GOOD TURNOUT FOR EARLY DEPARTURE

With daylight hours growing shorter every week, we decided to try moving our departure time on Wednesday nights from 5 PM to 4 PM.  Apparently it worked out well, since we had 12 riders show up at Casey's this Wednesday on a day that started out with some ugly weather, but suddenly turned great just before we gathered.

Jim, Chuckles, Dee, and Mike arrived on bikes.  The Slingshot arrived with Richard & Melodye, and the trikers were made up of Terry, Dave, Wayne, and Bob.  Rolling in was a recently purchased "support" convertible with Bernell & Kathy aboard.

TO ALMOST EVERYONE'S SURPRISE

RICHARD & MELODYE, MIKE, AND WAYNE

DAVE PULLS IN

HERE COMES TERRY

DEE DISMOUNTS

CHUCKLES STOWS SOME GOODIES

THE LADIES CHECK OUT THE NEW "SUPPORT" CONVERTIBLE

JIM ARRIVES FULL OF COFFEE, BUT NEEDING GAS

The destination for the night was Houston via the "mountain" route, so the designated dozen departed Waukon via HWY 76 heading north.  Once we reached Bear Creek Drive, we turned westward and followed it all the way over to Locust Road.  After turning north on Locust we intended to take CR 14 over to Hesper, but apparently the road was closed, so we continued our journey on Locust up to HWY 44.  We then took 44 west to Mabel and then HWY 43 north became our new route.

HWY 43 is a combination of all kinds of interesting driving factors.  It features smooth blacktop, sweeping curves, sharp turns, and hills.  It's considered a "delight" by most motorcyclists.  We negotiate most of 43 until we arrive at CR 10 where the "real" fun begins.

CR 10 is a flat section of road that was recently resurfaced, but for some reason, the bumps remained!  At the county line CR 10 becomes CR 13 (lucky number) and the road suddenly becomes a lot more smooth, more curvy, and more scenic.  Just before dropping down the steep switchback hill, there is a view of the valley below that is breathtaking!  We carefully traversed down the mountain side and arrived at our destination, the BP Station in Houston.

After our break at the BP convenience store, we left Houston by taking HWY 76 south for a short ways until we turned our wheels onto CR 10.  (This is not the same CR 10 that we were on previously).  This CR 10 is another smooth scenic route passing through the village of Sheldon and winds its way back to HWY 76 just outside of Caledonia.

We pass through Caledonia and continue on HWY 76 stopping for the ongoing Bear Creek bridge repair.  The stop sign let everyone catch up again, and we continued southward to Iowa River Drive and turned eastward.  Passing along the Iowa River, we were surprised that more bean fields had not yet been harvested.  Once we arrived at Lycurgus Road, we headed south to HWY 9, and took 9 back into Waukon where 8 of us stopped at Uptown for eats.  There were about 120 miles on the trike when we parked outside of Uptown.

I think we will use 4 PM as the departure time for the rest of our Wednesday night rides.  It gives us more riding time before darkness sets in.  Also the plan for the rest of the Wednesday night rides will be to cross the Black Hawk Bridge at some time each ride.  It will be our way of paying our respects to the "grand old lady" before she is taken down.

UPCOMING EVENTS

This is an event we have participated in for many years now giving our support to Camp Courageous.  Hopefully there will be a number of us making the trip down to Monticello this Sunday.  We will depart Casey's at 9 AM Sunday morning. The route is scenic both down and back and will include a stop for ice cream somewhere on the way back. If you can't make the trip, you can still send a donation with one of us.

The following Sunday, October 5th, is our annual "Run, Chicken, Run" Run up to Rockton for their semi-world famous barbeque chicken and a stop at a Gays Mills orchard on the way back.  We will leave Casey's at 10:15 that Sunday.  More on that on the next blog.

Remember this guy?