Onward to Wisconsin!

Chicago was an awesome time. It was by far the largest city we have been in yet and it was clear when we were riding around and seeing cars zip right by you. Thankfully there were plenty of bike lanes.

We had two home stays in Chicago. We first stay with Rachael's old friend, Yuri and his girlfriend Randi. They were great host and showed us Wicker Park and we had a great brunch together. After 3 nights there we headed towards Lincoln Park and stayed with Erica, my cousin Kevin's girlfriend, who also came down for the weekend. On a beautiful day we headed down to the beach along the lake and Rachael couldn't get over the fact that people were going to the "beach" in the midwest.

Later that night, our friends, Andrew and Kristen were in from Bowling Green, KY and were heading to Ames, IA and we got some drinks with then. It was great catching up with them as they are fellow adventurers and we hadn't seen them since our wedding.

We headed towards Milwaukee the next morning for the next two days as it was 95 miles from house to house.

What a great ride all the way up to Milwaukee, it seems like trails were everywhere!

-The North Shore Canal Trail
-The Praire Trail, which turned into the Kenosha County Trail
-The Oakleaf Trail into Milwaukee

We camped between Kenosha and Racine, WI and got to Milwaukee early on Tuesday, 5/24 and hung out at this awesome cafe call the Hi-Fi Cafe. Great sandwiches and great punk music. It reminded me a lot of Baltimore. The plan was to take a day off the next day before we headed to Madison. We were staying with the Aunt and Uncle of our dear friend Abbie: Laurie, Dean and their daughter Becca. They were really great and welcoming, it was perfect to have a place while a big storm passed through. They made us an amazing chinese soup and took us to Kopps, one of the best custerd places ever.

Madison, WI, my birthplace, was the next stop and we were going to be taking a 2 week break. We biked primarially on the Glacial Drumlin State Trail, which was 51 miles. As we were biking into Madison, this amazing feeling came over me to think of a place I came to so many time by car and plane, I was now riding up on my bike! The best was at the end of the trail, my cousins Karen and Kelly. They road the last 7 miles with us to there house where we were going to be staying with their awesome, energtic kids, Lucy and John.

Now that we are going to be in place for the next 2 weeks, expect to see some posts about food, sleeping, equipment, trails and much more, so stay tuned!!