AN UNEMPLOYED DAY

What does one do when one is unemployed and his wife has a weekday off? Take a bike ride on a recreation trail. Military Ridge State Recreation Trail is a 30+ mile (48.3 km - this is important later) trail in south central Wisconsin from southeast of Madison to the west - Verona to Dodgeville. It follows a former railroad bed as do most recreation trails in this state, so the grade is very manageable and the scenery varied from bucolic to urban.

Anyway, this particular trip began with a pause as just as I prepared to load the bike rack and its occupants onto the 12-year-old Ford Wagon, a cloudburst erupted. I was not about to get soaked for the sake of loading bikes. So we waited. After attaching the rack and bikes, I removed the seats (to prevent our seats from getting wet, just in case) and we left for Verona. We are map people, especially with me being a geography major, so we headed for the nearest trail head to help save money on the gas. No GPS for us!



We arrived in due course without difficulty and proceeded with a picnic lunch
under a threatening sky and on top of a picnic table to attempt to fool the bugs. This actually worked! We proceeded on the dampened gravel trail westward hoping to avoid being rained on. There isn't much more unpleasant than riding a bike in rain-soaked clothing. We were going to be wet enough from the inside with the humidity as high as it was this day.


As we progressed down the trail we experienced thunder, dark thick clouds and even a brief shower where we shielded ourselves under the canopy of trees covering stretches of the trail. While we avoided getting soaked, the trail itself, of course, did not as evidenced by this photo:




We dried and we were able to eventually brush off a good portion of the mud. And as we continued to our goal destination of Blue Mounds, the skies cleared, at least in this general area and the trail was drier as well. The humidity was still high, but the temperature dropped slightly and a breeze was evident, so the ride was far more pleasant. As we proceeded, the trail was marked every mile - we began at mile three - and my riding and life partner kept track on her odometer, though it is stuck on kilometers, so we are able to do some quick mental math by rounding. It turns out that one mile equals 1.609 kilometers, so we use 1.5 for easier mental conversion.

We arrived in Blue mounds, mile twenty-one (about 30 km) and took a rest. Here at a city park we observed some guys playing horseshoes and I thought that I should start an unemployed guys' horseshoe tournament in Watertown. Sherri told me that that might be too restrictive and that I would most likely have to include working men who worked other shifts. I shrugged, but agreed. We began our return trek to Verona's east side.

We stopped in Mt. Horeb to buy snacks and planned to buy a second soda where we bought one from the same machine at the same park shelter no more than two hours previously. It was at the very park where Sherri took what was almost a shower in what she calls a wonderful restroom. The park facilities hard marvelous accoutrements and we recommend them should you ever take this same trail. This is in Waltz Park on Mt. Horeb's east end. Anyway, as we arrived to Waltz Park, I inserted my dollar bill and the machine took it, but did not allow me to retrieve my Diet Dr. Pepper as it had before. Being tired and sweaty, I was slightly perturbed, but we ate most of our salty treats anyway. We continued to Verona without incident, but with several rests as 34.5 km is about our limit.

All-in-all it was a good day and another bicycling tail to tell, but, boy are my legs sore (as well as my posterior).