December 31, 2010

So, it's the end of the year. That means only 4 or 5 months until riding season starts again, right? I have the bitter sweet sensation of passing my bike by with the snowblower in the garage each time we have to snow blow. The good thing is that we bought covers for them this year, so I only see a bunch of plastic like stuff covering a blob where my bike is. Honestly, it doesn't help because I know what's under it, but, hey - it sounded good right??

I hope everyone had a great 2010, lots of fun and lots of miles of safe riding, and here's to an even better 2011 with sunny skies and smooth surfaced roads for riding on. Happy New Year everyone!

I love Wisconsin weather

Welcome to October in Wisconsin! It was in the 70's all weekend, so we went up through the Menominee Indian reservation and up to the Crivitz area today. 250 miles of sunshine! At one point we crossed over the Wolf River and the water was so calm it looked like 2 mirrors on each side of the bridge reflecting back the images of the trees.

Unfortunately most of the trees had already peaked their colors so they were bare. There were times though when one side of the road had bare trees and the other was full of color. Some spots had beautiful shades of green in the evergreen boughs poking through brilliant yellows, oranges and reds of the remaining leaves. The contrast was breathtaking. The sun was just right through the canopies of yellows and oranges we rode through as well. Some of the trees had such bright red colors it almost looked like they were on fire. All in all, it was an awesome ride. I'm hoping the weather holds out and we can head more south next weekend and that the trees haven't peaked there yet. Mother Nature is showing all her colorful glory in my favorite season of fall. I can't imagine living somewhere where I couldn't see the colors.

Possibly the last long ride of the year???

Say it ain't so! We went about 187 miles today, ended up cruising around over by Green Lake and stopped in Rudolph to have lunch at the Galaxy Drive-in. The food was good, but the yellow jackets were terrible. They didn't bother us at all until the first food came, then they were everywhere. Eating outside is the only option, so there was no where to go to get away from them. I know that's the problem at the time of the year, but seriously??? At least, to my knowledge, no one got stung.

The ride was great. The sun was warm, there was a little wind, and the traffic wasn't heavy. We took some twisty, turny back roads, and while most of the trees are still green, there were a few that had turned and were almost bare. There was the slightest hint of yellowing in the green on the rest, but I think we have a little time before we get any colors here. There were no mass murders of critters this week, but there was a lot of road kill, and i mean A LOT of road kill. It was really scenic as we wound our way around and up and down. The corn has all pretty much turned that browny-yellow color so the contrast with the green was amazing. There were lots of smells today, some good, some not so good. There was fresh cut hay smell, fresh cut grass smell, skunk, dead animal, silage, compost, and some various other butt and fart like smells I couldn't identify. Not a lot of pine trees today, so I didn't get to smell the warm sun on the pine trees smell. We also rode through the Horicon Marsh on the way home. One of our dogs wasn't feeling well so we cut off and came straight home in case he was still getting sick while we were gone. He seems to have gotten it all out of his system now so that's good.

After all the miles we have shared this year (over 5,300) I finally gave my baby a really good hand washing. She looks almost brand new again. Before you get all in my face, yes, I have washed my bike, several times, before today, but not a good really thorough brush, scrubby sponge crack and crevice wash like today. Before it was more of a power wash off and dry. She looks so pretty, and I am going to have her parked in the garage for a while now so hopefully she'll stay that way!

The riding season is beginning to wind down I'm afraid :-(

We went all over the place today with our friends, eventually ending up in Coleman and another friend's cabin. We took back roads all the way up there, and ended up going through Shawano where we ate at the Home Run Cafe. The special was a hot beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. It all came on one plate totally covered in brown gravy. I thought it was ok, my beef was a little on the dry side and the mashed potatoes were a bit thick and chunky for me (trust me, I know my taters!) Ed had the same thing and he got a piece of dutch apple pie which I had some of, and it was pretty good. All together with tip and 2 lemon aids (that's what the menu said) it was $20.

After Shawano, we worked our way up through Keshena and the Menominee Indian reservation. It was in the mid 60's, so the sun felt warm on my back as we were riding, but it wasn't warm out. The neatest part was riding through the woods and feeling the cool of the shade but getting that warm sun on the evergreen needles smell. I love that smell! Today was also a very sad day for the butterfly population. At first we thought it was going to be the day of the Monarchs because they were EVERYWHERE! Most of them were able to get out of the way, but I did murder a few. After them, we had a stretch where the yellow butterflies were literally in swarms on the sides of the road. Between the 5 bikes, I'm sure we took out quite a few of them. I have pretty yellow smudges all over my windshield, chaps and bike.

