Father's Day Bike Ride

Father's Day 2010 and what a better way to celebrate than with a bike ride. John and I decided to ride the Glacier Drumlin Trail from Dousman to Waukesha. The weather was perfect for biking, light winds and partly cloudy skies which later turned to full sun. This portion of the trail goes uphill to Wales and then downhill to Waukesha hitting its highest point in Wales. Here we are at the rest area in Dousman just ready to set out on our adventure.
It was just a few minutes after 10:00 as we headed out.
As we rounded the curve in Dousman that heads along side Highway 18, we noticed a squad car with flashing lights on the Highway with a police officer stopping traffic. We were on the trail so we figured it wouldn't bother our travels, whatever the problem was. There were some cones set out on the trail, but the officer didn't say anything to us about turning around. We did notice that he sent five bicyclists off the highway on to the trail at his check point. A bicyclist coming our way told us we might want to turn around since he had just witnessed a bike/car fatality and we probably would not want to go that way and have to see the body. Another cyclist behind us said he was going ahead and we really wanted to get to our destination so on we went. The trail runs right along the Highway where the accident occured but I did not look. I just kept my eyes on the trail because I did not want to see any part of that accident. (but alas, I did sneak a quick peak) I was able to see the helmet lying there and a very mangled up bike, but that was all I glanced at. John said the body was covered up already. We met another couple about our age waiting at the other cones set up at the other end of the site. They had not been allowed to ride on the trail from that end, but when we got through they took off and were allowed through the opposite way. I am guessing they had just covered up the body and after that they were letting bikers ride past. We then ran into a family with a young child in a trailer, I told them I would think twice about taking the child past the site, not sure what they decided.
As we traveled up the hill and away from the highway, we turned around and snapped a picture just to document what we had just seen. You can't really see much here but we know exactly what was happening. (When I heard the news report, the accident happened at 10:00 and as you can see by the post we had begun at 10:00.) It was bad enough to come upon it after happening, but a few minutes earlier and we might have been eyewitnesses!

There were lots of people on the trail today, all ages, all body shapes, all riding past this accident site. It seemed there was an eery quietness as they passed probably out of respect and sadness.

After all this was someone's son and more than likely someone's husband, brother, father. I couldn't help but wonder who was going to be heartbroken when they heard the news. I don't think I was the only one who said a prayer for him,, his family, and for the driver who hit him.

We finally made it to Wales where we stopped for a short break. There were other riders there, too and again you could overhear the onversations and they all centered around the tragic accident. News certainly travels quickly up and down the bike trail.

I took this picture for Tizita. I was driving the train for her.

And Grandpa took a turn driving the fire truck.

At this point the battery in my camera expired so we have no more pictures of our adventure. We made it to Waukesha and had lunch at the Subway. We tried one of those new chicken salad sandwiches which were so yummy and then we were back on our trail again heading back to Dousman.

As we passed the accident site on the way back, three hours later, the emergency vehicles were still there as was Channel 12 news, and firefighters cleaning off the highway. Wow, that is a long time to be investigating the accident.

We ended up our ride with some yummy ice cream treats in Dousman. You know, we have to put back on all those calories that we just rode off on this 31 mile trek!