Sent to Milwaukee in February. Wow, I must be real high up on the corporate chain. When I was making my travel arrangements, I honestly thought that it would be much too cold in February to ride a bike. Well, occasionally, I’m wrong. I flew into the Cream City on Saturday, hoping that the Weather Channel was correct in predicting 50 degrees the next day. So as soon as I descended upon my hotel, I unpacked my bike and hoped for the best.

On Sunday, the Mid-West experienced a very unusually warm February 1st. At 52 degrees and sunny, I pedaled out of the Hilton, near Mitchell Airport and headed through Oak Creek to Cudahy and out to Lake Michigan. The 20-30 MPH winds coming off the lake made the trip out to downtown Milwaukee feel like I was in a wind tunnel. I took Lake Drive most of the way, occasionally hoping on the Oak Creek Trail, which runs along the lake. The paved trail was congested with walkers and runners, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. I went through the city and into White Fish Bay and had to turn around, as the wind had crushed my dreams and stole my soul. Just kidding.

Whenever I start writing, I try to find what moves me about a certain place or subject. Well, I found it as I was forced to a crawl in the relentless head wind that seemed to turn around just when I did.

Milwaukee, isn’t just a cute lake city 100 miles northwest of Chicago, It’s a city of real old beers. You won’t find an apricot IPA in one of the old time taverns scattered throughout the Cream City. Almost every bar displays the neon beer signs of the 1970’s. Actually, you could probably find all the fruity Craft beers and IPA’s in most of the trendy downtown restaurants. And it’s not nicknamed the Cream City because it was the home to more breweries than any other U.S. city or because Wisconsin is the dairy state, but because of the cream colored brick that was produced here in the mid to late 1800’s and was used to build an enormous amount of downtown buildings.

I can imagine a ride here in warmer weather. Maybe I’ll be back this summer, who knows. Maybe I’ll venture into downtown. But until then, I’ll remember how nice it was to ride along the shores of Lake Michigan’s beautiful blue waters.