First ride of the year

We took the first official ride of the year on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a ride. I remembered to put sunscreen on my face but forgot about my hands so they got sunburned.

We stopped at Harley in Appleton to get some air in my tires then headed off to a Taste of the Windy City for some lunch. I had the meatball sandwich and it was delicious. Our next stop was Scoops in Chilton where we had sundaes.

We headed back along the south end of Lake Winnebago and back home. It was a little breezy but plenty of sunshine. All in all a great ride!

I turned over 12,000 miles on my bike (finally) and hope to put many more on this year. I have a longer drive to work now so that will help.

It's been awhile!

So now that I'm done with school and won't be doing homework all summer I hope I can get more than 1500 miles on this year.

So far we've gone to Eden to the Eden Cafe for breakfast and it was a nice little place to get a good, reasonably priced breakfast. I had the ham & eggs and Ed had corned beef hash & eggs and with one coffee it was $16 before tip.  The weather was cold & dreary and kind of cold and foggy.  We were waiting for the sun to come out but it never did.

I had my bike in for the 10,000 mile maintenance and I had to have the front tire replaced, again, because it was cupping.  I would think that I should be able to get more than 5,000 miles out of  tire so hopefully this time it makes it longer than that.

Ed's brake light was stuck on so HD Appleton got that squared away for us and we proceeded to head east on OO to see where it went.  We ended up in Green Bay and then wiggled our way back home and tried to dodge the raindrops.  We were pretty successful and only had a few sprinkles in Neenah and then followed the rain into Oshkosh so we only got splashed on from the water on the roads.  Before that it was 85 and sunny, quite a bit different than the foggy dreary 65 the weekend before.

We took one little detour and stopped for lunch at GingeRootz.  The food was good and reasonably priced, the atmosphere was casual and the staff was really friendly and attentive but not annoying.  We would definitely eat there again.

The weather has finally started to cooperate so hopefully we can get some more rides in.

Amazing weekend of riding

So, I learned something very important this weekend - DO NOT decide to update the map on the GPS right before you need to use it for a ride.  Yeah, I suck - I don't know what I did to the GPS, but there was NO map at all on it, so we decided to forego the trip to the new Cabela's in Green Bay and do something we could easily navigate without a GPS and that was a trip around Lake Winnebago.  

It was a great day for riding, lots of sunshine and not a lot of traffic.  My favorite part of the ride is on Highway 55 on the east side of the lake when you come up the hill and look over to the lake and all you see is farm fields followed by a beautiful blue lake that seems to go on forever.  No matter how many times we ride that way, I never get tired of that view.  Sure, we could ride a little closer to the lake, but I think you lose the effect of the hills, trees & fields before the water, and you're higher up so you can see more.  

We had lunch at Salty's in Fond du Lac on the way back, I wasn't really hungry so I just had a bowl of New England Clam chowder and Ed had a cheeseburger with a cup of clam chowder. Their prices seemed reasonable, and the service was good, but man was it dark in there!  It was especially bad coming in from outside.  The best lit place in there was the bathroom!  Maybe next time we're in the area and are actually hungry, we'll try it again.

Today we started out along the lake (Winnebago) and took Highway 45 to 67 and then rode back up through the Kettle Moraine area to Highway 23 back to 45 and back to Oshkosh.  It didn't feel as warm as yesterday even though it was actually warmer.  The wind was terrible and the trip back to the east was a little challenging to say the least.  Ed and I both said that the wind was so strong at some points that our nostrils were getting pinched off.  

We rode with our friends Jill & John, and we enjoyed our dessert first at Kelley Country Creamery and it was amazing as always.  There were a lot of Winnebago type vehicles there with older people in them so we figured they were already starting to head south for the winter.  After that, we ate lunch at the Hamber Haus in Campbellsport on highway 67.  I had a cheeseburger and Ed has a brat.  They split the brat so it's like a butterfly and serve it on a hamburger bun.  It was good as always and not expensive.  It was packed as always too, but it's worth the wait.

Next weekend is Labor Day weekend - hopefully we can get some more miles on the bikes.  I treated my Dyna nice today, washed her, removed some scratches & polished her up. She looks pretty and is ready to go for next time.

