NINE TO DINE

 Another near perfect morning greeted the Wednesday night riders group as they gathered at Casey's Saturday morning for the first mystery ride-to-eat of the season.

Bringing bikes to the gathering were Jim D & his grand daughter Melena, Laurie, Chuckles, Lois, and Lee, Darrel's son.  On top of trikes were Darrel and Bob & Julie.

THE GROUP GATHERS ON A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

With Bob being the only one who knew the mystery stop, we departed Casey's at 10:30 and after a quick stop at the Rotach house, we continued our mystery journey onto HWY 9 and made our way into Lansing.  After crossing the Mississippi River bridge on HWY 82, we turned to the south on HWY 35 and then turned east onto CR B.  This county road offers some twisties along with some sweeping curves and some great views.

Because of the clear, sunny skies and the lack of humidity, we were able to view some spectacular scenery at great distances along all the routes we took.  After passing through the "megatropolis" cities of Rising Sun and Towerville on CR B, we jumped onto CR C still heading west.  A short jog on C and soon we were on CR J heading north.  If we kept on CR J long enough it would have taken us into Viroqua, which would offer us an alternative route to our mystery location.  Instead we turned back east on CR M and motored down the hill to catch HWY 14/61 and after a short ways south, we stopped at the Kickapoo KWKSTOP convenience store for a break.

A STOP AT KICKAPOO, AND MAYBE A DONUT OR TWO

LAURIE DEMONSTRATES THE ONE LEGGED GAS FILL

After Jim & Melena satisfied their growing hunger with donuts, we continued our mystery journey through Readstown and onto HWY 131 heading north.  This highway has always offered the most variety of riding conditions of any road in Wisconsin.  You can go for "pool table top" smooth stretches to patched up tar sections to fantastic straight-aways to sharp curves all while enjoying some fantastic scenery.  HWY 131 took us through Kickapoo Center, Viola, LaFarge, and Rockton.  After passing through Rockton, we turned onto CR F, and after passing through a valley of trees, we arrived at HWY 33.  We turned west onto 33 heading for Ontario.

This section of HWY 33 a is like 131 in that it offers up some of the most "interesting" riding conditions around.  This section is definitely not designed for speeding!  There are some sharp downhill turns that will keep you on your toes.  After negotiating 33 we shuffled into Ontario and discovered our mystery location.  It was the Riversedge Bar and Grill.

IT'S COSIDERABLY WARMER IN ONTARIO

AND  WE ALL GET PARKED ACROSS FROM RIVERSEDGE

Once inside, we all begin to place our orders, but there seems to be some confusion over the number of chickens available.  Finally enough of them get caught, and we fulfilled our orders.

THE MYSTERY IS OVER, WE'RE READY TO EAT!

After our fill at Riversedge, we continued our journey on HWY 33 heading west.  We passed through Cashton and turned onto HWY 27 south.  Shortly after passing through Newry, Jim & Melena and Laurie split off and headed for Decorah, while the rest of us took CR P for an interesting journey through the valleys and past the Snowflake ski jump.  The first miles of CR P are as smooth as glass, but once you enter LaCrosse County, the road begins to deteriorate.  Fortunately the rough road is for only about 5 miles, and we bump our way into Coon Valley.

Just outside of Coon Valley we connect with some of the best state road pavement in this part of Wisconsin.  It's HWY 162 that gives us a really smooth and scenic journey into Chaseburg.  After we passed through Chaseburg, we took CR K south all the way to HWY 56 just outside of Genoa.  We made the short trip through Genoa and then onto HWY 35 heading south.  Our journey on 35 took us to DeSoto where Chuckles, Lois, Julie, and Bob stopped for some ice cream, while Darrel and Lee continued home.  The foursome then wrapped up the journey by crossing into Lansing again and taking HWY 9 back to Waukon.  We put 148 miles on the trike for the day.

It was a day filled with an interesting and scenic ride along with good company and plenty of good food.  I would say if you're looking for that type of trip, then a journey up to Ontario and the Riversedge would fill the bill!

