Had a nice 312 mile ride yesterday

My wife and I had a nice ride yesterday.

We took the FJR up to Madison, WI by way of Rt. 12 and the Kettle Moraine drive. She's going to apply for a residency there, and she suggested that as long as we're going up that way, we may as well have a look at the city to see if it is "acceptable" to her. I already knew that I love the town. It has two lakes right in the middle of it, and one just to the southeast. It has a lot of big, green parks. It's not as hot there in the summer as Chicago is. They have good snowboarding nearby, and it's not too far to Canada, where they have REALLY good snowboarding. They also have a TON of bike lanes, and they allow mopeds to park with bicycles, free of charge. I could bring my scooter up there and have an easy time of getting around.

We stopped for lunch in this huge field near the hospitals and watched people playing soccer while we had sandwiches.

Then, we headed south, to the twisty roads that were MY destination. Oh my God, the roads in SW Wisconsin are just brilliant. However, watch for farmers in their tractors and a lot of blind turns with no speed suggestions. On some of these, if you're going 60, then come up over a blind hill to find that the road suddently veers left, you're done. Going for a tumble in the trees & grass.

One time, a farmer had pulled out in the road with his tractor and trailer. I gave two quick polite beeps to let him know I was behind him and going to pass. I got in the oncoming lane and was going about 50 and he puts out his left arm and swerves right in front of me! Full brakes kept us from hitting him. Apparently, he had decided to turn at the exact moment I wanted to pass. It would have been just great, if he could bother to do a head check before swerving after hearing a double beep. x-(

After doing a lot of kickass roads, we stopped in New Glarus, home to the... Wisconsin-famous New Glarus Brewing Company. They make some excellent micro brew beers, the most famous of which is Spotted Cow. Very good. I had taken a tour there last time I passed through in search of good roads, so we didn't stop there this time.

New Glarus is very proud of their Swiss ancestry. They have all their big buildings painted up like old alpine Swiss buildings. Brown & wood on top, clean white on the bottom, and with pointy roofs. They even offer Swiss tours. I am highly skeptical that there is any real Swiss heritage there any more. More likely, they use that as a tourist trap to bring in revenue for the town. It didn't work. We stopped for another sandwich, some fruit and water, and moved on down through Monroe, WI. Monroe is home to another, more famous brewery; Huber Brewery. They make Berghoff beer and their own brand, as well as Hooch. My brother and I had a tour there a few years ago, so my wife (not a beer lover) and I didn't stop there. By this time, we had been riding for about 7 hours, so we were ready to be home.

We then took country roads home, which was nice. In Northern IL, they sometimes don't bother to label country roads, so bring your GPS. If roads are not labeled, maps are all but useless.

We got home, had showers and went out to dinner. It was nice to have air conditioning again after sweating all day on the FJR in the 90° heat.

After we were settled in and I had a couple of beers, I thought it would be nice to go for a nice, cool scooter ride, but alas, the bike is not here. I miss the little bikes.