SEVENTEEN PLUS A "NEWBIE"

 With sunny skies and temps in the low 80's, eighteen riders gathered at Casey's for our Wednesday night foray into back roads in northeast Iowa.  Among our eighteen was a "newbie".  Father Sean from Lansing joined our group.  He is the new priest at Lansing and came to us through Greg C.

Father Sean rides a Spyder as Bernell and Kathy do. Wayne & Sandy, Ron & Helen, Meryle & Mary, Chuck (not Chuckles), Darrel, and Irv brought trikes.  Jim & Cathy, Al, and Bob were on bikes.  Dale & Greg supported us in Dale's convertible.

JIM AND AL SALUTE EACH OTHER

FATHER SEAN SURVEYS THE GROUP

DARREL.......

AND MERYLE GAS UP THEIR TRIKES

With a loop through Volga as a planned route tonight, we headed south on HWY 76, onto Forest Mills Road, past the Gelo ranch and then turned west on Cherry Valley Road.  CVR took us through Postville and onto HWY 18 west for a short jog to the Gunder Road.  The aptly named road took us to the eastern suburbs of Gunder where we took Agate Road south into Elgin.  Passing through the main street in Elgin and arriving on the outskirts, we found Cedar Road and took it south into Wadena.  Just south of Wadena is Bush Road heading southeast into Volga.  Bush Road offers some real nice scenic views of northeast Iowa.  

When we arrived in Volga, the plan was to take Domino Road east into Elkader.  However a "Road Closed Ahead" changed our plans and we took Canoe Road back east to HWY 13 north.  Actually Canoe Road proved to provide some nice scenery also. We followed HWY 13 into Elkader where we stopped for a break at Fast Trak convenience store.

ARRIVING AT FAST TRAK

"I WONDER IF WE CAN GET THAT DONKEY IN THE BACK SEAT!"

APPARENTLY PARKING CAN BE A REAL "HEAD SCRATCHER".

Some of us had ice cream, some had drinks, and some even bought wine before we departed Fast Trak.  We then continued on HWY 13 north to CR B65 and turned west into St. Olaf.  From St. Olaf we took the expressway (Fawn Hollow Road) back north into Farmersburg and onto Golden Avenue still heading north.  The county had ground down some of the frost heaves on Golden, so the ride was somewhat smoother than the last time.  Golden took us back to HWY 18 just east of Monona.  We turned onto Falcon Avenue and passed through Monona onto the Volney Road and followed it back north to HWY 76.  The plan was to turn south on 76 and catch the Waterville Road back to the Elon Road and into Waukon.  However, the sun seemed to be dropping pretty fast, so taking 76 north into Waukon became our option.  How the state can take an already terrible highway and make it worse for motorcycles is amazing!

Our Winneshiek contingent and Postville riders continued past the turn into Waukon to get home before it got too dark, and probably to sample the wild pineapple wine.  Five of us arrived at the City Club for our post-ride meal.  The conversation there centered around the pretense that the State of Iowa, Allamakee County, and the city of Waukon must have got one heck of a deal on chip seal!  I had 106 miles on the Wing parked at the City Club.

Special welcome to Father Sean!  Hopefully he enjoyed our company and will be able to join us again.  Greg told him we were a "good bunch".  Greg will need to go to confession now(LOL).

On a more serious note, our other "newbie", Marie, had an accident with her bike.  Apparently as she writes on Facebook, she ended up off the road and into the ditch on a ride alone this week.  She ended up in the ER with scrapes and bruises but no broken bones.  Hopefully she will be able to get back on her Harley and join us again soon.