The one thing I can't figure out from today is what the heck hit me in the leg. Something hit me really hard, almost felt like a frog or something, right below my right kneecap. It actually made my eyes water it hurt so bad. Took a while for the pain to go away too. All I could think of was the game Frogger (ok, I'm dating myself now) because if it was a frog, it would have been toast. We had nice weather, the breeze picked up a bit on the way home, but 250 miles later, here I sit typing this out. I'm hoping we have some more good riding yet this year, I've got over 5,000 miles on and counting :-)

Friendship Ride

So today we took a ride over to Friendship. The ride out was nothing special except for a few dead deer on the side of the road, but the ride back was a lot better. Shortly after our AWESOME lunch at the Friendship Cafe (I'll talk more about that later) we headed back home. We had the weirdest experience, it was reminiscent of the great butterfly massacre of 2010 a few weeks ago. We were riding along, and for about a minute we were getting pelted by grasshoppers! There were whole groups of them in the road, and they had the most excellent timing for hitting my shins and arms. I actually ducked behind my windshield since they were heading up toward my face at times too. Those suckers hurt when they hit you! I was laughing but Ed wouldn't talk because he didn't want to eat any of them. After that, there were some nice rolling hills, and at one point there was a row of HUGE pine trees right next to the road, but they were sheared off on the back side to make room for the power lines. It made me kind of sad because they were magnificent trees. It is obvious that summer is starting to wind down. The fields are mature, the hay is getting baled and everything looks like it's putting forth it's last best effort before getting ready for fall and going to sleep for the winter. The weather was perfect, lots of sun and no wind. We did about 145 miles, and I am within 30 miles of turning over 5,000 miles on my bike :-)

Now about the food: We stopped at the Friendship Cafe to eat. We walked in and it was packed. I felt sorry for the 2 ladies waitressing and the 1 lady cooking. They had a special, BBQ pulled pork and soup or fries which is what we both had. The meat was excellent and the bun was nicely toasted to give a good crunch to go with the meat. They ran out of soup (it was chicken dumpling so we were both pretty bummed) so we got crinkle cut fries instead. They were the skinnier ones, and they were fried to crispy perfection. They had 4 choices of pies for dessert, cherry, peach crunch, apple and rhubarb. Ed got the cherry, he said it was ok, a little tart and he wasn't a big fan of the crust. I got the rhubarb and it was delicious. It was nice and sweet even though it was a little thicker than I am used to. We left there nice and full, and the total bill for 2 sandwiches with fries, 2 pieces of pie and 2 sodas was $16. We spent that much for 1 meal and a soda last weekend for lunch so I thought it was a great deal and would eat there again. The waitress was really nice even though she was really busy so we tipped her well.

Yes, I am a slacker about blogging

Last Saturday we went for a short ride (130 miles) out around Green Lake and back. County Hwy E had just been repaved - no lines in the road yet - and we rode on that for quite a while. The area around Green Lake was really nice and quiet. and we pretty much had the roads to ourselves. There was one point when we were coming back that we came around a curve on top of a hill and the fields were amazing. There were two different crops in different shades of green, and the tops of the corn were blowing & rippling in the slight breeze creating the coolest effect of tan moving against the green. We tried to go to a new Mediterranean restaurant in Appleton, but it was not open so we ate at KFC since I've been craving the mashed potato bowl, and the KFC in Oshkosh got torn down to make room for the roundabout.

Today we went across the lake to meet some friends to go riding. We ended up going up to Manitowoc, Two Rivers and along the lake. Lake Michigan was very colorful today too. There was tan under where the water wan't deep and then beautiful shades of deep blue and aqua depending on the depth of the water. It was a little windy, but the ride was great. The humidity finally broke today and there were some clouds so it was very comfortable to ride. We had a buffet brunch at a cool little restaurant in Manitowoc. It's a Thai restaurant called Nikko's We were going to eat at a different restaurant but it was closed (I am sensing a theme here!) They had all kinds of things to eat including an omelet bar, French toast, bacon, sausage, a variety of Thai dishes and a fruit & dessert table with blueberry or cherry cheesecake. It was $13 a person, a little expensive I think, because there was no way I was eating $13 worth of food. It was good, but I would have preferred to order off the menu but that was not an option today. On the way back we stopped at Scoops in Chilton. They have great ice cream and they make it all right there. We didn't eat any because we were still full from lunch, but we have stopped there and had ice cream there before.

Wausau ride

Today we rode with our friends up to Wausau to go to the Zillman Meat Market and the Wausau Mine Company. The day started off rainy, so we didn't leave until noon, but it turned out to be a nice day for a ride. Not too hot or sunny, and we stayed dry so it was good.

