
While a shorter ride today, we were almost giddy with delight as we knew we were riding into Madison with a half-day today, and a rest day tomorrow. The route was similar to yesterday, but only half the distance. We still had a few punchy climbs along the way, but we knew that we had no riding on the calendar for tomorrow.
Our ride finished at the Capitol building in Madison with a lovely picnic laid out by the extended team at Trek. The rain held off and allowed us to enjoy the picnic outside among the trees. We enjoyed meeting the extended team from the Trek head office while we noshed on delicious sandwiches, salads and yummy cookies for dessert.
After lunch, we did have one mile left on the ride to take us to our accommodations for the next two nights at the Hotel Indigo. We are feeling fortunate to be able to spend the next two nights here in Madison and enjoy the things it has to offer – like good coffee and massages and places to get a manicure/pedicure. Of course, we also love the decent restaurants and being somewhere we can easily locate and access the things we may need.
We were delighted to receive a gift bag at the hotel upon arrival. The bag contained a book, Yeti tumbler with the Portland-to-Portland design on it as well as a t-shirt with the same design and stickers with our names and the Portland-to-Portland 2025 insignia. It was a very nice touch. After showering and cleaning up, I put on my new t-shirt to wear. While I haven’t yet finished the ride, so perhaps it’s not a good thing to put on quite yet – I did enjoy wearing something other than the limited amount of clothing in my suitcase that I’ve been wearing since August 20.
After showering and washing/drying my hair, the latter of which has been few and far between on this trip, I texted Myrna – a fellow coffee snob – to see if she wanted to head out and find the local coffee shop with me. We were fortunate enough to find a great spot, Cargo Coffee, just a few short blocks from the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped into the grocery store to pick up a few things. It was odd to step into a grocery store after so long. I had been in Austin, MN with my daughter, but doing things like this had become very unusual along this journey.
Later in the afternoon, we were treated to a tour of the Trek facilities in Waterloo, WI where the company had started. Most of the manufacturing is now conducted overseas, so the building mostly houses nearly 1000 employees and is where the Project One bikes are built. Project One is the customized version of Trek bikes where you can customize all aspects of your bike down to customized and personalized paint jobs. I see a Project One bike in my future after the ride is finished. In addition to wanting to do more road cycling after the ride is done and do so on a road bike as opposed to my tri bike, I was inspired by the idea of buying from a company like Trek about whom I learned about last night from our tour guide, but also what I saw on the walls as we toured the facility. Trek has inspired me as a business since I signed up for this trip, but I learned much about their values and vision leading me to respect them even more as a company and wanting to support them.
After our tour, we were shuttled ‘across the road’ to the 280-acre area of land owned by Trek where ‘The Lodge’ sits. ‘The Lodge’ is a 3-year-old events facility with the look and feel of a modern-day lodge. It’s a beautiful space. We ate dinner here and watched a fantastic slideshow the guides put together of our trip thus far. We’ve seen so much in our 30 days – it’s hard to believe we are already this far into the trip!
I didn’t stay late at ‘The Lodge’ and took the first bus back in order to get to bed early. Even with the ability to sleep in tomorrow morning, I was exhausted and ready for bed.
Tomorrow is Day 31 and also a rest-day. For me, it will be a day of self-care and slowing down by getting a massage and a manicure/pedicure. It will be a slower day that doesn’t involve two wheels. As much as I love the riding we are doing, it is always nice to get some brief respite. 15 days of riding left until we reach Portland, Maine on October 16 with one more rest day in Corning, New York. I’m sure we’ll be ready for it by then!