GREAT TURNOUT FOR CAMP COURAGEOUS!

 The Wednnesday Night Riders responded in a big way to help support Camp Courageous on Sunday with 17 riders aboard 10 units.  Bikers were Jim, Lois, Mike, and Chuckles.  On three-wheelers were Ron & Helen, Bernell & Kathy, Leo, Richard & Melodye, and Bob & Julie.  Dennis & Marlene arrived in the "support" vehicle with Mary and Joan aboard.

THE CROWD STARTS TO GATHER

NOTHING EXCITES JIM LIKE A CUP (MUG) OF COFFEE!

THE "SUPPORT" VEHICLE ARRIVES

DENNIS COMES OUT TO VISIT

GOOD TO SEE MARY AGAIN

MIKE ROLLS IN...

ON A NEWLY WASHED BIKE

BERNELL & KATHY ARRIVE

AND HERE COMES LEO!

CHUCKLES WAS IN CHURCH PRAYING FOR US

THE LOT IS FILLING RIGHT UP!

GOOD TO SEE LEO AGAIN, IT'S BEEN QUITE A WHILE

THE SLINGSHOT COMPLETES OUR CAST OF RIDERS

The usual fare for the fall fund-raising breakfast at Camp Courageous is pancakes.  This year, for the first time, waffles are the headliner.  We are anxious to see how that works, so we depart Casey's at 10 with beautiful fall weather, and head for Monticello.

With the number of riders, and the breakfast closing at noon, we opt for the shortest way down to Monticello, and take the scenic route back. So we take HWY 76 to Rossville, go down Volney Road to Monona, catch HWY 18 east over to HWY 52 and turn south.  After passing through Garnavillo, Guttenberg, Millville, Luxemburg, New Vienna, and Dyersville, we take HWY 136 south through Worthington to HWY 151 at Cascade.  We take HWY 151 south to HWY 38 at Monticello.  A short stretch on 38 takes us to 190th St and we turn east and arrive at Camp Courageous.

WE GET TO PARK THE CYCLES ON THE BASKETBALL COURT

We are greeted by Charlie Becker (CC Ceo) and get our waffles, sausage, juice, milk, and coffee and sit as a group.

Some go back for "seconds", but everyone agrees that the waffles are delicious.

After a great fund-raising breakfast, we depart on a route back home that will take us through Balltown.  We take Bob's "shortcut" to Balltown by first going back to HWY 38 and 151.  Just outside of Cascade, we turn onto N Cascade Rd, follow it to Roller Coaster Road (and it is!)  Roller Coaster takes us to E Pleasant Rd and after only about a half mile we are on Placid Road and cruise on into Epworth for some to gas up.  All of the roads so far were in great shape and offered some great views of the surrounding countryside.  But the best was yet to come.

After a brief stop in Epworth, we continued through town and ended up taking Gun Club Road north up to Bankston Park Road, and here's where the spectacular scenery starts.  We folow Bankston for a short ways and pick up Asbury Road and the views keep getting better and better.  After Asbury, we arrive at Five Points Road and take it north to HWY 3.  Some of the scenery along these four roads is breathtaking.  Except maybe for the foothills in the Rocky Mountains near Denver, these roads offer views that can't be beat.

We wind our way along HWY 3 until we arrive at Sherrill Road and Eichman's Convenience Store for a break.  Everyone was impressed with the scenery that we just traversed.  But there was more yet to come.

We headed north again on Sherrill and Balltown Road.  Again we were treated to some fantastic views on both sides of these roads.  Once we passed through Balltown, we took our time and swung into some lookout areas as we went down the Great River Road (CR C9Y).  There are some rough areas on this road before we get back to HWY 52, but the scenery makes up for it.  Once we arrive on 52, we cruise into Guttenberg and stop for the "much in demand" ice cream at Joe's.

THANKS TO CHUCKLES FOR THE ABOVE TWO PHOTOS

After some "much needed" ice cream, we made our way through Guttenberg and onto the Great River Road (CR X56) headed north along the Mississippi River.  We stayed on X56 all the way into McGregor.  There we had no choice but to pass through town on a back street and then on into Marquette.  There we picked up HWY 76 and made our way back to Waukon while Ron & Helen and Bernell & Kathy kept going on to Decorah, and Leo headed for Lansing.  We had 234 miles on the trike when we got home.

GREAT RIDE!  GREAT CAUSE! GREAT COMPANY! GREAT FOOD!

NEXT WEDNESDAY

It looks like we will try to head towards Elkader and the Gunder Road.

