PLENTY WINDY, PLENTY TO EAT!

 Our RTE (Ride To Eat) on Sunday drew seven riders.  Mike & Joan were on the only bike, while Richard & Melodye arrived in the Slingshot.  Darrel, Roger, and Bob straddled trikes.

GET READY

GET SET

GO!

Our destination was Tippy Toe Inn (Stagger Out) in Chaseburg, WI.  We departed at 10:30 under sunny skies and a brisk north wind that kept the temps in the low 70's.  The plan was to take Bob's "shortcut" and arrive in Chaseburg just before noon.

We exited Waukon via the Elon Road (CR A52) heading east.  Right away we could tell that the north wind was alot stronger out in the country than in town.  At the end of Elon Road, we turned left (north) onto Lansing/Harpers Road for only a short distance, before we turned east again onto Lafayette Ridge Drive.  After a smooth cruise on the concrete pavement and a few jolts from the wind, we made our way to Great River Road (CR X52) and headed north again towards Lansing.  Once we arrived in Lansing, we crossed the Blackhawk Bridge while eyeballing the construction on the new bridge.  We noticed that the water in the Mississippi River was rough and full of whitecaps from the wind.

Once we arrived in Wisconsin, we took HWY 35 north.  Since HWY 82 is closed from HWY 35 to HWY 27 for some much needed work, we continued on 35 up to Genoa.  Once there, we turned onto HWY 56 for a short distance and picked up CR K just outside of town with a left turn.  CR K is an interesting stretch of pavement (some needing some work) that winds along the edge of an elevated area with no guard rails.  It does offer some outstanding views of the surrounding countryside, but we were pretty occupied with wind gusts and dodging "horse apples".  There were alot of Amish in buggies along the way.  CR K took us on into Chaseburg and HWY 162 (Depot Street) where we arrived at the Tippy Toe.

WE PARK ALONG A SIDE STREET

AND GET READY TO TIPPYTOE IN

A number of years ago, I ate breakfast here at the Tippy Toe, and remembered that you get your money's worth of food.  AND WE DID!  Needless to say, the food was plentiful and very tasty.

After our eats, we departed Chaseburg via CR KK.  This is another interesting route that offers some twisties along with some great views.  So "over the river and through the woods" we went on KK over to CR B.  CR B is a straight stretch that takes us to HWY 14, just outside of Coon Valley.  We stayed in the right lane on the four lanes on 14 leaving Coon Valley for everyone to catch up, because the next turn can be easily missed.  This next turn onto CR MM is one of those you do not want to miss!  CR MM is one of Bob's "top ten" routes.  It is only about 5 miles long, but it rivals in comparison to Teschember (Thumper) Road near LaCrescent.  The views from various points are fantastic and the road itself is very well maintained.  So we took our "sweet time" traversing this gem, and arrived back on HWY 14, just outside of LaCrosse.  HWY 14 took us back to HWY 35, and after negotiating a couple of roundabouts, we were back cruising south.  This time that pesky strong wind was behind us, so we flew down 35 and took a "mandatory" ice cream break at the convenience store just outside of Desoto.

After filling our faces with ice cream, we crossed the Blackhawk Bridge again and passed through Lansing onto HWY 9 and back into Waukon.  I had about 130 miles on the trike when I got home.  Even though the wind was a pest, it was still a very enjoyable RTE!

UPCOMING

This Wednesday is our trike rides for residents of Good Sam here in Waukon.  Ron, Chuck, and Bob will be the drivers, and Julie has been recruited to take photos and hand out pins.  If anyone else would like to help out or just come and enjoy the smiles, you are certainly welcome!

Also the Wednesday evening ride at 5 is planned to venture over to Boscobel for some "much needed" ice cream.

CHUCKLES AND LOIS'S NEW MOWER!