(Sat, 6/14/25; 0 miles)
We may be done with the biking, but this might be my favorite night of the trip: Camping out in the backyard of Eric & Brittany Pedersen in Madison.
We camped there on SWISBIRD in 2023, and at that time they had six kids under 9 years old. When I emailed Brittany a few weeks ago asking if they’d be in town June 13, she said, “I’d better be — my due date is June 10!”
So yes, this time we got to spend time with SEVEN kids under 11! While all the kids and Scouts were jumping in the trampoline, I asked her if she was sure this was a good idea to host six guys with a four-day-old baby in the house. She explained, “It’s easier with you all here than without you here.”
I guess our Scouts do offer a bit of distraction to her ever-curious kids. They helped us set up and take down the tents, offered us ice cream cake on the picnic table, and we had a great jam session in the living room with piano, ukulele, and two guitars.
Brittany grew up as Brittany McDaniels in our church (Chippewa Valley Bible Church in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin), and Eric was an intern in my group at Cray Supercomputers. So I knew them both before they even started officially dating!
They are now on staff with IVCF (InterVarsity of Christian Fellowship) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. We got to hear some classic Jay Anderson “dad jokes” as remembered by these poor impressionable kids.
Saturday morning we finally got a chance to sleep in. (I had averaged only six hours of sleep for the past seven nights.) I woke up at 6:45 am to Josiah patiently waiting outside the tent to talk some more.
Brittany made us a nice breakfast of oatmeal and fruit (even though we told her we had plenty of leftover snacks), and then we loaded up my brother Jim’s van and trailer that Lucius’s mom, Lucinda, drove over.
The three-hour drive home was uneventful, other than driving back into the rain. It made us extra grateful that the rains predicted for Thursday and Friday apparently moved further north.
When we arrived at Arneberg Acres, the boys just rode their bikes home, since we had left the panniers on the bikes to protect them in the trailer. And just like that, MADBIRD came to an end. It was a great trip!
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “MADBIRD” = Madison Bike Ride, my own nickname for a bike ride from our home in Chippewa Falls, WI, down the Chippewa River to Pepin, then down the Mississippi River to La Crosse, then over the Sparta-Elroy Trail to Devil’s Lake and Madison, WI. Nine Scouts and three adult leaders from Boy Scout Troop 72 started out the trip (http://www.troop72.com).
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
https://oldscouter.com/
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066334039590
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):
https://youtube.com/@oldscouter9465?si=YpGl5D8fVfniDFex