I had planned a breakfast run with Kevin for today because I was supposed to meet up with a friend around 2 to go swimming at my place, as I thought it might be another scorcher of a day. Due to this fact it was initially going to be a speed run, so I didn’t post anything to the FB group page. However, since the front and storms passed through last night, it really was more of a riding day vs. swimming.
Well by the time we arrived at Karen’s Hip Hop Diner in Fox Lake for breakfast, I determined it would be best to see if I could cancel swimming with my friend and just keep riding the day away to my heart’s content. Luckily for me/us, my friend was very understanding.
From Fox Lake, we took some roads along the west side of the Lake connecting onto Cty A north for only a little bit before venturing off on some back roads heading west and north, but mostly west. Low and behold, we stumbled on one of those wooden bridges in the Amish area, and thankfully I remembered from the hard way the first time I was on it, to go slow as it is very old, rickety and extremely bumpy.
After that we ended up snaking down to the east side of Portage and then I suggested we take the road just west of the Wisconsin River since it had been quite a while for either of us to have taken it. At one point we stopped to walk up onto the dike/berm to take a look at the river and it seemed about right. Not too low anymore.
From there we took Cty T west and that is when I suggested we make a possible stop at the Log Cabin in Baraboo for some of their famous pies. Didn’t take much to get Kevin to agree to that since it is a stopping place for his ST Group when camping in Spring Green. Even though Cty T takes you right into Baraboo next to the restaurant, Kevin wasn’t quite ready for pie yet, so I suggested we venture through Devil’s Lake before circling back for pie and he was good with that. Going through Baraboo around the courthouse and downtown square reminded me of days passed, when I used to spend time there with my friend Karen from Baraboo when I was living in Madison. Fun and crazy times!
Although there was a road closed sign once we entered the park, we decided to keep going as we thought it might have been due to branches and trees down from the storms the night before, which we certainly seen a lot of that and a great deal more of it around Baraboo. Turns out the road was open and to our surprise, traffic was very light and not backed up as it usually is. Also, whatever trees or branches that were down, as you could tell there must have been a bunch, had already been cleared from the road by this time.
I also noticed when we got closer to Baraboo that the clouds were extremely breathtaking, with some really strange wispy ones in the upper atmosphere and puffy ones in the lower atmosphere. I was so blown away by them, that I had to stop several times to take photos; including reminding myself to keep my eyes on the road. They also made me think of Tom, our friend we recently lost to his addiction.
After stopping for our pie at the Log Cabin, we ventured back to Portage on Hwy 33 and then took Cty F north on the east side of Portage, into Montello. From Montello we took Cty C south and east until we snaked back to Hwy 23. We were going to take Cty J out of Princeton, but it was all torn up and graveled. It was getting pretty bad, so I can’t wait until it’s finished. So, then we took Cty P instead and some back roads again snaking back to Hwy 23 near Green Lake. From there we took Hwy 23 to Ripon where we stopped to stretch in a shaded spot on Main Street downtown when a business owner of Gents came over and offered for us to come sit on his nice chairs or sofa’s at his business across the street, and even offered us a water. Although we were okay with standing or sitting on the curb, we decided to go check out his business since he was so nice and I ended up buying some local made coffee as a thank you.
From there we took Hwy 23 the rest of the way back to town. So glad I was able to extend today’s ride since I didn’t get to do any last weekend, and tomorrow I am jumping out of a plane in Jefferson. Tee hee hee!
