down by the banks, of the Kickapoo

I have always wanted to go down the Kickapoo River.

I did not say those words. I don’t know much about the Kickapoo River. There isn’t any river, in fact, that I wanted to go down all my life. But I have been itching to kayak again, ever since my delicious run along the rapids of Languedoc last month.

Ed, I say to the man with the boats and good paddling arms, we need to do a river run.

Most people would perhaps not choose to exert themselves on a day when the temps are crossing the hundred degree mark significantly before noon. Most people would enjoy their air conditioning, their ice cold beer or rose wine, their remote controls, or at the very least their back yards, preferably with the sprinkler on.

I don’t have a back yard. To get close to nature, I need to leave town.

Most people, when they do choose to do strenuous activities on a day when the temps are crossing the hundred degree mark very early in the day, set out even earlier. Not me. I have to eat my granola, drink my latte, study any number of things on the Internet. Indeed, Ed and I are famous for starting late on our hikes.

By 11 a.m. we are speeding due west in Ed’s pickup truck, kayaks and bikes bouncing in the back for the several hour trip to the Kickapoo. I feel very regional-seasonal, what with the rolled down window of the old pickup truck, and the radio crackling loudly as it tries to reach for fleetingly available stations.

We leave our bikes at the point where we will finish our trek down the river. We drive up to a bridge some miles up and unload the kayaks.

The Kickapoo has the reputation of being the crookedest river in the world. Maybe. It did seem to twist and turn an awful lot. It’s also not boring. Heavily wooded banks…





…sandstone cliffs, ferns and firs…









And the usual water wildlife. Nothing to get nervous about… [This guy is staring at me, challenging me with his tongue, I swear! Or so it seemed at the time.]





But it most certainly was hot. At times I felt I was floating down the Mississippi, oh somewhere around Mississippi, the state. I doubt the Kickapoo looks anything like the Mississippi, the state, but still, I imagine southern rivers to feel like this on a hot summer day:





In sunny spots, it’s all you could do to keep your clothes on. Empty stretches of river, the hot sun on your shoulders – oh, to be in southern France again and let that wind cool your skin from all sides!





But no. This isn’t the Mississippi, this isn’t the Mediterranean, this is the Kickapoo in Wisconsin.
Oh, watch it! Move! (Does my insurance cover kayak collision with cows?)(Paddle furiously backwards.)







where is everyone?


It was near 6 by the time we reach the landing where we had deposited our bikes. Four solid hours of paddling in the 100 plus plus temps calls for a pause. We are in the village of LaFarge, population 775. Nothing much happening on a Sunday evening in LaFarge when the thermometer is still registering 99 (yep; note the numbers in photo below). Wait, there’s always a bar to be found.

Can you go inside and see what this one is like?
Nina, if I am going inside, I’m staying inside. This isn’t like a restaurant that you check out to see if the décor and menu are appropriate.





Inside, the AC is running hard. The air is a musty cool, saturated with the heady combination of tobacco, beer and fried foods. Gunsmoke is up on the two TV screens. The bar tender comes over to take our orders. He catches our glance up at the screens.

Sorry, not much else on on a Sunday evening.

We order Spotted Cows (the beer), french fries and pretzels. A sign reads “good eats!” Fries seem like the best bet.

Outside, the air is still. I had worried about storms (Will I get hit by lightening? I don’t know, Nina), but sometime when we were out on the river, the last cloud disappeared and the sky turned a solid blue. We bike back along the old highway. The sun is low, the colors are sublime.
















The truck is there, we load up, go back for the kayaks and head due east. It’s dark now – the stars are out. Ed wants to stop for an ice cream bar at a Kwik Trip. Heath Crunch. Save the Last Dance for Me on the radio, sticky everything from the heat, Heath Crunch melting fast in the warm pickup. Am I living the American life, or what?

down by the banks, of the Kickapoo

I have always wanted to go down the Kickapoo River.

I did not say those words. I don’t know much about the Kickapoo River. There isn’t any river, in fact, that I wanted to go down all my life. But I have been itching to kayak again, ever since my delicious run along the rapids of Languedoc last month.

Ed, I say to the man with the boats and good paddling arms, we need to do a river run.

