Saturday, September 1, 2012
Milwaukee – Green Bay
119 Miles
After the efforts of the previous day I assumed I would
sleep like a baby, but I didn’t. I was
up almost all night with excitement and anticipation of the next day. It also didn’t help that the hotel bed as
basically a piece of plywood with a sheet on top. I ended up finally getting out of bed at 5:00
am and driving (Heather had brought the car up) to a Perkins down the road which turned out to be closed. I drove back to the hotel and managed to get
another couple hours of sleep before getting up for the second time. I went back to the same Perkins at around
7:30 am for breakfast. It was pretty
much the worst breakfast I’ve ever had, and I didn’t eat half of what was on my
plate. It’s hard to believe you can mess
up French toast but they found a way. Note
to self: “avoid all Perkins in Milwaukee area.”
I left feeling pretty unsatisfied and went back at the hotel to pack. I quietly said goodbye to Heather since she
was still in bed asleep and headed out the door to start Day 2.
Today would be the first of three back-to-back 120 mile
days. During the planning stages I was a
bit nervous for these long early days, and today was no different. The route did not follow the shoreline of
Lake Michigan but instead wound up the back country roads further west. I wanted to avoid most major highways and the
county roads certainly offered less traffic.
However, the route was very complicated with lots of turns to
keep track of. This only added to the challenge
of an already long day. I was going to
have to be on my guard to make sure I didn’t get lost since everything was all
new to me.
It was a cool and breezy morning with hardly a cloud in the
sky. The weather was crisply perfect when I rolled out of the hotel parking lot
on a network of bike trails and side streets before hitting the rolling hills
of rural Wisconsin. The crosswind soon
turned into a strong north headwind which stuck with me for the rest of the
day. As the morning and miles ticked
away the day just seemed to get more and more perfect. The scenery was spectacular with lots of
rolling hills, tree shaded back roads, and small towns. There was almost no traffic to speak of and
as I cruised along I was in pure bliss. I
kept passing small dairy farms with old red barns with huge stone foundations
and big silos. I felt like I wanted to
take a picture of every one so I could preserve their memory. I stopped and took a picture of a barn that
was built in 1899, it was like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.
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| Day 2 Morning Scenery |
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| Day 2 Morning Scenery |
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| Old barn I photographed built in 1899 |
Around mid-morning I entered the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive
which was absolutely amazing. Rolling
hills and a winding road crawled through the State Park and bobbed up and down
through the countryside. With no traffic
to contend with I was on my own to ride in peace. I didn’t listen to the radio much and was
just in my own thoughts as I climbed and coasted up and down through the
hills. I hit a local country store after
about two hours and stopped for a break.
Going into the small country store was like stepping back in time. The low ceiling of the place was covered in
fishing poles, fishing gear, and every other type of outdoor paraphernalia. The ceiling was very low and being pretty tall
I felt like I was walking around in a 6’ tall cave of junk. I grabbed a root beer and a jerky stick and
went outside to sit on a bench and relax for a few minutes.
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| One of many farms I passed along the way |
It was mid-morning and the day was starting to heat up but I
found a nice shady spot to sit. The
parking lot was deserted and shortly the cashier came out and we started
chatting. I explained the trip to her
and she was amazed and excited for what I was doing. She explained that she had always wanted to
do a 100 mile ride but didn’t think she could do it. I told her to just start small and do 10
miles first then maybe 20 and just to keep working up to it. It was really fun talking with her and I
could tell she was excited. I asked her
to take a photo of me, which she did, and after saying goodbye I was off again.
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| General store where I stopped in Kettle Moraine |
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| Picture taken at the general store by the cashier I talked too |
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| Looking south (where I had come from) at the general store |
The day heated up fast and soon I was sweating buckets…
Heather was on her way hoping to meet me for lunch, but with no easy way to
communicate it was hard to find a meeting place. Finally at around 2:00 in the afternoon I
stopped at a Laundromat in some small town and met up with her. It was nice to have a break, and I was out of
water completely. I filled my bottles
from a mop sink at the Laundromat and ate half a Panera sandwich before setting
off again. I had about 40 miles of my
120 mile day left to go (about 2 hours) and after another 30 minutes or so I
hit the last stretch of trail that would lead me into Green Bay.
