Life in the Valley: Mad City

Major catching up to do.

Friday:

After spending 15 minutes looking for my phone and wondering how I could lose anything in such a small space, I headed into Madison. (I found it, by the way. Under some boxes, in the corner, behind the door. obviously the best place for it).

On the day's agenda...
-acquire a City of Madison street map. check.
-pick up a Toddy cold brew coffee system. check.
-sign up for a library card. check.
-get a fix at Bradbury's. check.
-eat some sushi with my one friend in all of Wisconsin. check!

Saturday: Dane County Farm Market

How does that saying go? 'Not so early to bed, very early to rise.'? Right? It may have been loosely modified as it was handed down from generation to generation.

The day started at 4:30am. I rushed down the empty streets and intersections to meet the truck by 5am. Set up finished up around 630am and I was sent to Bradbury's to deliver their order (15 pounds of spinach and ramps) and pick up our order (7 pints of coffee...6 with cream, 1 with cream and sugar). Market kicks off with the early birds between 630 and 7am and encompasses the entire capitol square. The highlight of the morning was meeting Tory Miller and Odessa Piper! They came to our stand separately and I was able to talk with both of them! As it turns out, I will be seeing them again within the next couple weeks! At the risk of looking a bit crazy, I (barely) refrained from jumping up and down as soon as they turned to walk away.

In addition to the market, Madison was hosting their annual Crazylegs 8k race...with the start line in front of the capitol. The race brought over 12,500 people to the square!

If that wasn't a big enough mob, there were also quite a few protesters circling the square. Most were your average picketers. Quietly walking down the sidewalks with posters and signs. On occasion, chanting. However, after the market some people seemed to think that there was a more effective way of getting the message across. I was sitting on the capitol lawn, chatting on the phone and flipping through a book when, all of a sudden, I heard the reeving of engines booming across the lawn. I stood up to see a line of BMW's, Harley's, Honda's, Yamaha's and everything in between (even a Vespa) approaching the square. As it seems to be a Madison tradition, the never ending stream of noisy bikers of all ages, makes and models circled the square a time or two before the cops showed up and had them pull over. The line of bikes reached from one corner of the square to the other. I'm still not sure what everyone is so upset about here.
With this, I decided I had had enough capitol excitement for the day and headed to Ben's (my previously mentioned, one friend in all of Wisconsin) for a much more chill evening of pizza, River Monsters and mustard tasting.