My Summer Vacation

So back in July, I had a couple of days off, and that kid and I were trying to think up something to do. We talked about going for a bike ride and the idea of doing the Planet Trek came up. It's a pretty cool thing—a scale model of the solar system spread out over 23 miles of bike path. Every object has its own placard describing its stats and relative size. The sun is represented by a 24-foot circle of flowers, Jupiter is the size of a hula hoop and Pluto is the size of a marble. With the marble located in Mount Horeb, this was really too far for the ten year old to ride in one day. So without really thinking, I suggested we could do the trek in one direction one day, camp overnight and return the next. Once I said it, there was no taking it back, and the kid was determined to do exactly that.

So here she is:


and me with the Big Dummy, loaded for bear:


My first mistake was waiting until almost noon to leave the house. I had figured we could make maybe 8 miles per hour over 32 miles and be in camp by six or so with stops. Not so much.

First stop, the sun:


See how happy? It wasn't to last. We then proceeded to visit the other placards in town in relatively quick succession. Pluto, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres (an asteroid), and Jupiter went by pretty quickly. We stopped for a saddle adjustment on her bike and for a couple of other things:


Then there was Saturn, last of the happy planets:


You'll notice that there's quite a distance between Saturn and Neptune. Probably about 14 miles:


14 miles can do quite a little bit to change one's mood:


Of course, my mood always improves with a stop at the Riley tavern for a samnitch or two (as it did on last winter's Shakedown Cruise for a Snowbike):


The last 7 or 8 miles were uphill and rather grueling for the youngster. We were stopping at a pace of about once per mile at this point and her conscientious penchant for remaining well-hydrated made for a couple of very much anticipated potty stops. She was still doing well, but not getting any more enthusiastic:


Here we are on Pluto. Learning is fun.

The next part, between Mt Horrible and Blue Mounds, was a little farther than I thought and by far the most difficult part of the trip for the little human on the Big Dorky Bicycle. The saddle is a little too big for a kid, so her seat was sore. We stopped at a convenience store, and by some mad twist of fate, thank goodness, they had a bottle of baby powder.

Six miles and 7 rest stops later, we arrived at the turnoff into Blue Mounds State Park. Just one more 350-foot climb up a 10 percent grade to go. Oh, and then find the park office. And a site. No, really, it was easy. We bought firewood at the camp office, loaded it onto the DumV and arrived on site at about 7:30.

I didn't take many photos in camp because we were pretty busy setting up the tent and cooking dinner. Did manage to get one snap of the weenie roast:


We slept pretty well but for the nighttime raid by La Coonsa Nostra. These were not your ordinary cuddly Disney raccoons, but snarling, nasty, streetwise thugs bent on stealing our hot dog buns at any cost. They managed to figure out how to knock down the stuff I had hung in the tree in about 15 minutes. I finally ended up taking our little cooler and what remained of our dry goods to an adjacent site and asking a fellow camper to shut it in their car to be recovered in the morning. Egad.

After things settled down, I still didn't sleep all that well. Seems a little silly in retrospect, but I was worried about how I was going to get that kid home the next day. She was tired and sore and we had talked about calling the missus to sag her out.

Day broke and that kid slept until about 8, but rolled out of bed all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We had some milk and cereal, our eggs broken having not been properly stowed. We roasted a couple of hot dogs, drank some coffee and decided to treat ourselves to a proper breakfast in Mount Horrible. After finding out that the pool didn't open until noon (thus missing the major attraction at BMSP) we broke camp and hit the road. After a very slow and careful descent out of the park, it was smooth downhill sailing toward home:



See that smile? What a difference a good night's sleep can make!

We ate brunch at a brewpub in Mount Horeb called the Grumpy Troll.
Burgers and fries tasted pretty good right about then. Outdoor seating.

Stopped plenty of times on the way back, including a bit of a layover in Riley. No bar food this time though:


We also stopped in Verona for ice cream and hunted high and low for Uranus. In fact, the idea that we couldn't locate yer-ay-nus became, as one might expect with a ten year old, the standing joke for the entire trip. We thought we had just missed it on the way out, but on the return trip we even asked a park ranger along the trail, "pardon us sir, have you seen Uranus?" The answer was "no."


Again that kid started to drag pretty hard at about 7 miles out, but with ample encouragement and not a few rest breaks, we were home by dinnertime.

The Big Dummy and the Amsterdam actually turned out to be something like the Dynamic Duo. When her stuff was too heavy to carry past Mount Horeb on the way out the first day, I just plunked it on the Dummy and we soldiered on. I have to say that it was a pleasure to ride even fully loaded on the limestone trail. The Amsterdam, while a big heavy thing, beat her little 24-inch mountain bike with its steady cruise and carrying capacity.

Given to do again (which we will, I can guarantee) I think we'll put a better saddle on the A'dam and get her out on it for a few shorter rides to accustom her to it. As it was, she was a real trooper doing 62 miles in two days. Gained a new respect for her.