Day 15, Sunday, May 14, 2017
When I posted last night I left you all hanging as to where
we were going to have dinner. Well, the
secret is out. We decided to walk across
the street to the Culver’s restaurant.
The mileage for the day stayed at 270.
I got to bed at 10:30 PM and set my alarm for 6:30 AM. That is 8 hours! I woke up at 6:20 AM and shut my alarm
off. I got up quietly so as not to waken
Jake. I was almost fully dressed when he
woke up. We both got dressed, packed and
I took my bags out to my Motor. It was
cool and I loaded my Motor. Last night I
worked on my headlight and fixed it, with Ken’s help. My Motor was packed and I was ready. I went back inside and had breakfast. A couple of the guys were there eating
already. Soon, all of the guys were
there. We were finished with breakfast
at about 7:30 AM. It was too soon to
leave. Jan told us that he was going to
the Super Walmart about a mile and a half away to buy a “quick charging” cell
phone charger. He left and soon
returned. Everyone was a little antsy to
go. All of the Motors were pack and we
were ready. We left at 8:51 AM.
J.B. was up to lead.
He led the Group to US 21 West.
Ken followed and C.E. was next, then Chuck, Jake, Me and Jan. It was a clear day and was warming up quite
nicely. The road was good and we were
enjoying the ride. We were on the road
for about 20 minutes when we saw three birds above us circling. One of the
birds was a Bald Eagle. The white head
was unmistakable. The temperature was
very comfortable at 61 degrees. We rode
for 83 miles and at 10:22 AM, Chuck put on his right turn signal and started to
slow. Those in front of chuck noticed
what Chuck was doing and we all turned into a Kwik Trip gas station in Necedah,
WI. We needed the break. We all went in and “took care of business.” The business was very busy! It seemed that this Kwik Trip was THEE place
to be on Sunday. All eight pumps were
busy, there were many cars parked throughout the parking lot and the three
truck pumps were also busy. We went in
and it was a little hard to maneuver inside.
There were two or three people offering free donut samples. The three got their coffees, I still hate
them, and others got water. We returned
to our Motors and watched all of the people conducting business at the gas
station. It looked like it was busier
that a Costco on a Saturday morning. We
left at 10:49 AM.
J.B. continued leading the Group on US 21. It started to warm up a bit and it was
consistently 79 degrees as we rode. We
rode through a small town named, “Sparta.”
The road, US 21 changed to US 16.
We rode for a 57 miles and J.B. stopped in West Salem at 11:49 AM. J.B. had to get confirmation that we were
headed the correct way. He thought that
he had made a “boo boo” by not staying on US 21. We told him that it had changed in Sparta and
it was US 16 and we were going the right way.
It was warm, about 82 degrees, and we all took off our jackets and
secured them. It was much more
comfortable. We left at 11:56 AM.
We didn’t go much further on US 16 when we rode into
Onalaska, WI. at 12:08 PM after riding for only 7 miles. It was time for lunch and J.B. spotted a
Subway, so he stopped. We had a good
lunch and the ladies in the Subway took care of the rush, us, quite
nicely. Remember the name of this
City? We stopped here for the night on
our way TO Thunder Bay. This was our
second time in this City. We left at
12:53 PM.
We continued on US 16 and after riding 5 miles, we stopped
at 1:03 PM at a Kwik Trip gas station in La Crosse, WI. so that C.E. could top
off. We left at 1:07 PM.
J.B. got us back on US 16 in La Crosse. We also had to follow a “Detour” through
downtown. This was a bad detour. The road was very crappy! There were all kinds of chunks missing on the
road, prior bad construction and an all-around mess. We finally rode clear of the detour and rode
on a much nicer road. At 1:16 PM, we
crossed the Missippippi (Yea, that’s right!) River and into MEEN-E-SO-TA. That’s Minnesota for all you non Minnesota
speaking people. We continued on US
16. In MEEN-E-SO-TA, US 16 is marked on
the map as a “green dotted” road, that means that it is a scenic road. Well, it is!