NEXT SUNDAY

This is our last special ride for the season.  It is our "RUN, CHICKEN,RUN" RUN to Rockton, WI, for their "nearly" world famous barbecue chicken.  Besides a scenic ride to Rockton, you will be treated to some great eats.  The plan is to leave Casey's at 10 that Sunday morning.  If you want the chicken, it needs to be reserved.  If you want to let Bob know by Saturday, he will reserve it for you.  More on this after the ride and blog Wednesday night.

NEVER TOO OLD!!

ANOTHER GREAT NIGHT!

 I would have to say, for the most part, Mother Nature has been very good to our Wednesday Night Riders group this year.  There have been very few Wednesday nights that we were not able to ride, and these last few Wednesdays have been fantastic!  We all know the "weather witch" is lurking, so let's get our riding in while we still can.

This Wednesday evening offered up some great riding weather.  With temps in the mid 70's and under mostly sunny skies, we had 10 riders on 9 units show up at Casey's.  We only had two bikers, Mike and Jim S.  The rest of the gang, Irv, Terry, Roger, Dave, Ron, Richard, Bernell & Kathy, and Bob, rode in on 3 wheelers.

IRV, MIKE, TERRY, AND ROGER ARE EARLY ARRIVALS

DAVE ROLLS IN

GOOD TO SEE JIM S AGAIN

HERE COMES RON

THE SLINGSHOT ARRIVES

BERNELL & KATHY ARRIVE

Our "road guide" planned to ride up into the Spring Grove area, so we departed Waukon via HWY 76 north.  The plan was soon changed somewhat when we discovered that HWY 76 was being grated for a new layer of asphalt and was open to only one lane.  After waiting about 15 minutes for a pilot car, we were able to resume our journey northward.  I would advise not journeying up 76 for a while since the new asphalt layer is going to run from just outside of Waukon all the way up to the Minnesota line.  I have yet to figure out why HWY 76 needed this now.  I could name some other stretches of highways in this area that need it worse.  HWY 9 from Waukon to Decorah comes to mind.

After our delay, we rode on some more grating until we got to the turn onto Dorchester Road (CR A16).  I think this intersection is one of the most dangerous in our area.  You must be really careful and watch carefully making this left turn off of HWY 76, since you can't see very far north to see if another vehicle is coming around the turn on the highway.  It would be very easy to turn left right in front of an oncoming vehicle.  We all made the turn safely and continued up the hill towards Spring Grove.

Since the county in Minnesota repaved their portion of A 16 (actually Division Avenue in Minnesota) this made this stretch of blacktop a pleasure to ride.  It's now smooth and offers some great views along the way.

We soon arrive in Spring Grove and pass by the nice park they have there.  I'm always amazed at the amount of activities that are going on at that park.  Tonight was no exception, since there were already a lot of folks occupying the park.  I would bet that some type of concert was going to take place that evening.

We departed Spring Grove on HWY 44 heading east, until we reached the turn for CR 17 and made our way onto it heading back south.  CR 17 is another treat to ride.  It has some nice gradual hills, some sweeping curves, and some great scenery.  This road takes us back to HWY 76, just outside of Eitzen.  The plan was to stop in Eitzen for a break, but with the delay at the start of the ride, time might not allow us to get back home before dark.  So we continued on 76 until we got to Iowa River Drive (CR A 26) and turned east again.  As it's name suggests, this neat road meanders along side the Upper Iowa river all the way to HWY 26 just outside of New Albin.  We made the turn onto 26 and motored along side of the Missisppi River on into Lansing.  There we picked up HWY 9 and into the sun we went heading to Waukon.  Just four of us stopped at Uptown for eats, and I had 93 miles on the Wing when I parked her at home.  GREAT NIGHT, GREAT RIDE!

OTHER NEWS

Some of our group are joining ChucK and Dee on their trip this Thursday and Friday.  Have fun, and be safe!!  Can't wait for the report on this one.

CAMP COURAGEOUS RIDE IS SUNDAY

As most of you now know, supporting Camp Courageous in Monticello is one of our Wednesday Night Riders "doing good for others" events.  We support the Camp by attending their breakfast fund raisers in April (omelets) and September (pancakes--this year waffles).  

Camp Courageous Mission:

Camp Courageous provides exceptional year-round recreational, respite, and travel opportunities for individuals with disabilities and their families. The camp is run primarily on donations, giving all individuals the opportunity to give through gifts of time, materials, financial, and other means that support the camp.

