Interstate Adventures

We arrived 24 hours ahead of the wildfire smoke. Madison greeted us with blue skies and oppressive heat. We first noticed the unfamiliar landscape of freshwater marshes and prairie hills. As we drove into our municipal campground, we saw bikes everywhere—leaning on campground tables and stacked on racks behind campers. 

Even during the hottest day of a heat wave, so many cyclists and pedestrians still used the paths. I heard people chatting happily as they grouped up for a bike ride. I saw about ten cyclists on the path in neon yellow reflective vests. I imagined if I stayed longer that I would join one of these groups. I became excited about the trails we would discover on our one precious day in Madison.

While walking along one of the trails, a cyclist alerted us “on your left” as he passed. When we rode into the city center we saw detour signs. We were unaware that a major portion of the path was under renovation. We followed another cyclist around the construction. We joined a crowd of people on bikes and on foot at a major intersection. We all crossed and separated into bike and pedestrian lanes.

We chose the Capital Path because it rolled us into Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. We imagined getting ice cream for dinner, but we felt lost when we arrived. Nothing jumped out at us, so we rode around Lake Monona, which offered us a distant view of the capitol building. It was too hot to cook so we ended up having leftovers back at the campground. That evening was quiet while we enjoyed watching the fireflies that sparkled over the prairie hills. We also noticed the crescent moon and Venus right next to each other in the clear night sky.   

Sometime during that night I felt a tickle in my throat and a burnt smell. The next morning we woke up to the heavy smell of smoke and a campground encased in a thick haze. Somewhere above all the smoke was a clear blue sky. The smoke made the air thick and yet still, there were people cycling and walking on the foggy paths. We felt a little guilty that we were relieved to leave Madison on that particular day and hoped that the smoke would not follow us.