I left London, Ontario on Monday, June 30th en route to Chicago where I would see my sister Kitt and her daughter and son-in-law, Stef and Eric. I arrived at their place late in the afternoon; soon after we enjoyed a good dinner, cooked by Eric, and good conversation. My thanks to Stef, Eric, and Kitt for their hospitality!
Tuesday AM I cycled north toward Madison where I was to meet with brother-in-law Larry at a restaurant in Waunakee, a small town that is a bit north and west of Madison. The restaurant rendezvous was closed for the duration of a downtown street building project, but we met and ate at a bar/restaurant just across the street. Larry and I had a good talk for a few hours, after which I rode 40 minutes to visit, and stay the night, with friends of ours in Daleyville. (We lived in Daleyville for a few years.)
Willis and Judy Volden, the friends I would be staying with, invited me to a community concert as the evening’s entertainment. Their daughter-in-law was a clarinetist with the band. Sounded good to me! There is nothing like a community concert in the summer. This one, the last of 5 for the summer season, featured a variety of music including military service anthems, songs from Showboat, and ending with a Sousa march. Good stuff, and a reminder of when I was in band and playing in summer concerts in Greenwood. We had a delay waiting for a storm to pass, but once that happened the band was off and running. It made for a very pleasant evening.
Community concert in Wisconsin
After we returned to the Volden home Judy served a delicious dessert of award-winning cheesecake baked by the Voldens’ 11 year old granddaughter. It was really good!
The next morning I awoke to a steady light rain so held off heading to my mother’s house in central Wisconsin, my next destination. The Voldens and I spent the extra time in more conversation and enjoying an excellent breakfast served by Judy. Eventually the rain quit and I started on my way. Given the rain and the time of year, I decided to take back roads a bit of the way; the greenery and rolling hills made pleasant scenery as I rolled along.
I arrived in Greenwood by late afternoon and soon settled in for a couple of days worth of visiting and doing a few jobs for Mom. The biggest of these was cutting and splitting some fire wood, which I did mostly on the following day. Mom pulled out some CDs of trips she and Dad had taken to Alaska and Hawaii several years past and those were quite entertaining.
On July 4th I took a short ride over to Bloomer, Wisconsin to see Craig’s and Dianne’s lake shore lot. They have a very nice piece of land and have already begun improving it. Craig took me to lunch and gave me a tour of the area. As much as I like the mountains, lakes are also quite scenic and I think Craig and Dianne will have an excellent retirement along the lake. I did take a few photos during this visit:
The Paroubek lot is on a lake inlet
Craig while he was taking me for a boat ride on his lake.
Craig took this photo of me getting ready to leave:
Jerry getting ready to leave the Paroubek lot
The last few days had been filled with visiting and talking. However, on July 5th I headed home to Colorado, and that meant a couple of long, hard riding days on the road again. As on the way to the rally, I spent a return night in Lincoln, Nebraska, then back to Colorado on Sunday, July 6th. While I should have taken a day off to recuperate, I didn’t, so it was back to the office the next morning, the 7th.
It was quite a trip…5,122 miles over 13 days…and I was able to include visits with friends and family, ride with fellow motorcycle club riders, see some new sites, and revisit Niagara Falls. I did get rained on a couple times but had no physical or mechanical problems the entire trip. Biggest headache was traffic; going through Toronto at rush hour and Chicago [anytime] reminds me again of why I will never be a city person.
My next post will be about our Sanderling lot and what has transpired there in the past few work weekends.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
About 400 miles/day, 7-8 hours/day on the road average. Given the long legs, like between Lincoln & De Beque, and more frequent stops, I’d think there were a few weary days with sore legs (no matter how comfortable your “saddle”)…
Still, riding your “fast horse” in hours across plains that took horse or oxen-drawn wagons weeks & months is an improvement. I’ve always thought riding across the “treeless flatlands” immensely boring, except for the occasional storms from Sterling east…
Is next year’s rally already planned? Hopefully a little less in time & distance…
holy cow!
a lot of riding!!
and nice to have you back in the midwest!
glad you had a nice trip…i used to play clarinet too 🙂