Doubling – and even tripling – the fun on GRABAAWR
Arlyn & Sandy Aronson  If you're looking for a cycling vacation that includes great scenery, lots of fun people, eating whatever you like, and healthy exercise, let me tell you how we did on last year's GRABAAWR, the Great Annual Bicycle Adventure Along the Wisconsin River.
A seven-day, 500-mile supported bicycle tour across Wisconsin, GRABAAWR roughly follows the Wisconsin River from north to south. Registration is limited to 1,100 riders, which sounds like a lot, but this well-organized event handles these numbers very well. Accommodations range from your own tent to hotels; each overnight stay is at a town's local school, which provides showers and camping indoors or out. Food is readily available at the
schools and nearby restaurants. Everything a cyclist may need, including mechanical support, is accessible on this tour.
We had a wonderful week of riding. We rode fast (sometimes), met many people, had our picture taken dozens of times (really!), ate a lot, and saw stunning scenery across Wisconsin. To better describe this great event, we've provided a day-by-day account of our experience, as viewed by tandem and triplet bicycle.
Sunday, Day 1: Eagle River to Rhinelander
It was chaotic with cyclists scrambling to retrieve their bikes off of the moving vans that transported them from Prairie du Chien. Of course, one of the two brief rains that fell that day was during the unloading. Eagle River High School provided a healthy and economical breakfast to get everyone going.
It was a beautiful day for cycling, cruising along smooth, roller-coaster-type roads with little traffic. Tandem riders love terrain like that where the big bike can just zoom along! Of course, everyone paused for the famous Lions Club brat stop in St. Germain to refuel. The roasted corn on the cob was tops with us. The day ended for us with the second burst of rain just as we were rolling into Rhinelander.
Monday, Day 2: Rhinelander to Wausau
It was slightly cooler and there was a rainy outlook when we left Rhinelander. This portion of the ride proved to have rolling hills again, only bigger – most notably "Morrel Hill," complete with a lemonade stop at the top. Like this one, many food stops along the route are just families out selling Gatorade, fruit and
cookies. For this day we set up our extra tandem, named Red (transported courtesy of a sag driver), for two 16-year-old boys who are children of friends of ours. We pedaled out of town with them in tow and they kept up just fine. They loved riding the tandem and quickly learned how to take advantage of the speed and mass of a big bike in rolling hills. Later in the day they stopped at a driving range to "slice" a few buckets of golf balls, which they do each year during this ride.
As we sped along we passed a couple on a vintage tandem. They powered up to stay with us, and we discovered they were transplants to the Chicago metro area from England. We hit it off and largely rode with them the rest of the week.
Entering Merrill, it started to rain so we stopped at a small café to have lunch, coffee and pie, spending two hours as the rain passed. I should add that's waaaay too much coffee. We finally headed out again just to
get a few miles under the tires before the rain returned. It developed into possibly the hardest rain we'd ever ridden through. Just the same, the temperature stayed warm and we even managed to roll into the 40s (mph) on a few hills. We ended the day to find a broken rear spoke. Seeing spoke-breaking bumps was difficult with roads covered in water. GRABAAWR always has mechanical support at these rides, so this is not a major problem.
Tuesday, Day 3: Wausau to Wisconsin Rapids
We had a great day of riding, spending time meeting the many fine folks who attend these rides. This day included a fantastic rest stop at the Mosinee Methodist Church, where the people really know how to feed
cyclists. Later we were treated to free beer and cheap good food at the Point Brewery in Steven Point, always a busy stop during the tour.
Also on our agenda also was trolling for a tail-gunner – we wanted to get our big blue Santana triplet out of our sag van and we were searching for a reasonably strong rider who worked at our pace and who wanted to ride in the back seat (tail gunning). We lucked out, meeting Dennis and his wife, Joan, and riding with
them most all this day. Dennis offered to tail gun the triplet on Thursday, which was the shortest mileage day of the week.
Wednesday, Day 4: Wisconsin Rapids to Mauston
Every tour has one – a day where nothing is noticed but the headwind. It seemed that the wind made
everyone testy, as few riders seemed to be banding together to draft each other. This day also was pancake flat, but still with beautiful vistas of the river. Mauston's school was, well, cozy.
Thursday, Day 5: Mauston to Portage
Wisconsin Dells Day! This was a short day, only 45 miles, and the day Dennis had agreed he'd ride Big Blue, our triplet, with us. We went to work setting up and giving him a short course on tandeming, since he had no experience at all.
Dennis did great, and we flew through these 45 miles at break-neck speeds, screaming down the quiet lanes between Mauston and Portage. There were no major climbs on this day's route. At the Dells we stopped in
for a leisurely meal and a boat tour. Lots of cyclists took advantage of the nice weather and short day to hit the water parks and other amusements.
