Thursday, July 24th: Beaver Dam, WI or … Monsanto headquarters and a wonderful bike shop!

Oops, it’s chilly out this morning! My woman decides to make a short detour to the center of Baraboo. She wants to know what the deal is with this circus.  

Baraboo is the capitol of the circus – the first circus here! Back on the route we soon have to use our muscles to climb. We have to pass one of those weird looking extraterrestrial things and I hope no arms will jump out of it and grab us! 

 We get a great descent – this time into Devil’s Lake State Park. I feel so happy here: I can go for a swim! 

There are no other cyclists around anymore… too cold for them to swim. Even my boss doesn’t go into the water. I enjoy the ride along the lake – so early in the morning. I feel my woman is a bit nervous about being in the woods by herself… But I’m here to protect her. A short climb takes us out of the State Park – too bad! Just a little bit further we meet Shaun: he’s trying to figure out how he can cycle to Beaver Dam directly instead of along CA’s country roads. My woman doesn’t want to leave these roads – there is hardly any traffic! Hey look… the road ends… in the water! 

 Luckily there is a ferry which can bring us across Lake Wisconsin. It’s a short ride and it’s free. Once on the other side my woman reads the sign: 30 miles to Madison… Oh… we so close to old friend Augie! But will she be home? We stay on the CA-route and follow the arrows which take us on a great rollercoaster ride. Well, I see that my woman has to work to get to each top of the hill, so it’s not really rolling, this Richard Road. 

Just before US 51 my woman takes a right turn. And guess what she sees just across from the picnic station: a Monsanto headquarters.

 The town of Arlington is small and that’s why it’s so amazing they have this fully equipped bicycle shop. We are now cycling between the cornfields again. 

Way up ahead I see someone weaving from left to right and from right to left. “Hurry up woman, I want to see if you can catch this person and I’m curious who it is from our group”. Boy – the weaving is very bad… At last my woman reaches this person: it’s not someone from our group – it’s a young woman who is using a kind of “step-bike”. My woman is amazed at the pace the girl gets. It must be hard to stand all the time, never being able to sit once on a saddle! Well, here we have to make a left turn – nice talking to you! We are alone again and very soon my woman sees a nice grassy field where she’s going to take a nap! It takes a while before the Shuli-woman catches up with us. Now we’re going to stay together. There is no Kwik Trip around and they decide to keep on going. The detour brings us along an old schoolhouse – with graffiti on it! They have a dilemma: drink something at a gas station or go to the ice-cream shop in Beaver Dam? They decide to do both! At the ice cream shop they even get a free drink! The school in Beaver Dam is not that far now. My woman has vague memories of this town, but she cannot really place them. It was another nice day on the bicycle!