yyt

19C to-morrow, i thought, heading to the machine after getting down from the train, better not blow this chance. the warmth came as such a surprise over the week-end that i missed it doing nothing in particular but after a full day looking at slow download of portfolios - web-based strip tease as the image slowly scrolls down and when finally all is shown one realises it wasn’t worth the wait but cannot speed up the process. i have only one day off this week and while i want to start with the post again - the post office is sending out a search party - i am not going to be in the house. madison is an option - a great wandering city i don’t have to choose where to go until i find a parking spot, coffee is always near and it is nicely walkable.

pulling out of the carpark and trying to wind down the window to give a lift to someone heading to the top of the hill, i found that i couldn’t. there was this odd orange light on the dashboard blinking “service”. well maybe someplace closer. milwaukee - well wauwatosa - a straight line walk along north avenue. at the pet expo - yeah yeah more later - made mental notes of walking west allis for the taverns and restaurants - all the crabs you can eat wednesdays - and then searching for a new alterra found north avenue. did a straight line walk down michigan avenue and this one seemed to have more potential as there were locally owned businesses and most of them were still open.

not wanting a breakdown along i-94, thought that i would try to get over my complete lack of interest in kenosha choose a walk around here. it was either roosevelt road or up sheridan road in somers where there were still small motels, road houses, supper clubs and rental units available by the day and the week. kept passing them heading up to racine and thought this would be the day to finally document it. thought that this could be a serial of arterial roads and thought of grand avenue in gurnee. route 12 in fox lake to the wisconsin border, bluemound road in brookfield...

knew there would be no place to park so parked below carthage college and started the wander north.

came to realise why i am having so much trouble getting started again. this culture is so wheel based that leg based motion is not even contemplated. there were more bikeways in greater copenhagen than pavements here, even heading through the campus the pavement had me crossing back and forth across the drive thinking that maybe it would be easier to follow this way if you were a drunker frat boy trying to get home. logic would have it that a pavement would keep one away from the street.

when i finally headed out onto sheridan road there wasn’t a hint of a walkway. i alternated among snirt, ice, mud and the roadway. progress was jerky as i would have to determine if i could get to the next driveway before the traffic got to me. i forgot that with the thaw the ground would be soft and while later on in the season i could trespass near the road now it was impossible due to the remaining snow mounds. i was coming to the conclusion that this wasn’t worth it. but thought that i would at least get the blue bird motel, well then there was the sheridan lanes, another motel, a road house until it was done.