Haven't had a chance to get a foam cheesehead yet but we did see a sign advertising fried cheese curds. Also saw this one:
So we know we are in Wisconsin.
Today we woke up at 5:30 am and Marie pointed out that the hotel wouldn't be serving breakfast until 7:00 since it was Saturday, so we rolled over and grabbed a few more zzz's. All of a sudden it was 8:30 am. I think we needed the sleep. Marie had calculated that Waukesa was about 47 miles, and Madison would be another 65, so we had an easy day planned. In addition, we had a tailwind all day.
Heading to Waukesa, we first ride on interstate access roads (light traffic but not what you would call scenic):
Then we got off on secondary roads:
You can see Marie riding the white line. As I said before, overtaking drivers give you the whole lane if you are not on a shoulder. After a couple of hours, we came to the bike paths which would take us all the way to the city center of Waukesa.
These bike paths are a collaboration between the utility companies and the local governments. Typically they include nature preserves as well as all the utility lines you see. So they have apparently built some major constituencies for these paths besides cyclists.
Riding along all day, I wonder what I'm going to show and tell you, dear reader. Today I'm going to show you the view from my cockpit, so you can see what it looks like from where I sit:
We really like Waukesa. Great old town district with an upscale chocolate shop and a gelateria across the street. The Midwest is really into craft beers; here is some of the local offerings which I sampled:
Marie had a Wisconsin Pinot noir with dinner and it was pretty darned good. Maybe that was the expectations thing, but regardless, it was good.
As usual, we made fast friends with our waitress Michelle, and then the owners Rita and Gary talked to us for about half an hour while we listened to Steve Vaughn (probably unrelated to the other Stevie Ray Vaughn). Made friends with him and his wife also. Considering that Waukesa's claim to fame is that It was the home of Les Paul, I asked why he was playing a Guild instead of a Les Paul. He sheepishly admitted that he didn't like them. I told him I was a stratocaster guy myself, and he said he was too. Given that the town is full of art guitars and calls itself "Guitartown" that's probably heresy here. On guitar had electric stove fittings:
All in all, a very easy day of riding, knocking off 50 miles between 10:30 am and 3:00 pm. I think we needed this. Tomorrow we anticipate NW winds as we head NW to Madison but I think we'll be sufficiently rested to take it in stride.
We understand the DC area has been drenched with rain- sounds like you got what the Midwest got last week.