Most people would perhaps not choose to exert themselves on a day when the temps are crossing the hundred degree mark significantly before noon. Most people would enjoy their air conditioning, their ice cold beer or rose wine, their remote controls, or at the very least their back yards, preferably with the sprinkler on.

I don’t have a back yard. To get close to nature, I need to leave town.

Most people, when they do choose to do strenuous activities on a day when the temps are crossing the hundred degree mark very early in the day, set out even earlier. Not me. I have to eat my granola, drink my latte, study any number of things on the Internet. Indeed, Ed and I are famous for starting late on our hikes.

By 11 a.m. we are speeding due west in Ed’s pickup truck, kayaks and bikes bouncing in the back for the several hour trip to the Kickapoo. I feel very regional-seasonal, what with the rolled down window of the old pickup truck, and the radio crackling loudly as it tries to reach for fleetingly available stations.

We leave our bikes at the point where we will finish our trek down the river. We drive up to a bridge some miles up and unload the kayaks.

The Kickapoo has the reputation of being the crookedest river in the world. Maybe. It did seem to twist and turn an awful lot. It’s also not boring. Heavily wooded banks…





…sandstone cliffs, ferns and firs…









And the usual water wildlife. Nothing to get nervous about… [This guy is staring at me, challenging me with his tongue, I swear! Or so it seemed at the time.]





But it most certainly was hot. At times I felt I was floating down the Mississippi, oh somewhere around Mississippi, the state. I doubt the Kickapoo looks anything like the Mississippi, the state, but still, I imagine southern rivers to feel like this on a hot summer day:





In sunny spots, it’s all you could do to keep your clothes on. Empty stretches of river, the hot sun on your shoulders – oh, to be in southern France again and let that wind cool your skin from all sides!





But no. This isn’t the Mississippi, this isn’t the Mediterranean, this is the Kickapoo in Wisconsin.
Oh, watch it! Move! (Does my insurance cover kayak collision with cows?)(Paddle furiously backwards.)







where is everyone?


It was near 6 by the time we reach the landing where we had deposited our bikes. Four solid hours of paddling in the 100 plus plus temps calls for a pause. We are in the village of LaFarge, population 775. Nothing much happening on a Sunday evening in LaFarge when the thermometer is still registering 99 (yep; note the numbers in photo below). Wait, there’s always a bar to be found.

Can you go inside and see what this one is like?
Nina, if I am going inside, I’m staying inside. This isn’t like a restaurant that you check out to see if the décor and menu are appropriate.





Inside, the AC is running hard. The air is a musty cool, saturated with the heady combination of tobacco, beer and fried foods. Gunsmoke is up on the two TV screens. The bar tender comes over to take our orders. He catches our glance up at the screens.

Sorry, not much else on on a Sunday evening.

We order Spotted Cows (the beer), french fries and pretzels. A sign reads “good eats!” Fries seem like the best bet.

Outside, the air is still. I had worried about storms (Will I get hit by lightening? I don’t know, Nina), but sometime when we were out on the river, the last cloud disappeared and the sky turned a solid blue. We bike back along the old highway. The sun is low, the colors are sublime.
















The truck is there, we load up, go back for the kayaks and head due east. It’s dark now – the stars are out. Ed wants to stop for an ice cream bar at a Kwik Trip. Heath Crunch. Save the Last Dance for Me on the radio, sticky everything from the heat, Heath Crunch melting fast in the warm pickup. Am I living the American life, or what?

tomorrow, tomorrow, i love ya, tomorrow

Please do not ask of me to post more than this sentetence: my day had it all -- sweltering heat (upwards of 100), grueling upper-body, then, just to make it complete, lower body muscle work, snakes, birds, fallen trees, beer with the locals... In other words, it was full.

I am home, it is midnight. Tomorrow morning, I will think about all this again. Til then.

tomorrow, tomorrow, i love ya, tomorrow

Please do not ask of me to post more than this sentetence: my day had it all -- sweltering heat (upwards of 100), grueling upper-body, then, just to make it complete, lower body muscle work, snakes, birds, fallen trees, beer with the locals... In other words, it was full.

I am home, it is midnight. Tomorrow morning, I will think about all this again. Til then.

out and about

Yesterday I set out to Rubin’s off the Square to buy a chest of drawers. I took Mr.B not because I thought I could cart it back home in one of his saddle bags, but because I had another errand to run nearby (framing my treasured canvases from Pierrerue) and parking is always tough downton.