I felt like a mass murderer today because I think I must have killed over 100 butterflies. There were literally swarms of them on the shoulders of the road, and sometimes we rode though the swarms. It was pretty and creepy all at the same time. I think they were cabbage butterflies, and they were yellow. I have lots of yellow spots on my windshield, pants, helmet and my bike.

There was a really cool road that had lots of little hills so it was like a roller coaster. I would speed up and then let off the throttle to get that weird feeling in my stomach. I probably could have gone back & forth on it several times in a row. The only bad thing that happened today was that I almost ran out of gas, and Ed almost got killed by some jerk driving about 40 MPH (in a 25 zone) that ran a stop sign. Had he been 2 seconds earlier or a mile an hour or so faster I would not be at home writing this right now.

Now to the food: Ed I and both had a Kansas City style pulled pork sandwich topped with coleslaw with a side of home made potato chips and a pickle. I think pickles are gross so I didn't eat mine, so I don't know if it was good or not. The sandwich was really good, I actually scraped the coleslaw off, I wasn't brave enough to eat mine "dressed", and the chips were good too. I still like the chips at The Brooklyn in Oshkosh better though. I guess they are known for their pizza, but neither of us was in the mood for pizza. The portions were worth the price and I would go back there again and maybe try the pizza next time.

Torrential rains have subsided - for now...

We were able to get 2 shorter rides in this weekend since the rain has stopped for at least a couple days. Saturday we went back to the Fond du Lac county park, just to ride through it. They have the funniest pedestrian crossing signs there. It's the regular sign, but instead of saying "ahead" it says "next 2160 feet" and there's another one up father with 1400 something feet on it. I keep meaning to take a picture because it's just so odd. It was a bit cloudy, and a little breezy but there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road for a Saturday afternoon right after lunch. We stopped at Parnell's Place in Oshkosh on our way out of town since we left at noon. The broccoli cheese soup was awesome and the white cheddar cheese curds were good too. The lemonade was pretty sour, and my cheese burger was overcooked and pretty much slimy. It was gross but I was hungry so I ate it. Ed got a turkey club wrap, it was huge but he wasn't impressed with his food either.

Today we went up to High Cliff State Park (that's where the picture was taken). I can't believe I have lived my whole life so close to it and have never been there. It was nice even though it was really warm out today. We didn't walk much since we were dressed for riding and jeans were pretty warm in the 85+ temps. There were a lot of people on the beach and we felt pretty out of place. We decided to take the long way home and rode around Lake Winnebago to get home. It was a really nice sunny day and a pleasant ride without a lot of traffic for the most part. We weren't able to go all the way up to where the best lookouts were because there was some flooding across the roads from the all the rain we've gotten lately. I'd like to go back up there maybe in the fall when it's cooler and I think all the trees changing and the view would be amazing.

Awesome ride today!

Today we went to Big Falls (which was more like a dam) and Eau Claire Dells county park. It was also the day of the animals. We saw all kinds of critters today. There were 2 fawns in a field, a bald eagle in it's nest, a turkey on the side of the road, some cranes in a field, a woodchuck (or woodchuck like creature) and lots of hawks riding the breeze hunting. I also had my first (almost literal) run in with a dog. Ed scared it up and then it ran right up to the edge of the road. Let me tell you, that'll get your heart going at 55 MPH!

Big Falls was really pretty. The water was flowing quite fast from all the rain lately. Riding around up there was pretty scenic as well, there were a lot of large rocks and large trees.

Eau Claire dells was flowing fast as well. It was surprisingly dead for a hot summer Saturday around noon. It was nice that it wasn't crowded because we got to climb around more and take more pictures without anyone really getting in our way. On the way back we rode through Stevens Point. There were some roads we took on the way back that were almost like being on a roller coaster - 3 or 4 sequential smaller hills with twists & turns. The weather was perfect (maybe a little warm) and we had a great day.

Lunch was at the Tilted Kilt in Stevens Point. They were having a car wash for cancer and there was a band playing inside too. I think I have now eaten at all the ones in our area - there, Oshkosh and Green Bay. I had a black bean veggie wrap with sweet potato fries and Ed had the corned beef sandwich with homemade potato chips. It was all really good. The sweet potato fries were crinkle cut, but I prefer the shoestring variety.

Scavenger hunt day 3 - final day

Technically we didn't ride the last day of the scavenger hunt, we took the car because of the weather - we knew it was supposed to rain. So we went to all the destinations on the hunt, there are lots of places we want to go back and ride when we aren't looking for stuff and can just enjoy the scenery.

