First of all, I’ll state the obvious: I’m not an
adventurous person. I really like safe, boring situations that go according to
plan. (This makes me sound completely boring, but it’s the truth…) Thomas, on
the other hand, is nothing like me. We’re as opposite as you can get, and have
almost nothing in common…and I was hoping this trip would be a good bonding
experience for us. We desperately needed it J
While I was in WI, Thomas got the “brilliant” idea
to go on a bike trip…to Illinois (a distance of about 500 miles when avoiding
highways). I quickly ruled that idea out for a couple of reasons: 1.I only had
a couple of extra days before I had to be back at work and 2.I would have died J
But we did come up with an alternate plan, one we could both live with.
We decided to leave on Thursday morning, and have
the parents pick us up on Saturday. Of course, I wanted to find places we could
stay at night, but Thomas seemed to think that half the adventure was in not
knowing…So I didn’t plan. The only thing we knew was the general direction we
were going.
Thursday morning was actually pretty fun. We
encountered several ridiculously huge hills, and some animals—deer, maybe a
bear, rabbits, squirrels, elk or something that resembled elk, sheep, and a
adorable furry, fat dog named Moxie. I sort of freaked out when I realized this
dog was chasing us, and it followed us for a good little ways. Finally, we
stopped and looked at its collar…. We figured she would get tired
and go back to where she came from. Eventually, her owner came to get her.
Around 1:30 on Thursday, we made it to Eau Claire,
about 43 miles from our house. Being the healthy people that we are, we stopped
at McDonald’s to eat. And then the rain began J Thomas and I
sat in this McDonald’s for about 2 hours, while considering several different
options. In my mind, the only option was having mom and dad come pick us up,
and forgetting about the rest of this adventure. Sounds good, right?! Thomas
was adamantly opposed to that idea; he wanted to just go in the rain. (I may
have considered going on, even with the rain, if we had a place to stay that
night…but we didn’t have that!)
When I say “and then the rain began”, I’m not
talking about a little sprinkle. What I’m referring to is a torrential
downpour, where it rains sideways. We eventually called the parents, only to
find out that this rain was going to continue, at least for tonight. Thomas and
I came to a compromise: We decided to have mom and dad come pick us up—we would
go back to Chetek for the night, and get dropped off in Eau Claire the next
morning. (I was especially happy because it meant one less night of sleeping in
a tent!)
Thursday night, we found ourselves back in
Chetek…right where we started. That night, my family went to Casa Mexicana (our
favorite) and we were able to hear more about the Romania trip. We also found a
spot for Thomas and I to camp on Friday night (yes, that was my idea…)
Friday morning we found ourselves riding
bikes…again. Fortunately, the first 20 miles of our day was on a super nice,
paved, non-hilly bike trail. It was a dream! Friday was a LONG day. We had a little over 60
miles to cover in order to make it to Merrick State Park. As much as I hate
tent-camping, I love state parks, so this seemed like a good place to stop for
the night. We biked. And biked. And biked some more. By Friday afternoon, I
thought my legs might fall off…and part of me that would be an OK option
because maybe they would hurt less? I had convinced myself we were getting
pretty close to this state park, and here’s the conversation we had while
stopped at Kwik Trip.
Thomas: We’re in the home stretch!
Amelia: Oh, good. {Thinking: we have no more than 6
miles}
Thomas: Yeah, so we’re almost there
Amelia: How many more miles? {Thinking: I might
actually make it!}
Thomas: Only…a little over 13
Amelia: 13?! 13 MORE miles?
Once we got going again, those 13 miles weren’t as
bad as I thought they might be. But I was more than ready to call it a day!
Finally, around 4:30, we arrived at the much anticipated Merrick State Park.
Since you can’t reserve spots for tent camping ahead of time, we just hoped
there would be one. And there was! We loaded up firewood into an already packed
trailer, and found our little campsite, located right by the water. (I have no
idea what body of water it was.)
As we’re walking onto our campsite, Thomas sees a
snake (which he tried, unsuccessfully, to catch). I’m thinking “great, not only
are we sleeping outside tonight, THERE ARE SNAKES HERE!) Not exactly
comforting. However, that was the only snake we saw…
After setting up our tent, Thomas thought we should
ride an additional 2.5 miles into Fountain City to get food. It took him a
little while to convince me of this, but eventually I agreed. We were about to
turn out of the campsite when I decided that another 5 miles on a bike was not
something I had any interest in doing, no matter what was at stake! So, Thomas
ventured into Fountain City without me (hoping to find Chinese takeout—no, I’m
not kidding!) He settled for muffins from kwik trip.
Saturday morning came bright and early, and once
again, we found ourselves on bikes. From the start on Saturday, I felt like I
had ridden more than 100 miles in 2 days (maybe because I had?!) Thomas seemed
much more un-phased by all of this, but I’m just telling you: I hurt. Once we
got moving, it really did get better.
Our plan was to make it to LaCrosse by Saturday
afternoon. We had covered almost 25 miles, when we stopped in another little
town. Here’s what happened:
Thomas: You look like death.
Amelia: Thanks. I feel like death.
Thomas: What’s the problem?
Amelia: We’ve been on bikes for 2 ½ days!
{LaCrosse was another 18 miles down the road, and we
both knew that wasn’t going to happen!}
Thomas called mom and says “Amelia’s dying, so you
need to come get us”
Then, of course, mom wants to talk to me.
Mom: What’s wrong?
Amelia: I don’t feel good.
Mom: Why not?
Amelia: …because I’ve been riding a bike for the
last 2 days. You wouldn’t feel good either!
So, we decided to end The Great Biking Adventure
after approximately 125 miles. Even though we shortened our day on Saturday, I honestly
could not believe we made it that far. And by “we”, I mean me! Obviously,
Thomas could have gotten a lot further without me. The Great Biking Adventure was never really
about biking for me, as crazy as that may sound. It was more about spending an
uninterrupted amount of time with my brother; it was good for both of us to be
stuck with each other.
Once mom and dad picked us up, we went to TGI
Fridays for lunch. From there, I took off for Illinois while they headed back
to Chetek. It’s never enjoyable to leave my family and drive back to IL, but it
was a lot more bearable this time because Micah was going to be there! Knowing
that we got to spend the rest of the weekend together made me much happier to
be in Illinois again J
By the time I got back to the farm in Illinois on
Saturday, I could hardly move. I felt like I was 80 years old when getting out
of my car. It hurt to walk, or move in general. But here’s some things I
learned:
·
- You don’t need all the “right equipment” to go on a bike trip. We borrowed a bike trailer and a bike for this little excursion.
- If you really want to go on a bike trip (or if you really do NOT want to go on a bike trip, but your brother talks you into it), you can and you should…no matter how out of shape you are! Don’t use your lack of athleticism as an excuse not to go!
- Sometimes, you have to get out of your comfort zone in order to do something fun. Truthfully, this was fun.
- We biked through beautiful parts of WI that we never would have driven through.
- Having super limited electronics for a couple of days was…nice and relaxing. Thomas and I actually had to talk to each other!
- Biker shorts are optional J