I did not find it to be a problem to cart two large canvases on a bicycle. I put them in an extra large trash bag and they sort of flopped like a sail as I sped along Washington Ave.

At Rubin’s, they did not have a chest of drawers for me. But there was one at the far west Rubin’s. So I biked there to take a look.

It was close to 100 degrees yesterday, but Mr.B has his own air conditioning system (it’s called the wind as you speed along) and so I did not mind.

At the far west side Rubin’s, I fell in love with a lamp. It has a large glass shade with orange and blue splashes of color. I purchased it on the spot.

Can I wrap it for you in bubble wrap? – the salesperson asks.
If you wrap it in bubble wrap, it wont fit into Mr. B’s saddle bags.
(I know, I have just made Mr.B sound like a horse, but what else do you call those big bags over his rear wheel?)
How is it that you’re taking this?
On a bike. If I fall, it will crack no matter how much bubble wrap you puff it out with. But I haven’t fallen for more than a year so chances are good that lamp and I will make it home.

Lamp is heavy. I push forward, pausing to buy several ears of corn at a stand, a baguette at Wild Grains and a jug of rose wine at Steve’s. At Border’s I refresh myself with a latte.

At Whole Foods I pick up some olives. I come out with more than just olives and as I stand contemplating how I can stretch the saddle bags even further out to accommodate the additional nectarines and pea pods, someone comes up and tells me: your bike attracted quite the attention a few minutes ago. People were talking about whom it may belong to.

Don’t others routinely ride around on bikes with bright yellow fenders in 100 degree days with lamps and baguettes sticking out of their saddle bags and jugs of wine and ears of corn packed tightly in between?




This morning I was out of my superman clothes and going about as if life was normal and the world was full of happy children holding sunflowers and orange balloons. I left Mr.B at home.





UPDATE (in response to commenters): the lamp:

out and about

Yesterday I set out to Rubin’s off the Square to buy a chest of drawers. I took Mr.B not because I thought I could cart it back home in one of his saddle bags, but because I had another errand to run nearby (framing my treasured canvases from Pierrerue) and parking is always tough downton.

I did not find it to be a problem to cart two large canvases on a bicycle. I put them in an extra large trash bag and they sort of flopped like a sail as I sped along Washington Ave.

At Rubin’s, they did not have a chest of drawers for me. But there was one at the far west Rubin’s. So I biked there to take a look.

It was close to 100 degrees yesterday, but Mr.B has his own air conditioning system (it’s called the wind as you speed along) and so I did not mind.

At the far west side Rubin’s, I fell in love with a lamp. It has a large glass shade with orange and blue splashes of color. I purchased it on the spot.

Can I wrap it for you in bubble wrap? – the salesperson asks.
If you wrap it in bubble wrap, it wont fit into Mr. B’s saddle bags.
(I know, I have just made Mr.B sound like a horse, but what else do you call those big bags over his rear wheel?)
How is it that you’re taking this?
On a bike. If I fall, it will crack no matter how much bubble wrap you puff it out with. But I haven’t fallen for more than a year so chances are good that lamp and I will make it home.

Lamp is heavy. I push forward, pausing to buy several ears of corn at a stand, a baguette at Wild Grains and a jug of rose wine at Steve’s. At Border’s I refresh myself with a latte.

At Whole Foods I pick up some olives. I come out with more than just olives and as I stand contemplating how I can stretch the saddle bags even further out to accommodate the additional nectarines and pea pods, someone comes up and tells me: your bike attracted quite the attention a few minutes ago. People were talking about whom it may belong to.

Don’t others routinely ride around on bikes with bright yellow fenders in 100 degree days with lamps and baguettes sticking out of their saddle bags and jugs of wine and ears of corn packed tightly in between?




This morning I was out of my superman clothes and going about as if life was normal and the world was full of happy children holding sunflowers and orange balloons. I left Mr.B at home.





UPDATE (in response to commenters): the lamp:

simply sardine

Much has been written about Madison’s newest bistro-like eatery, Sardine (same chefs, same owners as Marigold Kitchen). Click on virtually any blog around town and you’re going to come across a comment or a review. Okay, maybe that overstates things a bit, but I swear, I’ve seen stuff out there in fistfuls, it seems.