There were some interesting places that we had to go into, and we actually ended up getting to one of the destinations at the end of the veterans ride so it was packed. They said they had 500 people sign up and there must have been at least 1,000 people there so it was quite challenging navigating the bar to get the answer to our clue with all the people in and around it.

We learned that we have a motorcycle memorial up in Door County, something we would never have known if we hadn't done the scavenger hunt. So anyway, they had prizes for the first 3 places, I came in 4th and Ed was 5th (we disagreed on an answer). We made friends with the people who won first place (before they won of course) and since they don't ride a Harley, they gave us the oil filter from their prize package. Ed has to get his bike serviced on Tuesday so that will work out great!

Would we do it again? Absolutely! The only bad thing that happened on the whole thing is that the stupid motor for the convertible top died with the top half up so we had to pull it down (ok Ed pulled it down) so we could latch it in place. At least it happened before the rain. Now we have a list of places to go riding that we didn't know about before.

Scavenger hunt day 2

Well, day 2 is done. We rode for almost 4 hours today and we now have a total of 16 of the 31 things done. We visited such titillating places as Borth, Poy Sippi, Red Mill, King, Waupaca, Readfield, Wild Rose, Scandanavia and Winneconne. We actually ran into one other couple doing the scavenger hunt today at Ding's Dock and one other stop.

The ride was fun. There were lots of cool things that we saw. We had to slow way down for a large crane that couldn't decide if it was going to cross the road or if it would go back in the field, then when we were on our way home, there were 3 or 4 deer that crossed the road not too far ahead of us so we were pretty cautious driving through there.

At one point, we were coming back into town and there was a huge farm with lots of barn red buildings and 3 silos. The sun was almost set so the pink hue from the setting sun really accentuated the color of all the buildings. I'm sure Ed didn't notice - it's a girl thing.

We didn't stop anywhere to eat because we wanted to get home before it was totally dark. Tomorrow is going to be a really, really long day on the road to get the rest of the stuff done. We may have to do it in parts so we can come back to let the dogs out so they aren't waiting too long to go out. Wish us luck - we are going to need our iron buns tomorrow!

Scavenger hunt day 1

Today we signed up for the first annual scavenger hunt at H-D Appleton. We have a total of 31 places all over NE and Central Wisconsin that we have to visit to get the answers to questions for the hunt. We got 5 done after work today and that took almost 3 hours of riding.

Got to see some really cool things as we went to Ripon, Brandon, the Fond du Lac county park in Waupun, Rosendale and then to Lakeside Park in Fond du Lac and back to Oshkosh.

Tomorrow we are going to head west to Winneconne, Borth, Poy Sippi, Wild Rose and maybe Waupaca. Depending on the time we'll see what else we can get done. Should be fun!

Mountain ride

Today we rode 232 miles round trip up to Mountain to see someone's cabin. After that, we went to Lakewood and went to the coolest candy store I have ever been in! It was called Sweet Memories and they had ice cream and room after room of candy - every kind of candy - even stuff I haven't seen since I was a kid! They also had cookies, cupcakes, fudge and chocolates. There was a thing where you could make your own giant Pixie Stix. If we had been there in a car, we would have loaded up, but we didn't buy anything because we were on the bikes and were afraid it would melt or get wrecked. If you are ever in the Lakewood area, you HAVE to check this place out.

The ride was great. We drove through part of the Menominee Indian reservation on the way up, and one of the highways we took was mile after mile of 15, 30 and 45 MPH curves. It was great! There was a nice breeze and the sun was out. Got a little color through the sunscreen, but it's all good. We stopped to eat at O'Neil's Halfway Bar back in Mountain on Highway 32. It was good food and generous portions. We both had a cheeseburger and we split some pepper jack cheese curds and I could not finish my burger and we couldn't eat all the curds. Both burgers, the appetizer and 4 cans of soda was $16 which I think is pretty reasonable.

There were lots of bikes on the road today enjoying the great weather too. Hopefully we can get some more riding in this weekend since neither of us has to work until Tuesday!

Stevens Point route

We did the other part of the figure 8 that makes up the Nekoosa loop in the scenic trails book. I have to say, with the exception of the 20 miles just past Stevens Point, it wasn't anything special as far as scenery. The good miles had some great tree canopies and hills and fields and even some water that we could see.

We did have some really nice roads, and the weather was perfect for riding, so even though there wasn't any spectacular scenery, it was still a great day to be out on the bikes. We saw 2 red wing blackbirds chase a hawk across the highway right in front of us. The hawk could have killed and/or eaten them easily, but chose to be non-confrontational and flew away. Then on the way home we saw a turkey on the side of the interstate. Nothing like seeing a turkey right there when you are going 70 to get your heart going. Good thing the turkey was dumb and just ignored us.

