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Friday, June 20

I'll be heading out toward Duluth, Minnesota, on Saturday, June 21st. I'll check in at my camp site just outside Duluth on the 26th. "FIVE DAYS to get there?" you may ask. Sure, why not. I've got several places to stop on the way up, including Indianapolis, IN; Sandusky, OH; Dearborn, MI; and Baraboo, WI.

So hold on tight as I begin another insane trip.

Saturday, June 21
Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky

Well, I almost didn't leave town as planned. . . It was all up to the weather. And I judged that it was going to cooperate -- most of the way, at least. So I left home a bit after 10 a.m.

My first shock came after just four miles when I stopped at my first gas station before hitting the freeway. People were waiting in lines to get to the pumps! At over $4/gallon, who'da thunk it. And where were they all going?

My second was as I merged onto the Interstate a few hundred feet away. CROWDS! Almost bumper-to-bumper, in both directions. I don't know where all the people were going headed south; but about half the cars that passed me going north bore Kentucky license plates. I'm not sure why so many Kentucky people would be heading northward through southern Alabama, but there they were -- jamming up the roads.

As I got into Northern Alabama, I took off went over some local highways until I got into Tennessee. I knew I should have gotten gas on the Interstate before I pulled off, but …. hey, there's gas stations all along these local highways. . . . right? Okay, I can hear you already. After my little gas light went on, I continued on up the highway 30, 40, then 50 miles. (I normally get only 35 miles after the light comes on!) And my trusty GPS said there was a truck stop just 8 miles away -- as the crow flies, of course. And, of course, I'm not a crow. But I headed toward it anyway, safe in the knowledge that I HAD a container of spare gas in my saddlebag if needed. I got within 5 miles of the station when the bike died -- the first time. It sputtered, choked, and the motor stopped. I pulled in the clutch and coasted until I got down to about 15 mph. (Fortunately, NOBODY was on the road with me.) Then I hit the starter and it fired up. I went another mile or so, and it quit again. Coasted. Started. Rode further. I kept going like that all the way to the gas station, and enjoyed the fact that it sputtered to death as I pulled up to the pump. This time, I let it die. Filled up with ------ (insert suitable drum roll here) ----- 5.48 gallons! Please note, Harley says it's a 5-gallon tank. I'm guessing even the hose to the carburetor was empty.

As I headed out on the Interstate again -- having changed courses a couple times to dodge a storm -- I saw another storm ahead of me. . . right past the Rest Area. I quickly pulled in -- and the storm quickly pulled in on top of me. While I was putting on my rain gear, I watched as cars, campers, vans, trucks, and anything else with wheels pulled in and looked for a place to park. Wisely, the Tennessee authorities had positioned a Security Officer in the parking area to direct traffic! And she was needed, too. Cars were backed up onto the Interstate waiting to get in; apparently because of the sudden downpour.

On the road again with my rain gear on, I went another 3 miles and was in sunshine again….of course. Why do I bother?

I pulled off I-65 near Cave City, Kentucky, to stop and take some pictures of my first "attraction" of the trip. (Hint, hint -- more to come.) A WigWam Hotel. Seeing is believing.

Then I headed due east toward an area with several Corps of Engineers and State parks. Did you know there's Amish Country through south-central Kentucky? Yup. And I came through the middle of it.

You KNOW you're in Amish Country when you have to weave through a maze of "exhaust" lying on the roads -- dropped from the one-horse powered carriages they use. Such fun.

It took me about two hours to get to this area and find a campground that wasn't already full -- not easy at this time of year in this part of the country and on a Saturday night! But I did. Nice little park near … well, near…. Well, it's in Kentucky somewhere. I'll use my GPS to find my way out of here tomorrow.

When I finally got my tent set up, it was starting to get dark -- and I needed to pee. So I headed over to the community bathroom building. From afar, I could see both doors, but couldn't tell which was the men's and which was the women's. And I like to KNOW, you know, since I always like to at least TRY to look like I know what I’m doing. Fortunately, there was a guy heading to the john about 200 feet ahead of me. So I started to follow him. …until I got closer and realized he'd gone to the ladies room. Well, I guess you meet a better class of folks there. Or maybe he was looking for a date. (Kentucky, after all.)

One thing that surprised me here. Just in this little corner of the campground there are several camping groups who set up portable screens and brought out their LCD projectors to watch movies. A personal Drive-In Theater of sorts. Pretty smart. Of course, you have to deal with the occasional mosquitoes and other bugs, but for larger families or groups, it's a cool idea. Sure beats me watching my little 1.5" black-and-white portable TV -- and I seriously doubt there are any stations near enough to see. Good thing I'm tired.

Unfortunately, I've noticed what I hope isn't a new trend in camping. Bringing along the family yapping dogs to the campground. One yapped outside until about 1 a.m. Felt just like home!

Good Night, Gracie.

Sunday, June 22
Kentucky and Indiana

Another fun-filled day on the road. I managed to dodge a couple nasty storms (either by taking a detour or stopping at a gas station for half an hour). Now that I'm camped, I don't much care -- and it's a good thing. A biggie is on the way. At least it's cooling off.

Then again, it already cooled off. Just before I got to Indianapolis, the temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 15 miles. Made it seem downright cold!

A couple weeks ago I was in the southernmost part of Alabama, and found a couple cornfields that were already taller than me. Head-height. Amazing. As I've come north, the crops are getting shorter. In Tennessee I came by one field that was barely shoulder-high. In Kentucky, they were waist-high at best. And in Indiana/Ohio, I've seen a couple fields that were barely ankle-high. A few miles sure makes a difference!

Coming north, I made a couple planned s tops, and several unplanned -- I'll call them "photo ops." I'd planned to see the World's Largest "bats" (yes, plural, sorta). But I also followed a road sign to Fort Knox. But those folks are just plain rude up here. Not only would they not let me take a tour, they refused to even give me a tiny little sample. The soldiers at the gate did say that if I didn't turn around and leave, they would give me a sample bullet -- but I wasn't thrilled about their method of delivery, so I left.

And I'm now somewhat perplexed about the good President Abraham Lincoln. Of course, we all know that Illinois is "the Land of Lincoln." It says so on every car license plate! But now I wonder why. Coming up through Kentucky I followed a couple signs for National Historic Parks. One was for Lincoln's birthplace. A well-preserved log cabin (if you can preserve one of them well), completely enclosed in a monstrous granite monument -- which, no big surprise, resembles the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. A few miles up the road is a place promoted as "Lincoln's Boyhood Home." And, not surprisingly, there's also a "Lincoln Museum" right up the street. Fast forward to this afternoon. I saw an official "Welcome to Indiana" sign -- and below that statement it said -- proudly, no doubt -- "Boyhood Home of Abraham Lincoln." So why is Illinois the "Land of Lincoln." And if so many states are claiming Lincoln, why can't Alabama? …..Okay, forget Alabama -- I don't think that'd work. But still….

The storm got here. I had to make a somewhat hurried migration from my outside patio (a/k/a, a dirty picnic table) into my den (a/k/a, my tent). Thunder and lightning all around. And rain? Did it rain? "Like a cow pissin' on a flat rock." Except this was mo' bigger than a cow, and the "flat rock" was my tent. Well, at least I can see where the leaks are now.