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| A really scenic hilltop on my way north to Green Bay |
I spotted the trail up ahead and as it grew closer and
closer I realized with growing dismay that it was not paved but gravel. I was aware of the potential for some gravel
roads on my route but I was not prepared for how rustic this one was. The first few miles were rough, but after 100
miles my body was sore and tired and this bumpy trail seemed to be like some
sort of medieval torcher. Mile after
bumpy mile, crawled along with the only
saving grace being the tall trees on either side which not only
blocked some of the wind but offered precious shade from the afternoon sun. Finally after what seemed and literally was
hours I made it to the final paved section leading into Green Bay.
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| Section of gravel trail on my way to Green Bay |
It was always amazing how the final 15-20 miles each day
seemed as easy as the first. But
everything in between was very hard. The
last few miles through Green Bay took me over the river and up the city streets to the hotel. When
I finally got there my feet were crying out for mercy and I was exhausted. But, this evening I had a swimming pool and
hot tub to greet me which I had been thinking about since about 11am. Immediately I took the shoes off my aching
feet and went to go check in.
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| Bad picture of me taken by a tourist at the hotel at the end of Day 2 (Note: Shoes still on) |
Ahead of me in line to check in to the hotel was a mother
and her son. When I walked in the door
in my stocking feet they both glanced up at me.
The mother turned around and smiled and asked if I had a long ride. I laughed and said “you could say that.” I told her I’d left Chicago Friday and ridden
up here on my way around the lake. The sons eyes grew round and he stared at me
in disbelief. Finally after a long few
seconds he said “Boy you must really like to ride your bike!!” I laughed out
loud and all I could think to say was "yep." We talked for a few
minutes and they just could not get over the fact that I’d ridden my bike up
there. However, they were excited when I
explained about WBR and the reason I was doing the ride. With some minor celebrity encouragement I headed
up to the room to do the daily laundry.
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| Doing laundry in sink with MGD Bottle |
As I was washing my clothes the first of many hunger
cravings came over me. I called Heather
who was out looking for a swimming suit and asked her to bring a six pack of
MGD bottles. I can’t explain it but I just
had to have one right then and there.
When she finally got back I immediately grabbed one and cracked it
open. God I have never tasted anything
so GOOD! After washing the bike clothes
for the day and hanging everything up to dry we went down to the hot tub for a
soak.
The hot tub was filled with giant fat hairy men and there
was a greasy film on the top of the water that looked like the Exxon Valdez oil
spill. Disgusted, but also sore I pushed
aside my thoughts of what diseases might be in that water and plopped in for a
soak. The water felt great and was
really relaxing and I sipped my beer, relaxed and considered the first of three
120 mile days in a row. The next two
were going to be tough!
After a nice soak I was back in the room going over some of my
gear when I made a surprising discovery.
My front wheel had a crack in the rim!
The rim had split horizontally along the edge in a way that didn’t look
like I had hit something. I was in shock
because I didn’t remember hitting anything and I didn’t have any idea what
would cause a rim to do that. The tire
was still holding air and I decided to just keep an eye on it and push on. This turned out to be a Big Mistake!! No more like a HUGE Mistake. I wouldn’t find this out for a few more days
but the groundwork was laid for an epic fail to come. As it turned out I think the heat was to
blame for the fracture. Later, after
talking to my mechanic, he said that rims can sometimes fail with a buildup of
heat and split like that. With the long
ride and heat of the day I think that is what happened, but I can’t be
certain. Heck it might have happened the
day before… I’ll never know.
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| Broken rim |
We went out and found a small local Italian restaurant and I ate a
giant pasta dinner with two or three huge glasses of chocolate milk. I had read that chocolate milk was very good
for post ride nutrition because it had lots of vitamins, protein and the
chocolate added something that I can’t remember. I might have just imagined reading that
actually... But it really doesn’t matter it seemed to work and I drank as much
of it as I could throughout the entire trip.
After that enormous dinner we headed back to the hotel I passed out.
