Hi Folks! I hope you all had an enjoyable and safe 4th of July. In my hometown, there is an event called Rhythm & Booms that is not only the largest event in Wisconsin, but the largest fireworks display in the midwest. It actually takes place the weekend before the 4th of July in order to make it so darn big. The show is “choreographed” to popular and patriotic music which is broadcast over the local oldies station. The coolest part is that the fireworks display is over 35 minutes long and more 15,000 shells are fired. As you can imagine, with Madison being an isthmus and the fact that the roads are not built to deal with 300,000 people simultaneously, this can cause an issue. As you can imagine, the traffic is a real pain. I would guestimate that 99% of the people who avoid R & B do so because of the traffic. I don’t blame them. It’s a mess. This is where my husband’s master plan came into play.

We live outside Madison, in Verona. Getting into the event isn’t so bad as there are things going on all day, it’s the getting home that can drive you crazy. My husband, Billy Biker Boy had a fantastic idea. We would drive to the edge of downtown and ride into the event. A pretty easy ride, though BBB had the trailer with the kids, chairs, food, diapers, juice boxes etc weighing him down and I had the Velciopak with more clothes and the IDs. Since we drove down there earlier to set up or tarp and claim a spot, getting there turned into a real breeze. The hardest thing was dodging the crowds of people who were walking through the event like they were the only people there.

A vast majority of the spectators bring their radios and tune in to 94.9 when the fireworks start, so the stereo is awesome, regardless how crappy all the radios tend to be. We sat out on the lawn for hours goofing around and just hanging out, trying to avoid the portapotties as best we could. Finally the F-16 flyovers from Camp Douglas dropped by and then it was time to get the party started. The opener was awesome. I don’t think that the sky was without a shell for over 35 minutes. My youngest doesn’t like the noise (and lived inside ME for 34 weeks? Uncanny.) so she got to wear some sexy headwear. After the spectacular show, it was time to pack up and jet out. The cool part, was we had some friends come join us for the show and they drove and ended up taking a bunch of our gear home in their car. This made BBB’s ride a little smoother and packing up the car a lot faster.

Once we got on the road, the fly time home was nothing. Billy told me to stay on the light at the back of the trailer and the man flew. I kept up just fine and tried to forget that it was my kids in that trailer as some of his maneuvers were freaking me out. The cyclists were out in full force leaving the park. The time it took to get to the car was quick. Once we packed up and got on the road, the timing was even more impressive. We beat our friend in the car by at least 45 minutes. Sweet.

So when the going gets tough and you realize that an event is going to be nutty traffic wise, come up with a plan to go on two wheels, even if it means driving part of the way. Billy Biker Boy says that I’ve never have made the full trip. I think carting over 80 pounds on the bike is the part that freaks him out. Maybe next year we will do the route via all the bike trails. I believe we can go from our house to the park mostly on bike paths. Isn’t that the coolest?

So all in all, commuting is patriotic.