REPORT FROM FLORIDA

 It's been cool here, too! For a few of the cooler days, the natives were dressed in parkas and fur hats.  However, since I know what you Iowa natives have been through temperature wise at times, I'm not going to dwell on the weather.  I'll inform you about some of the rides I have taken.  I have not played any golf yet.  The back seems a little "twingy" at times, so I plan to try that carefully since my daughter, Beth, and grand girls, June and Mabel, gave me a gift certificate to Top Golf for Christmas, I'll try that first.

We arrived in Panama City Beach on New Years Eve day, so I was able to join the Ft. Walton bikers for a 200 mile ride on New Years Day.  We traveled the backroads from Freeport, FL, to Enterprise, AL, where we feasted at Shane's Barbeque.  For you Ruptured Rooster fans, we actually traveled through Coffee County in Alabama, but we did not stop for any brews.  It's amazing how much more scenery one gets to see when not having to lead!

We have taken a number of rides on our own, so I thought I might try to highlight a few of those.  There are a couple of things that fascinate me down here.  One is their bridges, and they have some "big ass" ones.  The other is live oak trees with their mossy limbs and their uncanny ability to withstand the hurricanes.

Here's one of the bridges spanning a large bay.

Here's one of the roads we took that the Ft. Walton gang showed me.

Another Ft. Walton road.  Not every road down here is flat and straight.

Here's some of the incredible live oaks I saw.

Another "big ass" bridge

And another one

We also passed through Tyndall Air Force Base.  New construction after the hurricane.

Do the cranes look familiar?  They are expanding this huge bridge.

This is the bridge that connects Panama City with Panama City Beach.  The speed limit is 45, but you have to go 60 just to keep up.

And the sunsets are always beautiful over the Gulf of America!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.....

CONGRATS TO MIKE & JOAN...A NEW GRANDSON!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A COUPLE OF SNIPPETS

For most of us, the riding season has come to an end.  Also coming to an end is the Black Hawk Bridge, which is scheduled to be imploded tomorrow (Friday).  I know there are a few Wednesday Night Riders who plan venture to Lansing to view the event. Don't get hit by the debris! I am going to opt for watching it on the DOT website.

Right now we plan to depart for Panama City Beach, FL, on the 29th and arrive and check in to the condo on the 31st. One of the groups down there usually has a ride on New Years day, so I would like to try to make that. Special thanks to Chuckles for helping me with the trailer and then helping me load the trike.

Looking ahead (I'm already anxious for spring to arrive), I'm going to plan the PMS get-together for April 22nd, so keep that date safe.  Obviously more details on that later.

This will be the last post for a while, but I will maybe try to send out a couple of them while we are still riding in Florida.

So, as promised, here are a couple of snippets from our leaf rides this fall.

And also, guess who turned 100 recently?  No, not me!

 And now to all of our Wednesday Night Riders, their families, and friends..

Have a blessed and safe holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

ANOTHER SNIPPET

 I'm pretty sure no one rode last night (Wednesday), so I will attempt to entertain you with another snippet.  The Weather Witch is really being mean to us this year!  If it isn't snow, it's wind.  If it isn't snow and wind, it's freezing rain, and if it isn't snow, wind, and freezing rain, it's below zero temps, and it isn't even officially winter yet!

As an update, Jim & Cathy are fed up with the Witch, so they bought an enclosed trailer and are heading south to visit the kids and grandkids in Texas with plans to venture even further south.  This is all after they witness the implosion of the Black Hawk Bridge scheduled for the 18th. Make sure you get a good video to share.  I know there are several other couples who plan to journey to warmer climates, even as far south as Mexico.

So far our plans are to escape this crap on the 29th and journey down to Panama City Beach where the temps today were in the 60's and into the 70's on the weekend. If severe weather threatens we may take off earlier.  However, earlier in the month, they have had a couple days down there with temps as cold as it was up here. (low 30's)  I'll bet they're still shivering!

On a sad note, as many of you now know, Ozzie Quandahl passed away this week.  Ozzie was quite a motorcyclist himself.  Many times in earlier days he would ride with us with wife Phyliss on the back and towing a small trailer with a dog fenced in on the top.  It was quite a sight!  He rode with me several times up to Rockton with the dog on the back, and he would always hit the cook up for some bones to give to the dog.  Ozzie and Phyliss were big supporters of Camp Courageous and went on several rides down there with us.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep you entertained with a couple more snippets before we leave.  Until then here's one from a leaf ride we took this fall--great memory!  You should be able to guess where this video was taken.

And finally--dammit!

Thanksgiving & Another Snippet

If anyone rides on this Wednesday night, please let me know.  You will be banned from our group due to insanity!

I have been asked now about our trip out to Denver over Thanksgiving to see the kids and grandkids.  The flights out and back were fine, but our misadventures on the ground have led me to the conclusion that airports suck! Our airport incidents are too numerous to mention here, but I'm sure I'll be able to pass them on sometime.

We really enjoyed seeing the kids and grandkids again.  They all seem to be healthy and doing fine, but growing up too quickly.  I was especially proud of our granddaughter, Lilly.  After surviving a terrible automobile accident, she really looks great!

Despite our airport misadventures, we did make it back to Waukon on Friday before the snowstorm from hell hit. The Weather Witch is back again!  Yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon clearing snow out of the backyard so I can get the trailer and trike out and ready to go to Florida at the end of the month.