NEXT RTE

Our next Ride To Eat is the "You Gotta Love Summer" Pizza Run on Sunday, the 16th.  We will depart Casey's at 11 AM that day.  Destination hasn't been decided yet.

GUYS' TRIP

Our "Guys" Trip has a special guest this year.  Along with David, Bob Z, Mike, Chuckles, ChucK, and Bob R, we have Dee going along to keep us on the "straight and narrow".  From now on, due to the lack of interest seemingly with just guys, we will open this trip to anyone (not just guys) starting with this trip and continue that way.

NEXT WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Right now the forecast calls for rain, but if it's the same rain that was supposed to come last Wednesday, we will take the "mountain" ride into Houston.

FINALLY.....

GREAT RIDE, JIM D RETURNS WITH LAURIE

 On a near perfect night for riding, we had 18 riders aboard 14 units partake in our Wednesday night ride.  We were excited to have Jim D back with us and we all welcomed Jim's new wife, Laurie, who was on her own bike.  Jim's grand daughter, Mariah, rode with Jim.  The rest of the bike contingent was made up of Chuckles, Lois, Mike, and Larry.  Ron, Richard, Bernell & Kathy, Darrel, Roger, and Bob were on three wheelers.  We had two support convertibles with Irv & Terry in the Vet and Dale & Greg in Dale's newly repaired Chrysler.

DARREL GASSES UP OL' YELLER

WELCOME BACK JIM AND SAY HELLO TO LAURIE

JIM, LAURIE, AND MARIAH

COMING OVER TO GREET JIM & LAURIE

THE CHRYSLER WITH A NEW FUEL PUMP

MIKE ARRIVES FROM NEW ALBIN

IRV & TERRY IN THE VET

ROGER DOFFS HIS HELMET

LARRY GETS THE USUAL FRIENDLY GREETING FROM DALE

THE GROUP KEEPS GROWING

The convoy proceeded out of town and onto the Elon Road heading east.  Once we reached the end of the Elon Road, we turned south onto the Lansing/Harpers Road and scooted down the hill into Harpers Ferry.  There was still some haze in the air from the humidity, but we still had some great views.

Once in Harpers, we turned onto CR X52, the Great River Road, and made our way up to HWY 76.  By going this route, we were able to avoid the rough part of 76.  Down the hill past Effigy Mounds we went on 76 and rolled into Marquette.  From there we circled onto the entrance of HWY 18 east and took it across the Mississippi River bridge into Prairie du Chien.

Taking the HWY 18 bypass around PDC, we reconnected again with 18 on the south side of PDC and continued on it up to CR C outside of Bridgeport.  Amazingly we were still able to stay pretty much together even passing though all the stop lights.  We took C up to CX and finally CR X where we motored along the edge of the backwaters of the Mississippi and through scenic areas of Wyalusing Park.  We did pass through Wyalusing and avoiding the "rush hour", we made our way into Bagley.  This route also offers some great scenery.  Maybe this is the reason they made the speed limit only 45 mph.

Once in Bagley, we found CR A and headed east out of town. CR A runs pretty straight and we cruise along up to CR VV and turn south.  VV is also a straight stretch of asphalt that passes by a large number of farm fields that showed some good growing crops.  After our short run on VV, we arrived at CR V, turned east again and arrived shortly at our destination, the I Don't Care Pub & Grub in North Andover.

WE START TO DISMOUNT AND GET PARKED

TIME FOR REST AND CONVERSATION

OOPS, YOU CAN'T PARK THERE

After our break and parking lot shuffle, we took a short jog on HWY 133 and turned east again onto CR V.  I call this strip of blacktop a "roller coaster" because of all the rather steep hills along the way to CR U.  Turning north now, we took U down to HWY 35 still heading north back to PDC.  HWY 35 passes through Bloomington, and then becomes rather rough (It's been this way for a long time.)_until we get back to HWY 18 just outside of Patch Grove.

We motor along on 18 again back through Prairie du Chien and end up back on HWY 76 heading north out of Marquette.  We had to play "catch up" in Marquette, since the stop lights in PDC did catch some of our entourage.  We kept going north on 76 and passed by our previous turn from Harpers Ferry.  This part of 76 has been resurfaced, so it makes for a smooth ride up to the Waterville turn.  We did have to break for some deer crossings on 76.  

