A Stand of Trees

There’s something romantic about changing into your party clothes with only the cover of a few bare trees and your husband yelling, “car!” when you need to duck down.

Our friend’s annual Kentucky Derby party isn’t an event you want to miss - the company and mint juleps can’t be beat. So when our friends moved out to the country near Cross Plains a few years ago, we continued to bike to the party. 

On account of a stiff headwind topping 20 mph, this year’s trip was slow going on the Military Ridge State Trail and became a real struggle when we turned off the trail onto hilly country roads. I had a couple heart-sinking moments while grinding up a hill into the wind and realizing I already was in my lowest gear. I groaned, yelled out, and spun my legs vehemently to make it to the top.

I was happy when we could see our au naturel changing area off in the distance - it meant we had only about a mile left! We grabbed our panniers stuffed with our party clothes and headed down the ditch and into the trees. For the full story of packing and changing in this manner, check out this video post I made last year.

After changing and freshening up, Peter and I rode off to the party, pulling up looking like we didn’t bike.