TRIO OF LEAF LOOKERS

 Only two other Wednesday Night Riders accomponyed Bob on his Sunday leaf looking ride.  Bill showed up on his bike, and Dave roared in on his trike.

BOTH PRETTY WELL BUNDLED UP

With temps right at 60 under sunny skies with a strong south wind, the trio departed Casey's on a route that Bob had planned out hopeing to see some autumn colors.  Bob's route contained some roads he was very familiar with, and some he hadn't been on for a while.

Our journey began with us cruising down HWY 76 south with a strong south wind trying to push us sideways.  Thanks to the farmers who had not yet harvested the corn next to the highway.  It really helped blocking the wind.

HWY 76 took us into Marquette and we then crossed over the Mississippi into Prairie du Chien on HWY 18.  After negotiating three round-a-bouts, we headed north on HWY 35.  Just outside of PdC, we turned onto Limery Road and up the hill we went passing by a very busy Shihata Orchard.  Limery ends at HWY 27, where we turned north until we got to CR N.  We rolled along N enjoying some great scenery but not much color and arrived in Wauzeka.

Just outside of Wauzeka we made our way to the newly refurbished HWY 131 heading north.  What a great highway for motorcycling, with smooth tarmac, sweeping curves, and incredible scenery!  Drifting along 131 and enjoying the views, we still didn't see much color.  We stayed on 131 through Steuben (all roads lead to Steuben) and Barnam until we arrived at Petersburg and then jumped onto CR S.  CR S took us over to HWY 61 and we went scooting north up to Rolling Ground where we stopped at the Sunrise Orchards at Hillcrest for a break.

What's a stop at an orchard without sampling the apple cider and having an apple cider donut?  So we did partake.  This is a smaller version of the Sunrise Orchard further down towards Gays Mills.  However, everything that the big place had, we could find here without getting run over by grocery carts.

After our break, we took a short hop over to HWY 171 and turned in an easterly direction.  This highway has also been recently refurbished, so we had a fun ride down the mountain until we came to CR H and headed back north.  CR H is another neat motorcycle road with plenty of scenery.  We soon connected with CR X, a road I had not been on for quite a while, and I soon realized what I had been missing.  If you can avoid the "road apples" from the Amish horses, the views along X are magnificent.  We went breezing along on CR X all the way up to HWY 14.

We cruised 14 right into Readstown and turned north again on HWY 131.  A short jog on 131 took us up to CR S, another smooth county blacktop, and we coasted on up to HWY 56 and cruised on into Viroqua for a short break at Kwik Trip.  We continued on 56 out of Viroqua until we reached CR N, and turned back south.  Finally, coasting along on N were were able to catch some beautiful color on the bluffs to the east of us.  We finished N by drifting past Purdy (Norwegian for "pretty") and arriving at HWY 82.  Hwy 82 is another recently refurbished road, so we easily made our way to Red Mound and instead of following 82 we took CR UU down the hills into Victory and hooked up with HWY 35 again.

HWY's 35 and 82 combine once we get to Desoto, and 82 splits off on the turn to Lansing.  HWY 82 takes us to the Lansing Ferry landing, where the ferry was just pulling away.  After about a half hour wait, we boarded the ferry (maybe for the last time), and floated over to Lansing.

BILL ABOARD THE FERRY

FLOATING TO LANSING

A GREAT DAY TO BE ON THE RIVER

DAVE ABOARD THE FERRY

 Once we hit Lansing, we dropped Bill off and headed up HWY 9 to Waukon.  Bob dropped off at his house and Dave made his way home.  Bob had 160 miles on his trike at home.  Not alot of color, but a great fall ride.  Maybe try next weekend if the weather cooperates.

Maybe the prettiest tree I saw all day is right in my backyard!

So far the weather looks good for a short ride Wednesday evening.

PRAYERS GO OUT FOR LOIS WHO IS HAVING SHOULDER SURGERY SHORTLY