Kelly the Culinarian: Our Wild Weekend in Verona

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Our Wild Weekend in Verona

Where's Waldo/Kelly
Sort of. I mean, I stayed up until 9:45, so that's something. In honor of Brent's birthday and because it was in the 70s, we decided a quick trip to Madison to bike the Ironman Wisconsin course was in order. We drove up Friday and stayed with friends, then drove to Verona Saturday morning and started the loop around 10 a.m. The weather was amazing - warm, nice breeze, full sun. I even have tan lines to prove it.

On this trip, I think we cracked the code to rocking this loop. We did one loop Saturday with a quick transition, then stayed at a brand-new Holiday Inn in Verona, just one mile off the loop. This place was perfect for all our needs. It's pet friendly, it has a pool and hot tub, the rate was competitive, the breakfast was free and extensive and we could bike to the loop and get started at any time.
Suzie Slice is Aging Nice(ly)

The ride Saturday was uneventful and basically 42 miles of bliss. The roads are in fairly good condition for it being this early in the season. Stagecoach is still a bumpy mess that rattles my teeth, and Witte Road remains my favorite stretch of the course. My leggies were fine for the duration. It's basically like the bone marrow transplant never happened.

First brick: 3:16:06
After a super lame and terrible three-mile run around Verona, we chilled in the hot tub before donning our best summer apparel and walking over to Mr. Brews. We were promised a pub crawl to all the Mr. Brews locations via bus for a rate of $15. We were further promised a 7-ounce pour at each of these places from different Madison-area breweries.

It didn't quite work out that way.

At the first location, we wanted to get an early dinner since we'd worked out for 3 hours and skipped lunch in the process. We watched a bus come and go, and were told they come every 40 minutes. So we paid our bill and waited ... for two and a half hours. The bar gave us complimentary seven-ounce pours and a free tour at Ale Asylum while we waited, but still. We were not pleased.

Somehow, this is the only photo from that night
But once we got on the bus, the party was on a roll (pun intended). The key to enjoying this, and also completing the crawl before the 9 p.m. cut off, was to dash into the location to snag the sample and take it to go, then savor it while the bus waited to leave (10 minutes) and the drive to the next bar (10-15 minutes). In the end, we completed the crawl and had a blast. It was a good value, even if it was poorly coordinated. You gathered a check at each location in your tasting passport, and one person who completed the gauntlet will win a Trek bike. I'm feeling lucky, so we'll see.

Basically, this weekend was my perfect combo of travel, fitness, fun and friends. Cheers to loving life!

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