The TRIP!!!
So Friday morning Sarah and I got on our bikes and rolled up outta town. We rode about 70 miles or so to Lake Geneva, where we camped at the Big Foot Beach State Park. Very nice. Pleasant day, a bit warm, crazy traffic in places until we figured out a good alternative to Alqonquin Road which sucked ASS. Saturday morning we got back on our bikes and wended our way on county roads mostly. I got some nasty welts on my lower back from my shorts rubbing my back because of my belt. I had to change into pants that didn't need a belt and that would ride lower, and then I got a sunburn on top of the welts because my pants weren't covering it. OOOPS. Oh well. Saturday afternoon Sarah's knee was hurting, so we slowed it down some and took more breaks. We ended up riding about 70 miles on Saturday as well, and we rolled in to the place where we were to get keys for the house we were to be house-sitting right around dusk. We got to the house we were staying in around 9pm or so, and then we went out to eat. Monty's Blue Plate is awesome. If you're ever in Madison, and you're a veggie, put that right up at the top of the list. They have non-veggie stuff too, but I didn't try that. Damn good shakes to boot. So Saturday night we got to bed around 11ish, totally exhausted, and did not use the hot tub or the sauna that the house had on the premises. Sunday morning we got up, fed the cats (our only requirement for house-sitting this amazing house was that we feed the cats once a day), and rolled off to my fitting. Madison is a GREAT town to bike in, even though it has some pretty good sized hills. At this point, however, we're riding our bikes without any of the stuff on them that we had spent the last two days weighed down with, so even the hills weren't too bad. My fitting went well, the builder is awesome, and I'm really excited. www.jonnycycles.com for a peek at what he does. His shop is really tiny, and totally something we could pull off, and I think we probably will. We went to this really great place for brunch called Lazy Jane's, it was very pleasant, and then we just kinda poked around town. We found an open thrifty-type place and I bought a nice pair of shorts to use as swim trunks and we went swimming. I haven't gone swimming in I don't even know how long. It was great. Then we sat around and dried off for a while (no towels, just the sun and wind), and then we went out for dinner. We poked around downtown until we found this restraunt called Peacemeal. It's a very nice veggie restraunt with a volunteer staff. The food was pretty decent, the soy ice cream was good, and the service.... well, let me see here......
We walk into the restraunt, with another couple right behind us. Nobody is there. There is a sign that says "please wait to be seated". So we kinda stand there akwardly for a few minuites, and then we plop down against the windows and wait. Other couple is kinda creeped out and leaves. Another woman walks in, tells us the carrot cake is out of this world, and that's what she's here for, she looks around, pokes her head in the kitchen, doesn't see anyone, says "whoops, I'm parked illegally" and leaves. Another woman comes in. She has ordered her carrot cake in advance, and really wants it. She goes into the kitchen. Sarah follows. They find the staff, the waitress says she has a migraine and is trying to close if she can just get ahold of the manager. Waitress gets woman her cake. Woman leaves. We ask if they're going to serve dinner or if we should find someplace else. Waitress says they'll serve us. We sit down. Waitress comes back and takes our orders, doesn't write them down, doesn't ask if I want cheese on my veggie burger or what kind of sides we want, etc. We get our soup, we eat our soup. We get our food, no cheese on my burger. Oh well, no biggie. Chips and salsa as a side, not fries. No biggie, chips are good, salsa is good. Other people filter in and she tells them she's closing. I order my soy desert in a cone, comes in bowl with cone on top. Soy treat too melty even in freezer to stay in the cone. It's still good, but it looks just a bit unprofessional. We eat our deserts and pay and leave, they lock up behind us. The food was tasty, and I might go back, but if I saw that girl, I'd walk right back out the door.
We go home after hitting up the liqour store for gifts for our hosts and ourselves, and sit down in front of the tv. We watched a little bit of Reservoir Dogs, that got more violent than we wanted, so we switched to.... The Whole Nine Yards. What a great movie. I was drinking this really awesome local beer that only comes in gallon jugs. Deeeeeeeeeeelicious. I drank the gallon over the course of that movie and an episode of South Park. At this point I'm REALLY drunk. We start the South Park Movie. I go upstairs and puke, then proceed to fall asleep on the couch. Sarah wakes me up with much effort and finally gets me to go upstairs. I sleep like a baby. We got up Monday morning and packed up, cleaned up, fed the cats, etc. We leave a nice thank you note, drop off the key, and go back to Monty's for breakfast. That, in all honesty, was the best food I can remember having in a VERY long time. I eat fairly well in general, but that was frickin' great. We roll casually in the direction of the bus and get a nice comfy air-conditioned ride home.
