A perfect combination

Day off of work for both hub's and me means a bike ride to New Glarus! He knew I was disappointed that our previous Sunday bike ride to Monroe to visit Minhas Distillery was cancelled because off the weather. I wrote about that here. He decided to take today off so that we could bike.

After enjoying my coffee outside with the last of the strawberries, cherries, walnuts and dates  - we headed out to our starting point in Fitchburg.  

We biked on the Badger State trail (rails to trails). It was a picture perfect day for a ride.  Not many people on the trail (although it never seems like you run into too many other riders). Stopped for water in Belleville just past the bridge. This is a great old bridge - in the past I have seen a wedding party posing for pic's on the bridge.  

Then back on our bikes - through town and into the tunnel between New Glarus and Belleville.  No pictures of the tunnel - I have taken many of them over the years - but a couple of the bright colored moss.  

The moss is on the New Glarus side of the tunnel. Only thing in the tunnel were a couple of pigeons.

Any time we are out and about we comment about the corn and how tall it is.  Same thing today.  I asked hub's 

"how tall do you think that corn is?"

          His response - "pretty tall"

"I'm going to stop and see"

          And we did - 

Based on my height - some of the corn is twice as tall as I am - and looks to be 11-12 ft tall! Our house ceilings are 8ft.  

Traveling on the Sugar River trail there is a farm with cows (OK - there are a lot of farms with cows - this is Wisconsin - the Dairy state - but these cows are close to the trail and they always look nice).  The cow standing was mooing a lot - clearly she had something to say - maybe things are not as pleasant on the farm as I like to think!  

We stopped at Maple Leaf Cheese and Chocolate shop for Fudge and then biked to Subway for sandwiches to take to the brewery.

The brewery location is called "hilltop" for a reason!  Every time we bike there - the last little hill gets me - even though I know it is there! The brewery is undergoing a huge expansion project - considering it is only sold in Wisconsin - we really like our beer!  

We enjoyed, "totally naked", "spotted cow", "moon man" and " two women".  I had the pint glass of "totally naked" 

 and hub's had the sampler, and started with spotted cow - since he isn't mich of a beer drinker - I got to have his 2nd and 3rd sampler glass and enjoyed moon man and two women.  :-)

Very relaxed feel at the beer garden and tasting room on a friday.  I of course had my New Glarus Brewery bike jersey on, which is a good conversation starter!  A gentleman walked over "nice jersey" and then asked where we biked from. He is the construction coordinator and told us about a lot of the new construction and still to be completed work at the brewery. We also talked to Deb Carey, founder and president of the brewer. She was walking her two dogs in the beer garden - she saw my shirt - "nice jersey"!  We then talked to her about the expansion and of course told her that we loved the brewery and the beer! Dumb thing to say - dah - of course we love the beer!  

We walked around the beer garden area, it has been expanded and has a lovely walking path down the side of the hill. We also headed into the brewery, hoping to see them bottling - but no such luck. Sounds like Monday or Tuesday are good days to catch the bottling operation.  

Time to head back to Madison. Instead of biking back through town, we take a back exit out of the brewery -it is the truck delivery route and see MORE expansion there and head out on the highway for about 1/2 mile and some back roads which ends up cutting off a couple of miles and as I mentioned - the brewery is on a hill - so the biking is "downhill" - at least for a little bit!  

Then back on the Badger Trail - back through the tunnel - back through Belleville and again stop at the bridge for a water break and then back into Madison.  

It was a great day and biking and beer is a perfect combination!

Enjoy the moments!