We ate lunch at Bill's Pizza Shop on Main St. in Stevens Point on the way back. Excellent pizza with a unique crust. Very thin and not all nice an neat and perfect on the edges. They were very generous with the toppings as well. A good value for the price. After that, we headed to Waupaca and had ice cream at Scoopers which shares the parking lot with The Wheel House. They have the Cedar Crest line of ice cream and it was delicious as always.

Not sure if we are going riding tomorrow or not, but Monday we plan to head off to the Madison Zoo and maybe hit up State Street for lunch. It's Million Mile Monday so we plan to log some miles!!

Great weekend for riding!

Two great days for riding!

Saturday we went and rode the Kettle Morraine route. Lots of twists & turns and hills. There were some great views from the tops of the hills, great rides through canopies of trees and times where we were riding through columns of enormous pine trees and I had to breathe in deeply to get the whole experience. We also drove along the shores of Lake Michigan and the water had the brightest blue color to it, almost aqua, which made me think of the ocean and now I want to go diving!

We didn't stop anywhere to eat, just leftovers when we got home, so nothing to report there.

Sunday we made a run to Cabela's to look for a rain coat for Ed. We ended up buying a bunch of other stuff instead. The ride was great, no wind, sun most of the time, not a lot of traffic. We ate lunch at the brat fry at Cabela's. It was good for brat fry food.

I'm looking forward to seeing more twists & turns, rollings hills, smelling the smells of the trees and other things growing and blooming. Until the next ride :-)

Finally a day for riding!!

Ah bike, how I have missed you!!! Somehow the short trips to & from work were just not enough to satiate my riding appetite.

Today we did the southern Door County route. The GPS appeared to once again have its own agenda, but we managed to get through it. On the way we saw some amazing things, a black squirrel, a doe with 2 fawns, beautiful rolling hills in the farmlands and the bay of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The smells were amazing as well - the peonies and some type of wildflowers were in bloom and when were weren't smelling farm, we got to smell that. We drove through several canopies of trees and through pine groves and that smelled amazing as well since I love the smell of pine trees. It was good to see things growing and to look at the different ways people have landscaped their yards.

We also discovered that not only is our GPS messed up about giving directions, I thought that Ed was kidding when he said we had to turn from Lakeshore Dr. onto Lakeshore Dr. I pulled over and took a picture to prove that the GPS was right!

One surprise was that we ended up at the Sherwood Point lighthouse and it happened to be open today so we got to go up into it and take pictures from inside the part where the light is!

We stopped and had lunch at the Fish n hole in Idlewild and we both had the sandwich & soup. It was a ham & cheese sandwich on wheat (your choice of bread) with 2 kinds of cheese. I had the chicken soup with peppers and Ed had the chili. They said it was real authentic chili made by a real Belgian. It was really good too (I stole a spoonful). We had some white cheddar cheese curds and they brought out ranch to dip them in so I tried it and that was good too! For both meals, appetizer and 2 cans of soda with tip it was $26 which I think was pretty good.

We decided to head back home when the skies started getting dark and after about 7 hours. We ended up with 269 miles on today and we got a little wet the last few miles of the ride but it didn't matter because we were in town and it was basically just a little more than a sprinkle. Hopefully more riding next weekend!!

Nice day, where to go for lunch...

So I think today was probably one of the most perfect days for riding so far. Clear skies, no breeze and 80-ish temperatures.

I did remember to wear (and bring) sunscreen this time, so I am not all sun burned like last weekend. We wiggled our way up to Green Bay for lunch, the route we took made the trip last almost 2 hours including a stop for gas (normally 45 minutes via the interstate), had lunch, wiggled our way back to Appleton to H-D Appleton to get windshield bags and a spare hat, then came back home. All in all it was over 5 hours.

I found out I must have been sitting on my bike funny yesterday though, I ended up with 2nd degree burns on the back of my thigh. Not sure how because we rode longer last weekend and I didn't have them. So now, I have 2 small blisters that make me look like I have the plague or something on the back of my leg. Ed says if it keeps happening I have to get rid of my bike. Maybe I need a different seat, or maybe I was just sitting weird, or maybe something is exposed that shouldn't be on my bike. So, no riding long distances for me this weekend, looks like I will be getting some more gardening & yard work done instead, not a bad thing since it has been getting neglected because we have been riding.

I still like the headsets, I'm getting better at figuring out where to wear it so it doesn't kill my ears, and the GPS got us everywhere we were supposed to be. I forgot to plug my headset in to charge though, so I could only use it the first 2 hours of the ride. I did plug it in as soon as we got home though so it's ready to go for next time.

