cheese curds

Today’s 100 mile ride into Madison was supposed to be a difficult one, so we headed out of camp a bit earlier than usual, eating breakfast at camp at 5:30 AM, so that we could get in some miles before the sun awoke to scorch us. It was again a very hot today, but not quite as humid yesterday. Despite the steep and rolling hills that kept us quite busy, it was a really nice ride today. It turns out that Wisconsin is an amazingly beautiful state. The green grass, corn fields, and abundance of dairy farms make for lovely scenery. Also, the fact that we were riding into a rest day did not hurt. :o)



The lunch stop was by an interesting little farmer’s market, and I decided that it was the time in my life to try cheese curds. As far as I can tell, cheese curds are like a squeaky, delicious cousin of cheese. The Wikipedia article provided a bit more background:

Cheese curds are little known in locations without cheese factories, because they should ideally be eaten within hours of manufacture. Their flavor is mild, with about the same firmness as cheese, but with a springy or rubbery texture. Fresh curds squeak against the teeth when bitten into, a defining characteristic, due to air trapped inside their porous bodies. They are sometimes referred to as "squeaky cheese".They are sometimes somewhat salty.

They were really tasty, and I’m glad that I tried them in Wisconsin. I rode with Kenny and Kate Montana throughout the afternoon and had the pleasure of having my 11millionth flat rear tire. We passed by some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s works today. He was an architect who made these boxy looking little houses and was the most prominent and influential American architect (well according to another rider, Kenny, anyhow – and Kenny is an architect, so I’m going to go with that :o))

We stopped at a fun coffee / bike shop outside of Madison called Uphill Grind, had some iced coffee and got out of the sun for a bit. As we headed into Madison, we hit a bit of a snafu. One of the roads on our route was closed for construction. Thankfully I had my clever little phone with a map and GPS that helped us out and guided us into town. It added a few miles to the day, but overall we were lucky – some others ended up getting lost and going well out of their way. Madison is a really bike friendly town, and bicycle lanes can be found all over the place. We worked out way through town to the university dorms where we'll be spending the night.

Unfortunately, two people took spills today that required a hospital visit. Between transporting people to the hospital and helping the other riders work out how to get into town despite the closed road, it made for a busy day for the crew!