A LITTLE TOASTY!

 With temps in the upper 80's, only 5 Wednesday Night Riders decided to brave the "heat" and go for our usual Wednesday night ride.  We had Richard, Lois, and Bill on bikes, while Irv and Bob (bad back and all) mounted trikes.

RICHARD ARRIVES ON HIS HONDA

IRV ROLLS IN ON A NEW SEAT

RICHARD EYES THE NEW SEAT ON IRV'S TRIKE

LOIS SAYS "IT AIN'T TOO HOT!"

BILL ARRIVES IN DISGUISE

With Bob back in the lead (maybe temporarily) we depart Waukon on HWY 76 and turn onto Forest Mills Road.  After about 5 miles we venture onto Yellow River Drive and cruise by the Gelo estate.  A smooth, curvy ride takes us over to HWY 51 and we turn south heading for Postville.

With a bad back, Bob tried to pick out the smoothest roads, and this was working out well until we arrived in Postville.  With their main street under considerable repair, we rode on grooved surface and over the roughest rail crossing in the state.  After surviving that encounter (once repaired, the street will be fine) we left Postville and turned onto HWY 52.  After another "smooth" cruise through Castalia, we arrived in Ossian.  We left HWY 52 there and continued our journey onto CR B32 (not the most level road) and over to HWY 150 at Festina.  To our pleasant surprise, the state was kind enough to repave 150 for our arrival, so we had a "pool table top" smooth ride into West Union.  Once there, we pulled into the Dairy Queen for some cool refreshments.

After our "cool off" break, we left West Union on HWY 18 heading east.  After a short jog we turned onto CR B64, also called Golden Road.  And "golden" it was.  We had a glassy ride featuring sweeping curves and some great scenery as we cruised into Elgin.  In Elgin we turned to the north on CR W51 (Canoe Road) and motored on past the Pleasant Valley Golf Course and arrived at HWY 18 again in Clermont.  We turned eastward on 18 and followed another smooth route into Postville.  Again after negotiating the grooves and bumps we made our way through town on HWY 51 and continued on north to HWY 9.  We followed 9 back into Waukon where we dined at Uptown.  The topic of conversation there was the olympics.  Bob noted that he had played table tennis (called ping-pong) and badminton and was pretty good at both, but after watching these two sports at the olympics, he decided that he was a "rank amateur"!

Bob had racked up about 90 miles on the trike on this ride, and so far his back is not any worse.  If the back continues to improve, he will lead the ride next Wednesday over to North Andover.

Our companions on the Summer Ride to Ohio seem to be getting along well.  Today they should be taking a scenic trip along the Windy 9 or venture into West Virginia to see the Natural Gorge.  We made a "guys" trip to the gorge a number of years ago, so for Chuckles, Dr. David, and Bob Z this should be a return trip.  Also, so far there have been no complaints about the motels that Bob picked out and they all had shower curtains!