Our designated destination for our Wednesday night ride was to hopefully view all of the apple trees in bloom by touring through the Gays Mills orchards. With high hopes, we had a dozen Wednesday Night Riders take to the road.
Gathering at Casey's were bikers Lois, Nancy, Dee, and Chuckles. Those on 3 wheelers were Ron, Darrel, Roger, ChucK, and Bob R. Irv manned the "support Vet", and David helped block traffic with his "support Jeep". Mike joined the convoy on his bike in Lansing.
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| IRV TELLS US ABOUT HIS ADVENTURES WITH HIS TILT WHEELER |
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| LOIS ROLLS IN UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF DARREL |
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| THEN SHE "CUTS OFF" DAVID |
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| GOOD TO SEE NANCY AGAIN |
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| ChucK WATCHES DEE PRACTICE HER DISMOUNTS |
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| CHUCKLES FILLS OUT THE VOTSMIER CONTINGENT |
We departed Casey's under overcast skies with temps in the mid 60's. Actually the sun tried to appear several times on our journey, but the haze from the smoke of the Canadian fires covered it up leaving a red glow.
We took HWY 9 out of town and cruised into Lansing where Mike joined the parade. After passing through Lansing, we crossed the Mississippi River on the Blackhawk Bridge and followed HWY 82 into Wisconsin. After crossing the bridges on 82 we arrived at HWY 35 and took it south through Ferryville.
Just outside of Ferryville we turned east onto CR C. Apparently C has gone through considerable repair work, because it was covered with many "tar snakes". Fortunately it was cool enough that they did not bother much with the two wheelers slipping on them. It may have been a different story on a hot summer day. We may leave CR C alone for a while.
We continued on C and once we crossed over HWY 27, the tar snakes ceased. Riding on C we couldn't help notice all the plant life at Star Valley Flowers, a commercial nursery. CR C came to an end in Soldiers Grove on HWY 131 and we followed it for a short jog and then started down HWY 61 south. After a few blocks, we stopped at the convenience store there for a break.
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| DAVID OBSERVES ROGER'S FILL UP |
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| NANCY AND LOIS TAKE A BREAK |
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| THE "CREW" FINDS PARKING |
DLM Road is an unmarked paved trail up the hill to HWY 171. It is about 6 miles long with some interesting curves and not a road to see how well your accelerator works! There are a number of apple trees along this route and they showed very few blossoms, so it looked like we might be a little late to see the full blooming trees at the orchards.
Del La Mater Rd took us up to HWY 171 where we turned south and ventured past the orchards. HWY 171 isn't exactly a smooth pool table top, so we took our time enjoying some fantastic views of the valleys below us. However, most of the apple trees had lost their blossoms over the past few days, probably due to the abrupt changes in the weather and possible wind and rain.
We continued to follow 171 down the steep curvy pavement down into Gays Mills. At least this section of 171 was smooth which helped us negotiate the trip downhill. HWY 171 passes through Gays Mills and Mt. Sterling and down the hill to HWY 35. Just to make the ride complete, just before the junction of 171 and 35 there was a beautiful apple tree and lilac bush in full bloom!
HWY 35 took us back through Ferryville and we crossed the bridge again into Lansing on HWY 82. In Lansing we followed HWY 9 again back into Waukon since the Elon Road was being repaired with chip seal. Ten of us stopped at the Uptown Grill for eats. I had about 110 miles of the trike's clock when I got home. Even though we didn't get to see a lot of blooming apple trees, it was still a good ride!
SATURDAY
This Saturday is our first RTE (Ride To Eat). The plan is to leave Casey's at 4:30 and wind our way over to St. Olaf and feast ourselves on their burgers and/or tenderloins. Right now the weather for Saturday is calling for sunny skies and temps in the 70's, so it should make for a good ride to eat. EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
NEXT WEDNESDAY
Right now the plan is to venture over to Viroqua, so see you at 5 at Casey's.
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