NINE TO DINE

 Another near perfect morning greeted the Wednesday night riders group as they gathered at Casey's Saturday morning for the first mystery ride-to-eat of the season.

Bringing bikes to the gathering were Jim D & his grand daughter Melena, Laurie, Chuckles, Lois, and Lee, Darrel's son.  On top of trikes were Darrel and Bob & Julie.

THE GROUP GATHERS ON A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

With Bob being the only one who knew the mystery stop, we departed Casey's at 10:30 and after a quick stop at the Rotach house, we continued our mystery journey onto HWY 9 and made our way into Lansing.  After crossing the Mississippi River bridge on HWY 82, we turned to the south on HWY 35 and then turned east onto CR B.  This county road offers some twisties along with some sweeping curves and some great views.

Because of the clear, sunny skies and the lack of humidity, we were able to view some spectacular scenery at great distances along all the routes we took.  After passing through the "megatropolis" cities of Rising Sun and Towerville on CR B, we jumped onto CR C still heading west.  A short jog on C and soon we were on CR J heading north.  If we kept on CR J long enough it would have taken us into Viroqua, which would offer us an alternative route to our mystery location.  Instead we turned back east on CR M and motored down the hill to catch HWY 14/61 and after a short ways south, we stopped at the Kickapoo KWKSTOP convenience store for a break.

A STOP AT KICKAPOO, AND MAYBE A DONUT OR TWO

LAURIE DEMONSTRATES THE ONE LEGGED GAS FILL

After Jim & Melena satisfied their growing hunger with donuts, we continued our mystery journey through Readstown and onto HWY 131 heading north.  This highway has always offered the most variety of riding conditions of any road in Wisconsin.  You can go for "pool table top" smooth stretches to patched up tar sections to fantastic straight-aways to sharp curves all while enjoying some fantastic scenery.  HWY 131 took us through Kickapoo Center, Viola, LaFarge, and Rockton.  After passing through Rockton, we turned onto CR F, and after passing through a valley of trees, we arrived at HWY 33.  We turned west onto 33 heading for Ontario.

This section of HWY 33 a is like 131 in that it offers up some of the most "interesting" riding conditions around.  This section is definitely not designed for speeding!  There are some sharp downhill turns that will keep you on your toes.  After negotiating 33 we shuffled into Ontario and discovered our mystery location.  It was the Riversedge Bar and Grill.

IT'S COSIDERABLY WARMER IN ONTARIO

AND  WE ALL GET PARKED ACROSS FROM RIVERSEDGE

Once inside, we all begin to place our orders, but there seems to be some confusion over the number of chickens available.  Finally enough of them get caught, and we fulfilled our orders.

THE MYSTERY IS OVER, WE'RE READY TO EAT!

After our fill at Riversedge, we continued our journey on HWY 33 heading west.  We passed through Cashton and turned onto HWY 27 south.  Shortly after passing through Newry, Jim & Melena and Laurie split off and headed for Decorah, while the rest of us took CR P for an interesting journey through the valleys and past the Snowflake ski jump.  The first miles of CR P are as smooth as glass, but once you enter LaCrosse County, the road begins to deteriorate.  Fortunately the rough road is for only about 5 miles, and we bump our way into Coon Valley.

Just outside of Coon Valley we connect with some of the best state road pavement in this part of Wisconsin.  It's HWY 162 that gives us a really smooth and scenic journey into Chaseburg.  After we passed through Chaseburg, we took CR K south all the way to HWY 56 just outside of Genoa.  We made the short trip through Genoa and then onto HWY 35 heading south.  Our journey on 35 took us to DeSoto where Chuckles, Lois, Julie, and Bob stopped for some ice cream, while Darrel and Lee continued home.  The foursome then wrapped up the journey by crossing into Lansing again and taking HWY 9 back to Waukon.  We put 148 miles on the trike for the day.

It was a day filled with an interesting and scenic ride along with good company and plenty of good food.  I would say if you're looking for that type of trip, then a journey up to Ontario and the Riversedge would fill the bill!

NEXT RTE

Our next Ride To Eat is the "You Gotta Love Summer" Pizza Run on Sunday, the 16th.  We will depart Casey's at 11 AM that day.  Destination hasn't been decided yet.

GUYS' TRIP

Our "Guys" Trip has a special guest this year.  Along with David, Bob Z, Mike, Chuckles, ChucK, and Bob R, we have Dee going along to keep us on the "straight and narrow".  From now on, due to the lack of interest seemingly with just guys, we will open this trip to anyone (not just guys) starting with this trip and continue that way.

NEXT WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Right now the forecast calls for rain, but if it's the same rain that was supposed to come last Wednesday, we will take the "mountain" ride into Houston.

FINALLY.....