Wisconsin

Monday 7/07/08 to Wednesday 7/09/08
We had an uneventful ride from Minnesota to Wisconsin. We arrived at Joanne and Dave’s (Lynn’s sister and brother-in-law) about 3 in the afternoon. We spent the afternoon talking and resting. On Tuesday, we went to see House on the Rock. This is a house that a man, Alex Jordan, built on top of a pinnacle of a rock. He was a collector of many things so he started adding buildings to house all his collections, from many animated and automated music machines to a five million dollar carousel (the world’s largest), he has a collection of about anything you can think of.
On Wednesday, we awoke to a beautiful clear and sunny day. We had decided to go bike riding in Madison around the lake. Debbie and the kids were going with us. We met at about 11 and started off. We didn’t get too far when part of the group stopped to see otters and a turtle in the lake. The problem was the rest of the group didn’t know they had stopped. We regrouped and started off again. We then stopped at the convention center where we could take the bikes on and elevator and go up to the top. We spent some time looking at all the views and started off again. We only stopped one other time when there was a disagreement on the route to take. It was 5 to 3 with neither group giving in. Alicia came over to our side and then we finally got Ed and Dave to come over. We started off again and made it to our lunch stop where Chris was meeting us. We had gone five miles. Some in the group were feeling pretty good about that.
We stopped for lunch at the Madison Gardens so after lunch we toured the gardens. There were so many beautiful paths and flowers to see. We spent a while wandering through the gardens. It was beginning to feel warmer and getting later so we started off again.
There was some discussion as to whether we should go back the way we came or continue around the lake. The problem with continuing around the lake was that it was not always going to be a path, we would be riding on some streets, too. Again, we were divided on who wanted to do what but we soon decided we could all make it around the lake. Well, we had quite a ride. We were on some streets and we had a few hills. Some in the group had a little trouble with the hills (I won’t name names) but we all made it. We finished our ride having gone 13 miles. Everyone was a little tired but we all felt good and the locals felt they could do that again.
We all went back to Joanne and Dave’s and had a very nice dinner. We showed them the pictures of our trip so far. We said goodbye to Debbie and Chris and family and prepared for our tip to Michigan the next morning.