The vacation within the trip

Since I still had more than a week between arriving at my grandmother’s place in Princeton and when I needed to be in Appleton for the reunion, I took quite a bit of time off. On one hand, it was nice to get to spend time with my grandmother and see a number of my friends. On the other hand, I’m supposed to be in the middle of this big, impressive bike trip and I spent far too many days not cycling.

I spent all day Friday and Saturday with Grandma, then Sunday morning, after making breakfast and taking grandma to the grocery store, I took her car down to Madison. I could have ridden the 85 miles from Princeton to Madison, but that would have taken most of a day to get there and another day to get back, instead of the hour and a half a car takes. Since I was more interested in seeing my friends than riding to Madison, I took the car. Once again, I found that I just do not like being in a motor vehicle. Sure, they go faster than a bicycle and have more cargo space, but those are the only two advantages I found.

My first stop in Madison was to Best Buy to try to get my camera repaired. Of course they will send it back to happy magical repair land where the elves will use their ancient magic to undo the moisture damage all the rain caused. Then in two or three weeks, most likely, they’ll ship it to my home. In the meantime, I needed a camera. Because it was not terribly expensive and I already had all the accessories, I got the same model. Ug. I could return the new one within 2 weeks, but then I’d be cameraless again, and I don’t like that.

After a brief visit with my friend Terry, I stopped at Broom Street Theater, where many years ago I worked on a number of plays. It is a small community driven experimental theater, and I was happy to see it is still doing well. The play, Television: The Play, was funny and creative, allowing audience members to choose the next scene through a program guide style menu projected on the back wall. Go see it, people around Wisconsin. I also got to see a number of people I knew from back when I worked at the theater, so that was nice.

After the show, I enjoyed the rainy Marquette Festival, a big outdoor concert on a shore of Lake Monona. Good music, decent food, plenty of beer. After that Terry, her boyfriend David and I went to the Weary Traveler for dinner, which was nice. Since I was staying with Terry and David, I drove back to their place on the other side of town. As I was pulling up to their house, I got a call from Terry saying neither of them could remember where they parked the car. Clearly, they shouldn’t be driving then. I drove back to get them then dealt with all the construction again crossing back to the west side. Ug ug ug.

The next day I spent some time with my friend Zach, who was part of the group I used to play cards with twice a week. They were playing that night and while most of the people in group from eight years ago were no longer there, I was welcome to join them. I made arrangements for Zach to drive me there and back later, but I had a few other things on my docket first. I took a nice long walk with my friend Robin, who it is always good to see. That night was auditions for the next Broom Street Show, written and directed by my friend Heather Renkin. Heather and I acted in a couple shows together years ago, and I did lighting design for another show she was in. I thought it would be an hour and a half of free entertainment, and it would be nice to be on that stage again. It was. Afterwards Heather and the stage manager tried to convince me that I should just stay in Madison for the next 12 weeks, they would happily cast me if I didn’t have to go back to Brooklyn. Thanks guys, but my kitty needs me. Then I went to play cards into the wee hours of the morning.

Tuesday was Terry’s birthday, so I left her a nice present, but I had told grandma I would be back in Princeton by noon for lunch. My Uncle Ed was driving up from Middleton to see me. Well, I got to Princeton at about quarter after 12, and it was as if I ruined the party. That grandmother is a worrier, and all sorts of scenarios from a flat tire to death by explosive collision played in her head. I told her that if I got a flat or died on the way, I’d call her to let her know. What happened was merely some slow and annoying traffic.

After dinner that night, I took Penny out for a ride. It had been four and a half days since I had last ridden, and both of us were glad to be reunited. I didn’t take the gps, so I don’t know exactly how many miles of country road I took in outside of town. I think about 8, but they weren’t going to go on the official tally anyway. As nice as it was to spend so much time with friends and family, I wanted to get back to the business of cycling. Thankfully the next morning I was headed to Oshkosh. Unfortunately, that is only a bit over 40 miles away, and I’ll stop there for two days to visit with my other grandmother.

Days 43 – 47, Princeton, WI
No miles that really count, unknown top speed (but I think I got above 30 at one point)