On Wisconsin

I was lazy and tired last night so I punted until tonight. We’ll do a little doubleheader this evening and get back on track. I was prepared to give yesterday a short, angry post, not unlike the one I actually put up. I woke up in a bit of a pissed off mood due to the thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. But we had an event that requires me to write more than “It rained. There’s cheese.” As I had planned.

Dan and I met for breakfast at 6:30 and decided to reconvene around 8:15 to see if the rain let up. We didn’t end up getting on the road until a bit after 9, while it was still raining, albeit not nearly as hard. After about an hour, the rain had stopped and we were both enjoying the ride along the Mississippi. I said it in my photo caption the other day, I just never get tired of looking at the river. Dan shared the same opinion and was lost in a moment of personal reverie when the cyclist’s nightmare occurred. He was in front of me and was looking at the river when he hit a rock, about the size of an oversized softball. His front wheel stopped in its tracks and he went over the handlebars. He bounced on his right side and came to rest on the ground next to a concrete barrier. I was able to stop before hitting either him or his bike. Thankfully, he and his bike ended up on the shoulder and not in the middle of the road.

Dan suffered a big gash in his right elbow, but amazingly, that appeared to be all. His helmet was unscratched and he did not have any sort of head injury. He was able to patch himself up with some gauze, ointment and a bandage and we tied a bandana around his arm to hold everything in place. His bike also appeared to suffer no damage. After dressing his elbow and resting for a couple minutes, Dan was ready to roll. While we were riding, I checked with him every few miles to make sure he was still feeling OK. As we later found out, he had a pretty deep bruise on his thigh that started to manifest itself after another couple hours. We rode almost 45 more miles before we finally stopped for lunch in La Crosse. Dan’s son, Andrew, was meeting us there as that was as far as Dan had planned on riding anyway. Lunch at Culver’s with a “concrete” for dessert. The frozen custard was better than the burger. After lunch, Dan and Andrew went off in search of more first aid supplies and I took off and kept riding. Since all my packs were still in the back of their car, we met about 25 miles up the road. Our hope first thing in the morning had been to possibly ride all the way to Winona, MN, but between the late start because of rain, the accident, and then a leisurely lunch, I stopped in Trempealeau, WI and we drove the last few miles to Winona for the evening.

There, Wisconsin. Are you happy now? It rained, there was cheese AND a big wreck. Glad to have you in the rear view.

The Great River Road - Wisconsin version. You can see the concrete barrier on the right. This is shortly before the accident.

This is shortly after the accident. The improv tourniquet is on Dan’s elbow.

Like you really need to advertise that in Wisconsin

The Cheapo Depot is a chain in the Upper Midwest

There was also a Battle of the Bad Axe, the final battle in the Black Hawk Wars where members of the Sauk and Fox tribes were massacred by the US Army in 1832.

Amazingly intact after the morning.

Part of the bike trail from La Crosse to Trempealeau.