Day 7, Saturday,
May 06, 2017
Both alarms
sounded at the same time. Ken and I got
up, dressed and packed our bags. We took
them out to our Motors and packed them.
We also cleaned our Motors. The
others came out slowly and prepared their Motors. We went inside and had breakfast. We talked about where we were going to
go. Chuck decided that he wanted to go
north and we were good with it. We left
at 8:31 AM.
Chuck led
the Group north on 1st Ave. N.
This street turned into NE 72nd Street. We rode to US 65 and turned. We continued and eventually turned east onto
US 20. We rode for a short distance
because we all needed gas. We stopped
after 79 miles and stopped in Steamboat Rock at 9:48 AM. They only had two pumps so it took some time
for all of us to get gas. After we
gassed up, we took a break…you know, pit stop, coffee and drinks. We left at 10:25 AM.
It was Jake's
turn to lead. C.E. followed, then Ken,
J.B., Jan, Me and Chuck. We rode for
almost 63 miles when C.E. and J.B. hit a
pothole by the edge of the road. C.E.
was lucky and nothing happened to him.
J.B., on the other hand, developed a problem. I noticed that J.B.’s kickstand was hanging
and not in the upright position. J.B.
started to slow. He stopped by the side
of the road, Jan stopped also, just ahead of J.B. I stopped just in front of J.B. and Chuck
stopped behind J.B. The others
continued. J.B. and Chuck started
working to secure his kickstand. Chuck
got a bungee cord and secured the kickstand temporarily until we could get off
the roadway. The kickstand was secured
and we rode a little over a mile and exited at Exit 252, which happens to be
the exit for the town of Independence.
Ken was parked and waiting for us at the entrance of the off ramp. We rode off of the highway and rode north to
a parking lot. J. B., Jan and Chuck
started working on the kickstand. C.E.
brought out his tools. J. B. told us
that this problem has occurred before and he fixed it. It was 11:40 AM and it was suggested that
since we were in Independence and it was close to lunch, we could go eat. J.B. told us that just before we got off of
US 20, he saw a sign that said that a Subway was nearby. Jake led us to Subway and we had lunch. We finished and then left at 12:22 PM.
Just before
we left, Chuck said that he wanted to change the route and that he wanted to go
north. Jake took us through Independence
and then we turned onto US 150. We rode
and then entered the town of Oelwein. We
turned onto US 3. As we were eastbound
on US 3, Chuck was the last in line.
Chuck has a tendency of lagging behind, sometimes as much at a mile or
two. I saw his headlight and then it got
further and further. Soon I was not able
to see him. Jan slowed and asked me what
had happened with Chuck. I told him that
he fell behind, like he usually does.
Jan sped up to the front of the line and advised Jake. Jake pulled over about 6 miles outside of
Oelwein. There was a lady in a white
sedan that pulled up to Jake and told him that one of our riders had broken
down back in Oelwein. We thanked her,
made a U-turn and headed back to Oelwein.
We got into the town and Jake was on the phone with Chuck. Chuck told Jake where he was and we
eventually found him at 1:04 PM. Chuck
told us that he saw us pass him. He was
working on his Motor and gave it a temporary fix with a couple of zip
ties. Zip ties are one of the things
that I keep in my saddle bag in my “Harley Repair Kit.” The “shifter linkage”
broke. We left at 1:14 PM.
Jake
continued leading the Group. It was
decided that Chuck would not ride in the rear and would ride in the middle in case
he broke down again. We continued east
on US 3 until we got to Strawberry Point and then turned north on US 13. We rode for 35 miles and at 1:52 PM, we
stopped in Elkader because Chuck’s Motor broke again. Chuck asked me for a couple of zip ties from
my Harley Repair Kit. I gave them to him
and he fixed the problem again. We left
at 2:03 PM.
Chuck looked
in the map and found a Harley Repair shop close by. He told Jake to enter the address on the Navigation
system. We were ready to go. We continued on US 13 and then turned onto US
52. We rode that for a short distance
and stopped in Monona at 2:26 PM after riding 19 miles at a Kwik Star gas
station so that C.E. could gas up. We left at 2:29 PM.
We continued
on US 52 and at Luana, IA, we turned onto County Road X-16. We were all skeptical about the County
Road. We all thought that eventually it
would turn into a dirt road.
Surprisingly, it was a very nice and scenic road. We followed this road until we got to US 9
and turned left. Less than a mile away
was the Harley Dealer. We arrived in
Waukon at 2:52 PM after riding 20 miles.
Chuck and J.B. bought parts for their Motors so that they could fix them
and not have the same problems. We left
at 3:33 PM.
Jake
continued to lead on US 9. We rode for a
little while and rode into the town of Lansing.
This was a nice little town. As
we got to the end of the road, we look up ahead and saw the Mississippi River. We turned left onto US 26 and followed the
Mississippi River. The scenery was
breathtaking! The road was good, the
weather cooperated and we really enjoyed this ride. We continued north and at 4:21 PM, we crossed
the border into Minnesota. We rode for
another 55 miles and at 4:37 PM; we stopped in La Crescent, MI. for gas. We left at 4:50 PM.
Jan took the lead and I was next. We went north on US 26 to I-90 and then
Right. We crossed over the Mississippi
River and into Wisconsin at 5:05 PM. We
got off at Exit 4 and made a right turn onto US 157, then a left turn onto US
16. At 5:07 PM, after riding for 12 miles,
we arrived in Onalaska, WI. at the Holiday Inn Express. Jan and I went in and “made the deal.” We got a good price and great rooms.
We decided
to go to dinner at a Mexican Food restaurant, since we missed out yesterday on
Cinco de Mayo. We rode a short distance
to Manny’s Mexican Cocina. The food was
good and they made me happy because they served, “Sol” beer. We finished dinner and returned to the Hotel,
tucked our Motors in for the night and got into the Hot Tub.
Yesterday I
forgot to post the amount of miles we rode.
It was 304 miles. Today, we rode
for 321 miles. As you can tell, we are
constantly changing our minds as to where we are going to go. Like I have said before, that is what makes
our trip so interesting. We. Just. Never.
Know. Tomorrow will be “laundry
day.” There is a laundromat not too far
from here. We will do laundry, clean our
Motors and the two Harley’s will be fixed.
After that, I don’t know. I guess
we will decide when we are doing laundry.
So, we shall see…
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