The plan is to ride to the waffle breakfast to support the camp on this Sunday.  We will depart Casey's at 9 AM that morning and journey on down to Monticello and feast at the breakfast.  Afterwards we will take a scenic ride back through Balltown, and possibly stop in Guttenberg for ice cream.

If you cannot make the trip down to Monticello and would still like to make a donation, we will be glad to take your check with us on Sunday.  Right now the weather looks good for Sunday, so let's get a good number of our Wednesday Night Riders going!

RIDING DOUBLE!!

GREAT NIGHT WITH A GOOD CROWD

With temps in the mid 80's and a comfortable breeze, we had 15 Wednesday night riders arrive at Casey's for our weekly ride.  Bikers were Chuckles, Lois, Bill, and Jim, who joined us enroute.  The three wheelers dominated the group with Bernell & Kathy, Ron & Helen, Terry, Dave, ChucK, Richard & Melodye, and Bob.  Irv roared in with the "support" Vet.

FIRST HERE AGAIN!

SLINGSHOT ROLLS IN

GOOD TO SEE BERNELL & KATHY AGAIN

RON & HELEN BACK FROM NORWAY

TERRY WITH HIS SPYDER

DAVE BACKS IN

HERE COMES BILL

ChucK ARRIVES

NO ELECTRICAL ISSUES TODAY

IRV ARRIVES JUST IN TIME

 With the Yellow River Forest as part of our ride, we cruise through the only stop light in Allamakee County and turn onto Elon Road.  There is some haze in the air from the humidity, but we can still see some great scenery.  Everyone seems to be caught up at the turn onto Waterville Road, so on into the metropolis we went.  Waterville Road also offers some fantastic views of the surrounding country side as we make our way up to HWY 76.

We turn south on 76 until we reach the intersection for State Forest Road (CR B25) and towards the forest we went.  Probably the most scenic part of this stretch is at the very start.  You are at the top of a hill and able to gaze at the incredible views below.  This is really a beautiful part of Iowa where we live!  How lucky can you get!

We take our time riding through Yellow River Forest and being careful for loose gravel that can find its way onto the road.  The speed limit is only 35 mph, and that allows us to gawk around some.  Except for some squirrels who couldn't decide which way to run, we only spotted a few deer way off the road.  State Forest Road ends at Lansing/Harpers road and we traverse down the hill into sleepy Harpers Ferry.

As we arrive in Harpers, we turn back south on The Great River Road.  This smooth stretch of tarmac runs right along the Mississippi River and offers some great views of the mighty river.  GRR ends at HWY 76, and we head south again on it passing Effigy Mounds and along the bluffs on one side and the river and train tracks on the other.  Don't look up onto the bluff, or you will wonder what tree or rock is going to come rolling down onto the road.  We do make it into Marquette without incident and arrive at Casey's there for a break, where Jim suddenly appeared.

SOME PARK IN FRONT...

AND SOME ON THE SIDE

SPECIAL PARKING FOR 'VETS

After our break, the decision was made to take HWY 18 back west.  The other choice would have been to take Pleasant Ridge Road (CR B45) up the hill to Monona.  However, this road has been undergoing some construction, and not knowing its condition, we took HWY 18 to Monona.  

Once in Monona, we passed through town (They could use some street improvement also!) and onto the Volney Road.  Following Volney Road (CR X26) for about 11 miles, we arrived in rosey Rossville and back onto HWY 76 again.  We took 76 back into Waukon, where 10 of us stopped for eats at Uptown.  There we learned about the Snell's trip to Norway.  I ended up with 83 miles on the trike after we made it home.  With the days getting shorter, we will assume our Wednesday night rides will also, but let's get them in while we can!

NEXT WEDNESDAY

Look to go up into the Caledonia area.

WE GET AROUND

Actually the song is "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys, but we do have some Wednesday night riders that did get around this summer.

Nancy made it out to Sturgis.

Dennis & Marlene, Jens & Jane, and Bob & Julie went on a cruise to Alaska.

MENDENHALL GLACIER

WE DID NOT STARVE ON THIS TRIP!

Jim & Cathy and Mike & Joan were able to "hook up" in the Black Hills.

Ron & Helen adventured off to Norway.  Sounded like a great trip.  Ask them about it!

Chuckles & Lois, Dennis & Marlene, Jens & Jane, ChucK & Dee, and Bob & Julie went on the annual Couples' Trip this past weekend to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin.

If you ever get a chance, take HWY 33 from LaValle, Wisconsin, to LaCrosse.  In MHO it is the best motorcycle road in the state, and I've been on them all!