Horicon Marsh Part Deux

Today we made the GPS take us on the Horicon marsh trip. It was a good ride. Lots of hills and curvy roads. It was really, really warm though, and I got pretty crispy. I'm not ready for 90 degree temps yet. We left at 8:30 and it was over 70 already then, and it was 84 degrees (feels like 88) by the time we got home at 2:30. We went a total of 215 miles. The wind didn't even feel cool when we were riding, and there was a 10 MPH plus wind today. The highlight of my day was riding through the Town of Leroy (our last name).

We had the roads to ourselves most of the time, so we could go slower if we wanted to look around more. There were a few breathtaking moments when we would reach the top of a hill and look down on the green valleys below. Lots of farmers were out getting their crops in or getting the fields ready for planting, so we had to contend with a few tractors on the way as well.

We ended the day by dining at the always tasty A&W restaurant in Oshkosh. Taking the back roads was awesome during the ride, but we forgot to allow for stopping for gas, potty breaks and food! Luckily when we needed the first 2 there were gas stations we could stop at, but we waited until we got back to town to eat.

Did the Horicon Marsh trail today - I think???

Well, we set out this morning to do the Horicon Marsh trail. Apparently the GPS is possessed and it decided to play a little trick on us. Of the route that we had in there, we did less than 10% of it. We did ride through the marsh, and we saw lots of geese with goslings when we rode through. There was some beautiful scenery with rolling hills and lots of big trees. It was nice to see everything green and growing again. It was a little foggy, but not too bad. The sun came out here and there as we were riding, and I could feel it starting to warm up. We had to pull over before the end of the ride so we could take some layers off and lose the gloves.

I think we even saw an owl in the trees on the side of the road. Whatever it was, I just saw its butt and it was big. I figured it was too fat to be a hawk and Ed said the same thing. We ended up driving through Rosendale, then Horicon, then Beaver Dam down to Sun Prairie, and various little burgs on the way. Ed appears to be a bird magnet, since there were several times today that a bird came within a few feet of not existing because it almost hit him.

I guess we will be doing this trip again - only we will actually do the one in the GPS, not the one the GPS decides to take us on. It was a great ride, about 185 miles and 5 hours with a stop at the Arby's in Columbus for lunch and a couple stops for gas and stretching.

First 1,000 miles? Check!

Well, I've officially passed the first 1,000 miles on my bike! We went riding all over the place this weekend. The bike goes in on Wednesday for the initial 1,000 mile fluid swap, and we have decided to change it out for synthetic. It's supposed to help keep everything cleaner longer, and since I plan to keep this bike for a long time, we figured it was worth the extra cost.

Now for the riding. Saturday we went West to Nekoosa. It was the first day we haven't had any wind so the ride was AWESOME! We did a lot of back roads and twisting and turning, and only had a few detours due to construction. Riding along the Wisconsin River was amazing. The views were incredible. We did learn that apparently that day was Rummage Sale day since we went through Port Edward and I swear almost every house had a rummage sale going on. It was actually kind of funny after a while. I lost count of the sales after a while. We ended up putting on about 230 miles, and ended our day back in Oshkosh and had pizza at West End Pizza, one of our favorite spots for pizza.

Sunday led us to the other side of the lake to meet up with friends. It was a little breezier riding, but not as bad as previous rides we've had. We cruised back around to our side of the lake, went to The Twist for ice cream in Greenville (think Dairy Queen), rode out near Poy Sippi and then back to Oshkosh to meet some other riding friends for dinner at the Tilted Kilt. It was a great day for riding and we got to see a lot of interesting things while tooling around on the back roads. Lots of twisting and turning and curves to keep things interesting.

This weekend helped us learn more about the GPS, and the headsets are still working out well. I'm getting a lot more comfortable on my bike, and I think this is starting to look like a great riding season!

1st ride with friends

Last Sunday we rode to the other side of the lake to meet some friends, then back to our side of the lake for some more casual cruising around.

We ended up in Winneconne and ate across the street from our last stop at The Other Place. I had a bacon cheeseburger and Ed had a the king of clubs sandwich with criss cut fries. My streak of crappy food while biking has finally ended. My burger was great - the only bad thing is that I ordered it medium rare and it came out well done, but so did everyone else's that ordered it that way.

We rode around some more and ended up in Omro to have ice cream. I had Superman ice cream by Cedar Crest. I loved it! Unfortunately, you can't buy it in stores, it only comes in 3 gallon pails for parlors (I checked online) and Ed had some kind of rootbeer ice cream that tasted like a rootbeer float.

