Madison, WI

Max had some problems with the springs on the motorhome, and the only place to have it fixed was Madison.  It wasn't originally in the plans, but I'm very glad we had to make this detour.  I loved the town of Madison.  We initially parked on the outskirts of town, but we rode our bike in to the downtown area.

We visited the capital building.  But there were areas nearby which we checked out too. 

Built in 1850, it has a stone dam and wooden waterwheel.  It is one of Wisconsin's most photographed site.  And if anyone is interested, I believe it is for sale.

Currently it is private property and you can't get to the mill itself, but nearby is the graveyard of old millstones.

And just down the road is the Old Mill House, built in 1876, which now is a bed and breakfast.

Another day we visited Mount Horeb for a festival.  The town is more commonly known as Troll Town.

I never found out exactly how many trolls are in town, but there are a lot of them.

Of course we had to get our picture with the mayor presenting the key to the city.

I'm hoping he is a friendly troll.

 But we spent most of our time in Madison.  The University of Wisconsin is located in the downtown area.  And the downtown area is situated between two lakes, separated by about 12 blocks.  We would bike downtown (great biking trails), then spend the afternoon walking around the historic district.  When we first got there a street market was going on (it lasted 5 days).

I thought this was very appropriate.

On top of the convention center (which sits on one of the lakes), there is a topside cafe, the perfect place to stop for a bite to eat and some lemonade.

While Max was getting the repairs on the motorhome, we moved to a county park on the south side of the city.  While there we got to explore the bike trails leading to downtown from the south.  It was a beautiful city and a wonderful unplanned stop.