Missing ride from 7/5 (slacker, I know)

On July 5th I rode up and met my friend Jill & her boyfriend John and we took a backroad cruise from the Appleton area over to Manitowoc and Sheboygan back to Fond du Lac and then stopped in Oshkosh.

We went to Route 43 Harley Davidson in Sheboygan after we had lunch at Cruisers which is attached to the Harley shop.  The food was really good and reasonable priced.  We met a group of bikers from Arkansas who were on their way up to Door County.  It was nice to chat with them and give them some ideas of things to do while they were in Wisconsin.

We stopped at Open Road Harley Davidson in Fond du Lac and I got some new grips for my bike.  I haven't put them on yet, but I bought them.  Can't wait to get them on & try them out.

It was just a really nice day taking our time winding around not knowing exactly where we were going but we knew we were headed in the right direction.  The weather was great and any day on the bike is better than a day on my butt behind my desk!

Turned over 10,000 miles today!

Dyna has over 10,000 miles on her now.  I haven't ridden much at all this summer, taking 6 credits really puts a damper on the riding time.  I've got a few weeks before school starts up again, so I plan to get as many miles as possible on before it gets too cold.

We rode up to Tigerton and went to the Rocks For Fun Cafe for lunch.  If you happen to be in the Tigerton area and like pasties (or have never tried one) you HAVE to go there.  We got to meet the owner and his wife and the guy is funny!  He took time to go over every kind of pastie that he makes (there are 20 and growing) and we got to pick a lucky rock too.  Don't forget to sign the guestbook on your way out.  The prices are really good, the pasties were awesome and we even got some frozen ones to go so we can make them at home.  It was hard to choose because we didn't plan ahead and only had room for 10 in the saddlebag.

The weather was amazing and we found some nice hilly curvy roads to ride on without a lot of traffic so we could ride as we pleased.  The sun was out, the farmers were working on their fields and the smell of fresh cut hay was bountiful.  All in all an excellent ride and well worth the trip.

When will riding season come??

Well, today is June 7th and we are looking at getting in our second (yes, you read that right) ride of the season in tomorrow.  It's been feeling more like April than June.  The bikes are all tunes up and ready to go but the weather just has not been cooperating.

Our first ride was basically wandering around the Lake Winnebago area and ending up in Appleton to have lunch at Hu Hot with our friend Bryan.  It was a nice relaxing ride where we randomly turned on roads to see where they went.  We didn't get lost but we did have to ask the GPS how to get to Hu Hot so we wouldn't be late.  Riding anywhere near the lake was FREEZING cold even though it was like 80 degrees out that day.  It was cool (literally and figuratively) that we could tell we were close to water by how much the temperature dropped.

Tomorrow is a Cabella's & ice cream run.  We are heading back to the place in Eden to get some more ice cream at Kelley Country Creamery.  Should be a good day to ride.  I'm looking forward to seeing how much everything has grown and greened up since our last ride last month.

Safe travels to my fellow riders and if you're in a 4 wheel vehicle, keep an eye out for us bikers!

Hello March!

Ah yes, it's March, that means we are getting closer to riding season!  We both have recalls on our bikes to get taken care of before we do some serious riding, and I need an oil change.  

The March sale will be coming up soon at HD Appleton, so I plan to get some new boots since mine are getting a little worn out after 5 years of use.

Thant's about it for now, counting down the days until the snow piles disappear and the salt gets washed off the road so I can get some two wheel riding in.

Sigh, winter is upon us

From December 29, 2012:

Well, the bikes are parked off to the side in the garage to make room for the snowblowers.  Unfortunately they have been getting quite a workout over the last week or so. 

We were in Florida last week, and I think that moving somewhere warm, where I can ride all year round, is looking better all the time!

Here's to a new year and new adventures and maybe some new riding friends in 2013!!

2012 Riding Season - is it over?

From October 15, 2012:

Well, we haven't gone riding in a while and fall is definitely here.  I guess it's time to wash the bike and get it covered up for the winter.

Part of me hopes that we still get a decent day or two of riding in yet, but I don't think we will :(

So, I guess this is goodbye until next spring....or is it????

