was a bit of an adjustment after riding on quiet country roads the previous four days. In Kenosha I stopped for lunch at Harborside Common Grounds for a needed sandwich and coffee. It ended up being a long day, 10 hours door to door, 145 miles with a 17.0 average, besting my previous longest day of 128 miles. Without the tailwind I would not have considered it. Saturday night I was pretty wiped, but took the dog for a walk just to give the legs a stretch.

It was a great 5 days: challenging riding; beautiful scenery and outstanding weather; lots of good food; and I met a some really nice people. This was my first solo bike tour of this duration, and it far exceeded my expectations. Tour on!