Reedsburg, WI

Last summer, I rode a bicycle from Chicago, IL to Devil's Lake, ND. Since I've never written about the adventure, and since it was a long December as far as temperatures went, I thought January might be a good time to talk about summer 2008. January is Bike Month at the Drawing Board.

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I woke up early that morning in Sun Prairie, and wandered into the kitchen toward the smell of coffee. I poured myself a cup and began socializing with the church ladies who had gathered to assemble our breakfast. I was initially gracious and thankful before asking the money question: "What are we having?"

She explained that she'd assembled fruit plates and yogurt and oatmeal for everyone. I told her that sounded great. Then she explained that some other lady named Agnes wanted to make biscuits and gravy and eggs and bacon.

"But I explained to her that you guys were healthy bike riders," she said. "You guys wouldn't want to eat stuff like that. So I got the fruit plate."

It was a fun day on bikes. I may have wrecked myself in the morning, or maybe that was a different day. Either way, I'm okay now.

At some point we crossed a river via ferry, which was a fantastic experience. We sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" the whole way, much to the delight chagrin of the commuters in their cars. The curses they hurled our way were soon realized, and the weather began to turn.

Rain gave way to storms which gave way to baby hail in the middle of nowhere. We made for shelter in the nearest garage we could find. The place belonged to a quite delightful and eccentric man who was a bartender by night, and a woodworker by day. His particular trade was exquisite and glamorous doghouses. His own pets stayed in a tri-level doggy mansion.

This is where things started to get difficult.

We left the home and got back on the road. After stopping later to regroup, Paul blew a tire that needed some fixing. Turns out, we didn't have the alacrity of a NASCAR pit crew. The entire process took far longer than it ought. We dashed off again, thirty minutes behind the group.

We were moving along well until we hit the hills. It was here that we discovered the true cost of my earlier wreck. The skin off my back was a minor inconvenience compared to the fact that we were climbing a cartoon mountain and I couldn't change gears. We got that problem fixed as well; then rolled off again. It's possible we also visited the world's lamest zoo.*

* Their most exotic animal: The Racoon.

At some point we arrived at our destination and snuck off to some hotel with a pool to take our showers. I knew fully well that a hotel often has a lounge and so I did just a little more sneaking. It was fantastic. This is what Reedsburg looked like.