June 26, 2025
The long green tunnel
Day Two: Waukesha to Madison
Today had everything. Beautiful views of the countryside, a flat tire and a persistent rattling noise that it took 10 miles to diagnose correctly and fix, two thunderstorms that forced us to find shelter, two root beer floats, and 40 gopher holes. It was a long, long day.
We began in Waukesha, which is a prosperous little city, with a downtown full of shops and restaurants. Last night we ate at People’s Park, which was excellent. This morning we had breakfast at the Steaming Cup, which had excellent food and a great atmosphere full of catchy signs and creative sculpture and furnishings.
The city’s big claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Les Paul, the famous guitarist and inventor who revolutionized the electric guitars. Nods to the guitar and to Paul can be found all over the city in shop windows, murals and sculptures. The downtown business council’s logo is a guitar pick.
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The first hint that this would be an epic day came within a mile of the hotel. My bike felt a little weird and Michelle told me that I had what looked like a flat tire. It was and while I was preparing to put in a new tube, Michelle found a little triangular piece of glass embedded in the tire. Not a great way to start the day, but it did give us a chance to try out our new rechargeable auto air pump. The thing works beautifully and made the tire change much easier.
Once that was done, we set off aware that the sunshine was accompanied by intense humidity. Our route for the day followed the Glacial Drumlin Trail. The first 15 miles of the trail are paved, but bumpy in places. They gave us plenty of time to figure out why Michelle‘s bike was rattling. In the end, it was just a fender that was out of alignment. We figured that out while taking shelter in a pavilion at Dousman’s city park, which we shared with three elderly ladies knitting prayer shawls. The thunderstorm passed more or less uneventfuly.
From there, the trail turned to packed stone dust, sometimes fairly wide other times, narrow double tracks with a narrow strip of woodland on either side. Beyond that there were fields of corn and soybean, wild meadows, and marshland. For the most part, the trail climbed slightly, a 1 to 2 percent grade. The only “danger” were the small holes in the trail left by what locals told us were gophers.
Haikus of the Day
Soft warm and heavy
Swimming through farm and forest
Dripping wet bike trail
— Mike
Green tunnel svitsa
Sisyphus cried Birdseye help
Frozen mirage starts
— Michelle
Roughly 35 miles in, we were baking and looking for a place for lunch when what appeared but an A&W root beer shop. It was a godsend—root beer floats and air conditioning. The staff were so nice. Not only did they not object to our bringing the bikes inside, the manager George invited us to refill our bottles with water and ice.
At Mile 58, the trail ended and we traveled a county road toward the city. Sweating our way up a succession of hills, we welcomed the first light tap of rain drops. But the sudden appearance of dark swirling clouds promised much more and sought shelter in the most Wisconsin of places, a Quik Trip store. Minutes later, it poured, the wind blustered and thunder rumbled. We looked for a snack to power us on.
When the storm passed, we rode the last miles to the hotel, truly spent.
Today's ride: 69 miles (111 km)
Total: 90 miles (145 km)
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