All for tonight. Batteries are about dead -- both in the computer and in me.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

Monday, June 23
Indiana and Ohio

Ah, but a blissful night. After it finally stopped storming, things settled down and was downright peaceful. 56 degrees and 95% humidity, but peaceful.

It was a short ride to my first stop of the day -- back to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

Yes, I was just there last year; but I didn't have time to visit two of the major hangars. They house the exhibits of Presidential aircraft and the Research and Development aircraft. So that's where I went first, and spent a couple hours there. What a blast. And since these two hangars are ON the Air Force Base, folks visiting the museum must be brought in by bus and escorted -- and they only let one busload at a time in the hangar areas. So most of my time there, the whole place was MINE. COOL.

Heading further north toward my next campground in Sandusky, Ohio, I dodged storms until I couldn't dodge no more. I got stuck for a couple hours in Plain City, Ohio, as a couple huge thunderstorms rolled across my path to the north. I just waited them out at a McDonald's, and got caught up on my E-mail and blog. Not what I'd planned, but I'm flexible! For the next 80 miles, I pretty much avoided the rains, though in some places the roads were still wet, and in others I could see the storm clouds setting their sites on me.

I finally made it to Camp Sandusky for the night. BIG campground, and they have WiFi throughout. The only problem, it doesn't work. Why am I not surprised. They're just spreading the signal too thin, I guess. I'll try closer to the office later -- or go to the handy McDonald's across the street. No real hurry, though. There's not much here, and the photos are fairly boring today.

Tomorrow, I'm treating myself to a day at Cedar Point Amusement Park. It ain't Disney, but it doesn't try to be. Just lots of rides and junk food. And the weather is supposed to be nice all day. We'll see. I'm taking my teeny, tiny OLD camera to the park tomorrow, so I'll take pictures -- if it works. If not, you'll just have to envision roller coasters.

Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

Tuesday, June 24
Ohio - Cedar Point Park

Had a nice day at Cedar Point. If I learned two things today, they were: 1) this ain't no Disney place. And 2) I may be too old for these kinds of rides! It's strictly an amusement park; rides, food, games of chance, and shopping. No themed rides, no themed areas, no stories, and very little done just for show. But the kids love the place -- and that's who their customers are. In fact, almost the entire staff of Cedar Point is college kids on summer break. Good jobs for 'em.

The first ride I took was on the first coaster built at the park. A relatively small, short, out-and-back wooden coaster. I have to admit that it looked good from a distance, but the peeling paint and rotting wooden beams made me a bit hesitant.

A bit later I went on "Mantis," which is a new stand-up coaster. You ride the whole thing standing up, which is a new sensation -- especially with four loops, one at 63 mph. And ROUGH. Geez, I'd rather ride out a hurricane in an old outhouse than try to ride this bucking monster again.

Then there's "Millennium Force." One of the tallest coasters in the world. The lift up the first hill takes a bit over 6 hours, and you're about 7 miles high when you start the trip down. Okay, maybe not, but it seemed like it. A long way up, and when you crest the top, the train noses downward, and downward some more, and more and more… until you're absolutely nose-to-the-ground and picking up speed. I'm not sure how fast we were going, but I heard a sonic boom.

In the loading area, there was a guy and his young daughter (probably 10-12 years old) on the train in front of me. They got all set to launch the train, and the little girl just couldn't take it. She started crying, and crying hard. She was just plain terrified. Good ole "dad" just laughed at her and joked about it. The staff stopped the launch, and a couple of them came over and talked to the girl. She didn't have to ride it, and they'd let her off if she wanted. But in the end, she rode it -- but tears were still in those apprehensive eyes. I suspect she won't speak to "dad" for a week. Poor thing.

There were three rides on my "hit list" for the day -- I'd seen documentaries on all of them, covering their design, engineering and fabrication, construction and testing. Very interesting stuff, so I wanted to see and ride them first-hand. One was Millennium Force.

The second was Top Thrill Dragster. A simple ride. You get in a car, and when the staging lights go green, you head down the track. Through linear induction motors (the big trend on the big coasters now), you go from zero/zip/nada to 120 mph/wow/holycrap in 3.8 seconds. Trust me, it feels more like 3.8 minutes. Once rolling, you shoot up and over a 400-foot tower, then plummet back down vertically while performing a 270-degree twist. If your heart ain't pounding when you get off, you've just died.

The third was Maverick. It, too, uses linear induction motors - one on the start of the ride, and you don't expect it because you're going UP HILL like on a normal chain-driven lift. The other is while you're inside a tunnel; you slow down inside, then suddenly in the darkness you triple or quadruple your speed in a couple seconds. Wow. The whole coaster was constructed very low to the ground, often about 3-5 feet off he grass. So it's a whole new dynamic. And the ride itself is very smooth as these things go, so it was downright enjoyable!

All in all, it was a nice day, and I got to ride more rides than I'd hoped for. And ate junk food. And I saw 37 ladies who I thought could be my next girlfriend. Unfortunately, all 37 ladies said they thought I could be their grandpa, so I guess I struck out. So I left the park early, came back to camp, and am really looking forward to bed.

Tomorrow I head toward Dearborn, Michigan, to see my old friend Dan Hill, then on to Baraboo, Wisconsin where I'll camp for the night…..but, then, I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. So why are you reading this?

And that's the way it is.

Wednesday, June 25
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin

My first destination of the day was Dearborn, Michigan, to visit my old friend Dan Hill. He and I worked together at Regions … SO many years ago. I count him as one of my very few special friends that I stay in touch with. (Okay, not terribly regularly, but he's too good to lose touch with!)

I managed to dodge the rains on my way to Dearborn, and found him hard at work at AAA District Headquarters, where he's the "Big Guy" over their training program. (I say "Big Guy," as it applies in many ways. He's a key player at AAA, he's got a huge, friendly personality, and he stands something like 7-foot-9, give or take. I feel like a child standing next to him!)

Anyway, we had a great visit. He "forced" me to go to lunch with him, even though my body was still on Central time and it was only 10 a.m. We went to a local Italian place. WOW! Absolutely, without a doubt, the best Italian food I've had this side of Italy. It's worth the trip to Michigan just to go back there! Anyway, it was ALL worth it -- had a great visit with Dan, and I'm glad to see him doing so well in his new job.

A couple hours later, I was on the road again, and this time heading right through the rain storms that I knew I'd hit. My only prayer was that they'd stop before I hit Chicago. My prayers were answered! About 10 miles before I got to Chicago (during rush hour thanks to spending extra time with Dan!), the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and it turned hot and dry. And me with my rain gear on, and nowhere to pull off. So I lost about 5 pounds over the next two hours as I went through Chicago. I don't know why they call it "rush hour," as nobody was moving much of anywhere.

Now that I was running about 3 hours behind my loose schedule -- due to oversleeping a bit, highway construction, a long lunch with Dan, the rains, and Chicago -- I headed straight for Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin. I've stayed there often, and it's a nice park. (Sorry, Sandy, but I was so late going through Madison, I didn't even consider stopping.) I got to the campground just before dark, and there was just enough light to read the signs that said, "Park Closed" … due to damages caused by flooding. I ultimately found another campground up the road, so pitched camp in the dark.

But I was NOT alone. I had LOTS of company. Mosquitoes. Billions of them! The first bugs I've seen on the entire trip -- and they made up for the luxury I'd enjoyed so far.

