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!