Madisonites

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Madison. Outstanding.

After our recoup in La Crosse, WI at James' parents house, we made our way on the four hour drive to Madison. Our couch request had been accepted by Alison, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior, and approved of by one of her roommates, Liza, also a couch surfer. Liza and Alison live with Steve, a guy who's from Minnesota, and have a great apartment with a kickass porch down the street from the Madison capitol.

Madison was really an awesome place to be. Minus the hectic construction that seems to go on all over the place as the city pulls through its insane winter, the city is beautiful. Madison is located between two awesome lakes, one of which is where the school and student union are located, and the other, where you can find their Frank Lloyd Wright terrace. School was just finishing up for all their students and finals were getting started on the Sunday of our stay. Some folks were more or less done and others had maybe a paper and exam to finish up.

Spring was in, and it was made abundantly clear to Kyle and myself that Madisonites know how to enjoy good weather and sunshine. One of our days there comprised of extensive wandering through the city, lake dwelling, eating at the amazing farmer's market, juggling (obviously), jamming (obviously), beer (obviously), heavy doses of fresh air, and James Brown breakdowns to finish it all off. Outstanding.

People in Madison, it would seem from our stay, are just all insanely nice and genuine. Liza, Alison, and Steve were the perfect hosts, too, as their apartment is a social hub of sorts -- and neither too intense nor too muted of one. Javi, Dusty, Ricky, Page, Cole to mention a few . . . were all new acquaintances met through our hosts and all were very upstanding and extremely fun to be around. Around the time James Brown's "Cold Sweat" was finishing up during our evening, Ricky promptly came in to ask, "Yo, can you play more of that James Brown?", only to be instantly followed with a "Hellls Yeah!" reply and some busted moves. Ricky and his brother Javi (Bears Climb Mountains) threw down like few have ever done before. Solid, solid shit. What a place to be...