A SUNNY MEMORIAL DAY!

 All week the weather forecast for Memorial Day had rain chances anywhere from 60 to 80%.  However at 1 O'Clock on Monday afternoon a "lucky" 13 Wednesday Night Riders met at Casey's with mostly sunny skies and temps near 80, so even though the cookout had to be cancelled, the ride was on!

WAYNE, BOB Z, DAVID, MERYLE, AND AL TALK BIKES

SUPPORT CONVERTIBLE SUPPLIED BY DAVID & SUZANNE

LOIS AND SUZANNE

SANDY AND MARY

Before we departed, Bob Z discovered that he had no rear brakes on his Harley.  So not wanting to drag his feet the whole trip, he decided it was best to stay home.  Just as we were departing, Gary & Gloria came rolling in, so an even dozen of us took off on our annual Memorial Day run.
We traversed down Forest Mills Road, passed by the Gelo ranch and on into Luana and onto HWY 18 heading east.  On 18 we passed Monona, Froelich, Giard, Marquette, and onto the Mississippi River bridge.  There we waited quite some time while the stop light directing traffic past the construction site was red for us.  Finally the light turned green and we passed through Prairie du Chien and Bridgeport then turned off onto CR C. We used CR C, CR X, and CR P to get us over near Bagley where we found CR A and headed east again.
Following CR A took us on a rather scenic journey on into Bloomington for a planned stop at the One Stop there.

IT WOULDN'T BE AN OFFICIAL TRIP WITHOUT SOME GELOS ALONG

AL IS EITHER CHECKING THE WEATHER OR TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE WE ARE

THE SUPPORT CONVERTIBLE IN BLOOMINGTON

 However, we soon discovered that the One Stop was closed and we were attracting a crowd including a guy and his hyper dog, so we departed for our next planned stop.
We got back on CR A and followed it's scenic path all the way into Lancaster where the plan was to get ice cream and possibly some pizza at Happy Joe's there.  Again we discovered that it was also closed today, so we motored across the street to the A&W drive in.  

WE ARRIVE AT A&W

IT'S WARM ENOUGH FOR SANDY TO DITCH HER JACKET

CO-PILOT

The A&W stop turned out to be a good place for us.  We ordered from the outside menu kiosks and our food and/or ice cream was brought out to us while we sat in the shade on picnic tables under their canopy.  Their seating area inside was still closed, but we were able to pass through and use the rest rooms.

After finishing our treats we started our journey back home by passing back through Lancaster and getting on CR K just outside of town.  CR K also provided us with some southwestern Wisconsin scenery as we made our way past Green River and onto HWY 133 heading east.  We traveled through Woodman and then on into Boscobel for another break at Quick Star.

After a quick break we headed out of Boscobel and found CR E about three miles west on HWY 60 at Easter Rock.  We traversed scenic CR E through Steuben (all roads lead to Steuben) and up to HWY 27 where we turned north passing through Seneca and Mt. Sterling.  By now the temps were in the 80's and the breeze actually felt pretty good!  It turned out to be a warm, sunny day with no rain in sight YET.

In Mt. Sterling we turned south onto HWY 171 and down the hill to HWY 35 and then breezed through Ferryville and across the bridge back into Iowa at Lansing.  It looked like some repair work was being done on the Blackhawk Bridge, so it may also be closed or only open to one way traffic.  After crossing the bridge, our last stop was going to be the Skinny Dip drive-in on HWY 26 in Lansing.  However, only Wayne & Sandy and Bob & Julie made the stop.  The rest of the convoy headed straight back to Waukon.  The Skinny Dip didn't seem all that busy, but it did take a while for us to get our orders.  

When we started to leave Lansing, the sky looked real dark back towards Waukon, so instead of taking the Lansing/Harpers Road and the Elon Road back, I decided to beat a quick pass up HWY 9 to avoid what looked like a strong storm.  By clipping along at a fast pace, the trike seemed to skip over a lot of the bumps that make up most of HWY 9.  We did catch a few rain drops on the way, but we pulled into the shed at home dry with 179 miles on the trike clock.  Hopefully Wayne & Sandy made it home dry.

While we didn't get to have our annual Memorial Day cookout, we did get in a super nice ride.  Also, all of the Memorial Day tributes to our fallen veterans had to be cancelled because of Covid 19.  But as I was traveling along today, I couldn't help thinking about all those soldiers who gave up their lives so we could be free to travel when and where we please in our great country. And as the song by Lee Greenwood played on the trike:

"and I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me.."

GOD BLESS THE USA!!