So I had to try it.

I love a good bistro. You’re not supposed to be wowed by the food. You’re just supposed to think -- now that was one nicely cooked dinner! And I thought just that.

I do not want to write a review here – I don’t really want to go into detail about how the grilled to a delicate crisp sardines were dazzling in a lemon and olive oil sauce and how the salmon swam in a sea of flavorful lentils, wilted spinach and many chunks of portabella mushrooms. My writing style is way too placid to do justice to a good eating place and so I’ll back off and let others write great things about dishes such as this one:





I do want to note one thing, in case others have forgotten to say it. Sardine has energy! Look how many young and with it people are hopping around and slicing bread and what not, while other very with it looking people are lapping it all up (were this a review, I would draw your attention to the yummy cauliflower soup with the drizzle of olive oil):




Some blogger, can’t remember which one – sorry – compared it to Balthazar’s in NY. I have passed Balthazar’s numerous times because it’s close to a subway stop I use to get to the general Village area in the city. It always looks packed and everyone looks pleased to have landed a reservation. So in that way alone the comparison seems apt. There, I favorably compared Sardine to one of NY’s hippest bistro-like places!

Another blogger – again, can’t remember who, sorry sorry – said that the décor is way common, what with the exposed beams and the brick walls. Well I live in a building that looks much like that and I have to say, if it’s good enough to live in, then it’s good enough to eat in.

(By the way, may I again repeat how nice it is to live in a loft with tall windows and skylights? In the summer, the place shouts: light! Riding by on my bike today, I looked up at my window and smiled.)




So, I am happy to add Sardine to my list of reasons not to cook. And no, I’m not simply being all chipper about it because they had all these bottles of red stuff:

simply sardine

Much has been written about Madison’s newest bistro-like eatery, Sardine (same chefs, same owners as Marigold Kitchen). Click on virtually any blog around town and you’re going to come across a comment or a review. Okay, maybe that overstates things a bit, but I swear, I’ve seen stuff out there in fistfuls, it seems.

So I had to try it.

I love a good bistro. You’re not supposed to be wowed by the food. You’re just supposed to think -- now that was one nicely cooked dinner! And I thought just that.

I do not want to write a review here – I don’t really want to go into detail about how the grilled to a delicate crisp sardines were dazzling in a lemon and olive oil sauce and how the salmon swam in a sea of flavorful lentils, wilted spinach and many chunks of portabella mushrooms. My writing style is way too placid to do justice to a good eating place and so I’ll back off and let others write great things about dishes such as this one:





I do want to note one thing, in case others have forgotten to say it. Sardine has energy! Look how many young and with it people are hopping around and slicing bread and what not, while other very with it looking people are lapping it all up (were this a review, I would draw your attention to the yummy cauliflower soup with the drizzle of olive oil):




Some blogger, can’t remember which one – sorry – compared it to Balthazar’s in NY. I have passed Balthazar’s numerous times because it’s close to a subway stop I use to get to the general Village area in the city. It always looks packed and everyone looks pleased to have landed a reservation. So in that way alone the comparison seems apt. There, I favorably compared Sardine to one of NY’s hippest bistro-like places!

Another blogger – again, can’t remember who, sorry sorry – said that the décor is way common, what with the exposed beams and the brick walls. Well I live in a building that looks much like that and I have to say, if it’s good enough to live in, then it’s good enough to eat in.

(By the way, may I again repeat how nice it is to live in a loft with tall windows and skylights? In the summer, the place shouts: light! Riding by on my bike today, I looked up at my window and smiled.)




So, I am happy to add Sardine to my list of reasons not to cook. And no, I’m not simply being all chipper about it because they had all these bottles of red stuff:

wet.

It is still dark. I force myself to sit down to work. I click on the forecast. Hot, humid days ahead. Good. I need them. I need to feel saturated so that November (and the winter months thereafter) does not seem like such a disappointment.

My workmen gather (how quickly they have become “mine!” Repetition breeds familiarity. I work, they come outside my window and drink coffee, there at 5:30, every morning. Hi guys.)




What are the colors of today’s sunrise? When I was little, I used cornflower blue to outline puffy clouds on pictures. They must not have been sunrise clouds for these are bordered in pink or orange.

