City Girl In The Country

I really am a city girl now. That's what living in Chicago for five years will do. It's not that I've forgotten everything I learned in Girl Scouts. I'm sure if necessary I can still read a compass, build a proper fire and make a mean hobo stew. But I don't really have an occasion or reason to do any of those things. I live in a city. I work in a city and when I travel it's usually to visit other cities.

But man I do love nature. So when I finally get out of my urban jungle it's so relaxing to just sit and watch nature and be. I feel like this every time we go to Mike's sister's place in Wisconsin. She and her family live in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere. They have corn and rolling pastures and more cows for neighbors than people. When Mike and I head up there it's to be as outdoorsy as possible. We always bring our bikes, provided it's not winter.

We biked a little bit last weekend while we were there. The Wisconsin "400" State trail isn't far from their place. We drove to the trail head and biked for a bit, stopping of course so I could take photos here and there.

The trail is a set of train tracks that was converted over to trails. Along the route are old tunnel passages. This particular one that we went through was close to a mile long. We had to walk our bike's through because it's pitch black on the inside. We had nothing but my little light on my bike to illuminate our path. And Mike, at request of his nephew, discovered the openings were good for climbing.


The weather actually wasn't the greatest on Saturday (60s and rainy), but Sunday was beautiful. In between rounds of baseball, I grabbed my camera and snapped shots of the views.

You certainly can't get photos like that in the city.