We were humored by comments we heard from our fellow cyclists. Many of them had seen the triplet before, but only when it was parked in our van. A sag driver was following the ride in our van, and had been parked among us at the overnight locations. When we were finally spotted on the bike, we heard, "We
were wondering when we'd see the triplet!" Cyclists and townspeople came by to ask many questions about the big bike.
That evening, while roaming around the Portage school yard, we met our Madison, Wis., friend Jay DeNovo. We know Jay and Donna (who was not able to ride) because we all belong to the COWs, Wisconsin's Couples On Wheels tandem club. When Jay learned we had Big Blue along, he said he'd like
to tail-gun during this ride. We got the triplet's rear cockpit set up for Jay and crossed our fingers that we'd be able to make the next two days' large climbs.
Friday, Day 6: Portage to Spring Green
The start of big-hill days within the famous driftless area created a difficult challenge even for riders on their "half-bikes" (tandem talk for single bikes). After going up and over the first not-so-large hills, we took a rest break. During the stop Jay exclaimed, "My hair's on fire, we're going so fast!"
We learned an interesting thing about triplets: Even though the three of us are only modestly strong, we
found that nearly no one could keep up and ride with us. Even many cyclists who have great drafting skills were pressed to stay on our tail. And believe me, Big Blue had a huge draft to follow. We slowed to keep our British friends with us, but down any hill we pulled away like a falling rock. Going up the big hills, we dropped into the smallest gear and really had to work hard. Standing was a bit wobbly but very doable
(only done on short hills at low cadence). We even passed single bikes going up hills.
But what an incredible feeling after we'd peak over the top and accelerate down the other side; it was as if time were being compressed. The backdrop of wildflowers looked like the spaceship going into warp speed when all the stars fly past your field of view. It was a really strange feeling.
The day ended in Spring Green 75 miles later, with us being very tired from the three big climbs. It was time for the American Legion barbecue chicken dinner, just another of the many inexpensive and good meals served during the week where we get to sit and chat with other cyclist.
What a day of climbs, farm valleys and descents into river bottoms. We love the hills of Wisconsin's Driftless Area. It was a great day to ride Big Blue.
With six days of riding, Sandy and I were becoming fatigued but felt well enough to do the last on Big Blue with Jay.
Saturday, Day 7: Spring Green to Prairie du Chien
We rolled west a few miles on our final day just to stop at a friend's summer cottage for breakfast, and
promptly ate too much. Our friends ride tandem and were also doing GRABAAWR. The drizzle returned but the temperatures stayed warm. Lightning and thunder flickered and roared from ridge to ridge. Many riders hurried to towns like Muscoda, where they found shelter at convenience stores and park pavilions. We returned to the road at a slower pace, relishing the last day of this adventure with our old and new friends.
I used the drum brake (an extra brake commonly on tandems) on all descents. During one in particular it was drizzling and the rain at that speed did indeed hurt. We were flying down a curving secondary road where we did speeds of 30-50 mph. If anyone could have followed, they'd probably have seen the drum steaming! At speeds like that, communication becomes difficult to impossible. Flying down one large hill, I
started to roll into a cadence again and Sandy yelled, "No, we're not," and I couldn't hear her. But I could feel the pedals weren't going and knew what she wanted, as Jay was yelling on the back, "No, faster, faster!"
On the last day we were still meeting lots of fine people, fielding many silly questions about triplets and having our photo taken for possibly the 50th time. When people asked for a photo, Jay started to say "You'll need to ask my agent."
"We're kind of a circus show, aren't we?" Jay said.
After 75 miles we rolled in to the luggage drop, experiencing blistering heat for the first time that week. It was a good thing for us northerners it stayed cool until then.
On the way home Sandy and I reminisced on the great week of touring we had. We met many, many fine people and introduced a few people to tandeming. We got to ride with our friends Dennis and Jay on Big
Blue, not to mention all the other great people who rode alongside or behind us.
The funny thing about doing this tour, and one of the reasons we do it, is meeting the cyclists who attend. At every restaurant or service station you stop at en route you can find people there doing the ride. It's really nice to be surrounded by like-minded folks. That's what cycling vacations should be all about.
Special note for people attending this ride: We do suggest storing your clothing and camp equipment in waterproof bags, or at least in trash compactor bags tied shut within your luggage bags. When the support trucks arrive in the next camp or school location, they unload them and you'll want your gear protected from the rain.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
GRABAAWR 2000 is July 1-8 this year. As of early May, there were only 200 slots open in the ride, which is limited to 1,100 participants. To see if there's still room for this year, contact Bike Wisconsin, 888/575-3640; fax 608/935-5816; wisbike@mhtc.net; www.bikewisconsin.org.
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