Monday, July 29, 2013

Ride Day 127

After a hard weekend of fishing up around the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior with my brothers and friends I returned to riding today with my swollen sore knee. I still made it 90 miles and climbed 2400' with all the rolling hills through dairy farms, corn, soybeans and nature preserves in perfect bike riding weather. I left the Sunset Motel in Portage early and rode a fairly busy highway 33 to Waupun then took a bike trail called Wild Goose to Fond du lac. Once I left the bike trail I used my Garmin to direct me to Manitowoc. I rode about five miles following its directions and all of a sudden I saw the same intersection that I started using the GPS at. I was a bit pissed off about that Garmin fart. I turned it off and used my paper map to get through Fond du lac. I looked for a hotel or campground but everything was full due to the big air show this week. I was disappointed but rode on in the direction of Manitowoc. When I saw Fox Lake I thought there might be a campground but no so I stopped and asked a young lady with a bunch of kids if there was a campground around. She was doing daycare and the kids liked talking to me so we ended up taking pics of the kids and me on my bike. I enjoyed the kids. I rode on and when I arrived at Saint Anna I spied a bar/grill called Scrubs and I was hungry. They had tacos as the daily special so I pigged out while chatting it up with the locals. The tacos were huge but I polished off three of them anyway. The bar owner, Chad, helped me look for a campground then offered to let me camp in the bar's backyard. Bingo I always say yes to approved free camping. I also had fun with the night bartender, Annette. So until dark I will hang out around the bar eating and drinking water not beer or other booze because it dehydrates me too much the next day when I am riding. Two girls softball teams are due any minute so I need to get this done...

Ride Day 127 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 127 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Ride Day 125

Today was a return to Madison from Janesville day. It was the same old 50 mile ride but I took a different route and saw some mini horses this time. They were fun to watch for a bit. One was very pregnant and looked like she would drop her foal any second. This route had more hills but no big deal. When I arrived in Madison my brother Bill told me he wanted to ride with me tomorrow. I was happy to say sure come along. He came and picked me up in his truck and we ate some lunch then moved his daughter out of her old apartment. Tonight we are going to biker's night at a local bar. That is as in Motorcycles not bicycles. It should be fun and brother Tim is coming along also. We won't be out late because Bill is riding with me and then he needs to work so it will be a light weight night of drinking. More later...

Ride Day 125 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 125 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Monday, July 15, 2013

Ride Day 124

Today I had an easy 50 mile ride from Madison to Janesville WI in hot humid weather. I started from Madison on the bike paths and then paid my 4 bucks to ride the path toward Janesville but after riding on the bug infested path for a while I changed my mind and decided I would rather ride on the highway with cars and trucks than on a nice bike path that was infested with millions of bugs. I was just breathing too many of the suckers in and if I slowed down or stopped the mosquitoes immediately attacked in droves. Once I bailed on the paths the roads were bug free but sunny and hot. I did not use a planned route because I had planned on riding the bike trail. I just turned here and there on whatever road seemed to be leading in the direction I wanted to go. I got to Janesville doing it that way with no problems. There were lots of nice flowers along the road and the crops have quickly grown a lot taller over the last week. Some corn was already 6 to 7 feet tall now. I enjoyed my stay in Madison wandering around town. Bob and Iris were great hosts while I was there. The art on the square show was good plus I ate like a piglet at it. Madison had some good free music the night before but I did not go to the show. Madison is a hopping town with tons of things to do. Looks like I am going to stay in Janesville for a while and drive up to Castle Rock lake for the weekend. I will hit the road next week it looks like. Going to try to not ride at all for a couple of days. Some pics...

Ride Day 124 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 124 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Ride Day 123

I left Mirror Lake very early after a quick breakfast of PB&J on tortillas. The ride to Madison was 61 miles over a rollercoaster road. I was able to ride a bike path for almost a third of that. I ate my second breakfast in Baraboo only 15 miles into the ride but I did not eat as much as I usually do. There was a light headwind that increased as the day went on and by the time I arrived in Madison it was blowing fairly hard slowing me way down. About 10 mles before Madison I suddenly got low blood sugar. I felt ravenously hungry, I was trembling and I was very weak all of a sudden. I think the extra work to pedal into the wind after so many century rides in a row just wore me out. I stopped my bike and immediately ate jelly out of the jar followed by peanut butter right out of the jar. I washed it all down with water and sat down to rest for 10 minutes. My strength returned and I stopped shaking so I guess I just ran out of gas so to speak. It was about 8 miles before I came to any place to buy food and it was a gas station. I guzzled a chocolate milk and ate a big chocolate chip cookie with a large coffee. I rested another 10 minutes and I felt fine again. I have to be more careful to make sure I eat enough. This came on so suddenly I could get in trouble quickly. I also need to carry more food with me for this type of problem. Lesson learned. Once in Madison I bought a map of the bike paths and headed into town. My friend Bob called me at this point and invited me over for breakfast. Sure why not eat more. After breakfast I went looking for a tire but have not found one yet. I may just order it online. I did eat a brat down on State Street and went to the farmer's market to eat a few things then had a chocolate malt on the way back. I struggled to get my banking done and after a bunch of hassles managed to get it squared away. Now the next thing is I need to find a bike shop to service my bike for me. But I am beat now. Going to rest for a while. More later...

