Ride thru Childhood

It's been 30 years since I rode south of Janesville on County J.

The road is shaped like a backward J with the curl to the right instead of the left. 

My thoughts tend to veer from subject to subject quite rapidly when I go on rides.

J follows Wright Road out of Janesville and leads to the small villages of Shopiere and Turtle on the banks of Turtle Creek.

It's a ride my friend and I took many times on our biking adventures during our early high school years.  There really isn't that much in Shopiere - but the distance and quiet country roads make it an inviting trip.  That hasn't changed.

Light breezes at my back created a fast pace on the way down and temperatures that started in the 40s gave me incentive to set a good pace to warm up.

You never know on the country roads when a dog might try to play catch with people on bikes, but thankfully they were stay close to home where it was warmer than their front porch.

During the ride, memories of those earlier rides flooded back as some of the turns and terrain started to look familiar.

My destination for the morning was re-locating the picturesque stone arch bridge just east of the small burg.

Just a short time ago (or at least it seems like it), I saw it up close was while working for WISC and assigned to get video of the Circus Wagon Train making its way from Baraboo to Milwaukee.
I wasn't certain which road to take to find the bridge, so kept riding east until I recognized the landmarks.

Low in the valley stood a dark green trestle bridge over Turtle Creek with a metal deck that hummed as I rode over it.   

Yellowish limestone blocks marked off the grass of a county park with a view of the great bridge.

It brought back memories of the morning when the train passed - there were hundreds of people on the lawn on blankets and holding cameras - waiting for the cacophony of colors one can only experience with Historic Circus Wagons.

The creek runs shallow this time of year - about the depth it was when I did another story on folks who harvested clams from the creek to create jewelry.

That was one of the highlights of reporting - I met some very interesting people and learned about very interesting walks of life.

After my reverie, it was time to re-mount the bike.  This time riding into the wind I seemed to recover some of that younger energy and made good time.

There's a dwindling number of days to ride before the weather places the bike on hiatus for the winter making each ride remaining this year an extra precious one.

A short ride - just 25 miles with an average speed of 15 mph - it won't get me a berth on the Olympic bike team, but it was great fun.

If it's nice where you are today - get out and enjoy it!