Thursday, June 26
Wisconsin and Minnesota

It was a LONG ride on up to Duluth. Not that many miles, but miles and miles of virtually nothing. I did learn that in Northern Wisconsin (north of Eau Claire, at least) that when a road sign says there's a restaurant at the next exit, don't believe it. One listed 6, and I only saw one, even after riding for about 10 miles around the area. Apparently if there's a Taco John's or whatever anywhere within the state, the highway department feels it's okay to post a sign and point people in the general direction, even if it's 100 miles away.

Made a couple stops along the way -- photos are posted on the album. One was a colorful and peaceful Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, and one was a "roadside attraction" I'd discovered on the Internet.

Made it to my campground about 5:00 p.m. and set everything up. The Harley Owner's Group Rally had "early registration" tonight, so I went on into town and got everything set up. So I'm ready to start taking part in whatever activities I can find in the morning…..despite the call for rain and thunderstorms for the next two days. Oh well, it's only water.

I'll probably update the blog again on Sunday when the Rally's over. I'll have lots of photos, too. That's better than lots of words any day!

Until then, Drive Safely; and remember, have your pets Spayed or Neutered.

(((NOTE on July 1. Sorry for dropping so much stuff on this blog all at once. But between the server's database being messed up and me not being able to find a WiFi connection, it kinda backed up. I'll try to NOT do this again....))))

Friday, June 27
Minnesota State HOG Rally

Campgrounds have "quiet hours." Here, it's 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. So why was it that I heard this loud, loud BUZZZZzzzzzz this morning at 6:30? Spraying for mosquitoes. I guess I shouldn't complain. Less mosquitoes is more better.

On the ride into town this morning, it felt a little cool. It didn't occur to me until about an hour later as I went by a time/temperature display -- it was 58 degrees! But no fear. It soon warmed up to the day's high of 62. Downright tropical.

Day one of the Rally. Not too much going on, but things are gearing up. I spent time this morning at the Registration site just meeting folks. Lots of neat people up here. And what surprised me the most was that about half the people I talked to had some kind of ties to Alabama -- they'd lived there, been to Talladega, Birmingham or Dothan (nobody mentioned Montgomery, though), had relatives in Alabama, or had friends who lived there. So I always had something to talk about with everyone.

Rode around a little bit this morning while the weather was good. Snapped a few photos. You can check 'em out on the albums if you like.

Stopped by the Harley dealership and said "HI" to the owner -- a task my most magnificent dealer-friend Tim Russom asked me to take care of for him. Learned a lot about the history of the dealership, too. First class treatment.

Then I went out to take a tour of the Cirrus Designs aircraft manufacturing plant here in Duluth. The plane … well, you have to see it to believe it. It's an absolutely awesome aircraft. Single-engine, beautifully designed, sleek, powerful. I'm absolutely in LOVE with this bird. There are only two major components to the plane's main body -- the body and the wing assembly. Both are high-tech composites and melded into single units. And the attention to detail as they hand-assemble the planes … amazing. Very good tour, too. Unfortunately, they didn't give samples. Heck, they won't even give us a discount if we want to buy one. Still, I can get one of their basic planes for only $500,000.

If your interests are inclined, Cirrus is unveiling it's newest plane -- a jet -- which is scheduled to make its maiden flight in a few days. It'll only cost a million bucks for the basic model; if you want all the frills installed, it'll be $1.1 million. What a deal.

Amazingly enough, while we were there, a guy passed through the lobby on the way to HIS new airplane. He was getting ready to fly it home -- to England! Wow. What confidence.

When we came out of the plant, we found (sadly) that it was raining. Hard. Some of us waited it out for about an hour, but it kept raining. I picked a time when it rained less and headed back for the campground. Raining just too hard to even think about heading downtown Duluth for the parties. As it stands, there are thunderstorm and tornado warnings all around the area. So I'm "chilling" (in more ways that one) in the tent. Hopefully it'll be a little nicer tomorrow.

Before I close for the night, I gotta tell you about a neat TV commercial I saw just now. It was a combination of text and film, but here's the whole thing in a nutshell:

"You Drink.
You Ride.
You Crash.
You Die.

Your brother-in-law gets your bike.

Bummer."

Neat ad…. By the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

"This is Paul Harvey. Good DAY!"

Saturday, June 28
Minnesota State HOG Rally

Buzzzzzz. At 5:15 a.m. it started. Whieeeeeeeennn…. There must be some kind of industry near here (that wasn't here last year), and it sounds like they're running some large milling equipment. It ran today until 9:45 tonight; but the only part that bothered me was this morning when I was trying to sleep. Don't know where it's coming from, but maybe it's from a Whinery???? (Sorry about that.)

The weather was nasty yesterday, raining until about 1 a.m. And the forecast for today was to be raining all day. And the 11:00 p.m. forecast last night reaffirmed that.

Wrong. Today was beautiful! Partly cloudy skies, warmed up to the high 60s, slight breeze, and dry air. Couldn't have been a nicer day for the outdoor activities they'd planned.

I started off my activities with a tour of a large ore-hauling ship, now retired from service and working full-time as a museum. It was US Steel's "flag ship" in the Great Lakes for about 40 years, from 1939 to 1979.

When I got my ticket, the girl at the counter said he next tour will begin in 20 minutes; not "on the hour" as they had posted on signs. I asked why 20 minutes -- "Well, whenever a person wants a tour, we tell them we'll start in 20 minutes. Then whoever comes in for a tour in the next 20 minutes can join the group. Then we won't have another tour until someone new comes in and buys a ticket; then the 20 minutes starts over again." Gee, do they teach this stuff in High School now?

Anyway, we got to see the entire ship, from the bridge to the crew quarters to "guest quarters" (where corporate VIPs and their influential guests could cruise along with the loads) to the engine room to the cargo hold. It was an interesting tour, and only cost $4 thanks to arrangements made by the Rally committee.

Then I rode around the area for the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon. The only time I spent downtown was to watch the "biker games" portion of the Rally. They had some of the typical events; The Slow Ride, Road Kill Clean-up, The Hot Dog Bite (they don't call it the Weenie Bite up here), Bike Wash, and a new game they created for this rally - the Ball Pick. In all, it was fun to watch.

One somewhat troubling moment happened during the Slow Race, though. The ladies were competing for their prizes. One gal was struggling to go the slowest (she later won), and when she finally hit the finish line, she was almost out of control. So, being the "tough biker chick" she thought she was, she revved up the bike and popped the clutch. Needless to say, she went from "zero" to "fast" in about 25 feet. Unfortunately, there was a woman bending over her baby in a stroller about 40 feet from the finish line, and this gal had no hope of stopping in time. Fortunately, she missed the baby and stroller, but clipped the mom. She wasn't seriously hurt, but BOY did some of the "fans" make some comments about the gal on the bike. That was just too close.

The final big event for the day was the big "parade" through town. As with last year's parade, it was escorted by police from Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin, plus state Highway Patrol bikes. It was pretty cool, with a HUGE line of bikes on the roads. This year's ride was much shorter, though -- only about 8 miles, since a recent major traffic mishap forced one of the bridges across into Wisconsin to be shut down. That was one of the key roads in the planned route. Still, it was cool.

And speaking of cool, at least I know I'm alive. After taking a shower tonight, I walked back to my tent, and could watch my breath float along with me. Ah, Minnesota. I'm hoping for snow tomorrow.

