Open your mind. Doors you don't even know about are waiting to open for you.

We rode today with the trailers for the first time since we got to Madison. We've had 6 days with little riding, except for a few short jaunts around Chicago and Madison, and we were suffering when we hit the road today. The plan was to ride around 40 miles to Spring Green where there are 3 items of interest: Frank Lloyd Wright's home at Taliesen, The House on the Rock, and Timbergreen Forestry, a woodworking practice that takes trees through their whole lifecycle, growing, harvesting, processing and making the final wood products. It's a good area, and I was excited about getting up there.

But reality intervened as always. We stayed up late the night before, meeting up with my old friend Alex, his friend Patrick, and a few friends of Melissa's who I didn't really get to talk to as much as I would have liked. We went out for a few drinks and dinner and had a great time relaxing, but we were really drained today when we tried to get going. Between packing the trailers, getting some food for the road, showering and putting Noah's apartment back to pretty much the way we found it, we didn't get on the road until almost noon. At that point, we were already feeling drained and hadn't really even had breakfast. It was a poor way to start our journey into the hilly lands northwest of Madison.

The wind didn't help us, being in our face in the early afternoon. But the day was sunny and bright, and we were trying to put what energy we could into making progress. We ended up stopping in a little suburb/town outside of Madison called Middleton, where there was a street festival in full swing. Melissa ordered food from a little diner, and we sat on a bench eating and listening to live music from about a block away. It was a nice reprieve, and we hit the road again after eating our fill.

The afternoon was pretty rough on both of us, and as we rolled into Cross Plains, about 13 miles from our starting point, we were already tired from fighting the wind and our late night. We stopped at a frozen custard shop to get something cool to drink, and picked up the Madison newspaper to look at the road closing map. With all the flooding, we weren't even sure we could get to our destinations for the next few days, so we needed to check. After confirming that we were on nearly the only road that was clear in the state, we dragged ourselves back on the bike and rode through the rest of this town of around 3000.

Storms were on the horizon, and heading towards us. We started to look for cover, but I remembered seeing a coffee shop in town. Since we hadn't checked email or posted today, I suggested we turn back and get some shelter. We made it just in time to beat the real downpour, and pulled our bikes into a little hallway in the complex that held the shop. When we came in, I asked the barista and one customer what was going on in the town for sustainability, and they said they didn't really know, but the owner would tell us when she came in.

We got coffee and did a few tasks on the computers, and the rain came and went. Eventually, the owner arrived, and Mike, the barista, sent her over to talk to us.

Let's just say that one thing leads to another and before you know it we are staying at the home of the owner, a wonderful lady named Mary, we're doing a piece tomorrow morning on the first LEED certified library in Wisconsin, and we've made a great new friend. On a day when we were struggling to get to the next story on sustainability, that story came to us. Tonight I'm writing from Mary's living room, after we interviewed her and had a great dinner. Tomorrow we'll tour the town library and see how far we get on the road, but part of me feels like it doesn't matter how far we get, because we'll find a great story no matter where we end up.

Some photos of the last couple of days:

http://www.changinggearsmovie.com/Photo/061508/index.html

And a video of some of the crazy weather yesterday: