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!

Fancy meeting you here!

I was hungry for pizza, so we hopped on the bikes and headed over to Waupaca and the Wheelhouse. When we got there, we walked over toward the hostess station and two of our riding/diving friends were just ordering their lunch so we joined them. We got the loaded pizza subbing black olives for green and it was fantastic! We are trying to behave ourselves so we skipped the customary trip through the parking lot to scoops.

We haven't been able to get much riding in this year because it's either been too hot, too cold or too wet. I haven't hardly put any miles on my bike at all :(

Anyway, the ride was great, we stayed off all the major roads, lots of twisting and turning and there were some parts where the only other vehicles we saw were bikes headed the other way! It was like we all knew we could ride that one road. The grasshoppers were out en-force today so my shins were a little sore and my pant legs were kind of gross.

It was just about the perfect temperature, low - mid 70's - I wore my middle layer of the riding system, a t-shirt & jeans and was very comfortable. The wind was a little weird because it would come from different directions but it wasn't strong enough to affect the ride.

I did have a totally new experience today. I ran over the deepest pothole ever and my boobs came right out of my bra. Ed thought it was the funniest thing ever. I had to stop extra long at the next stop sign in order to adjust myself. Not a pleasant feeling at all! I got a headache from my neck getting jammed, but it's all good. Wind in my hair, sun in my face, the ride goes on...

A storm is a brewin' !

We went for a short ride, just up to Greenville, to have a bite to eat. I told Ed it looked like it might rain, but he didn't believe me. We ate at the Stoneyard and it was good. I had a Southwest bacon burger and Ed had a cheeseburger, and we both had yard chips which were delicious slices of home made potato chip heaven! We also had Point rootbeer, but I wasn't overly thrilled with that, I like Sprecher or A & W much better.

We were just finishing up our meal when a lady came in and asked someone if they saw the lightning and we looked out and it was pretty black, so we decided to pay and head straight back home. The storm was really impressive looking, the front was black clouds and they were curved, clearly defining the pending doom. The entire ride home my rear view mirrors only had the inky black clouds in them. We made it home and all we got in Oshkosh was some wind. I was so disappointed!

The ride was short and sweet and thankfully uneventful. I'm still hoping to never use my rain gear!

Dells bound

Today we rode down & around the Wisconsin Dells area. We left home, rode to Portage then down & around and through Baraboo, back to Portage and back home, about 250 miles all together. We didn't stop anywhere to eat, we just stopped for gas and Gatorade since it was so warm out.

The ride was amazing, there were places where we were up and down hills and around curves and the endless shades of green and grass tops were beautiful. There were some spots where we rode through canopies of trees that looked like they were reaching across the road to try and hug each other and their branches entwined forming an amazing canopy that let bits of sunlight in to dance around on the road. As the clouds cleared up, we seemed to be racing with the cloud shadows on the road as well. We were gone for about 8 hours but the time went by really fast.

We did stop at the A &W when we got back to town for some cold root beer and a little food before heading home to hang out in the AC.

Million Mile Monday 6/27/11

Today was Million Mile Monday, a day that Harley Davidson says get out and ride! We took off the day so we could go riding, but the weather wasn't looking so promising. It decided to clear up a bit so we rode around Lake Winnebago. There were a few times we thought we might get wet, but the weather held off and we made it home safe and sound and dry :)

On the way home, we stopped at H-D Appleton because I have been having problems with my gas cap vibrating ever since I got my bike, and it's driving me crazy! They got me a new gas cap since mine was loose, and the ride back home was nice and gas cap vibration/buzzing free. The guys in the service department there take great care of you!

We stopped at Maggie Moos for a little treat after the pit stop at Harley and managed to log 101 miles for our ride today.

Door County run 6/25/11

So, on Saturday we did the Door County run. I've been up there lots of times, but never on a bike. It was a perfect day - lots of sunshine, virtually no wind and not that much traffic - what more could you ask for! The day started out a little cool, but thanks to my new Rider Comfort System clothes, I was very comfortable and removing layers was really easy.

We left Oshkosh, went up through De Pere then to Fish Creek where we stopped at The Oilery. We got some sesame oil, garlic extra virgin olive oil and toasted almond oil. I can't wait to try them. We also got some sauces that could almost be used as jam, cherry, raspberry and strawberry pepper. Gonna have some tasty meals coming up real soon!

We ate at the Harbor Fish Market and Grille in Bailey's Harbor and I had the soup & sandwich special. It was a tuna melt, open face, on an english muffin with a cup of beer cheese soup. While it looked like I might be hungry when they brought the food, I was pleasantly surprised that I was was full - satisfied full, not stuffed full - when I was done. The amount of tuna salad on the muffin was generous and it was all toasted with cheese on top so it was a little crunchy on the outside but warm and chunky in the middle, very tasty stuff! Ed had a tuna sandwich with potato salad. His was a grilled tuna steak instead of chopped tuna and he said it was good. Both of our meals were $10.95 (each) so it was a little more than I would expect to pay around home for the same meal, but it was a kind of fancy restaurant inside (we ate outside) and it was in Bailey's Harbor so it was about normal for there.

292 miles and 10-1/2 hours later we were home. It was amazing. The butt pad I got from Alaska Leather helped out a lot, normally I can feel it after about 200 miles, but this time only my knees were sore by that time so that the only reason we had to stop was to stretch our legs, get gas, eat or take a potty break. I think I am really going to enjoy riding this year!

First "official" ride of 2011 is in!

We went riding with our friends Sunday. leaving from Oshkosh, then to Neenah to meet up with everyone, then off via the winding back roads to one of our favorite haunts, The Wheelhouse in Waupaca, and of course, that trip would not be complete without the trip across the parking lot to Scoopers for ice cream.

After stuffing ourselves, we took the back roads back toward Neenah again, winding through the booming metropolises of Poysippi, Borth and Winneconne.

We had pizza for the first time at The Wheelhouse, we had the Jeff's loaded special, but opted for ham instead of green olives, it was amazing with a great balance of toppings to crust and a crispy crust. We also had cheesy garlic bread, which was ok - definitely not one of my favorite versions of that. They had Sprecher root beer on tap which made me really happy since I love that stuff.

Scoopers is an experience all on it's own! If you are planning to have dessert, make sure you leave LOTS of room. They had so many flavors to choose from, and a kiddie scoop there is what some other places call a single scoop. The single scoop is huge, and 2 people could share it. They also let you split a single scoop if you just can't decide what flavor you want.

The weather wasn't the greatest, mid 60's, cloudy, a little breezy, but it was still a great ride. The fact that it was cooler made the travelling on the back roads around the resort areas a lot less congested so we could just take our time winding around the curves and up and down the hills. We had 8 bikes in our group and 3 were women riders!!

Hopefully this is the start to a great riding season - the weather hasn't been to cooperative so far but maybe that will change soon!!