The sun has crossed the horizon. At this time of the year, it comes up smack in the middle of the cut up tree. I feel sorry for the tree – it is tall and beautiful but it made the mistake of growing by electric cables and so it has been made to look like a wishbone of a chicken.




I take Mr. B to work. The saddle bags which carried 35 lbs of groceries yesterday (I balanced another 10 lbs on the handlebar) are carrying texts needed for class this day. And cookies.

Class moves along nicely. The students offer wise and sensible comments. It feels like a conversation. Summer classes, I learn, are more relaxed. I could wear shorts and it would be okay. (I do not. I like summer skirts.)

Suddenly we hear a rumble. Another. More like a roar. Out of nowhere an orange dot has appeared over Madison (so tells me a student who happened to click on the weather site, with radar indicating a newly developing storm).

Class ends. It is pouring outside. What happened to the pretty little clouds outlined in pink and orange?

It lets up a little. I go out. The Bascom Mall sidewalk is somewhere there, beneath a layer of water.




Mr.B looks miserable. His saddle bags are drooping. I had left my helmet out, on his handlebars. I squeeze the strips and let the water out. Why bother? It is wet, everything is wet. And as I get on his wet seat, I see that things are about to get even wetter.

It is raining again. The temperature has dropped from a morning high of 86 to a now not so warm 70. I see that there is flooding on University so I peddle down to Dayton. It’s worse there. I am reminded of biking to work in winter. Get me indoors already! And please, let me not take a tumble now!




I manage by moving on and off of sidewalks. I try to protect my camera. I myself am beyond wet.

All I can think of is the café on Main Street where they know my favorite drink.

At last. I look ridiculous, I know. Like I've been freshly oiled for a wrestling match. I am not beyond posting ridiculous looking photos of me, taken by me at the café. They are used to my oddities there. I always ask for an extra hot latte, even in hot and humid summer days. If you get it extra hot it lasts longer.

wet.

It is still dark. I force myself to sit down to work. I click on the forecast. Hot, humid days ahead. Good. I need them. I need to feel saturated so that November (and the winter months thereafter) does not seem like such a disappointment.

My workmen gather (how quickly they have become “mine!” Repetition breeds familiarity. I work, they come outside my window and drink coffee, there at 5:30, every morning. Hi guys.)




What are the colors of today’s sunrise? When I was little, I used cornflower blue to outline puffy clouds on pictures. They must not have been sunrise clouds for these are bordered in pink or orange.

The sun has crossed the horizon. At this time of the year, it comes up smack in the middle of the cut up tree. I feel sorry for the tree – it is tall and beautiful but it made the mistake of growing by electric cables and so it has been made to look like a wishbone of a chicken.




I take Mr. B to work. The saddle bags which carried 35 lbs of groceries yesterday (I balanced another 10 lbs on the handlebar) are carrying texts needed for class this day. And cookies.

Class moves along nicely. The students offer wise and sensible comments. It feels like a conversation. Summer classes, I learn, are more relaxed. I could wear shorts and it would be okay. (I do not. I like summer skirts.)

Suddenly we hear a rumble. Another. More like a roar. Out of nowhere an orange dot has appeared over Madison (so tells me a student who happened to click on the weather site, with radar indicating a newly developing storm).

Class ends. It is pouring outside. What happened to the pretty little clouds outlined in pink and orange?

It lets up a little. I go out. The Bascom Mall sidewalk is somewhere there, beneath a layer of water.




Mr.B looks miserable. His saddle bags are drooping. I had left my helmet out, on his handlebars. I squeeze the strips and let the water out. Why bother? It is wet, everything is wet. And as I get on his wet seat, I see that things are about to get even wetter.

It is raining again. The temperature has dropped from a morning high of 86 to a now not so warm 70. I see that there is flooding on University so I peddle down to Dayton. It’s worse there. I am reminded of biking to work in winter. Get me indoors already! And please, let me not take a tumble now!




I manage by moving on and off of sidewalks. I try to protect my camera. I myself am beyond wet.

All I can think of is the café on Main Street where they know my favorite drink.

At last. I look ridiculous, I know. Like I've been freshly oiled for a wrestling match. I am not beyond posting ridiculous looking photos of me, taken by me at the café. They are used to my oddities there. I always ask for an extra hot latte, even in hot and humid summer days. If you get it extra hot it lasts longer.