Tomorrow there are a few closing events at the rally, then I'll head North in the afternoon and ride up the North Shore of Lake Superior. I tried that last year, but had electrical problems about 50 miles up and had to turn back. Maybe this year I'll get further.

Sunday, June 29
Minnesota

**** Hey, folks. I just took a peek at the Photo Album and the photos for this trip had gone into an "unlisted" album. How come nobody told me!?!? It should be fixed now. Very sorry. Seems this happens every trip for some reason.

Wasn't supposed to rain last night. It did. Was supposed to rain this morning. Didn't. The weather forecasters here are the same as at home. … correct 50% of the time, give or take 70%.

Started off cool and cloudy, though. But by Noon, it was absolutely beautiful. High up around 77.

After the morning festivities (games and awards), I headed back up the Northshore drive. This time I made it all the way to the Canadian border. Didn't go across, but made it there.

The only problem were the dragonflies. BIG bomber-style insects. And all over the place up north. They didn't travel alone or in pairs, either. They traveled in HERDS! I was following a car along the highway at 55 when suddenly the guy hits his brakes and slows down. Seems the herds were crossing and he hit 'em. As I got to that spot, I found you couldn't look in any direction without seeing at least 50 of the bombers -- and when you can see that many while looking sideways and doing 50 mph, you know they're thick!

(Notes to self…. Scrape and clean windshield. Scrape and clean helmet. Burn pants. Forget brushing teeth; just have 'em all pulled and replaced with dishwasher-safe dentures.)

Stopped for a nice dinner at Culvers! Yum. My next stop is McDonald's. No, not to eat more, but to check mail, update this blog, and do other stuff on their WiFi connection.

Tomorrow morning I head toward the Twin Cities, where I'll spend a couple days seeing the areas in Central Wisconsin and Central Minnesota, and have dinner with my old friends Rollie & Nellie Hofmeister. Should be a hoot!

Goodnight, Everybody!

Monday, June 30
Near the Twin Cities
"Twin Cities" -- that's Minneapolis and St. Paul. Of course, you knew that.

Took a long way to get to where I am. About 220 miles to get 85 miles down the road. So I sorta took the scenic route. Went back to see the lot that my family owned when I was but a wee little crapper. It's always amazing to see that little outhouse we built back in (geez, I think it was the late 50s sometime) is still standing. Unfortunately, the guy who owns the lot and lives near the outhouse is building a house further back on the lot, so he'll be removing everything from this site in a couple months. Then nothing will remain to mark where we spent so many wonderful days on vacation up there.

Aside from that, it was just a beautiful, peaceful journey through the woods. Got to the campground early, and relaxed for a while before heading out for dinner with my old high school friend Rollie and his wife Nellie. I'll also make a stop at a McDonald's and see if the blog server is up and running yet. You can tell it is working now -- otherwise how'd you be reading this? Duh.

Tomorrow I'll ride eastward into central Wisconsin, hopefully to take a tour of the Harley plant in Tomahawk. But you never know about those places -- might be open, might not! I'll tell you later.

Peace!

Tuesday, July 1
Into Central Wisconsin

I headed off for Tomahawk, and planned to stop at the first McDonald's I could find and update my blog, photo albums, and other stuff. But the first McD's didn't have a WiFi connection, so I kept going. In all, I rode a total of over 400 miles today, and stopped at every McDonald's (about a dozen) and library (6 or 7), and NONE had WiFi connections. One librarian scrunched up her nose and said, "Well, you might try Rice Lake (about 40 miles North). I think THEY might have that stuff." Talk about being out in the stix.

I finally got back to the campground and kept on going west and into Minnesota. I had to drive all the way to Wyoming to find a McDonald's (that's Wyoming the city, not the state), and IT had WiFi. Ah, civilization at last. And I was happy to see that my blog was back up and running again (the hosting service apologized for the screw-up -- gee, thanks), and the photo album is finally completely up to date. Yippee.

I did make it to Tomahawk, Wisconsin, though. There's a Harley production plant there that makes all the fairings, saddlebags, tour paks, windshields, sidecars, and other plastic-related Harley components. When I got there, I was the only visitor there, and the guide started me on my own private tour. But just a minute after we started, they got a call that another carload of folks were on the way, so we waited. In the end, the tour had only 5 of us. And that was just about right. The tour lasted about half an hour. Let's see; we got to see them make windshields; the sidecar area was in between steps, so there was nobody working there and nothing to see except a finished car; we got to see the inside of the paint shop with two painters going at it -- everything they painted was black; the quality control area was shut down for a break; and the entire injection molding facility (the majority of the plant) was shut down because they'd caught up on making parts. So we didn't get to see much! But, "Been There, Done That, Got The Pin."

Then I headed back toward the campground, still hoping to find a place with WiFi. Irritating that it took so long. But I was happy when I finally got caught up on stuff.

Severe storms are headed this way - hard to believe since the stars are out in full force at the moment. But it's to be nasty all night, and much of the morning. So I may not leave the campground first thing tomorrow -- I'll wait until things look more promising. Then I'm heading to Waseca to meet up with Norm, my Big Brother. Can't wait!

Na-Nu, Na Nu!

Wednesday, July 2
To Waseca

The bad weather last night … never appeared. Starry skies all night. And the rains this morning … also, not. The weather forecasters haven't lost their touch at incorrectness.

Had a lovely 400+ mile day, just wandering around central Minnesota on the way to Waseca. Found a couple photo opportunities -- you can enjoy them in the photo album.

As usual, I relied on my GPS to get me from point to point. Along one highway, I encountered a big road construction project that had the entire state highway closed. Well, my GPS has this little button that says, "Detour", so I clicked it. Within seconds, it had expertly laid out a new route around the closed highway and all that nasty construction. Cool. Of course, it also routed me around all the gas stations within 50 miles, so I spend a good hour puckering and looking for a station. No worries. I found some.

Got to Waseca just in time for dinner with some of the family -- and relatives of family. (Hey, around here, it gets complicated in a hurry, especially when everyone who's ever graduated from high school here is home for a mass reunion!) Next will be trying to unload the bike for a week-long stay here. Then, .. Well, … who knows! I'll tell you when I find out.

Good Night, and God Bless.

Thursday, July 3
Waseca

Ah, a day with one goal (aside from enjoying the perfect weather of a magnificent Minnesota day). Picking up our sister - Es / Marie / mom / grandma / and a dozen other aliases. Norm and I headed off to the Minneapolis airport first thing in the morning. ("First thing" being defined as the time when Marcia - one of our hosts - came down and yelled at Norm to wake up!) It was a short 80-mile drive to Bloomington where we parked at the Mall of America. I think it still holds the title of the largest mall in the US.

No, we didn't go shopping. It's just that in all of the Twin Cities, the Mall has two things that my brother loves the best. FREE parking and a CHEAP train ride. Minneapolis has a light rail system that runs trains from the Mall to downtown Minneapolis. Whether you ride down to the next stop or ride all the way to the end and back, it costs the same -- 50 cents. But since the whole fare business is on the "honor system," I saw lots of folks just get on and ride. So depending on your values, it could be the cheapest ride in town.

We took the train first into downtown Minneapolis to the domed stadium where the Minnesota Twins call home. After a brief stop there, we rode back to the airport. This train very conveniently runs directly under the international airport terminal, so it makes for some easy transportation into and out of that congested area.