All in all, this was the best vacation I've ever had. Sarah and I both had a great time, we were super relaxed, we got done what needed to get done, and we got to spend lots of time together that wasn't (except for my fitting) structured at all. I'm actually kinda looking forward to going in to work today.
a note on Madison. I have never been to a city that I liked more except for Chicago. If it were bigger, and all my friends lived there, I would be there in a heartbeat. There was no sense of hatred from drivers like you get in Chicago, everyone was very friendly, it was great! Everywhere you look, there's somebody on a bike, or even a whole group of somebodies. We even saw a picture of a tallbike that someone rides around Madison.
Kurt, Bethany, if you ever want that Marquette feeling, that's the place to go. It's like a 4 hour drive from Chi-town.
We walk into the restraunt, with another couple right behind us. Nobody is there. There is a sign that says "please wait to be seated". So we kinda stand there akwardly for a few minuites, and then we plop down against the windows and wait. Other couple is kinda creeped out and leaves. Another woman walks in, tells us the carrot cake is out of this world, and that's what she's here for, she looks around, pokes her head in the kitchen, doesn't see anyone, says "whoops, I'm parked illegally" and leaves. Another woman comes in. She has ordered her carrot cake in advance, and really wants it. She goes into the kitchen. Sarah follows. They find the staff, the waitress says she has a migraine and is trying to close if she can just get ahold of the manager. Waitress gets woman her cake. Woman leaves. We ask if they're going to serve dinner or if we should find someplace else. Waitress says they'll serve us. We sit down. Waitress comes back and takes our orders, doesn't write them down, doesn't ask if I want cheese on my veggie burger or what kind of sides we want, etc. We get our soup, we eat our soup. We get our food, no cheese on my burger. Oh well, no biggie. Chips and salsa as a side, not fries. No biggie, chips are good, salsa is good. Other people filter in and she tells them she's closing. I order my soy desert in a cone, comes in bowl with cone on top. Soy treat too melty even in freezer to stay in the cone. It's still good, but it looks just a bit unprofessional. We eat our deserts and pay and leave, they lock up behind us. The food was tasty, and I might go back, but if I saw that girl, I'd walk right back out the door.
We go home after hitting up the liqour store for gifts for our hosts and ourselves, and sit down in front of the tv. We watched a little bit of Reservoir Dogs, that got more violent than we wanted, so we switched to.... The Whole Nine Yards. What a great movie. I was drinking this really awesome local beer that only comes in gallon jugs. Deeeeeeeeeeelicious. I drank the gallon over the course of that movie and an episode of South Park. At this point I'm REALLY drunk. We start the South Park Movie. I go upstairs and puke, then proceed to fall asleep on the couch. Sarah wakes me up with much effort and finally gets me to go upstairs. I sleep like a baby. We got up Monday morning and packed up, cleaned up, fed the cats, etc. We leave a nice thank you note, drop off the key, and go back to Monty's for breakfast. That, in all honesty, was the best food I can remember having in a VERY long time. I eat fairly well in general, but that was frickin' great. We roll casually in the direction of the bus and get a nice comfy air-conditioned ride home.
All in all, this was the best vacation I've ever had. Sarah and I both had a great time, we were super relaxed, we got done what needed to get done, and we got to spend lots of time together that wasn't (except for my fitting) structured at all. I'm actually kinda looking forward to going in to work today.
a note on Madison. I have never been to a city that I liked more except for Chicago. If it were bigger, and all my friends lived there, I would be there in a heartbeat. There was no sense of hatred from drivers like you get in Chicago, everyone was very friendly, it was great! Everywhere you look, there's somebody on a bike, or even a whole group of somebodies. We even saw a picture of a tallbike that someone rides around Madison.
Kurt, Bethany, if you ever want that Marquette feeling, that's the place to go. It's like a 4 hour drive from Chi-town.