This was a beautiful road with hills and valleys, twisties and gorgeous
scenery. We rode past the small town of
Peterson and about one mile out, Ken started to slow. J.B. was putting distance between them. We were enjoying the road and were doing “slightly”
over the speed limit. I don’t want to
say how fast. The MEEN-E-SO-TA State
Highway Patrol might be monitoring this Blog and I don’t want them to come
after us. Ken pulled over and so did the
rest. Chuck rode up to Ken and they
spoke briefly. Ken, Chuck and the rest
made U-turns and headed back. We went
back about ½ to ¾ of a mile and stopped.
U-turns were made again and we continued on. Most of us didn’t know why the U-turns were
made. We rode for 64 miles and at 2:28
PM, we stopped in Preston, MN. Chuck
stopped at the Welcome to Preston sign and took pictures. Apparently, this is the town that Chuck grew
up in for the first 5 years of his life…before he was kicked out! No, just kidding. We continued and caught up to the rest of the
Group. We toured the town taking pictures
as we rode. The Main Street was lined
with American Flags. It was cool. We rode through the town and stopped in front
of a house in the outskirts. The owner
came out to talk to us. Jan asked the
gentleman if he knew Chuck Roseberry because he grew up here and left in 1956. The gentleman, drinking his beer, told us that
he wasn’t sure, since he was born in 1957.
Chuck spoke with him a bit and we were ready to leave. We left at 2:36 PM.
J.B. got us back onto US 16 and we headed out of town. We rode for 39 miles and at 3:16 PM, we
reached I-90 and J.B. was ready to ride onto the Interstate and stopped. Chuck continued straight and on the other
side of I-90 was the town of Dexter and a BP gas station. We all gassed up. We took a short break and a pit stop. We were about to change leaders and Chuck was
giving instructions to Ken. He was
next. I was next to them and listened to
the instructions, since I was going to ride next to Ken. We left at 3:45 PM.
Ken led us onto I-90 for a short distance. Like I said, I was next, then Chuck, C.E., Jake,
Jan and J.B. We rode west on I-90 and
were to get off at US 218 north. We came
up on the US 218 exit and I had put my right turn signal on and moved into the
turn lane. Ken didn’t. Ken continued. I sped up next to Ken and he told me that he
was going to get off on the next exit.
The next exit was for County Road 47.
County Road 47 paralleled I-90.
When we reached the intersection of County road 47 and I-90, Ken
stopped, conferred with Chuck and we were off again. Ken led us onto I-90 for a short distance
then onto I-35. We continued on I-35
until we reached the intersection of US 14 and we went west. We rode for 105 miles and at 5:28 PM we
stopped at the Holiday Inn Express in Mankato, MN. This is Chuck’s birth City.
I went into the lobby to “Make the Deal.” I managed to cut the bill by $50 a
night! We all checked in and unloaded
our bags. We took them to our rooms and
soon we decided to ride to dinner. There
was an Applebee’s close by. We went in
and it was very crowded. We were seated
at a “bar” table. As the 7 of us were
talking, there was a young couple seated next to us in the next section. Chuck struck up a conversation with the young
man. He told Chuck that he was a Police
Officer for a short time, but, got tired of looking at “dead bodies.” He went into the private sector and,
apparently, became successful. The young
couple finished their dinner and left.
Soon after, we were all finished also and the waiter came in and told us
that we didn’t need to worry about our check…it had been paid, including a
generous tip. Chuck asked the waiter if
it was the young couple that was seated next to us and he told us that it
was. It was too late to thank him, they
were gone. THANK YOU YOUNG COUPLE! See, there are nice people everywhere. We rode back to the Hotel and the Hot
Tub. I didn’t go to the Hot Tub. I opted to work on the Blog so that I could
get a good night’s sleep. It’s working!
Today we rode 360 miles.
We rode on some great roads and some crappy ones. We also rode through Chuck’s Childhood City
where he grew up for the first 5 years of his life. We also spent the night in the City where
Chuck was born. I hope that the people here
don’t find out. I don’t want to be
thrown out of town. LOL. Well, we are working our way down to Kansas
City, MO. where J.B. will leave us. He
will spend some time with his Son and Daughter in Law. We are still a ways from there. I don’t know where we will end up
tomorrow. We shall see…
P.S. For all of you
Mother’s out there, I hope that you all had a very special day.
No comments:
Post a Comment