Ride Day 122

La Crosse WI to Mirror Lake just north of Baraboo WI 106 miles along bike paths for 90% of the day with bright hot sunny weather and a slight headwind. The day started with me missing a turn when I was looking for the bike path. It isn’t my fault entirely since there was no street sign but I could have used my Garmin to find out the names of the streets. It is really irritating when there are no street signs. I eventually found the path after three different people all gave me wrong directions. Once on the path, I just breezed along on the crushed rock paths. There were not that many people using the paths until I got to the area where there are three long old train tunnels that you walk your bike through. The tunnels are pitch black dark inside with water dripping all over the place. The good thing was that they were very cool inside so I got a break from the hot humid weather. Pedaling on the crushed rock I lost 2 or 3 mph on my speed and at the end of the day I could feel the extra effort that it took to ride on the softer surface. The path was mostly a shady tree covered tunnel with areas of open swamp here and there. Lots of bugs in my eyes, nose mouth ears etc. I took my shirt off to get some sun and cool down and it felt like I was getting a dermal peel with a sand blaster. The bugs in the eyes were the most irritating because they were hard to get out. I almost ran over a snake. I stopped just short of it and got off my bike to look at it and take its pic. He was rattling his tail in his best imitation of a rattle snake and curling his body into a strike pose but in the end he was just bluffing because when I picked him up he just curled around my arm and was very comfortable. I moved it away from the path and moved on. I saw another snake ahead of me a few minutes later but this one took off at high speed and I never got a look at it to identify it but my guess is it had to be a racer. I stopped for lunch at Lil’s Corner but it was closed. As I was walking away the bartender came out to ask me what I wanted and when I told him I was looking to eat some lunch he said come on in. He was friendly and helpful. I enjoyed my lunch with a couple rootbeers and was off again. I stopped in Reedsburg for my next meal at a bar again. I like that the bars all sell food, I wish California would get that together and sell food at all the bars also. I enjoyed talking to the patrons in the Reedsburg Bar while I ate my meal and had a beer. The bartender was helpful. She looked up campgrounds on her cell phone for me. I was thankful for the information. All the hotels and campgrounds were full because there is a girl’s softball tournament going on in the area. The state park saves space for bikes and that was my only saving grace other than camping on the sly somewhere. The only problem was the distance to get to the park after riding all day. It was not so hard though. I enjoyed my day and took the riding at an easy pace all day. Tomorrow I get to Madison where I will stay with my cousin for a night. I love Madison so I am looking forward to getting there. Plus my bike needs work and a tire which I can get in the Mad City. More later.

Ride Day 123 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 123 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Ride Day 121

Today was Frontenac State Park to La Crosse Wisconsin 92 miles and a couple thousand feet of rolling hills in bright hot sun with light wind and light traffic. I started my day at the same cafe as yesterday's dinner. They were all very friendly and had apparently been talking about me since everyone in there was pumping me with informed questions. I enjoyed their candor and they were just curious about this stranger in their cafe. I managed to get my breakfast in and hit the road. The ride went fine at first. I met another rider, Mike, that was doing a ride for charity with his wife in a support vehicle. He was fun to talk to. Almost immediately after I got back rolling I got a flat tire from a shredded piece of steel belted radial tire. The fine wire they use for the steel belt is a perfect ballon tire popper. I very carefully changed the tire so that I could line the leak up with the wheel to find the cause of the flat. I found the wire and pulled it out with my pliers, then I carefully checked the rest of the tire and found nothing so I put a new tube in and was off. 10 minutes later, I got another flat. Same routine with the same result. This time I turned the tire inside out to look for more wire pieces but found none. I installed my last tube and was off again but my get up and go had gotten up and left. I was feeling as flat as those tires and was lacking energy to ride. I stopped at a McD to do some internet and cool down. I could not get on the net. I got pissed off and climbed on my bike again. I rode hard for a bit but then I melted again from the heat. I ran into another biker that told me about a detour ahead and guided me around it. There was only one problem, it involved riding 3 miles on the interstate. I took off and it was a disaster. The interstate was funneled down to one lane with no shoulder and lots of construction going on, no room for a bike at all. I tried walking my bike along the shoulder and a MHP officer stopped to ticket me. I pleaded ignorance with him and he let me go after a long discussion about bikes on interstates. He told me bikes were never allowed on interstates and I pointed out that actually they are in many states and that I had just ridden from Missoula Montana to Fargo North Dakota. He escorted me off the freeway in the end with a warning. A few miles later I was in Wisconsin so it makes no difference. I was seriously deflated now so I stopped in La Crosse and ate a big lunch but after eating I just could not ride anymore. After looking around for a campsite I gave in to a cheap hotel yet again. After resting I went out looking for a tire and some more tubes but struck out after a few bike shops. Guess I need to get them when I arrive in Madison next week. Tomorrow I hope to ride bike paths toward Madison which should take me a couple of days since it is just under 200 miles. Pics later cause this wifi sucks...