WAHOO! Leg #1 was awesome!
We met up first with Blair in Manitowoc. Joey, Travis, Blair & I trained at a great spot. It was a fantastic, collaborative training session and so lovely right next to the lake. We worked on kongs (progressions for me; these are getting smoother!), tic-tacs/precisions, wallruns, cats, balance. Joey and Travis are such good, patient teachers/coaches; it seemed like a really fruitful session. I know I had a blast! We hope to get up to Manitowoc to train again! What a great city with really nice spots!
The next segment was Green Bay. No one was there to meet us, aside from James and Luke who we train with regularly. It was a bummer we didn't get a chance to meet up with any new locals, but we did get to see some really cool new spots. First was some nature parkour in a conservancy/quarry called Fonfarek's Park. LOTS of ankle conditioning and balance work on the scree. Plus with on and off rain, stuff got slippery quickly. But it was a great challenge and we don't get a lot of opportunities to do much nature parkour, so that was good.
After the nature parkour James took us to a park in the city of Green Bay called Pamperin Park. This place was awesome. It reminded us a lot of Oz park in Chicago. There were a lot of kids there with their families, playing on the equipment. The parents and families overall seemed pretty cool about us training there. It was nice; we were worried they would be concerned about their kids' safety (even though we always train safely), with all these "big kids" (us) running around, but we got a lot of curious spectators and cool parents watching. And some of the older kids were pretty intrigued.
A few even asked us if we were Spiderman/Spiderwoman; that was awesome.
The park is in a huge space; in addition to really cool playground equipment, it has a lot of grassy space with picnic tables, grills, and full bathroom facilities. It is also next to a creek which we didn't get a chance to explore but seems promising. This place seems ideal for an all-day jam. We're thinking next summer would be a good time to do a full-on statewide jam.
From Green Bay we proceeded to Appleton and jammed out at the Lawrence University campus. By now the rain was coming more and more frequently, so we had to curtail some things due to slippery surfaces. Campus security came by and didn't hassle us; they seemed pretty cool with us training, but they did ask us not to go on any rooftops (no problem, guys).
There are lots of cool spots on campus; once the rain let up we explored the campus more and then went down to the river for some "leapfrogging" on the river rocks. Joey and Travis made a valiant attempt and crossed the whole river. It was a great opportunity to work on "touch" as Stephane Vigroux calls it. By this point I was too tired to go on (4 hours of sleep, and I'm almost twice their age), so I took the bridge across and rested on a park bench while they navigated the rocks. James was kind enough to accompany me.
Appleton definitely merits another look. I'd like to visit it again when I'm not so tired and the weather is cooperating.
All in all, it was a great day. Travis took a ton of footage and we hope to have a video out after next week (once we finish Leg #2 of the tour). It's a shame we didn't hear back from Mayville, and we didn't get a chance to meet the Green Bay folks, but maybe next time.
Next week we head South! Muskego, Racine, etc. Thanks to all the locals along our tour route for providing us with information on your favorite spots. We look forward to meeting you, and hope this tour is something that continues in future summers!
