What was supposed to be a mystery ride to eat, turned out to be a mystery even to the leader! As only six Wednesday Night Riders met at Casey's Saturday morning, only one knew the destination and he wasn't about to tell. On this beautiful morning, Dee and Bill brought their bikes, Richard & Melodye were in the Slingshot, and Bob (the only one who knew where we were going) & Julie led on their trike.
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| BILL LOOKS READY TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY |
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| THE REST OF THE GROUP GETS READY |
With temps in the low 70's, we leave Waukon via the Elon Road (CR A 52) headed east. Even with all the rain we have had, the humidity so far has been low enough to let us see a long distance. At the end of Elon Road, we made a short jog on the Lansing/Harpers Road (CR X42) and then onto Lafayette Ridge Drive headed back east. At its intersection with the Great River Road (CR X52) we turned back north on GRR. This led us downhill into Lansing where we gazed at the "bank full" Mississippi River. We passed through Lansing observing the flooded park and crossed the Blackhawk Bridge into Wisconsin. By the looks of the flooded bridge building equipment, it's going to be quite a while until work on the new bridge can begin again.
We arrived at HWY 35 and took it south until we reached CR B, and followed it east up to HWY 27. B offers some twisties and good scenery. HWY 27 took us south through Rising Sun and over to CR C, and back east we went. This part of C is like a roller coaster with the ups and downs on the numerous hills. We cruise into Soldiers Grove and pick up HWY 61 heading north. After a short run on 61, we arrived in Readstown, and our mystery would soon come to an end (We thought!) The mystery destination was to be Kickapoo Corners Restaurant. I picked this spot for eats, because the last time I was there (a couple of years ago), I had the best hot beef sandwhich I had ever had. I was really looking forward to returning again, but had never had the chance. It's only open on weekends until 2 PM, but we arrived in plenty of time (around noon). But, alas! The place was closed for the next week to give their "overworked" staff a break. NOW WHAT?!
Fortunately just around the corner on HWY 14 was a bar and grill called Kickapoo Creekside, so that became our mystery eating establishment. We had to "break in" a new waitress, but the food was plentiful (a little spendy) and tasty. After our "substitute" mystery meal, we stayed on HWY 14 for a short ways before turning west onto CR M.
CR M turns west and junctions with CR J. Both of these roads are well maintained and offer some oustanding scenery. We followed J all the way into Viroqua and picked up CR NN. This a another scene grabber with some challeging turns. At the junction of NN and CR N, we turned onto N and rolled through Purdy (Norwegian for pretty) Valley. N is also a well-paved route with striking scenery and takes us up to HWY 56.
A short trip west on 56 and we made a turn onto CR O. You can actually follow O all the way up to near Stoddard if desired, and that makes for a great run also. We, however, took a turn onto Newton Road, passed through Newton and continued on a blacktopped road with no yellow lines. (We don't need no stinking yellow lines!) This road runs along the edge of several creeks and revenes, so again the scenery is spectacular. All along our journey today, we noticed that all the farm ponds were plum full of water, and even some of the dry run creeks had water running through them. After a pleasant jouney up and down Newton Road, we ended back on HWY 56 near Romance. Turning back west we arrived at HWY 35 again near Genoa, and away we went south.
We made our "mandatory" ice cream stop at the Arco Convenience Store in Desoto. Continuing on HWY 25 south we then met HWY 82 turned and crossed the Blackhawk Bridge again and on into Lansing. Bill dropped off for home here, and the rest of us rolled down HWY 9 into Waukon. I had 140 miles on the trike when we garaged her. GREAT RIDE, GREAT FOOD, GREAT COMPANY!
NEXT WEDNESDAY
That would be July 10th already! The plan for now is to do the Arlington loop for our regular ride.
What we might have to do if they close the bridge again!
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