E J Q V couldn't get a U

Today was an amazing day for a ride.  Not too hot, not too cold, just right with my middle layer on.  75 and sunny, really no wind, couldn't ask for much better that that!  It was great winding around the back roads, through the corn fields and we had some great views out over the lake when we got around to the east side of it.  Not a lot of traffic, and almost no road construction the way we went either.  I love this time of year, I would be happy if the weather was always like this :P

We knocked off Eureka, Jericho, Quinney and Van Dyne today, as well as Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties.  We have U, X and Y left for cities.  We tried to get Utica, but couldn't find a sign anywhere - grrrrrr.....

Our letters took us halfway around the lake so we decided to keep going and went all the way around, stopping at the Menasha Grill on our way around.  I have yet to be disappointed in their food!  Good, fast service, reasonable prices and excellent food.

Now to get those last three city letters.....

Lots of letters today!

Today was a great ride with Ed.  We did Brown County, De Pere, Doc's Harley Davidson, Zachow, Appleton, and Lawrence.


It started off a little chilly, so I wore the outside layer of my riding system.  Wow, it was way too much jacket, I was pretty toasty.  I'm going to go back to wearing the middle layer or my light jacket next time.


Getting the pictures takes some courage - we have to pull over on the gravel shoulder and hope there isn't too much traffic.  We're getting better at catching the signs before we pass them, but I will say that I am getting to be the queen of u-turns!


We decided to have a late lunch at Stevie B's in Appleton.  For $6.50 plus the price of a drink, you get all the pizza & salad you can eat.  They have "normal" pizzas, dessert pizzas, anything you can think of pizzas as well as some of their own recipes. I have to say, there isn't a type of pizza there that I haven't liked. It is way to easy to overeat, but today I didn't for once :) The s'mores pizza and the cinnamon roll are my favorites, I could just eat them and skip the regular pizza but that is good too!

We have all the letters we need for SWITCHBACK now, and are just missing a few city letters E, J, Q, U, V, X and Y. We need a lot more county letters though.

I is for Iola

So, is there a better way to end a work day than a ride with friends?  None that I can think of!  Ed & I headed out to Iola with a childhood friend (and neighbor) of mine and her boyfriend.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  


We had a great ride, saw some cranes, had our photo op in Iola, and due to time restrictions had to take the highway.  There was some construction that gave us the opportunity to take some back roads to get where we needed to go.


We came back to Oshkosh, ate at The Chalice followed up by dessert at Leon's.  I had the roast beef au jus with the pasta salad at The Chalice, it was fabulous as always.  I tried a new flavor at Leon's, Raspberry swirl.  It was good, but I still like chocolate best :)


Looking forward to more rides soon to finish up our ABC's!

Riding weekend day 2, June 24

Good day of riding today.  We went around Lake Winnebago to knock some more cities off our list.  We got Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Kiel, Plymouth, Harris, Chilton and Neenah.


It felt cool when we left, so we both wore jackets, but soon I was sweating my butt off so we took them off and enjoyed the sunshine.  It was a mix of clouds & sun with almost no wind so it was perfect.  There were a few times it looked like we might get rained on but we didn't.  Animal sightings today were pretty much zilch.  We saw a couple of geese with their goslings, otherwise besides the normal birds nothing.  Very uneventful with the exception of an old (antique) Mustang that had no brake lights and decided to stop and turn on the highway and gave us a little heart check, but nothing like the day before.


We stopped at Scoops in Chilton, it was amazing as always.  I had a peanut butter volcano sundae with chocolate ice cream and Ed had a grasshopper sundae.  The place was busy, but not too busy, so we got good service and were able to enjoy our delicious sundaes.


We logged 150 miles on this ride, and we took off to ride Monday too, but we were a little sore from the 2 days in a row so we just vegged at home and went to a movie instead.

Slightly damp ride June 23

Today we headed off to Friendship to knock off another county & city on our list.  Got rid of Adams county  & Friendship from our list.  


Pretty much all the excitement happened on the way to Friendship.  First thing was outside of Princeton the traffic came to a complete and sudden stop.  I think I actually heard Ed's tire squeal.  We'll call that heart check #1.  Heart check #2 came a little while later when some old lady decided that the curve in the highway was optional and came heading straight at us.  That was the last heart check for the day.


