Red Truck Road Trip – WEST Coast Team

I’m still not sure if I fully trust the city of Madison: oh, sure, it happens to have a lovely downtown that is filled with friendly people, but the place always smells faintly of cattle and -let’s face it- it’s in Wisconsin, which happens to be a state only known for its cheese and football.

Team West arrived in Madison last night, and we split up this morning to explore the town after we parked near the capital building. Now, I’m sure a number of you are curious as to how Mike picks out his exploratory routes when he tours a city. It’s really not all that interesting: basically, he just takes the path of least resistance (meaning he just goes downhill) and wanders towards anything that is either loud and/or shiny. What can I say? It’s a formula that seems to work for him.

Today, Mike ended up wandering down State Street, which happened to be undergoing a prolonged street sale known as “Maxwell Street Days” in which nearly all the stores along the road put a lot of their stuff out at a serious discount. Mike found Stetson fedora at Sacred Feather, a store which had such a great selection, funky decor, and friendly staff that it felt like a shop out of Portland or Berkeley rather than downtown Madison (let’s be honest: when you think of cool and interesting stores, Wisconsin is not the first location that comes to mind).

While the capital is at one end of the street, the University of Wisconsin is at the other. It happens to be a campus which is clean, pretty, and situated on Lake Mendota, one of the most absurdly gorgeous bodies of water you can find this side of Lake Tahoe. When Mike and I were hanging out on the dock, we met two lovely lifeguards (named Meghan and Elizabeth, I believe) who couldn’t resist my sensuous curves and decided to cuddle up with me while I looked snazzy for the camera. Poor Mike, he just couldn’t seem to get any attention from them, but it’s easy to understand why he’d be overlooked when he was being outshone by the dazzling brilliance that is me.

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly enough, winding up with the two of us sitting on the lawn outside the Capital Building and napping in the sun before Brad and Mikey met up with us so we could all set out for Chicago. Mike might’ve passed out in the back seat from exhaustion, which I think was just an excuse to not drive… it’s not like he was carrying around a 40 lb. pack full of camera gear or anything, you know?