DAY 19 Friday, May 20, 2011

WOW! Two nights in a row with 7 1/2 hours of sleep. What a treat. My alarm sounded at 6:30 AM as usual. I got up, got dressed and packed, then Ken got up. While Ken was getting dressed, I took a bag out to my Motor. I took the cover off and put my bag in the Motor. I went to the breakfast room and Ken was out with his Motor. I served my breakfast when Ken and C.E. walked in. Soon the other three joined us. We finished our breakfast and returned to our rooms and got our bags. Does all of this sound familiar to you? It does to me. Well, that's what happened! We got to our Motors and we were ready to leave. We left at 8:27 AM.

Bruce was leading as he had just started to lead last night after gassing up and riding a short way to our hotel. Bruce led us away from Red Wing, MN. We rode through beautiful country that went along the Mississippi River. We rode for 63 miles and at 9:26 AM, we stopped at a Kwik Stop gas station/mini-mart in Minnesota City, MN for a pit stop. We bought some water while Chuck got some coffee. Sniff, sniff! We weren't there for very long and left at 9:46 AM.

We were off again. We rode through a lot of small towns. The river was beautiful. At some points, the river was very wide, probably a mile wide. We passed through Lake City before we stopped in Minnesota City. Lake City has Lake Pepin. The Mississippi River runs through Lake Pepin. It is a very big lake. It seems like it goes forever. We rode for 74 more miles and Bruce pulled into a gas station/mini-mart in Ferryville, WI. We had crossed over into Wisconsin again! Guess what? We made a pit stop, AND we bought water and snacks. We sat for a while looking out at the River. There was a picnic bench outside the mini-mart. We took some pictures and looked at the map. Bruce told us that he had been to this mini-mart in the past with a relative and also had gone to a nearby restaurant where they advertise the "largest hamburger." We took his word for it. It wasn't time to eat yet. We left at 11:46 AM.

Bruce had looked at the map, since he was leading. He got the directions to where we wanted to go. We continued and crossed over into Wisconsin. We followed the Great River Road south. We were going to cross the River and go into Iowa. We rode and stopped for gas at 12:23 PM in Bridgeport, WI after riding 30 miles. After we got gas, we looked at the map and found that Bruce had missed the turn off...6 miles back! We left at 12:42 PM.

It was C.E.'s turn to lead and get us back to the turn off that was missed. We rode back 6 miles and turned at the road that we were supposed to turn. We crossed the Mississippi River and into Iowa. Thanks C.E.! We continued west on Highway 18 and were going to turn at Highway 52. It took us a long time to get to Highway 52. We were all beginning to think that we had missed it. Before we knew it, we turned left onto Highway 52. Southbound we go! We rode through farm country. It looked as if we were going to ride in farm country forever. It then started to get more green. There were more mountain roads and twisties. This was looking more familiar! We finally saw the River. We had gone us a hill covered in trees and just as we crested the hill, we saw the Mississippi River Valley! To quote the two, gay BMW Motor riders, "How Pastoral!" We rode down the mountain and into Gutenburg, IA at 1:24 PM, after riding 38 miles. We stopped at a Subway for lunch. We had past by a scenic overlook on the mountain and we thought that that would be a great place to take a picture of the Group. We left at 2:08 PM.

It was only a mile away and we parked our Motors on the mountain, overlooking the Mississippi River Valley. I set up my camera on a tri-pod across the street and about 50 yards to the north. We have an agreement. If we are going to take a Group picture and it is close by, I will set up the timer and hurry to get into position. If it is a distance away, I will set up the camera and Jan will set the timer and RUN back to the Group before the camera snaps the picture. It seems to work well for us. Besides, Jan is our fastest runner! While we were at the overlook, Chuck took the map out again and studied it with C.E., since C.E. was leading. While we were at the overlook, Jan saw a Bald Eagle flying overhead and circling. There were many Eagles flying. We left at 2:34 PM.

