Kettle Moraine

Stacey left town with the kids last Thursday. Stacey headed for Phoenix, the girls to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Schwartz for a few days in Des Moines. Rather than do the studying and work around the house while the family was away, a couple friends and I headed for the wonderful trails of Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. We would normally camp on such a trip, but the trip for me was simply to ride as much as I possibly could and spend as little money as I possibly could (within reason). So we settled on a cheap hotel. I'd like to report that the hotel's quality and cleanliness was not reflected in its price, but that was not the case. That didn't really bother me though.

Below is a photo of the beginning of a ride that was just not meant to be. On the way to Kettle, we stopped in the little town of Blue Mound. There are some trails there that have eluded me for years. We hoped to ride them on Friday night. We got geared up lights and all. Rode to the trailhead to avoid paying $10 to park the vehicle inside the park. When we got the trailhead we saw the dreaded "trails closed" sign. Poaching the trail was a thought, but upon inspection of the actual trail surface, we decided the right thing to do was not ride the trail and keep heading to Kettle.

Dave C. and Ken at Blue Mound

We arrived at the hotel in Whitewater hungry and ready for a beer. Luckily, there was a brewpub right across the street. We were disappointed to find that their kitchen had closed, but they were still pouring so not all bad. We ended up grabbing some beers to go. We had some precooked brats and a microwave in the hotel room, so we were good to go with food and brew.

Beers to go. Mmmmmmm

Saturday morning we didn't get in a big hurry. We grabbed some supplies for lunch and dinner at the trailhead. We had a few more brats, beers, and DAve brought some T-Bones for postride. We ended up finally parked at Kettle late morning and did a quick tour of the trails. I've logged many miles at Kettle previously, but there were some new trails built since then and some kick-ass reroutes including a sweet set of berms.

Hangin out takin a break

Dave hittin' the berms

Ken hittin the berms

Did I mention some of the hills in Wisconsin. Oh yeah, Wisconsin isn't flat. It isn't the hilliest trail I've ever ridden by a long shot, but some of the climbs could make a guy have to hurl after climbing them.

I didn't get a shot with actual vomit projectile, but it wasn't for the lack of effort.

The best part was Dave puked and rallied. He rode another 10 miles after this shot and then another ride later. That's bad ass.

After we thought we'd had enough we headed back to the parking lot where we broke out the grill, the ipod, and some brews. We ate T-Bones with our bare hands, drank some Spotted Cow, some Rogue beers, and of course Barker drank a few New Belgium Abbey's.

We tried to hit Blue Mound on the way home the next day, but it was still closed. Just wasn't meant to be. So we hit a piece of crap trail in Dubuque instead. It was a great trip. Lot's of fun on a small budget.

Helicopters, firetrucks, cop cars, and police dogs

Last weekend we had the rare opportunity to not have to drive anywhere for the weekend. Saturday was a nice day last weekend, so we took the kids to a little shindig at HyVee where they had all the public service vehicles out in the parking lot. The girls got to see the cop car with the lights going. They saw the police dog chase tennis balls. They got to sit in a firetruck courtesy of what has to be the dorkiest looking and acting firefighter in the world. Ladies, you won't be seeing this guy on any calendars. But the girls loved getting to sit in the truck.

But the highlight of the ordeal was the Life Flight helicopter. They got to get in the chopper and check it out. They both thought this was pretty cool. I told them I got to ride in one of those once, but they didn't seem to care.

As if that wasn't cool enough, the Life Flight crew got a call in the middle of the show. Out of necessity they had to make a quick and dramatic lift off for the crowd. Besides the noise, this was super cool as well.

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