May 1, 2022
I Am To Cycle Touring As Velveeta Is To Cheese
A big THANK YOU goes out to the anonymous "poet" who wrote my introduction. That guy really has me pegged. And even though his ode pretty much says it all, I do want to add a few words of my own. I just hope it's not too late.
I know there are many reasons to believe a tour of Wisconsin will have an Excitement Factor of "ZERO." That's okay, I get it. I can't even come up with any evidence to refute that idea. However, I can report, with some certainty, that what Wisconsin lacks in spectacular scenery and centuries-old history, it will make up for in weirdness. I mean, we're talking about a state in which a significant percentage of the citizenry wears green shirts and huge wedges of cheese on their heads during football season. Other times too, I'm sure.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 2 | Link |
Well honesty is the best policy!
Go cheese man go from Kiwi Sandy in New Zealand
Looking forward to following your non boring tour of a block of cheese The best thing is being on a bike going somewhere, anywhere it doesn’t matter
Enjoy
Cheers Sandy
1 year ago
That's a great piece of wisdom about not mattering where you ride you're bike, just that you're riding somewhere. And yes, honesty is the best policy. And yes, the fans of Wisconsin's professional football team are some of the most rabid fans in the sporting world.
1 year ago
Well, let me tell you, I can be as weird--and as cheesy--as Wisconsonians. That's quite a claim coming from a stoic Minnesotan, but I'm prepared to back up my bold words with action. Like all great journalists, I am going to embed myself deep into the Wisconsin culture--cheese, bratwursts, beer, rabid sports enthusiasm, and everything else (except hunting & fishing) that can transform me into an official Wiscon-sinner.
Don't be surprised if this little experiment results in me being the first person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for on-line bike touring journalism.
| Heart | 11 | Comment | 4 | Link |
2 years ago
2 years ago
I sure as heck don't want to distract anybody from the many journals-in-progress here on Cycleblaze. Most of them are more serious, more interesting, better written, better photographed, and are located in more exotic locales than my little spin in Wisconsin will be. This journal is just being offered as an off-beat alternative. I hope you check in once in a while after you're done reading the five-star journals.
Sorry, Just One More Thing
I must address the obvious question: "Aside from weirdness . . . why Wisconsin?"
In a nutshell, I recently discovered a two-week window of opportunity in which to conduct a tour. Wisconsin is the closest state to my Minnesota home, so it will be cheap and easy to get there. It will require almost no planning, which is right up my alley. No visas. No pre-tour Covid tests. No airline reservations. No worries about boxing and transporting a bike.
Next comes a related question: "Why SOUTHWEST Wisconsin, as opposed to touring among the beautiful lakes and forests of the northern half of the state?"
Easy! I've previously traveled quite a bit in the northern part of the state and that includes cycling. The south will have fewer fisherman pulling fewer fishing boats. It will have fewer ATVs and/or snowmobiles crisscrossing the roads. It will have fewer tourists, fewer view-blockers and fewer blackflies. It will have MORE cows, raccoons and farm machinery. Hopefully, it will be a couple degrees warmer as the month of May can still be pretty cold here in the upper Midwest.
Last but not least, southwest Wisconsin needs more representation in the world of bike touring journals. I'm here to help.
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2 years ago
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Best of luck GG
2 years ago
2 years ago
He had put together a route using fairly large-scale maps obtained from the various county Chambers of Commerce and other sources. I still remember a nasty hill called, appropriately, The Pinnacles, as well as some soft/deep gravel roads that went straight up the hillsides, making them too steep to climb out of the saddle lest the rear wheel spin under the reduced traction.
It was also my first (and so far only) experience with "stealth camping" though of course I didn't know the term at the time. On one of our nights we simply pulled over when we felt like we'd reached the end of the riding day, and pitched the tent in an out-of-the-way corner of someone's field. I don't recall now whether it was even behind a screen of trees. The other night, I believe we stopped in at the local police station and got permission to pitch up in the town park for the evening.
A final memory to share: we had stopped at a bar somewhere for dinner (grilled cheese sammich and a beer, IIRC), and were headed out of town in the middle evening when we drew the attention of a small pack of boys in the 8-12 year old range, cruising around on their 1 speed "hot rod" bikes.
Naturally we ended up in a full tilt, all-out sprint racing for an invisible and undefined finish line. Two old guys (I was in my early 20s, my brother his early 30s) on loaded bikes "racing" a bunch of young upstart whippersnappers on banana bikes must've been a pretty amusing sight to any spectators.
It was a great experience, and a really enjoyable adventure for me. I hope you have similarly appealing experiences.
1 year ago
You, on the other hand are the real deal, even though, like me, things are wearing out...
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6 months ago
This “factoid” actually made Herb Caen’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle that year! That was a bigger deal than Velveeta itself..
6 months ago