"OH, IT FEELS LIKE RAINDROPS"

Despite the forecast calling for rain showers, ten Wednesday night riders gathered at Casey's last night to test to see if Bob R could successfully guide them through a ride and not get wet.  As Bob pulled into Casey's, the song playing on his XM station was the Dee Clark hit song from 1961 "Oh, It Feels Like Raindrops"!  He was greeted there by Dee, Larry, and Howard on bikes.  Greg & Dale and Bob Z and David chose support vehicles while Chuck (not Chuckles), Darrel, and Bob R were astride trikes.

A "TRUSTWORTHY" GROUP

"ANYBODY GOT A RAIN JACKET?"

NEW RIDE IS ALL SHINED UP

He said,"THERE'S STILL TOO MANY GELOS!"

 

BOB Z AND DAVID SAY, "LET IT RAIN."

With partly cloudy skies and temps in the low 70's, the group departed for our goal for the night, Pikes' Peak in McGregor.  By looking at the radar, the best way to avoid the rain was to head east first.  So we headed east on the Elon Road.  We turned north for a short jog on the Lansing/Harpers Road and then picked up the Lafayette Ridge Road heading east again.  We did pick up a few sprinkles along the way, but nothing serious.  The LRR ends at the Great River Road where we turned back south and followed it through Harpers Ferry and onto HWY 76 south.  76 took us through Marquette and McGregor before we turned onto CR X56 and up the hill to Pikes' Peak State Park where we stopped for a break and a view of the river.  We apparently had just missed a pretty good shower, because the pavement into the park was very wet.

PLENTY OF PARKING AT THE PARK

SOMETHING GOT THE BOYS CHUCKLING!

We made our way over to the overlook and got a bird's eye view of a very low Mississippi River.  In all the years I've been up here, I don't ever remember the river looking this low.  A lot of dredging is being done to keep the channels open for barge traffic.

ENJOYING THE VIEW

Here's a couple of videos showing what we saw.

After getting our views, we headed back on CR X56 south down to Clayton Road and west into Garnavillo.  In Garnavillo we turned north on HWY 52 and rode it until we came to HWY 18 west and on into Monona.  Passing through Monona on CR X26 we traveled north through Rossville and onto HWY 76.  Again we rode onto some wet pavement and a few sprinkles, but no heavy rain.  HWY 76 took us on into Waukon after Dee & Chuck split off for home.  In Waukon we could tell by the wet road surfaces that we had just missed a pretty heavy shower.  Eight of us then ventured into the City Club for some eats.  After we were home and dry, we were hoping for some more rain again that night or the next day.  I had right at 98 miles when I parked the trike for the night.