We hopped off the train, found our way to Baggage Claim and waited for our sister. She came spilling out the chute on Carousel #9 (apparently it's cheaper to fly as "checked luggage" than as an actual passenger). Happy to be back on the ground, we headed back for the train, the car, and on to Waseca. After a quick shopping trip (as if any shopping trip with my sister could be considered quick) and a nice dinner, we settled in for an evening of catching up.

A nice simple day. I like that.

mmmmmmmmwhhhhhhhhaaaaa..… (That's Dinah Shore throwing you her goodbye kiss)

Friday, July 4
Happy Fourth of July!

Between the normal Fourth of July activities in my small home town, and all the special activities planned for this year's "All School Reunion," and with my friend Rollie coming to town to go for a ride through the countryside, this was definitely going to be a busy day.

However, both Es/Marie and Ive slept in until NOON, so that cut into the day's plans. Still, we had time to enjoy….

During the afternoon, Norm, Ive, and Es went to the park for some great music by a couple local musical celebrities. They had a great time there. Meanwhile, I had another great meeting with my old high school buddy, Rollie, and his younger brother Denny. The sad thing about the meeting … Denny remembered a LOT more about our high school days than Rollie or I ever could. I can't speak for Rollie, but that sure made me feel older….and significantly more senile.

Tonight "the girls" and some other friends are playing cards, dominos, or both. Norm and I are just "chilling" and enjoying the quiet evening in such perfect weather! (Thankfully the city just sprayed for mosquitoes again; otherwise, we'd be confined indoors all day!)

By the way, this "All School Reunion" event is a big 4-day event when all graduates from all years from either of Waseca's big schools are invited back for a mass reunion. This year -- being an "…8" year -- is seeing a lot of "10-year" reunions, dating as far back as the Class of 1948. But there are graduates here from years prior to that. So no matter who you are, you're going to run into someone you know walking down the streets.

Tomorrow -- another day of boring (to you) activities!

Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow. (-- Chevy Chase, if you needed help)

Saturday, July 5
Waseca

The big day of the All School Reunion; lots of activities, photos, and food.

We started off the day with "class photos" for each year…. For graduates from classes 1919 through 2008. I should point out that not every class had an actual "reunion" at this huge city-wide event; some classes, such as mine, had only a few people attend. My class had a reunion just two years ago, so few showed up for this blow-out. In fact, our 1966 photo had only nine of us in attendance. I recognized several of them from past reunions; one I didn't remember at all, and a couple others I probably wish I could forget. On the other hand, they ALL wanted to forget me; so it worked out well.

Then I took a break and rode out into the countryside for a while. On the way, I headed out a highway and was thoroughly enjoying the weather and light traffic. Suddenly, as I was heading down this long, flat straight-away, I realized that there was a big tractor-trailer rig in my lane. Coming at me. Trying to pass a string of cars, and obviously didn't have enough room to do so. He recognized my presence (with eight -- count 'em, EIGHT -- lights on the front of my bike) at about the same time I saw that he wasn't going to make it. I locked up the rear wheel (I know, shouldn't have, but did) and clamped down on the front, and rode right along top of the white line at the edge of the road. Meanwhile, the trucker swerved once (and almost ran the car he was passing into the ditch), then realizing what he'd almost done, swerved back toward me. Finally, he started bullying his way over into his own lane. (I have NO idea what happened to that poor little car beside him, but I didn't hear any crunches or see any parts fly, so I think they missed each other.) For the briefest of moments, we were 3-wide on that highway. Then it was over. Close. Too close. I'll add more lights when I get home.

Then I headed over to my old High School building, where they'd opened the place up to the public. While they only had one "greeter" in the building to help folks and answer questions, they'd opened up every hallway, room, tunnel, bathroom, staircase, and everything else.

So we had complete run of the place. It was great to walk around through those old places where I'd spent so much time. And to my great surprise, I found I KNEW where every bathroom, water fountain, and fire extinguisher would be located, and I found several of my most memorable classrooms…..including my Kindergarten classroom, and the one where I took German and had one particular class interrupted with the news of JFK's assassination. Ah, the memories, good and bad.

Later, most of the folks headed back to the NEW high school gymnasium where we had a nice dinner. Hundreds and hundreds of people I didn't know, talking VERY LOUDLY (hey, these folks were old, you know), and generally having a great time.

Tonight there's a "Street Dance" downtown -- actually covering about 8 blocks' worth of streets. Several bands will perform, but I doubt anyone will dance. Most of us are too old anyway. But folks WILL be wandering around seeing who they can see and chatting with the survivors from their classes. Me? I'll just go watch. Folks I went to school with didn't want to talk to me then, so they're sure not gonna do it now!

M-I-C; See you real soon…!

Sunday, July 6
Waseca

According to the local newspaper, the reunion committee expected about 5,000 people to attend the big events. Based on what we saw at the Street Party last night, they weren't far off. All the streets were packed with folks, and were entertained by five different bands, all playing on stages scattered around the downtown area. It was really cool.

Of course, one country band caught my attention. Hey, how often do you hear "Okie from Muskogee" sung mit der slight Norvegian Accent? I better not complain about them too much, though; they seemed to be one of the more popular bands.

Once as we were walking along, I heard someone yell, "Hey, Old Man!" Well, hell. That could have been addressed to anyone at the reunion -- after all, we were all old! I kept walking. Then I heard the voice again, this time yelling, "Hey, Scruffy!" So I figured it must be me. When I turned, it was one of my classmates. So I stopped for a short chat.

On one of my recent trips up here, I helped set up a wireless Internet connection using a router here at John's house -- he and his wife are letting us stay here. This trip, they asked if I'd take a look at it and fix it, as it'd stopped working. Ended up the router was fried, so I installed a new one. Up until then, though, we'd been able to use wireless Internet just fine -- we'd just go out back of the house and use a signal from some neighbor. It sure was nice of them to let us piggyback on their connection!

This morning I headed out for a little ride through the countryside -- and ended up in Iowa. No surprise to most folks, I'm sure. On the way back I came through Blue Earth and saw a fella y'all should recognize … his photo will be in the photo album. I also went through a small town with a rather dubious name -- and which made national news many years ago when one of our illustrious presidents made a comment using their town's name in "jest." You'll see….

Then this afternoon we went downtown for the final events of the big reunion. First was the parade. A fairly typical home-town parade, except that for some reason the horses weren't last! No problem, as they had a special crew with a shovel following the horses….just in case. And so typical of a parade up in these parts, tractors. Lots and lots of tractors. Again, check some out in the photo album.

Following the parade, we turned our chairs around and faced into the local park where they had free ice cream and music. Another (final) chance for folks to visit with others who'd come for the reunion. And the weather cooperated perfectly -- up to a bit over 80 today, but partly cloudy skies and a nice breeze.

And as my brother, sister and I were "foraging" for dinner in the little kitchen here, Ive surprised us. She'd snuck out the back door and made a quick run to a fast-food chain called "Taco Johns." I went to one for the first time on my trip up here, and fell in love with their foods. She picked up a whole bunch of their potatoes and deserts, so we had a real surprise - and treat.

Tomorrow -- shopping. Thanks to a request by my dear sister, we're headed to the Mall of America. Should be interesting….but not very photogenic. We'll see.

Now for your Moment of Zen….