Animal sightings for the day were plentiful.  We saw 3 brown cranes and I saw 2 white cranes, possibly whooping cranes.  We also saw 2 deer, 5 turkeys and a woodchuck.  There was also a dive-bombing suicidal bird that went after Ed and many, many brown winged creatures that we couldn't agree if they were butterflies or flying grasshoppers.  They felt a lot like grasshoppers when they hit me, but Ed said he thought they were butterflies.


Just outside of Princeton, we did get rained on for about a half hour, but it wasn't bad, just a light rain that was pretty annoying.


The ride back from Friendship was very uneventful.  We had a great ride with lots of hills and curves in the road.  Not a lot of traffic, and riding back through the hills we did get to  see all the crops growing.  Some of the farmers were irrigating and got a little too close to the road so we got to ride through some very brief fake rain showers.  When we were in the open spots, the birds of prey were soaring looking for a meal.  I always love watching them just glide.


We stopped at the Wheelhouse for a bite to eat and they were having a steak fry and had a band.  We didn't have steak and we sat inside and ate burgers.  It was the best bacon cheeseburger I've had in a while, just the right amounts of everything including grease.


200 miles more put on today, and we are looking forward to riding the next 2 days for H-D World Ride June 24 - 25 and getting some more things knocked off our ABC's of touring list.

Holy Hill ride 6/3

The day started off with a ride halfway around the lake and took us past the spot where the guy plowed into the 10 motorcycles.  There were a bunch of bikes and people on the side of the road paying their respects and I actually felt bad not stopping when we went by.

We rode down to Holy Hill with our friends.  In all the times I/we have driven past Holy Hill, I have never actually gone there.  Technically, I still haven't been there because it was hot and we didn't actually walk up and take in the view - maybe another time.

Then we took a detour to West Bend to get the Harley there off our list and took the scenic route back through the kettle moraine.  It was a great ride and we did about 200 miles. 

Before we headed off to Holy Hill, ,we rode to Fond du Lac and went to Schmitty's Oar House for some lunch.  The food was awesome and HUGE for the price.  We both got a tuna melt and it came with fries.  The burgers were 1/2 pound and came on big square buns.  Definitely a visit again place.

After our ride back through the kettle moraine, we stopped at Kelley Country Creamery.  Amazing and overwhelming wouldn't even cut it.  They had so many flavors and optional ways to eat your ice cream that there is no way this is a one visit place.  Even better, if you sit outside and eat, you can look over the field and see the barn where the cows are that supply the milk for the ice cream.

All in all a great ride with good food and good friends and about 1990 miles on the bike.

More ABC's of touring, posted late, of course!

Well, we got a great day of riding in, we went to Manitowoc and Two Rivers.  It was almost 80 when we left here, but when we got to Manitowoc the temp on the sign outside of the YMCA read 56!  It's amazing how much cooler Lake Michigan can make things.  We crossed off Stock's Harley, Manitowoc city & county and Two Rivers.  


We also went through a little town called Whitelaw before heading to Appleton to Sai Ram to have lunch with our friends Bryan & Ben.

ABC's of touring, week 2, or is it week 1?

After a not so great start to the contest pictures, this is week 2, but since we have to start over, it's more like week 1.  This week we rode to Beaver Dam to the HD dealer there, then over to Green Lake and back home.


It was only in the low 60's, (still well above normal for this time of year) but I was comfy in my riding gear and especially with the heated hand grips.  I think Ed was enjoying his as well.  We did about 117 miles, had lunch at the Arby's in Beaver Dam and managed to get a couple of pictures.


The scenery was beautiful.  There were rolling hills and fields of green next to fields of golden remains of last year's harvest, and the trees are juuuuust starting to turn green so there were hints of green in the woods along with the brave flowering trees and shrubs that are already in bloom.  I'm still amazed that it's only March, it's almost like everything is a month ahead of time.


My ankle is holding up well at 8 weeks post surgery, I seem to do better if I am just riding and not doing a lot of stopping and starting since it's my brake foot that had the surgery.  I can hardly wait until we can get out consistently and ride!  This weekend doesn't look so good, but that's ok since I have to work on Saturday anyway.  Let it rain ;-)


Until next time...

Riding season is here? In March? In Wisconsin?

Yep, it's true!  I went to pick my bike up on March 14th, and the temp on the HD Dealership sign was 78 degrees, at 5 PM!  It was an amazing ride home, nice way to end my workday.


