Day 31 Viroqua to Madison, WI

The trip from Viroqua to Madison, WI sucked could have been better. We began the day well enough: loading luggage and breakfast at 5:30 and rolling out at 6AM. The humidity, while still oppressive, was a bit better. It was already 85 degrees and we had 99.3 miles to go. I had thought it was going to be 103 miles and discovering it was 4 miles less somehow brightened my mood.

The first 30 miles was through beautiful farmland, mostly corn grown in (no pun intended…well not much) maze-like patterns. At first we thought it was done as an alternative to having one field fallow and the other producing. The idea being that the farmer would alternate rows each year. A friend suggested it might be for water conservation. We don’t know, but it makes for a handsome landscape.

Wisconsin cornfields – the dark green is corn and the light green is a low-growing ground cover…clover?

By the time we stopped for lunch, the heat had intensified to sweltering. We rode the lettered country roads, which for the most part have good pavement with little traffic. Then we got back on highway 14, lots of traffic and blacktop that reflects waves of heat into the air above it. Did I mention it was hot, 97-degrees hot with humidity to match? I was sweltering. We got to Peck’s Farm Market for lunch, ate popsicles and stood in front of a huge fan and later under a tree to cool down. Then we were on the road again. By the time we got to Mazomanie, WI (where the only legal nude beach in Wisconsin is located) we were seriously overheated and in the horns of a moral dilemma. The route we were given took us off of hwy 14, but the route had us climbing a half-mile long 11% hill. Take my word for it 11% is steep. We really did not want to climb that hill, but after looking on-line and hemming and hawing, we did. We signed on to a group activity and needed to follow their plans.

The new road was pretty, but hilly. Walking around in 40-degree weather with no jacket is no problem for me, doing anything in 97-degrees is a big problem. Climbing hills in 97 degrees is a huge problem. But we thought it was only 25 or 30 more miles; we could do it.

Cool logo; cooler bike shop.

Ten or fifteen miles down the road we found Uphill Grind a coffee and bike shop; my kinda place. John was dizzy and sick to his stomach; I was just overheated and tired. We each had a beverage. Once more we told each other, “Only 15 more miles; we can do this.”

This is where things began to really suck. The promised hill was tough, but we got up it. It was the two hills that followed it that got to me. Going 3 to 5 mph on black top in sunny 97-degree weather is horrid, doing it hill after hill is ridiculous. By the time we reached the sag wagon a mere 5 miles later, I was a wreck. I wanted to give up. Thankfully, Lynne, our great co-leader was there to talk me down and hand me a cool drink and some fruit.

…and give us the change of route caused by road construction. It only added 3 miles! I’ll spare you the rest of the suckage, more hills, didn’t get any cooler, traffic…

By the time we got to Madison, I was having fantasies of flinging myself off the bike , with Catwoman like grace, leaping toward the latest horn-honking, air conditioned vehicle that passed, flinging open the door, (which would simultaneously send a waft of hot humid air toward them and cool air toward me), and screeching what I thought of their horn, their car and their place in the universe.

There were only two issues to be overcome: one, at my best I cannot display Catwoman-like grace, and two, I was not at my best. Sigh

We entered Madison at rush hour, got turned around, bla, bla, bla… The dorm rooms in Madison are air conditioned, we have tomorrow off and what does not kill us, makes us stronger. I am apparently alive, so I must have gotten stronger.