Special Invitation

Just in case you're in the area, plan on visiting the Waseca County Fair between July 23-27, 2008. A good time is guaranteed.

Of course, they'll have all the familiar county fair fare: Horse show, Goat show, Sheep show, Poultry show, Beef show, Swine show, Dairy show, Dog show, Rabbit show, Lama show, Livestock auction, a tractor pull, and a Demolition Derby.

But they'll also have some other really cool events you won't want to miss, such as: Dog races with monkey jockeys, Milk-chugging contest, Arm Wrestling contests, Hula Hoop contest, Foam Pit Dancing, Ugly Bridesmaid Dress contest, and a "Dress Your Livestock" contest.

Hey, you just don't find entertainment like this anywhere else! Be here.

Monday, July 7
Waseca

An interesting day on the home front. We headed out this morning for Bloomington, MN, and the Mall of America. In case you've not heard of it ("…do you live in a cave?"), it's HUGE. At one time it was the largest mall in America -- maybe it still is. It's four stories of stores, with a full-sized amusement park -- plus a miniature golf course -- in the middle of it all. And some of the rides -- well, let's say they're challenging. One was so fast, twisting, and downright strange, that both Norm and I got a bit nauseous. And we were just watching it from a distance.

We sent Es and Ive off at the Bloomingdales entrance, and they spent the next 2 1/2 hours shopping. Meanwhile, Norm and I parked the car "out in the north 40," and headed to the food court. At the end of 2 1/2 hours, Es and Ive had shopped many of the stores on two of the levels, while Norm and I spent most of the time in the food court! (Hey, what's wrong with that?) When we finally got together again, Es and Ive (having spent THEIR time on meaningless shopping) had to stop and eat; so Norm and I were forced to snack again.

Then we took a leisurely route home -- stopping at a Dairy Queen along the way. (And y'all thought bikers were big on stopping to eat! We finally got home around 4:30, and Ive immediately went to work fixing supper. What? Norm and I could still barely walk from all we'd eaten earlier, so we passed up the 12th meal of the day.

Now we're just "chillin' out" talking and watching some TV. Relaxing before our next big adventure.

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) we're heading to Madison, Wisconsin, to visit my niece (Es's daughter) and her two girls. We'll be there for a couple days, and I'm not yet sure if I'll be able to update the blog or not. If so, you'll see it here soon. If not, you'll see it here not so soon.

Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.

Tuesday, July 8
Minnesota and Wisconsin

Today's mission was to get to Verona, Wisconsin -- a suburb of Madison. That's where Es/Marie's daughter, Sandy, lives -- along with Sandy's daughters Mary and Alice (or Alice and Mary, just so neither one will complain about being listed second).

We made it a total of 13 miles down the road before we had to stop for something to eat. Then we drove almost non-stop to the next restaurant, where Norm was kind enough to buy lunch for everyone! (Okay, he did that a lot, but thought I'd better mention it at least once in this thing. Then we fought with that little lady who lives inside Norm's GPS about which route was the best to get to Sandy's. Ultimately, we won, and we made it there safely.

Needless to day, the first thing Sandy wanted to do was feed us, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, we didn't object. I think I lost about 7 pounds during my trip from home to Duluth and back down to Norm & Ive's place -- and I've gained about 20 since that day. Anyway, we had a great dinner (Thanks again, Sandy!), had lots of time to chat and catch up, and everybody made friends with the dog, Fiona. (Okay, so "friends" may be too strong a word for some of us humans, but at least no blood was shed."

After dinner, Norm wanted to attend a rehearsal of the local Barbershop chapter; so he and I both let the ladies gab and we headed over to Madison to watch and enjoy the group. They spent most of the 2 hours we were there learning new songs -- a couple bars at a time, repeating it, singing one part at a time (bass, tenor, etc.), and generally fine-tuning as they went along. It was an interesting study in seeing a very talented director get great music out of a very small group (only 12 voices). And not-too-surprisingly, several of the members recognized Norm from his days singing with various quartets and choruses. Hell, I can't take that guy anywhere without folks chasing him for his autograph or picture.

And for some reason, by the time we finally got home, talked some more, and ate snacks, we were all actually tired; so it was off to bed for a very nice, quiet sleep -- and much needed.

"The defense rests."

Wednesday, July 9
Wisconsin

Another busy day…mostly involving food. The day started off when some of us got up fairly early -- meaning before 11:00 a.m. Sandy already had apple crisp and other goodies to munch on, but that just wasn't good enough. She made two batches of muffins -- one was chocolate chip and the other blueberry. By the time the others got up (and I won't mention either Norm's or Ive's names), most of them were gone. But they snacked on the leftovers as we chatted.

Then we piled into the cars and headed to a neat little restaurant for lunch. (Yes, already.) It was actually an old Maid-Rite place; but because of licensing issues, they had to change their name to the "Nifty Fifties." LOTS of cool memorabilia from days gone by -- posters, lights, clocks, an old jukebox, Burma Shave signs, the works. Had a great lunch there.

Then it was off to do some shopping (for the women -- Norm and I just dragged our bodies along behind). Found a few neat little "everything shops" in a somewhat "yuppie" district. The only problem we had was when Sandy set off one of those shoplifting alarms at one store -- on her way IN. After we ruled out any offending items in her shopping bag or her purse, we narrowed the problem down to HER. Turned out to be a sales tag inside her shorts (which were new). I wish I'd been faster to get a picture of the store clerk cutting the tag out of the inside of her shorts! (Just use your imagination.)

After a couple hours of shopping (every guy's dream, for sure), it was time to head off in search of food again. Went to a "Boston's Gourmet Pizza" restaurant. Truly neat menu there, and we had MORE than we could possibly eat. And from there, we went back to Sandy's where Es (sis) gave a very good pie-making lesson to Mary, who made her first pie! … a lattice-topped cherry-rhubarb pie. "Yummy" doesn't quite describe it.

Courage. (Dan Rather)

Thursday, July 10
Wisconsin and Minnesota

Our last day in Verona. We got off to a bright-and-early start (well, at least Sandy and Alice did; I joined the world of the living at about 8:30, the rest about 10:00). By the way, the "catch phrase" of the whole trip: "The longer the train, the slower it moves." So we got to doing everything pretty slowly; but that was fine, too.

Breakfast was going to be apple crisp (which, so far, nobody's had time to even taste) and left-over muffins. However, the two cherry pies from last night's Pie School looked too tempting. So they became "breakfast" for Sandy and Es. The rest of us had to wait until we got to the first stop of the day, which just happened to be the real breakfast at a neat little food joint in downtown Madison. How was it? Good. However, nobody cleaned their plate! Just SO much food…. You just had to love it.

By the time we finished eating, we (Norm, Ive, Es and I) were already late in leaving for Rochester, Minnesota. The other three went over to Es's son Randy's place to take them to dinner, while they dropped me off at a local Wal-Mart to see if I could hook up with some old high-school friends of mine who live here. They never showed up, but that was okay -- I just had a somewhat quiet pizza by myself. If we do this again, I'll have to do a better job of coordinating with Karen and Dennis so they'll actually BE where I'm looking f or them at. (Is that a sentence?)

(Charlie, you're in my thoughts. As I sit here in a Subway typing my notes, two SCREAMING KIDS are making a fuss behind me. Wish you were here.)