It was a great day for a ride. We trolled around on back roads and it was nice to smell some blossoms of things that were in bloom. Here's hoping it's a sign of many great rides to come!

Holy crap was it windy!

We went riding today to try out the new Bluetooth headsets. After about 120 miles of testing, I would say they performed very well considering the winds were 22 mph gusting up to 30+ and we could still hear each other the majority of the time. They came in handy when I wasn't so comfortable riding on a main highway because I was getting blown all over the place so I told Ed to turn off and we took side roads instead. The only bad thing I have to say about them is that the headphones hurt our ears. The sound was great but the comfort level was less than desirable. I saw on the manufacturer's site that you can order an adapter so you can use your own ear buds. I think we're going to try that.

The GPS is working great now that it has it's own power supply, and that really came in handy when we had to deviate from the route before we had even gone 10 miles. There were a lot of twists & turns and hills all made slightly more exciting by the wind. There were some really nice views at the hilltops, but I wasn't looking around so much, again, because of the wind.

All in all it was a good ride. Got more experience riding in the wind, saw a turkey and had to slow down to avoid being taken out by it since it flew between us and Ed also saw a pheasant but we scared it back into the woods instead of across the road.

We had lunch at The Pioneer Pub in Wild Rose. The restaurant was a pretty neat looking place, very rustic with indoor and outdoor dining options. We ate indoors because I didn't feel like dealing with the wind anymore outside. There were a lot of dead animals and fish up on the walls, and it felt like being at someone's cabin. It was very clean, and there was a bar in the inside dining area as well. There was a nice water view off the deck if you chose to dine outdoors.

Ed had the Ruben, and I had a 1/4 pound cheeseburger & fries. I thought the pricing on the sandwiches was a little high because it was $9 just for the Ruben and no sides. Mine was $6 plus extra to have cheese put on it. I got a soda and Ed got a lemonade, and they charged us for his refill (at $2.50 a piece, you'd think you could get free refills if you're eating there!). I didn't get a refill so I don't know if I would have had to pay for mine or not. My frozen hamburger slab was barely cooked through so it was luke warm in the middle, but the fries were good. Ed said his Ruben was good. All in all, I thought $24 (plus tip) for 2 sandwiches & one order of fries plus non-alcoholic beverages was a bit pricey.

Headsets & navigation

Well, the headsets finally shipped yesterday, and are supposed to arrive on Monday, after the weekend of course. The power wire for the GPS is getting put on Ed's bike tomorrow so we can ride and use the GPS for more than 2 hours now - YAY!

I can't wait to try out the headsets, I have no idea how the bluetooth will work, but I guess I can tie it into my Crackberry so I can use the phone and listen to tunes while I ride too. That will be sweet, not to mention being able to talk to each other.

It's supposed to be cold and rainy this weekend, so I guess we will be getting caught up on some movies that we have been wanting to see instead of going riding. Here's hoping for sunny skies and warm weather soon!

My bike is fixed, now where are those dang headsets???

After some brief frustration because poor Travis up at HD Appleton couldn't recreate the problem, I went to get my bike, and talked to him and I explained to him what happened to me when I was riding and he said he would check one more thing and that was the ticket - the throttle handle was actually broken and had to be replaced! It turns out that the 6th gear thing was purely coincidence.

I guess it was good to have that face to face contact. I couldn't take the bike up and my wonderful hubby dropped it off for me, and I explained the best I could over the phone, but I think being there and showing him what happened did the trick. My bike is good as new again and now it's just waiting for some warm non-gale force wind days to get riding. Oh yeah - the black satin flame levers look AWESOME!!!

Now, for the headsets - we ordered some half helmet bluetooth headsets from imcmoto.com and are (im)patiently awaiting their arrival. Other people have gotten theirs in a few days, but we ordered ours last Thursday and they haven't even shipped yet! I e-mailed the company today since I couldn't reach them by phone, and they assured me that they would ship out tomorrow. It will be nice to not have to wait for stop signs to talk, especially after last weekend when I had the throttle problems on the freeway. As soon as they come and we get a chance to play with them I will blog about them as well.

Ug - my bike is flawed!

So, decided to go for real ride #2 today. Decided to take the freeway for the first part to save time so it was the first time I got to use the 6th gear on my bike. Everything was going along great, and all of a sudden I had no acceleration. It was like a Toyota, but with the opposite problem. The throttle wouldn't open up at all, it would only go back so I could slow down. So, I had to pull off the highway, and after some nudging, I got it to open back up and off we went. It happened 2 more times in the next 10 miles or so, so we got off the freeway.

