Day 15

Riding down the drag strip known as WI-13 for a good portion of yesterday was efficient, but not a whole lot of fun. This morning I realized that I had returned to an area of Wisconsin where there are paved roads all over the place, so I took the opportunity to get off the main drag and hit the quiet county roads instead. The leaves have definitely changed a lot less in this area, so I was happy to know that I'd gotten at least a bit of an exlusive preview by being farther up north.

As much as I was trying avoid traffic and people, I was forced to go through Wisconsin Dells, and my oh my, that place was a frothing pit of humanity. If I didn't know better (and if I had seen some women flashing) I would have thought I was at Mardi Gras. Crowds packing the sidewalks, spilling into the streets, traffic backed up for miles...I think the only way I'd ever go there willingly would be to study it as a sociological phenomenon: why go someplace where everyone is, when there are so many places where everyone isn't?

After passing through Baraboo, I had one last giant hill to climb, which was really hard because I wasn't expecting it at all. But then thankfully the last mile and a half into Devil's Head Resort were all downhill, coasting at 30mph the whole way, so that was a good way to finish off two weeks of riding.

I took a 45-minute shower, met my parents, got dressed up and shaved a bit, and then headed to a nice wedding party. I should have eaten more cream-puff hors d'oeuvres, because while dinner was very good, it didn't quite pack the caloric punch of, say, a sack of chocolate-covered donuts. But then as if reading my mind, they brought out a bunch of uneaten tiramisu afterwards, and then even better, around 10pm or so, they brought out a bunch of pizza. Pizza, at a wedding! Brilliant! The beer was still flowing, and I'd had an unquenched taste for pizza for at least a week, so I don't think they could have come up with anything better.

So, looking at the final numbers: 14 days of riding...993 total miles...zero flat tires...only three dog chasings (that were friendly anyway)...nothing verbally or physically thrown at me...eleven nights of camping...never below 45 degrees... Yep, that was a good trip.