We continued on our way and we rode through a very small town named, "Rickardville, IA." There was a business with the sign on the wall which read, "Bev's Cat House." We were not sure what kind of business it was. Bev, can you tell us? We rode into Dubuque, IA and there was construction. We needed to take a detour and C.E. took us through without a hitch. After riding 66 miles, at 3:56 PM, we stopped in Bellevue, IA. We stopped at Casey's General Store for a pit stop. We had a good break and C.E. told us to saddle up! We left at 4:22 PM.

We rode on and soon crossed the Mississippi River, again. This time we were in Illinois! We headed south on the Great River Road and after 63 miles, we stopped in Cordova, ILL at 5:36 PM at a Phillips 66 for gas. While we were there, we met a Police Sgt. for the Cordova PD. It was strange to see a cop sporting a goatee, while in uniform. It's not right! We told him who we were and he was very excited. He also noticed and commented about how cops always wear their uniform boots, even when they are retired! Why not, they are comfortable. Chuck had looked at the map and wrote some directions on his gas tank with the Dry Erase Marker. He told me that he was going to go onto I-74 to speed things up and get to Burlington, IA to find a place to spend the night. He had given C.E. and me the address of a hotel he found on his Droid to enter on our navigation systems. We left at 6:14 PM.

Chuck led the group and we rode through several small cities. Chuck told me, I was next to him, to help him get to I-74 with my navigation system. I talked him through the turns. We got on I-74 and the navigation system showed to turn onto another highway. Chuck turned onto the other highway, however, he went north instead of south. We had no choice but to follow the highway until an off ramp came up. Jan rode up to me and asked where we were going. He told me that we were going north, instead of south. I told him that I knew which way we were going, but that I didn't know where Chuck was going. Jan rode up to Chuck and Jan read Chuck's lips as he said, "I think we're going the wrong way!" We finally got to I-74, again, and Chuck got onto it and headed south. Chuck motioned to me to come up to him and asked me if we were going the right way. I told him that we were now going south. We rode for 47 miles and Chuck motioned for us to turn into the Krisdala Baka Road Side Rest Area, which was south of Lynn Center, ILL. We parked our Motors and Chuck went inside to make a pit stop. Most of us followed. He was still wanting to get to Burlington, IA, which was about 65 miles away. Jan and I told him that we should stop sooner because it was getting very late. Chuck told us that we were going another 20 miles away to Galesburg, ILL. We left at 7:33 PM.

We continued on and it was dark. Before we got to Galesburg, I saw a sign advertising a Holiday Inn Express. I told Chuck about the sign and it was at Exit 48. Chuck got off at Exit 48 and it was in front of us. We needed to turn right to get to it. We turned right and then left into a driveway. We thought that it was the driveway to get to the hotel. It was a driveway for a Taco Bell. Chuck led us around the building through a small drive. Just as we got into the drive, we realized that it was the exit to the drive through! We couldn't stop or turn around. We were committed! We hoped that there were no cars coming the opposite direction. There wasn't. When we turned the corner of the drive, there was a white mini-van at the menu board placing their order. There was plenty of room for the Motors to make it past the drivers door. We all made it and back onto the road. We finally found the entrance to the hotel and got to the Front Desk at 7:33 PM after 21 miles. The Desk Clerk told me that they were all booked up, however, the Best Western probably had vacancies. She called the Best Western and confirmed that they had rooms for us. Three rooms were held for us. Mike, a regular at the Holiday Inn Express, was talking with the Clerk and told us that he had to go to the Best Western also. He offered to lead us to the Best Western. He did and when we arrived, the Clerk at the Best Western gave us some rooms at a good rate. We checked in and had to ride all the way around to the back to get to our rooms. We parked next to the windows of our rooms, got our bags and tucked our Motors in for the night. We really got lucky because there was a restaurant on the property. We had dinner and, later, some of the guys got into the hot tub. I'm at the computer in the lobby doing my blog. It's going to be another late night for me. That's OK. I enjoy it!

Well, today we rode 403 miles and rode in 4 states; Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. We hope to get close to ST. Louis tomorrow. We might continue south or maybe get on I-70 and head west towards home. We'll see... `