I never used the 6th gear after that, and it never happened again, so the only thing I can think is that it has something to do with the 6th gear. Oh well, we still had a really nice ride, we took a bunch of back roads, stopped at the Fin & Feather in Winneconne and had a late lunch and headed home. Tomorrow morning I'll call the dealer and get something set up so they can look at it. On the plus side, I won't have to wait until my 1,000 mile fluid change to get my new levers put on :-)

Rating the food: I had the tuna melt sandwich and the chowder, it was the special of the day. The chowder wasn't very good, and the tuna melt was toasted well, and the cheese was melted, but the tuna was still cold. Ed had the Reuben, and he liked it because they didn't use sliced corned beef, it was more like pieces of corned beef, or pulled corned beef, and his pasta salad was good too. The service was good, I didn't really care for my food, but Ed liked his.

First Ride of the year

Well, today was the first real ride of the year. We went around Lake Winnebago, and it was a day of firsts. First day with the new GPS, first day driving in the rain and first day driving in a wind where I was actually scared at some points to be on my bike.

So, we start out, and the GPS keep telling us to turn around and go back home. Omen, maybe, but no, we decide to plug on. After 3 times of pulling over, Ed figured out that somehow the route got corrupted, he got the GPS to recalculate the route and away we went. Ran into some road contruction but nothing major. Outside of my hands getting cold from the wind blowing off the lake, it was a nice ride - until we turned directly into the wind. Holy cow, I have never actually been scared on my bike before until that very moment. I was getting blown all over the place and any time I got over 50 MPH I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep control of my bike, but, I did. I hunkered down, sucked it up, and kept up the best I could.

We needed to make a detour to take Ed's rain gear back to the Harley store since it didn't fit, and it starts to rain. So we decided that since we were almost there we would just keep going. Ed said he wasn't sure if I wanted him to stop so I could put my rain gear on or not, but I said it wouldn't matter, because although I did such a fantastic job of packing my rain gear, I left it laying on the table at home. So, we rolled into H D Appleton slightly damp, wandered around for a bit while the storm rolled over, then headed out to finish off the ride and head home.

We were following the storm, so we decided to stop for lunch to give it a little more lead time. It was the first time I had to ride on wet roads and through puddles at highway speeds, it actually wasn't as freaky as I thought it would be. So, all in all, it was a good ride.

More miles under my belt, some new experiences, and I won't be forgetting to pack my rain gear - on my bike - after today.

The navigation tool has arrived!

Today a surprise was waiting when I got home from work - the Garmin Zuma 550 that we ordered. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet because it will be going on my husband's bike. I would rather just follow behind and not have to worry about when to turn and where we are going. I'm getting ready to hook it up and play with it some before he steals it back. The next piece is communications. We're looking at some Bluetooth headsets that will work between the bikes.

My bike

So, here is my bike. I left it stock, for now, except I added (all detachable) a luggage rack, sissy bar, windshield and saddle bags, and I added an engine guard, just in case I lose my balance. Can't be getting stuck under that great big bike you know. The most frustrating thing was that I was absolutely in love with this bike, but for some reason Harley decided it would be cool to put the license plate off the side off the bike so I also had to buy a license plate relocation kit to move the plate to the back of the bike. Did they really think that no one would want to put bags on this bike?

My first purchase to change out a component of the bike is the levers on the handlebars- I found some satin black with chrome flames to compliment the paint job. I'm not going to attempt putting them on myself though - when it comes time for the 1000 mile fluid swap, I'm going to let them do it for me. I've already decided that the ability to stop and shift are good and I want to be able to keep doing that.

Oh - and I bought it from the best Harley store H-D Appleton!

What are the adventures of Dyna Girl?

Ok, so, I just got my new bike, a 2010 Dyna Wide Glide, hence the name of the blog, Dyna Girl. It was delivered on March 10th, and I've put on over 100 miles so far. Living in WI, and the fact that it is only April 2nd, that is pretty impressive (my round trip to work is 4 miles). My goal with this blog is to document my travels over the course of the riding season. The places we go, the people we meet, the food we eat, even the places we stay. Hopefully you will find it entertaining. I'm looking forward to writing down what I see and experience with the wind in my hair and hopefully no bugs in my teeth as we hit the open road this year.

My husband rides a 2009 Dyna Fat Bob, and we just got our licenses in 2008, so we're pretty new at this, but are trying to make up for lost time. The experience of being on that bike is amazing and I wouldn't trade it for being in a car for anything (under most circumstances). Stay tuned and hopefully in the next few weeks the weather will warm up enough that we can start doing some serious riding and I will have some adventures to tell!