Instead of continuing on the "yet to be resurfaced" section of 76, we made a turn on CR X32, Waterville Road.  I think this short four mile section of X32 from 76 into Waterville offers some of the best scenery in the area, and the surface is much smoother than 76.  On through Waterville we went and arrived back on the Elon Road and backtracked on it back into Waukon.  Besides slowing down twice for some deer making their way across the road, we had some idiot on a crotch rocket pass the group at a high rate of speed and through double yellow lines.  If the dummy would have been one minute earlier, he would have hit a large deer head on, so I guess he will live for another day (maybe)!

A good number of us stopped at the Uptown Grill for eats and Chuckles had Kylee take a photo of the group.

LOOKS LIKE A ROWDY BUNCH!

I had 136 miles on the trike when I parked her outside of the Uptown.  Great ride, and it was good to see Jim & Mariah again, and a warm welcome to Laurie!

NEXT WEDNESDAY

Right now the plans are to take the "mountain" route into Houston.

MYSTERY RTE IS SATURDAY

This Saturday, we will gather at Casey's at 10:30 AM for our Mystery (I'd tell 'ya, but I'd have to kill ya') Ride To Eat.  Should be good weather, a good ride, and good eats.  EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

And finally...

Magnificent 7 ride without leader

 Since the usual leader of the Wednesday Night Riders had played golf in the smoke filled air on Tuesday, he didn't think two days of it would do him any good.  So he passed his Wednesday night leadership on to Chuckles with some suggestions from others.

Here's the report which I assume Lois wrote, because you can actually read it.

The magnificent seven, Chuckes, Lois and Mike on bikes, Richard & Melodye in the Slingshot and Dave & Bob Z. in the support Jeep departed Casey's in the heavy haze of smoke from the wildfires in Canada for a 'fly by the seat of your pants' ride in our fearless leader's absence.  Chuckles led us out on Hwy 9, heading West at Bob Z's recommendation, past Decorah then turning on Hwy 52 until we got to Pole Line Rd.  We followed that to Bluffton Rd, which was a real treat to ride since the resurfacing, then a short jog on A16 to Co Rd 21 on into Canton.  We crossed over Hwy 52 and stayed on Co Rd 21 through Henrytown, then Co Rd 12 to Hwy 52 which we took into Preston for a stop at Casey's where ice cream was the treat of choice.  After enjoying the nearly smoke-free air in Preston we started back on Hwy 52, with the sun at our back.  We cruised through Harmony, then Canton from a different direction, passed by Prosper and Burr Oak, where all was quiet after this past weekends' Laura Ingalls Wilder days there.  We then took North Winn Rd to 337th St. to Locust then Big Canoe Rd and Bear Creek Rd until we got to Hwy 76.  There Mike headed toward home and we turned to find a second traffic light in Allamakee County as one lane was closed for bridge repair.  My odometer showed 123 miles as we parked at Uptown Grill for some good eats and conversation reflecting on past motorcycle trips and home made saddle bags and trunks, from back in the day, that left something to be desired.  Our eyes were kind of burning from the smoke, but all in all it was a really nice ride with comfortable temperatures, great roads and some beautiful views.  

Also, as good reporters do, photos of the venture were included also.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

INCLUDED A SLINGSHOT

AND A SUPPORT JEEP

LOOKS LIKE A GOOD PLACE TO STOP

LOOKS LIKE A CAPABLE LEADER

THE FINAL STOP

I'm glad that our group was able to enjoy a nice ride despite the hazy conditions.  Hopefully the air will clear again and we can all travel together again next Wednesday night.  We will leave the destination as North Andover again.

