Day 19: West Salem-Madison

Yesterday and today it was quite foggy for the first hour and a half, but it soon cleared up. The route we took today went by a old railroad track for 55 kilometers. It meant less climbing and there were even three tunnels to cut off the peaks. The route started in Sparta (maybe after the Dutch bike brand) and ended for us in Elroy. It was a very pretty and well paved path made out of crushed lime stone. It kind of reminded me of our province Drenthe back home. The trees next to the trail provided shade and kept us cool. Unfortunately it dropped our speed a bit, but hey… you can't have everything.

About 10 kilometers before we reached Elroy Marcel and Rob were standing still and there was a man (who lived across the street) talking to them when he recognized my bike. I was on the front page of the local news paper. When I asked him where I could get a copy of the paper he went back to his house and gave me his copy. I place the paper on the nose of my bike together with a can of cola. Of course that was a mistake and I spilled it over the paper. A couple of hours later two people parked their car on the side of the road and stopped me. The had seen my bike in the paper and were wondering what the odds were of meeting me in person.

Apparently a day does not go by without me being pulled over by the police. We were supposed to have dinner with a few ROAM-ers at a restaurant at Capital Square in downtown Madison. I was making good time and could easily keep up with traffic. I was headed straight for my destination. When I overtook a police car on the right at a traffic light (to get in front) the flashing lights came on. His excuse was that I didn't have a official reflector on the rear and that I was overtaking on the right side. The last is crap because it's allowed on a bike to get in front at the light. About the reflector, I think it's bullshit. The biker next to me also had no reflector. I guess he just wanted to check out my bike. Anyway, I have it all on camera and at the end of the tour I'm going to place in online.

After talking to the many people in front of the restaurant who had gathered around the bikes we went inside and ate. I had a very nice salad with a steak. Afterwards we left for the camp ground and set up my tent around 9 PM, showered and went to bed. I'm beginning to get tired of camping. Everything is wet and damp and we simply do not have enough time to let everything dry. Fortunately we are staying in a hotel tomorrow.

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