At noon yesterday, I spoke to the Decorah Rotary Club at Ron's request.  I told the members present there (they had a good crowd and are a community service club) about our Wednesday Night Riders.  Some of my talk was about how the group got started and how it's grown, the various activities we do including the Wednesday night rides, our rides to eat, and our couples and summer trip. I even mentioned our PMS get-together. Most of the talk was an emphasis on the service and charity events we participate in.  Our support of the New Albin Fire Department, Win Med Hospice Ride, and Camp Courageous were all mentioned along with some photos.  They were especially interested in our trike rides for the rest home residents in Waukon and Decorah. I was able to show some photos of those events also, and particularly of all the smiles we generated.  As far as I could gather, the talk was well received and provided some good publicity for the Wednesday Night Riders.  Special thanks to Ron for the opportunity.

As promised, I am going to show a video snippet from one of our rides this fall.  Say hello to Thumper again!

AND NOW....😞

SNIPPETS

It looks like the curtain has closed on our riding season for 2025. 😞 

I think we had a really good year.  We were able to ride on most Wednesday nights and go on our special rides and charity runs. Both the summer trip and couples' trip went very well, and we were able to treat our nursing home friends to a special ride.  And best of all, it was a safe season! 😊 

These are things we should be thankful for, and most of all thankful for the new friends we made and being able to enjoy our old friends with the Wednesday Night Riders.

What I am going to try to do in the next few blogs, is to show some snippets (short videos) of some of the rides we made this fall.  The blog only allows very short videos to be presented, so that's why I call them snippets.  Here's a couple for this time.

IF YOU LISTEN CLOSELY, YOU CAN HEAR THE "OLD GIRL" SING!

I know I'm going to miss her and am thankful for the time I got to spend on her.

I will try to continue with some snippets on the blog before we leave for Florida at the end of December.

AND NOW, HERE'S WISHING ALL OUR WEDNESDAY NIGHT RIDERS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!

ALPHABET SOUP ON LAST RIDE

This Friday, on Bob's invite ride, we had 9 Wednesday night riders show up at Casey's at 2 PM for what will probably be the last group ride of the season.

Lois, Mike, and Jim arrived on two wheelers, while the three-wheel crowd had Wayne, Dave, Terry, Roger, and Bob aboard.  Irv roared in with the Vette "support" convertible.

WAYNE & DAVE ARRIVE EARLY

LOIS DOING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS WHILE ARRIVING

MIKE ARRIVES

FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY JIM

SOME FRIENDLY PRE-RIDE B S

TERRY APPEARS

AND HERE COMES ROGER

THE VETTE CAN'T PASS UP THE LAST TRIP

Since HWY 35 from Prairie du Chien to Lynxville has been closed all summer, our group has not had the chance to ride the scenic "alphabet" roads along that route.  So since HWY 35 recently reopened, Bob's plan was to take some of those "alphabet" roads on what was probably going to be the last group ride of the season.

We started out from Casey's on HWY 76 to Forest Mills Road.  We followed FMR past the Gelo corn fields that Cathy combined and into Luana and onto HWY 18.  HWY 18 was packed with traffic probably due to the Lansing bridge being closed, but we did make our way past Monona, Froelich, and Giard and into Marquette where we crossed the bridge into PDC.

We skirted around PDC on CR K and made our way to the newly refurbished HWY 35.  We hopped on it heading north on freshly laid, smooth blacktop until we reached Lynxville.  There we turned onto the first "alphabet" road, CR E, and followed it eastward up to HWY 27 and headed back south.  When we arrived at our second "alphabet" road, CR F, we journeyed on a very scenic downhill ride back down to HWY 35 again.  With most of the trees losing their leaves, we were able to see for miles into the valleys below.  What an incredible sight on a beautiful fall day!

Once we arrived back on HWY 35 we took a short jog south until we reached our next "alphabet" road, CR D, near the bustling metroplolis of Charme.  CR D is another favorite of ours.  It is usually more scenic coming down from HWY 27, but it still offered us some smooth curves and spectacular scenery going uphill and back onto HWY 27.

After reaching HWY 27 again, we ventured a ways south through Eastman until we reached our final "alphabet" road, CR N.  Back down the hill we went again enjoying the views and the smooth tarmac.  Again we arrived at HWY 35 and headed back south into PDC where we stopped at Casey's for a well-deserved break.  It was such a nice day, that some of our group actually opted for chocolate ice cream!

After leaving Casey's there seemed to be a lot of confusion due to some traffic on the round-a-bouts.  Even though I announced that we would be taking HWY 76 back to Waukon, Terry, Jim, and I were the only ones to do so, even though we waited in Marquette for quite some time.  I'm hoping everyone made it safely home from there.  I know Irv did and I did see Lois later, so that was good.

We did arrive back in Waukon just as darkness was starting to decend in on us.  I had exactly 120 miles on the Wing when I rolled her into the shed.  What a great day to revisit our special "alphabet" roads!

THIS SAYS IT ALL!!

 If anyone goes on rides yet this fall and wants me to post them, just let me know.  For the next few posts, I will be putting on some video snippets on some rides we took this fall.  A couple of these are the trips across the Black Hawk Bridge before it was closed.

A SPECIAL DAY

Today, Tuesday, November 11 is Veterans' Day.  This a a day of tribute to the veterans of all the conflicts fought to protect our freedom.

Our Wednesday Night Riders group is honored to have  five veterans who served in the armed services, and I would like us to appreciate their dedication to our country.

In no particular order they are...

BOB ZAHN

  

CARL THORNTON

BERNELL TOLLEFSRUD

TERRY LUBAHN

RICHARD PROTSMAN

THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE, GUYS!!

UPCOMING

I plan to ride on Friday at 2 PM from Casey's.  I don't know where yet, but maybe try some of the alphabet roads since HWY 35 is now apparently open.  If you want to "trail along", be at Casey's at 2 on Friday.