LAST CALL FOR THE GUYS' RIDE

Since I need to finalize motel reservations, I am giving time up to July 4th for any other guy who wants to go with us on the Guys' Trip from July 31 to August 5th.  Right now I have Chuckles, ChucK, Mike, David & Bob Z, and myself planning to go.  There is definitely room for more to come along, but I've got to know by July 4th.  We will be exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Stops will include the Soo Locks, the Tower of History, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Tahquamenon Falls, Copper Harbor, an underground mine tour, and possibly others.  We will be staying at motels in Escanaba, Hulbert, Munising, Houghton, and Iron River.  Total mileage should be around 1,600 or about 260 per day.  We will try to have rest stops every 75 miles or 1.5 hours depending on the weather.  Contact Bob R if interested, but do it by July 4th!

TOO SMOKY

Just to let everyone know, I do not plan on riding today (Wednesday night).  Because of the smoky conditions, I'm not too sure I want to be breathing in some of that stuff, (and this is from a former smoker) and because of the haze, I don't think we would be able to enjoy the scenery.

I had planned on riding over to North Andover via Bagley, but I guess that can wait until next week.

If anyone plans on riding tonight from Casey's at 5, you will need a new leader.  If you want to take photos and give an account of your ride for the blog, just get me the information, and I'll post it. 

LEFTOVERS 

Chuckles sent me the following photo from last week's ride.  In case you missed it, if you want condiments for food at Udder Brothers in Boscobel, you have to milk a cow!

GOOD SHOWING OF WNR AT HOSPICE RIDE

 Even with a forecast of showers most of the day, the Wednesday Night Riders still had a strong contingent show support for the Winneshiek Medical Hospice Ride on Sunday.

There was a total of 16 Wednesday Night Riders in various forms of transportation.  Some departed from Casey's in Waukon at 9:15.

Mike, Jim, and Dee rode bikes.  Chuck & Bob were on trikes.

Richard & Melody in their Slingshot

Julie drove over for breakfast in her car.

After arriving at Winneshiek Medical in Decorah, we were joined for breakfast with Chuckles and Lois on bikes, Bernell & Kathy on their CanAm, Ron & Helen and Irv & Chris in convertibles.  After a delicious breakfast we gathered up to depart at 11:00, just as it began to rain a little again.  After years of experience in tangling with rain gear on the road, Bob put on his gear at home and was glad he did.

Ron & Helen arrive in their convertible.

After a police escort out of Decorah, we passed through Ossian and made our first stop at Goeken Park near Eldorado.

As you can see, rain gear came in handy.

Chuckles & Lois in similar costumes.

Mike draws to his poker hand.

The rest of the WNR crew arrives.

Richard & Melody even get a little damp in the Slingshot.

Irv & Chris remain nice and dry in the Vet.

Helen departs while Ron tries out his wings.

Bob & Mike get ready to go again.

After a smooth and less damp cruise through Auburn, we made our way for our second stop at Barney's in Wadena.

Chuckles, Lois, and Bob park on a side street by Barney's

The other bikes park while the convertibles roll into Wadena

Our third stop for the day was in the city park in Elkader.  There were a couple of hard rains while the crew was under one of the shelters in the park.  On the way we passed through Douglas, Hawkeye, and Fayette.

Leaving Elkader we ran into some more brief showers and cruised on into Luana for our fourth stop at the Luana Tap.

Parking is plentiful in Luana

I would leave those rain clothes on!

Jim makes his way to the Tap.

Chuckles & Lois get ready to roll again.

We leave Luana for our final stop in Calmar.  On the way back, we pass through Postville, Castalia, and Ossian and ran into a couple more rain showers.  We pull into the PIVO Brewery in Calmar for our final stop.  There the final poker hands were counted and various awards were given out.  The riders were treated to sandwiches, cheese curds, chips, cookies, and brownies.  Also some us tried out some of the PIVO special brews.

Bernell and Kathy depantsing

The end of the ride!

Many thanks to Daryl, Nancy, and the crew from Winneshiek Hospice for organizing a great ride.  Hopefully some nice contributions from the riders and others helped the cause.

Nancy thanks the 34 motorcycles and 7 cars that made the ride.

I think the Wednesday Night Riders can be proud of the number of us who helped make this worthy cause a success.  Let's do it again next year!

NEXT WEDNESDAY

Our destination looks to be North Andover, WI.