A NEAT BLESSING

I'm not going to go on about the crap weather, since you already know how much I hate winter, so I thought I would share a blessing with you.

First a little background.  As most of you know, Julie's mother passed away in October at the age of 99.  While I was at the wake at St. Boniface Church in Waukee, I happened by their announcement board, and low and behold, I found out that this church has a group of bikers that meet at the church every Monday for a ride together and a stop for food afterwards.  They also have special rides scheduled throughout the riding season.  They call themselves the Blessed Bikers.  Except for the day of the week and the blessed part, it reminds me of a group I know.

I did ask the pastor, Father Vince Resonke, if he rides along with them also.  He said the closest he comes is having his picture taken while sitting on one of the bikes.  However, he did write a blessing for them that I wanted to share with you.  By the way, the good Father grew up in New Hampton, so he knew about Waukon and extends the following blessing.  It's called "Onto the Open Road"

Onto the open road we ride---
Surrounded by the fresh air of nature.
         Side by side we travel
        Down the many roads---
  Each day a new adventure--
      Each time, new friends.
Bless our comings and goings;
      Bless our time together.
Keep us safe as we ride our paths;
      May we always notice
   The beauty of your creation.
       May we put our trust
      In the one next to us as 
Onto the open road we ride....

----Fr. Vince Rosonke

WINTER SHOWED UP!

I was able to get a ride in on Monday this week, then the bottom dropped out on the temps.  I went through Decorah to Ridgeway and then took the Madison Road back to Decorah and back to Waukon for about 60 miles. (Remember it has to be at least 50 miles to count as a ride.) The sixty miles put me at 50,000 on the Wing, so it was due for the oil change and Sea Foam treatment for the winter.  Hopefully I'm not done riding here in Iowa yet, but it doesn't look good in the upcoming forecasts. 

Things must be rough all over.  I see in the news that they shot a weather man out east!  
If you think you've got troubles, check this guy out.  He must be the one that taught Chuckles how to plan routes!

NOVEMBER RIDE

It was Wednesday afternoon instead of Wednesday night, but Chuckles and Bob R got a November ride in this year.  For the past several years, I was able to ride at least once every month of the year.  Last year I did miss December and the year before I did miss January.  There is some "cheating" going on there, because, as most of you know, we do take the Wing with us to Florida in February.  I did ride the first three days of this week and put on a little over 300 miles on Monday and Tuesday.  On Wednesday, Chuckles and I put on about 135 miles by traveling on HWY 76 through Eitzen, Caledonia, and Houston.  We then took HWY 16 through Rushford, Peterson, Whalen, and Lanesboro.  Then onto HWY 52 through Harmony, Canton, Prosper, and Decorah and HWY 9 back to Waukon.  We did a couple of "warm-up" stops at Houston and Harmony.  The temperature got barely into the 50's with a few rain sprinkles, but the roads were really smooth and very little traffic.  I can't believe we didn't see another biker!  Actually it's kind of neat to be able to see some new things now with the leaves mostly off the trees.  Some things are nice to see, and some not so nice.  Hopefully the weather may warm up enough again for another chance for us to get out again.

On a sad note...Wayne Martin's brother, Harlan, passed away on Tuesday.  Condolences to Wayne and his family.

Here's a couple of photos from Wednesday afternoon.

WARM-UP STOP IN HARMONY

CHUCKLES SHOWING OFF HIS "NECKEE"

"MAN.... THAT NECKEE REALLY ITCHES!"