**Note: In looking back at all the pictures I took, I'm sad to say I had none of my niece Mary. She was busy most of the time, and couldn't join us; so we were together very little during this trip. I promise to take lots and lots of pictures of her on my next trip. **

When we finally got together again, we headed back to Waseca. Then it was just a matter of unpacking and re-packing so we could leave for Deep River, Iowa, in the morning! (You just can't get any rest around this place.)

Stay tuned for the News on this NBC station

Friday, July 11
Minnesota and Iowa

We headed off for World-Famous Deep River, Iowa, for their School Reunion and the annual "Orangemen's Day Celebration," always held on July 12th. We got to our motel (The "Cozy Country Inn" in Montezuma) and got checked in. A nice little place. A total of nine rooms. We had two of them. So we constituted the majority of their clients. And the rooms were nice -- about the size of an average-sized kitchen, but with two beds, a phone, a bathroom, and a clock-radio (which scared the poop out of us the first morning it went off). Norm even pointed out that we had a CHAIR in the room -- something I'd not even noticed until he pointed it out. It was so small, I think I could have fit it inside my suitcase; but it was a chair.

Then we went to Deep River to look around a bit, and to meet our cousin Lois Evans. She's 92, doesn't hear so well, and is a little slow getting around (unless she has to go to the bathroom, then you'll see that she can actually RUN at times!). But Lois's mind is so incredibly sharp, she can tell you at least the month and year when everyone in Deep River was born, when any building was built or torn down, dates of all significant events, and more. She's a one-person historian for the town! She knows so much, it's downright spooky. Anyway, we had a great visit, and were entertained by hummingbirds that flew amongst us as they enjoyed her hanging feeders. I tried to catch the buggers on my camera, but they never stayed long enough to even "boot up" my camera. I did catch them a couple times, though -- see the photo albums if you'd like.

We went to a "Beef Rite" dinner at the Community Center in D.R. If you've ever had a "Maid Rite" sandwich, this was one of those. If you haven't had one, you're missing paradise-on-a-bun. Food was great! Then they had "entertainment" -- which consisted of little kids doing some kind of "cake walk" game to win junk-food as prizes. Ah, Deep River. No nutritional stuff or worthwhile prizes here -- just unhealthy snacks and diet sodas! They were going to have their annual Talent Contest after the kids' games; but nobody had any talent to show off, so that part was cancelled!

They had fireworks over the park after the sun went down. And you'd have been surprised. For such a small community and such a small celebration, they had a very substantial fireworks show! We watched it from the outside patio of our cousin Lois; and we had to watch through a massive tree that sat right in front of us. So we could occasionally see some sparkles, and it was nice. (Gosh, I guess we could've moved. Why didn't we think of that?)

So long until tomorrow. (Lowell Thomas)

Saturday, July 12
Deep River, Iowa
The BIG DAY -- the Twelfth of July celebration.

The annual Parade was pretty cool. It consisted primarily of fire department vehicles and farm tractors, with folks throwing candy at spectators. They didn't need much candy, though; while it seems like most of Deep River turned out, that's still not a lot of folks! After the parade, there were a variety of activities in the park near the old schoolhouse. They had softball games on the muddy ball field (yes, that was a tad messy), games of chance and fun for the kids, raffles for quilts and other homemade stuff, and food vendors.

We (there ended up to be about 9 of us family folks) took our lawn chairs to the park and sat there watching the folks milling around -- in the slight rain and drizzle. Besides the four of us you've already been bored to tears about, we were joined by cousins Linda, Larry, Sonja, Anita, Alana, and Lois. Plus lots of other cousins and other far-fetched relatives that I didn't recognize. (Then again, we're related to about half the folks down here.) It was uncomfortable sitting outside in that mist for a while, and we were known as the folks too dumb to come in out of the rain, but it ultimately cleared up and was a beautiful day.

Later, it was time for things like greased-pig races, a fire fighter's water fight (you'll have to see the photos for that), and a special "REVENGE" money-raising event for the 4-H club where you could buy a bottle of ketchup and then douse the leader of the 4-H group with it. Again, the photos tell that story. And believe it or not, but there were actually so many folks at the event that two of the vendors actually ran out of foods. (Okay, so there were only three vendors, but two of them ran out.)

In the evening we went to the Community Center for a dinner and the School Reunion. Things started off great when my dear brother slapped a sticky-backed nametag on my shirt, pinning my beard to my shoulder. I spent the bulk of the evening looking to the left, so I only saw half the festivities -- what happened to my right is still a mystery. Then during the reunion, each past graduate of the Deep River High School was given the microphone and an opportunity to say a few words. With about 120 graduates in the audience, it took a long, LONG time (or maybe it just seemed long, listening to all these old farts trying to form sentences). The class members ranged from the Class of 1930 up to the Class of 1963 -- about the last class to go through this fine educational institution.

One of the highlights -- our Aunt Maxine easily won the award for "Oldest Person" in attendance … at the age of 96. Sweet gal; wish y'all could meet her.

Live long and prosper

Sunday, July 13
Deep River, then Waseca

On the way down to Deep River, Norm got a call that one of their close friends in Waseca had died, and the funeral would be on Sunday. So we had to cut our trip and sightseeing a bit short, and head straight back home first thing today. Made it back to Waseca in plenty of time.

The rest of the day was spent unpacking, packing, visiting, and getting ready to head out; we'll take my sister to the airport in Minneapolis in the morning, then when we get back to Waseca, I'll jump on the bike and head South.

On my way up to Minnesota, I stopped at a place I'd seen before -- a chain called "Taco John's." It's quickly become one of my favorites. So for supper/dinner tonight, we went to the local Taco John's. What a great meal to end the trip with.

I'm not sure just where I'll go from here. It may take me two days to get home, it may take four. I'll see how I feel when I get moving in the morning. I'll update the blog again either in a day or two or after I get home. You'll know which I did by looking below!

But I Digress…..

Monday, July 14
Minnesota and Iowa.

Well, we managed to get our dear sister off to the airport this morning. No small feat, considering we all had to be up by 6:15 a.m.! That's unheard-of around here. But we managed. And everything went flawlessly -- right up to her being wheeled through the security checkpoint. After that, she was at the mercy of the airlines. (We hope she made it home safely.)

I headed out as soon as Norm, Ive and I got back to Waseca. After being off the bike for more than six days, I had to get out the manual to refresh my memory on how to start the darn thing!

I decided to travel down highway 218 -- a road my folks used to always use to get down to Deep River before the Interstate System was in place. In fact, the last time I rode this road was probably before I-35 was finished! My first stop (somewhat unplanned - since I'd planned to go there last week but never had time) was in Austin, MN, at the SPAM Museum. (Yes, there really is a SPAM Museum -- and a big one at that.) A few photos made it to the album. Then I headed on down toward Charles City, Iowa. Our sister used to live there, and I thought it'd be a cool surprise to get her a Harley-Davidson T-shirt from the Charles City dealership. So that's where I headed, and arrived. Unfortunately, they're closed on Mondays! WHAT? So much for that surprise.

I headed off toward Ankeny, Iowa, following back roads. I finally re-joined I-35 a total of 6 hours after I left Waseca, which by now was only 140 miles away! Obviously I took my time and a very scenic route.

