Coffee in Coldwater

I got back from an overnight bike ride to Branch County. The furthest south I got was the county seat, Coldwater, where I stopped for a ham sandwich and coffee for today’s lunch.

I’ve stopped at the North Woods Coffee Co. a few times before, but the last time was probably in Fall 2005. I was glad to see that it’s still in business. In fact it seemed busier today than I’ve ever seen it before.

One of the coffee choices today was Kenya AA. It did not disappoint. It was a smooth as that Kenya coffee should be.

Most of the customers were inside. It wasn’t exactly a warm day, but I picked one of the outside seats where I could sit in the shade and watch the street. I didn’t realize it until just now, but it looks like another bicycler picked the other seat like that.

I often like to sit along US-12, aka the Chicago Road, aka the Sauk Trail, and think about what it was like for Black Hawk when he used to come along this road in the 1820s on his way to and from Fort Malden. I must confess, though, that this time my thoughts were different. In addition to thinking about how that was a good cup of Kenya (the sandwich was good, too) I was thinking about how this main street is still fairly lively in comparison to so many main streets now. It reminds me of those that I knew as a kid. Of course there are no longer any big retail stores to be seen here — they have mostly been converted into coffee shops, computer service shops, and a Salvation Army place where one can do internet auctions (according to the window). Most of the big retail business is now out by I-69. So it’s not really the same, but somehow it still manages more than most such streets to remind me of a main street from the 1950s. The fact that an important east-west US highway still runs through it is probably a factor.

Despite the fact that each time a light turns green there is a big pulse of traffic, I’ve always found it fairly bicycleable. From here I rode west to where the road takes a new route across the Coldwater River, and then to the place (now a cemetery) where the old road went near a trading post where Black Hawk stopped and did business on his way back from Malden in 1825.

This weekend’s mileage: 101.5. YTD 528