somewhere, but definitely not in southern Wisconsin today. Look at the sky in all these photos!
Today's objective was Madison, Wisconsin via the Glacial Drumlin bike path. Of the 67 miles we covered today, at least 60 of them were on bike paths.
$4 each to purchase a trail pass, but to ride in shade without traffic on a level surface with well-maintained comfort stations, priceless.
I took this picture of the sky, not to show the trail.
At one point we passed by a go-kart racetrack where serious competitors were warming up. Looked just like a car or motorcycle track day in miniature. Look at the turn on the left side of the photo. You can see uneven spots where the tires have laid down rubber. This was the bumpiest track I've ever seen.
Looks like a postcard, doesn't it?
There being a lot of glacial lakes here, the bike path ran past some of them. Large areas around the path are nature preserves, so a lot of critters scoot across the path in front of you: chipmunks, frogs, turtles, ground hogs, birds and butterflies.
Does anyone know what these plants are?
In some places the bike path utilized roads, however, traffic was light. They made us ride at least a mile out of our way to go around a gigantic ethanol plant.
This place sold for $70 million in 2009 in a bankruptcy auction and currently processes 40 million bushels of corn into 110 million gallons of ethanol annually. I am not a fan of ethanol, for many reasons.
At lunch time we made friends with an elderly rider named Larry who we had seen and spoken to at 2 prior rest stops. I checked his bike over and insisted that we add air to his tires; I also lubed his chain for him. I did not ask his age but he said he'd been riding for 30 years. I admired his enthusiasm and energy, and notice that he does not need fancy togs to go riding;
At 4:45 pm we pulled into the main square of Madison, where our hotel is. On top of the Capitol building is a figure named "Wisconsin".
For dinner we went to a Wisconsin-themed brewpub right on the Capitol square, where we enjoyed cheese curds, local beers, beer and cheese soup, brats and walleye (fried of course). Delicious!