Day 10 - 56 mile Waupun to Greenville

Woke up to a cooler day with a heavy drizzle, so we put on our bright jackets for the first time on tour.






Passed some large fields is with the huge rolls of hay.






When the rain came down a bit harder, we tested Murphy's law by putting on our rain ponchos and shorty after the rain stopped. 😊. Of course when we took the ponchos off the rain started again!🙄






Found a unique breakfast joint called "Rodney's". He moved from Vacaville, California to help his in-laws and started a cafe and catering service employing disabled adults. Rodney suggested a fun photo opt after the first. We had fun obliging.











There are a number of great old churches in Oshkosh.






Lake Winnebago. It is the largest lake entirely within the state.





On our way to Mark and Debbie's home, We found some nice bike paths.





Mark and Debbie have been friends with Tim when he met them in Madison, WI. Mark was one of his college roommates.







Had a wonderful afternoon and evening with Mark and Debbie. We took a drive to see highlights of the city and found yet another great spot that had 53 beers on tap to sample along with top notch cheese curds and some great fresh cut chips. Mr. Brews Taphouse is on the Fox River in Greenville.






Mark and Debbie have a healthy huge garden and a sweet dog named Mocha.





Mark and Debbie prepared a feast for us with perfectly barbecued steaks along with corn on the cob, potatoes, salads. The clouds cleared and we enjoyed the dinner outside on their deck. As the evening cooled we headed inside and had yummy desert - called Debbie bars and a lively game of Rummykub.

We also enjoyed getting to know there daughter Lauren who showed us her skills on the harp then played a complex piece on the flute to finish up the evening.

Thank you Mark and Debbie for being such great hosts!


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Location:Greenridge Dr,Greenville,United States

Day 9 - 70 miles Madison to Waupun

It was a wonderful morning as we headed out of Madison. We were treated to about 7 miles of trails that took us past Lake Mendota one last time. We were even on roads that allowed bikes to use the full lane! It was amazing to see so many bikes and now we know why Madison is one of the most bike friendly towns in the US.








There was a community garden over 4 blocks long that we passed where the vegetables and flowers were thriving due to the effort of the locals.



Just out of town Cathy managed to get a nice close up of a couple more Sand Cranes.





Throughout our tour we saw massive yards. It looks like fun to mow with a modified Segway😀






The winds were really blowing from the west up to 20+ mph but lucky for us they were tail winds for most of our ride.





The last part of our ride took us on the Wild Goose State Trail that went north but the trees provided protection from the wind.





A local recommended the Goose Shot Restaurant that was about a mile walk. It was well worth the walk. The waitress brought us our beers along with a basket of happy hour pull tabs. With one of our lucky pull tabs and the waitress's persistence to find us another lucky tab.... we ended up paying $1 a piece for our local draft brew! Of course we had to try out the cheese curds; and now we have a new favorite!The rest of our meal included roasted pork with mashed potatoes and liver 'n onions, both with dinner salads. The total bill was less than $30 -What a deal!






Waupun is a city of sculptures. While walking back from the restaurant we came across a sculpture named Waubun a Native American word which means Dawn of Day. The city of Waupun was originally called Waubun but when the city was commissioned in 1840 a spelling error was made 🤔

Location:Gateway Dr,Waupun city,United States

Day 8 - 41 miles Sauk City to Madison

Nice relaxed ride to Tim's Alma Mater - University of Wisconsin Madison. We only had about 30 miles to get to town and enjoyed a number of quiet country roads and bike paths.













Shortly after arriving in Madison, Cathy's bike rack snapped off! Fortunately, we were only a few miles from a bike shop and we were able to Velcro it together until it could be fixed properly.







Tim took a trip down memory lane as Cathy endured the many stories. We biked the campus trails and enjoyed the classic Babcock Ice Cream from the Dairy department, had a brat at Lake Mendota at the Memorial Union, passed the old Red Gym where Tim registered for classes, checked out Lake Wingra and Tim's old apartments that he shared with the roommates he is visiting on this trip.

Special green "bike" stop lights on the paths.












Red Gym






Lake Mendota






The old "Animal House" coop





Apartment near Camp Randall Stadium






Drake Street by the Zoo






We stopped by an old doughnut shop that was typically open at 3 am just in time for the bar hoppers after the bars closed. A Rocky Rococo's is now next to the doughnut shop that used to be a Dunk or Dine that Tim frequented. Decisions, decisions - a doughnut won out over a slice of pizza😏.






There has been so much change since Tim graduated 32 years ago. Tim spent a lot of time in the old Engineering building.







Now there is a new engineering building opened just this year.







The downtown Capitol building was being setup for a weekly Wednesday concert. After our tour of the University, we went to a place called Old Fashioned which had 53 Wisconsin beers on tap to try with the best cheese curds we have had so far on this trip.














After cleaning up and a nice walk we had a great dinner at a local Farm to Table Restaurant.






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Location:University Ave,Madison,United States

Day 7 - 59 miles Elroy to Sauk City

After the long day yesterday, we were happy to wake up well rested and ready for today's adventure. Our start was slightly delayed due to the last bits of overnight rain. The first 22 miles were supposed to be on the "400" bike trail made of hard packed crushed limestone, but we quickly forfeited that plan due to a layer of limestone that covered our bikes and legs after just one mile on the path.





So far on our tour, we have seen 13 of these very large sand cranes. The beauty of it is that they were once one the endangered list!



The miles we covered today were in the beautiful rolling hills of Wisconsin farmland. Miles and miles of corn, soy, green hills, wonderful wild flowers along the roadside and farms with cows, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys.



We were reminded of the "Golden" hills of California when we saw the golden waves of grain.




Toward the end of our day's ride we came across our World headquarters- Mueller Sports Company😉. We followed the sign for visitors, but upon entering the corporate headquarters, the lady behind the desk was neither impressed by our common last name, nor the grimy cycling clothes we were wearing!




Prairie du Sac, a town right on the Wisconsin River had lots of great buildings and fun murals.




After dinner alongside the Wisconsin River, we had after dinner brews at the Woodshed Ale House. Choosing 6 tastes of their awesome selection was challenging, but we were thrilled with our choices.





Dessert? Well of course we had to visit the original Culver's restaurant. Culver's is a mid west fast food restaurant known for their butter burgers and frozen custard.

Location:Phillips Blvd,Sauk City,United States

Day 6 - 93 miles Winona to Elroy, WI

Said good bye to the early risers Tim's mom and brother Jeff.



What an amazing route we had today; about 5 miles on roads and 88 miles on three wonderful trails all the way to Elroy, WI. Each of the three trails: The Great River State Park Trail, Lacrosse River Trail and the Sparta-Elroy Trail were hard packed dirt and crushed rock.









On the trail we saw a wonderful variety of wild flowers, fabulous shade trees that created a canopy over the trail, 19 bunny rabbits that greeted us and a great variety of birds.
At the start of the Sparta Elroy Trail stands the famous king-size
statue of the famous "Ben Biking".


The temperature was in the mid 90's with a heat index of 100 so the three tunnels we went through on the Sparta Elroy Trail provided a nice relief of 20+ degrees cooler than the outside temp. The tunnels required lights to get through, since they were so long you could not always see the light at the end of the tunnel.



Since the forecast tomorrow indicated possible morning storms, we decide to bike more than planned 72 miles. The additional 21 miles, gave us a total of 93 miles and an appetite for a well deserved, good dinner.
Unfortunately Monday's are not thriving in small towns. All the restaurants were close so we settled for a fine meal at Kwik Trip including fresh, squeaky cheese curds 😄






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Location:State Road 80,Elroy,United States