Dutch Treat

2019 Outdoor Season: Ride #47

The Route: Lost, with intent

The Miles: 20.0

The Time: 1:23

The Ave. Speed: 13.5 mph

The Weather:

Sunny, Windy, 79

Wind, 15-20 mph

Season Total Miles: 1,022

Only in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin I suppose you'll find a road named this.

I never realized how heavily the Dutch settled in this area until I moved here and my producer at the time, Dutch of course, told me about a saying around these parts that goes,

"You ain't much if you ain't Dutch".

Well, I ain't!

I-talian.

But there sure are a lot of names around here with a van, vanden or vander as part of them. So I had to laugh when the mystery street I had turned onto when it was unmarked, turned out to be Woodenshoe Road when I finally came upon a sign.

I started off today's ride thinking I would do some lake laps, but the constant 15-20 mph headwind wore me out in a hurry. I decided to turn at the earliest possible point to get out of it.

I took this Woodenshoe road to a place I was unsure of where it came to a dead end. No problem. I would just head in the direction I came from to get back.

Yes problem. I ended up going through a series of roundabouts (five of them in a row) all up and around I-41, an extremely dangerous section but I had no choice.

Once things quieted down I just kept riding, not knowing exactly where I was. Here's the funny part...

After about three miles things started to seem familiar to me. I had never been on this road before yet the surroundings looked like something I remember. Could it be? Yup. This mystery road I don't remember the name of spit me out onto the main drag of my lake loop route. What are the odds?! I was right back where I had been about an hour earlier.

Anyway, 20 easy miles soaking up some sun and taking advantage of very mild weather for this time of year. I'll take it.