Wisconsin

Crossing Mississippi River 

Day 28:  After a pretty good nights rest we left our cozy spot next to the bike shop and headed east. About 2 miles away, Kelsey squeezes her front tire and noticed it was quite soft so we turned around and waited for Travis, the owner of the bike shop (Decorah Bicycles) to show up. He checked it out, fixed what he could, and sent us on our way. It put us a little bit behind schedule but that’s okay. We stopped underneath the bridge crossing the Mississippi for lunch, right on the border of Iowa and Wisconsin. Almost made it out of Iowa without any falls but then Ashley fell straight over in the grass, fully clipped into her bike. It was pretty funny, actually. We crossed over the bridge and made it to our 6th state! Around 4pm we made it to Boscobel, a pretty small town that claims to be Wisconsin’s outdoor destination. We stopped in at a very nice gas station that was basically a grocery store and decided we would just hang there for the rest of the day before we set up camp. We bought our entire dinner for $10, including a full pizza, salad, and brownie for dessert. Once the sun went down enough, we set up camp at a boy launch near the Wisconsin river. It was a little indiscreet and many cars kept coming in and out during the night doing god knows what. So it led to not the best nights sleep but we made it through. 

Day 28-30: Madison From Boscobel, WI, we rode 74 miles into Madison. It was a little dicey getting closer to the city, but we managed. Before Ilsa got out of work, we washed all the frog guts and dirt off our bikes, then went to budget bike company to get a mini tune-up. Apparently, one should replace your chain after 2000 miles which was great timing on our part because we just passed 2000 miles. 

Our wonderful hosts Ilsa, Vuong, Papa Chip, and Chris fed us very well while we spent time off the bikes. So much so, that we believe we have successfully gained weight on this trip. Here’s a list of things we did on our “days off”:

• Went to the UW union for beer and pretzels Friday night 
• Got Laotian food for second dinner, afterwards
• Got pastries at lazy hands for breakfast Saturday morning 
• Walked around the farmers market and ate a lot of cheese and bread 
• Watched Ilsa try on and find her wedding dress (her and Vuong are getting married next June) 
• Grabbed some bubble tea before going to see the future venue for the wedding 
• Walked around the botanical gardens 
• Chilled for a hot second at Ilsa’s parents house while Papa Chip prepares pizza for dinner 
• Got dressed up in Ilsa’s clothes, then listened to live music at a meadery 
• Played some arcade games at a bar named I/O
• Went back to Lazy Janes for first breakfast (because when we went there Saturday, the woman working the counter told us she’d treat us since we’re doing this crazy trip and it was her last day
• Met Ilsa and Vuong for second breakfast at Sardines (very, very good food)
• Drove out to Devil’s Lake State Park and did a little 4 mile hike
• Got some wine at the Wollersheim winery 
• Went to hot yoga with Ilsa and sweated our baguettes off
• Dressed up again I’m Ilsa’s clothes and had sushi for dinner (also, very exceptional food) 
• Oh and of course ice cream for dinner 

Mileage: 74 to Madison, 2045 total 

Day 31: 

It’s always hard to wake up from a comfy bed to sit on a hard seat for 8 hours; so naturally we lingered a bit and enjoyed a quick breakfast with papa Chip. Once we started pedaling the majority of our day was spent on nice bike paths through the city and out towards Milwaukee. As the day progressed and the temperature rose it started to feel like we were inside a greenhouse due to humidity and temp. When we started to get closer to Milwaukee the roads became more congested and the drivers more irritated. People yelled things as they passed, although they forget that we can’t hear them much less respond if they drive by so fast yelling at us, so lots of hands were flying and in the end we were both ready to be out of the city. Within a few miles of our friends house we were in a neighborhood where everyone on the streets was of color, this was not odd till just a few blocks later everyone appeared to be Caucasian. The abrupt change from one block to the next was astonishing. Milwaukee is definitely still a very segregated city unfortunately. We finally Seamus’s place (Seamus is a friend of Ilsa’s and is in the same program as her, Audiology) where he allowed us to shower and chill for a while before serving us home made delicious dumplings. We went to bed with full bellies and on a soft bed.

Mileage: 91 miles (2136 total)

Day 32: 

So as you know we spend a lot of time outdoors, so when we have the opportunity to have AC we crank it. So much so that we must have blown a fuse in the middle of the night because the window unit cut off and we woke up sweating! Once we opened the window it cooled off a bit and we got a few more hours of sleep, but not much as we needed to wake up at 4:15 to catch the 6am ferry that was 9 miles away. We left at 4:57 and swung in a McDonalds on the way to pick up breakfast for the boat. We were cutting it close whipping into the parking lot at 5:58. The staff let us purchase tickets; however, the crew did share the opinion with us as we ran on board saying that (abbreviated) “I hope you are aware that we would not normally be here at 6, you are lucky” we responded politely with “oh yes we are very aware” and we thanked them. They motioned for us to go upstairs to the cabin where we accidentally sat in premier seating before being corrected to main cabin, whoops. As soon as we went to the main cabin we both looked at each other and thought, yup these seats are way less cushioned and feels cheaper haha. Since we were in a rush we forgot to grab our books for the ferry so we both fell asleep, for the entire time. We woke up and docked in Muskegon MI. After a couple of wrong turns getting off the boat we were on our way and on the Musketawa trail where we spent most of our day. With the ferry taking up a good chunk of our morning and not going to lie we were moving slow in the hot humid state, so we only made it to Saranac which was not our goal but we were satisfied and tired. We found a pizza place where our eyes were bigger than our stomach, so we wrapped up the leftovers for breakfast the next day. Thank goodness we stopped when we did because when we ordered our pizza it began down pouring and continued for about 15 minutes before ceasing. The owner of the pizza place let us pitch a tent behind the building so we set up and went to bed just around sunset.