It was a wonderful start. We took a popular route out of Madison and ran into many friendly bikers. There was even a charity ride going on for the Boys and Girls club and they were nice enough to share some water with us. Once we got past the popular route, we had the roads to ourselves.

It was amazing how quiet the roads were. We stopped at this corner for lunch, and almost no cars went by for our entire 30 minute lunch break.

It was very sunny and hot, and there were some challenging hills.

Here you can see Blue Mound State Park in the distance.

The country roads were beautiful and quiet. This ride was through the drifless area of Wisconsin, so no boring flat land!

It was nice of them to leave a strip of pavement along the road--the lighter color of the road was gravel!

Blanchardville, WI. We were very happy to come along some water. But we weren't sure if this water was safe to drink since it said it was "for filling domestic tank only" for the small RV park.

After the "domestic tank only" water, we found the obviously safe drinking water on the street of the bustling downtown Blanchardville.

Finally, we made it to Yellowstone!!

Here is Yellowstone Lake. We only ended up biking past it on our way in and again on our way out.

Here is our walk in campsite! It is so pretty with the trees and sunlight. It was up on a big hill and you could see the lake through the trees at some angles.

The people who stayed at the site before us left us some gear. First of all, there were two extra stakes for us, so now my REI tent is complete (REI tricked me, they sold me an affordable tent, but it did not have a footprint or enough stakes, so I ended up having to pay more for the footprint. Luckily the stakes came with this site.)

Second of all, there was some money (a few pennies and a dime). We enjoyed the money game, where you look at the year that the money was made, and tell a story about yourself from that year. Some of the money was older than us, however.

Dinner time!

It's the regular angel hair with tomato sauce.

Here is the trail to our site.

Megan is always feeling cold and needs a lot of clothing, even in the middle of July.

There were bat houses!

At night, 100's of bats came out. They put on a quite a show!

We went on a short hike in the park.

We ran into more bat houses.

And hiked through wonderful meadows.

Thomas picked some wheat.

Here is a fungus that can kill people if farms get it and sell it.

It looks so wonderful!

After our hike, there was a student from UW-Madison who presented a talk on astronomy.

We enjoyed some raspberry vodka and a fire after our hike and astronomy talk.

Look at all the gear we carry!

Thomas found something.

Here we are back in Blanchardville.

Some of the quiet roads were sooo awesome with the woods.

Megan liked the houses.

Read the full story below:

Thomas and Megan rode our bikes 105.7 miles this weekend, with a 9.7 mph average speed.
We managed to leave Saturday morning at 8 am. It was beautiful outside and not even too humid. We took a popular route out of town and ran into many friendly bikers interested in where we were going. There was even a Boys and Girls Club charity ride going on along our route, and they were nice enough to offer us clean water even though we were not a part of the ride. We calculated the route to be 51.5 miles, so at 26 we stopped for lunch. Soon we were beyond the popular route, and into the route of very few bikers, and even fewer cars. We were amazed by the lack of traffic. It was almost like we were the only people around. We would bike for miles and not see a single car on the road. We were biking in the driftless area of Wisconsin, which I think means that the glaciers did not come to flatten out the land. It was very hilly and scenic. We would sometimes be biking on scenic ridgetops, and other times plunge into wooded valleys.
We finally arrived at the park at around 5 pm. It is always great to bike in a state park because of all of the woods. We biked along Yellowstone Lake for a few miles, and then up a huge hill to our campsite. We had a walk-in site, which was very nice. You could even see the lake at some parts through the trees.
There were bat houses at the park. You could hear them making noises in the homes when you stood under them. At night, hundreds of them flew out. A lot of people came out for their show. We went on a short and beautiful hike in the fields with tons of flowers just as the sun was setting. Megan took a picture of some wheat with fungus on it that Thomas found. The fungus kills people if they eat wheat from farms with it. After that we visited the ampitheater. A graduate student from UW-Madison talked about astronomy and she even brought a telescope. But with the tons of kids and people after the talk we went back to the campsite instead of viewing things with the scope. Thomas made a fire from wood that was around the campsite, and we enjoyed (maybe that is not the right word in Megan's case) more of that Swedish raspberry vodka. We slept really well again. We did not feel as dead as we did last week, so I think we are getting in better shape. In the morning we managed to leave by 10 (we were slowed down by more friendly people interested in where we were going).  We enjoyed the hills and scenery even more on the way back because in the morning it was cooler and easier to ride. In the afternoon it was HOT. But we made it home. Megan almost "hit the wall" 4 miles from home--we'd realized we hadn't really stopped for much of a break to eat since we had had lunch 25 miles ago. So Megan quickly ate some crackers and was able to make it home.
We celebrated with Thai food when we returned.
Overall this was one of the best trips (although Megan always thinks this after every trip). Thomas found it to be a butterfly paradise (although there was less road kill because of the smaller amount of traffic). Megan loved the quiet and scenic roads there, and the park itself (we did not have much time to explore, but the ride in was beautiful, the site was wonderful, and the little hike was georgeous). Thomas loved the butterflies (esp. the Giant Swallowtail), the birds, the scenic roads, the bats and the astronomy seminar.