That Saturday, for St. Patrick's day, we rode up to Greenville to The Twist for a cone and ended up with a mint twist cone.  I had a hard time eating it fast enough and ended up with sticky fingers so I had to go in and wash up.  No complaints here though!  


The next day we started doing the ABC's of Touring contest.  We went to Chilton, Fond du Lac, and the HD dealer in Appleton.  Come to find out, we had to have our bikes in all of the pictures, so we have to do them all over again.  Someone (ahem, Ed) didn't read the rules close enough.  Oh well, just an excuse to put on some more miles!!


Check out the blog for the next round of adventures.

The 2012 Riding season is soooooooo close!

Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees and it rained, a lot, which helped get rid of the 6 inches of snow we had last weekend.

On Monday, Harley Davidson, Appleton, is coming to pick up the bikes and get them ready to ride.  Ed  decided that he is going to try out some Heat Demons on his bike like I had put on mine last winter.  If we don't get anymore snow, and if the weather stays nice enough, and if my recently operated on ankle cooperates, I hope to be riding by next month!

Raindrops keep falling on my Head!

Ok, I admit it, I am a slacker this year about blogging.  Back on Labor Day weekend, Sunday the 3rd to be exact, we decided to head up to Lakewood to visit the Sweet Memories candy store.  

We checked the weather and the radar, and everything looked good, a little overcast, but good.  The temperature was comfortable and the ride up was great for the first hour and 40 minutes, then, the skies opened up and the last 20 minutes to Lakewood were in a downpour.  It stopped just outside of town, we got there, parked the bikes and the skies opened up again!  I can't say enough good things about the Rider Comfort System I got.  The outer shell kept me perfectly dry, so at least my top half was dry.  

We spent quite a bit of time walking around the store and we bought candy and fudge and some candy cigarettes, and I got a roll of giant Smarties and also some pop rocks.  After we got home, I was extremely discouraged to find out that the sticks in the candy cigarettes were, gasp, CHOCOLATE, not the odd tasty white chalky sticks with the pink ends I remember "smoking" as a child. 

So, it appeared that the rain had passed, so we wiped off the windshields and saddled back up for the ride home.  Yeah, that lasted about 5 minutes and it started to rain again, and for some reason my headset wasn't working right because I couldn't hear Ed at all, but he could hear me fine.  So, we ended up pulling into a gas station, and, let's just say my rain gear is no longer a virgin.  I had to do it - a nice guy, who is also a biker but was in a truck that day, told us up the road a few miles it was pouring and there was standing water on the road.  I love, love, love my rain gear!  So, death grip on the handles, rain gear getting broken in, headset NOT working right and glasses fogging up constantly when not moving, we pressed on.  

We pulled over after about 20 or 30 minutes so I could try (again) to fix my headset, but it still wouldn't work right.  I finally figured out that I must have accidentally pushed the MUTE button on the underside of the receiver, because as soon as I hit the volume up button, I could hear Ed really, really well and had to turn it back down.  We kept on riding, my death grip loosened, and I think that Ed was sick of me telling him every 5 minutes how much I loved my heated hand grips.  Funny thing is that they actually baked the black from my gloves into my palms, but I will take that over frozen fingers any day!

We did stop another time after it stopped raining for one of the 3 or 4 two minute breaks in the rain we got and were able to squish out the foam in our glasses and try to dry them off some so we could see!  Mother nature was being cruel, but we kept riding and it always looked like just over the next hill we would be out of it, but it was not to be.  There were times it was raining so hard it felt like hail, but we kept going.  After about 90 minutes of wet, cold rain, we made it to Appleton and the sun came out and there was much rejoicing!!

I am glad that my rain gear pretty much looks like a windbreaker suit, because I am sure that all the people we saw riding around thought I was crazy for wearing my rain gear.  I am really glad that I didn't put the hood up over my helmet!  We got home, put the bikes away, hung our gear up to dry, changed into some dry clothes and it started pouring!  We just looked at each other and laughed.

I can say that I am no longer terrified of riding in the rain.  Did I like it?  Of course not, but now I know I can do it!  We did 60 most of the way home, and thank goodness if there was anyone behind me they were nice and left space, just in case.  It was definitely an experience that I won't be forgetting anytime soon!