Wanderlust

On the road again, in the rain

June 5, 2007 at 4:09 am gvblog 2 comments

We rode today from Chicago to Kenosha, just over the border of Wisconsin. I end the day with very mixed feelings. On one hand, it was a beautiful ride along railroad right of ways and through tunnels of oak trees crawling with cicadas. On the other hand, it was really, really, really wet. and dirty. I’ve figured out that because my tires are cyclocross tires with nubby tread, they pick up leaves, grass, and all manner of dirt and detritus and then deposit it on me and Rhonda.  We were looking for a place to eat lunch, and even though I’ve gone into fancy restaurants in my biking duds (a hot pink jacket and sparkly pink skirt) and not given it a second thought, there’s something about being dirty that makes me feel incredibly self-conscious, especially if I’m in a place where everyone else is clean.  And eating.

We’re staying tonight with Karen and Mike Donovan, who I got connected with through Jenny, Karen’s daughter, who also rode across the country on a tandem.  I have to say, I don’t think I could do a tandem. I have enough trouble relinquishing control when I’m riding with someone else – I think that being attached to the same machine would make me crazy. The power to weight ratio is pretty appealing, though.

Tomorrow we head to Milwaukee, and so far I’ve been surprised by my inability to find interesting people to talk to there. It seems like the hub of activism in Wisconsin is pretty squarely centered in Madison (can you have a squarely centered hub?) and there’s not a whole lot in Milwaukee. I’m sure that someone, somewhere has done a thesis on how having (or not having) a University (such as the University of Wisconsin – Madison) impacts cities and communities. I have to say that it’s been really interesting to compare, for instance, Utica, which is pretty much an industrial wasteland these days, and Syracuse, which had similiar manufacturing infrastructure but also a large university.

I’m facing an internal dilemma about blogging. At one point two weeks ago, I got really really sick of blogging, so I didn’t write about my experiences and conversations in DC or Baltimore.  On the one hand, I had really interesting and thought-provoking conversations, and I’d like to write about them. On the other hand, it feels strange to go back and write about what happened two weeks ago. Maybe I’ll post-date the entries so that only you, the clever and intelligent people reading this entry, will ever know the truth. Don’t tell anyone.

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