In Ankeny, there's a Maid-Rite restaurant. It was closed yesterday when the four of us came through town, so we didn't get to have any of their great sandwiches. However, this time, it was open and I had a delightful dinner/lunch there. Yummy. Then it was back out onto the Interstate, where it was a cool 94 degrees. (In Iowa?!)

I made a significant detour west from Des Moines to "The Rock" near Greenfield. Take a look at the photo album, and you'll see why I went. One oddity -- there was a wooden commemorative cross tacked to a pole. The inscription was a bit spooky, since we have our own Lois Evans, who we left in Deep River.

From there I wandered over to Winterset, Iowa, the birthplace of one of the most famous men of recent times. (No, he's not a politician -- I said "famous," not "INfamous". If you don't already know who it is, check the photo album, cuz I ain't gonna tell you here.

Then I started plotting a course for home. My new route's taking me south on I-35 into Kansas City, where I'll cut east to St. Louis. Tonight, I've stopped at an Iowa State Park (Nine Eagles SP) in far South Iowa. It's a bit out in the boonies -- and I'm the ONLY camper here. At least it'll be nice and quiet. If it just didn't have one of those darn "hot showers." And I mean "HOT," with only one temperature … "scalding."

Tomorrow I'll head into Kansas City, and maybe even visit (yet again) the HD factory there. They have a nice tour and a nice plant. And the price is very favorable -- Free! So why not. After that, I'm not sure if I'll try to get all the way home in one day or break it up into two. I really wanna get back home, so I may make a long day of it tomorrow. You'll probably know before I do, just by reading the blog!

Bless Your Pea-Pickin' Hearts

Tuesday, July 15
Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Missouri, and back to Illinois.

What a day! If I had it to live over again, I think I'd pass.

It started off at about sunrise. I woke up at 5:30 (yes, a.m.) and couldn't get back to sleep. So after taking my time with everything, I finally was packed and on the road at 6:45. My first planned stop of the day was "the first McDonald's" I came to with WiFi. That didn't take long -- just about 20 miles down the road. Had my breakfast while I was trying to connect to their WiFi connection. The connecting part was easy; but it wouldn't work! So after futzing with it for half an hour, I packed up my computer and headed down the road.

On my way to the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City, I ran across another McDonald's right off a side road and made a pass through their parking lot looking for signs of WiFi. To my surprise, they had a sign in the window that said they not only had WiFi, but it was FREE. So at least I was able to stop and update the blog and photo album.

I also got my E-mail, and found out my poor sister missed her connecting flight in Chicago yesterday. Now I'm waiting to find out what happened! Knowing my dear sister, she probably spent too much time shopping in the little gift shops.

I paid a courtesy visit to the H-D plant, mostly just to pay my respects. Hey, it was on the way, so why not stop. I didn't take the tour, though. Done that three times already, so why waste time. Then I fought my way through the Kansas City traffic (and all the road construction), and headed East across Missouri. And I made it all the way across, too! Right through St. Louis. Then, 12 miles into Illinois, I was getting back onto I-64 when the bike DIED on the on-ramp. It just stopped -- as if it suddenly ran completely out of gas. And my personal initial troubleshooting said it was fuel-related. A quick call to Todd at the Montgomery dealership pretty much confirmed that.

I called the Roadside Service company and they dispatched a tow truck. That, as usual, was another experience altogether. I waited almost an hour for a tow truck, on the on-ramp, with no shade, and a temperature of 100+ degrees. When the tow truck arrived, he had a big roll-on truck, complete with a motorcycle "anchor" (I don't know what else to call it -- but it holds the bike upright by the front tire). The guy said, "I've got this thing, but I haven't used it in years." It got worse when he used his phone to call for instructions on how to use it!

After about 40 minutes, we got the bike on the truck. We hadn't moved more than 15 feet when he got a call, and mumbled something about "Jack In The Box." Then he told me we were going to "switch drivers." Seems he was the "day driver," and since it was almost 5:00 p.m., he had to turn the truck over to the "night driver," who would meet us at the Jack-In-The-Box. But don't worry -- it's on the way. It was "on the way" if you mean driving 10 miles in the opposite direction! After going about 5 miles, I asked him how far it was to the Harley dealership. He said, "Oh, I don't have any idea where it is. Hopefully the night driver will know." ….Are you getting a sense of where my afternoon was going?

Fortunately, he did. It was back in Missouri, just outside St. Louis again. So back we went. We got to the dealership at about 5:45 p.m. They were still open! (At least there was hope at that point. As it turned out, the service department was open until 7:30! The staff there was absolutely incredible -- the best I've ever seen. To make a long story somewhat shorter, they found the problems (two of 'em) and fixed them, and I was on the road by 7:20 p.m. (Calvin, it was a fuel-related problem. But it turned out to be exactly what Todd said it wouldn't be -- the connector between the fuel tank and the hose to the engine.) Not only did they fix and test the bike, but they filled the tank for me. (I had about 2 gallons left in the tank, but they had to drain it. Then they filled it up with a full 5 gallons to get me on the road again! How's that for cool?!?)

While at the dealership I learned that I missed seeing Carson Dailey (forgive the spelling) -- he's a TV show host on late-nite TV. Seems Harley-Davidson had loaned him and a friend two brand new Harleys to ride from California to St. Louis, where they turned them in at the dealership. He'd just left to get a "brew" of Budweiser beer --- saying it would be the last American Bud he'd ever get. (Seems Budweiser was bought out by some overseas company last weekend. End of another era!)

When the bike broke down, I'd been on my way to what would likely be the last Taco John's restaurant on my route back home. So when I hit the road again, my GPS said I'd be there by 9:20 p.m. if I didn't stop. So why not! I'd worry about a place to stay after I had my final Taco John's meal of the trip.

Obviously, by the time I got to Marion, Illinois, where the place was located, it was already dark. I decided that IF I could find a really cheap motel, I'd get a room instead of trying to find a campground in the dark. I did! A Motel 6 for $35. So I got a room and sped over to the Taco John's restaurant. Sign and lights were still on -- Yippee! Unfortunately, the door was locked. They'd closed at 9:00. Crap. So I had to go foraging for other foods at less-exciting places. (I settled for a Fazoli's. Not bad.)

So I'm now done for the day -- I hope! It's been quite long enough already. Now if the shower only works, I'll get to bed happy. If not, I'll just shake my head, sigh, and stink the rest of the way home.

It's only about 8 hours from here to home, so I'll easily be home by Wednesday night. I'll do the final update (and add at least one more photo to the album then.

Say Goodnight, Dick.

Wednesday, July 16
Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Home At Last! I made it, safe and sound; and very glad to be back home again.

The trip back from west-central Illinois was fairly uneventful. Once I finally woke up, that is. Geez, I slept until almost 9 a.m. That's the latest I slept anytime on the trip! (Must have been the good food at Fazoli's last night.)

Superman.jpg
I only made a few stops on the way back. One was at the Superman Museum in Metropolis (of course), Illinois. See a couple of the photos in the album if you're so inclined. Other than that, though, I made a direct run for the house, getting home about 6:30 tonight. Everything was fine around the house, so the trip ended successfully.

Overall, it was a great trip. 26 days on the road, 5,400 miles, lots of pictures and more memories than I can … well … remember! But I'm looking forward to NOT riding for a while. Gosh, I've got almost a whole month before my next long trip. Cool!

Good Night, John Boy

And here's the whole route for this trip. Another adventure put to bed.

And so it ends.............

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