I Am Done With The Bike

About the only smile I saw today in Eagle Wisconsin

I am done with the bike! April Fool! Well, at times today, that is how I actually felt. As I write this from my warm, dry, comfy couch, let me back up a bit.

I have wanted to ride with the members of Sport Touring.Net since I bought the bike. After some poor organizing due to too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, we settled on riding the Kettle Moraines, south unit today.

With me was Bandit Brother, Matt and co-worker/friend Patrick W aka P-DUB. The Bandit Brothers met Pat in Richmond, IL too fill up and head out. Pat led us out some great back roads out to Lake Geneva. Looking back at it now, that was probably the best part of the day. Thanks P-DUB!

Getting back on 12 at Route 50, we headed north to Eagle Wisconsin where we joined other riders at the Hen House restaurant. With a name of a place like that, I thought we were going to a strip club. Notice the blue skies in the picture above?

Upon arriving, I asked Pat if that fried fishy smell was coming from the restaurant. Matt quickly pointed out that due to the rain we had last night, we ran over TONS of warms. Here is the proof.(below)
(click on the image to get an up close view of worm guts....or maybe not)

P-DUB and Matt chatting

At 10:30, the group geared up and headed to... you know, I have no idea where I was at. If you can figure out where we were from the picture below, you are doing better than me.



At this point, a cold front was coming and the rain was right behind it. I have rain gear so I did not mind getting wet. It was the gusty winds that scared the crap out of me. The group headed back to La Grange, the south end of Kettle Moraine at route 12. After me playing catch up, Matt and Pat decided that we should start heading home. I couldn't agree more.

As we were heading south on Rt 12 in Elkhorn, the winds were brutal strong. I tried doing the speed limit but I was knocked from right to left, in the rain, and just really wanted to get home safe. I have no problem admitting that this was the first time, in a long time, that I got really scared.

With no break in the weather, we kept driving on. The farther south we went, the worse it got. I got separated from Matt and Pat but they waited for me in Richmond. The plan then was too take a break and grab some lunch. That was a good thing because I lost the feeling in my left hand from applying the death grip to the bike to keep her up right. In some straight a ways, we were leaning over so much; it felt like we were riding on a very long corner.

The weather appeared to calm down after lunch and we headed out. We stopped for one more gas stop.
The smell of the worms was still in the air. They were roasting on our bike engines. Here are some on the back of Pats bike.

(make sure to click the image above)

The Bandit Brothers split from Pat back at the gas station. As Matt and I got closer to Fox Lake, the winds picked up again and so did the rain. I took my time at this point and let Matt go ahead at his pace. I made it home OK with some new notches on the belt and some new limits for riding. No more windy rides! If it's in the forecast, I will back out.

I just checked on today’s miles. It was 158 with half of them that sucked. Oh, my garage smells like a fish market. Yucky!