Mississippi Mud Run 06/06/08

You see these three guys:

If you're looking to take a leisurely scenic tour through the Wisconsin countryside... these guys are not your riding buddies.  The man in the middle wouldn't know leisurely if you gave him a smoking jacket, pipe, and Laze-boy (we'll refer to these guys as Kyle, Dan, and Jiri... names may have been changed and faces altered to protect the guilty and accomplices).  But hey, I'm getting ahead of myself again...

For me, things started out early Friday the 6th.  With prep the night before, I was on the road at 7:30 a.m..  Originally I was planning to partially slab it in order to get to our meeting point in Middleton WI by noon, but seeing as I was ready sooner than expected, I set the GPS for Motorcycle, Scenic, Avoid Highways, punched navigate... and I was gone.  Started at about 28390 on the odometer.

I got out of Dodge and about 60 miles into it, this is what I was looking at:

The weather forecast called for scattered sever thunderstorms the whole weekend.  What I got was damp roads and the wind from hell.  The wind was from the south-west gusting to at least 50 mph.  So, it was either right at me, making me feel like I was cruising at 120 mph, or it was hitting me from the side.  The trucks were the worse... When one went by in the other direction it was like getting punched 50 times in a split second... the turbulence coming off them was unbelievable... After a few of those, when I saw them coming I tucked I tight as I could to the motorcycle.

Came across this just as I went past Interstate 39.  I think this is the first time I've seen this many wind turbines in one spot... You'd think Illinois and the surrounding states would have more, with all the open land and wind... You can also see from that shot that the sun was out... But the wind didn't let up.

I made my way out to Illinois route 26 and headed north. As IL roads go, it's not bad. Click on the below if you want the full image.

Now riding north was a different story... the wind was mostly at my back and I hardly felt it on my body.  As clouds drifted across the sky they made shadows on the ground.  They were literally moving at about 60-70 miles per hour.

Got into WI and started seeing those rolling hills again.  Click for full image...

185 miles into the trip the good stuff started.

Of course that was a blast, just had to be a smidge more careful because of the wet roads in some areas.  And at about 11:55 (not bad timing) and 225 miles from home, I made it to Middleton...  I was a little surprised that I was the first one there... You'd figure those WI boys would have beat me there... so, just sat around and relaxed.

This is the back dining room of the Quaker Steak and Lube...

The sun was definitely out and there was a nice breeze coming through the open doors... About 12:20 I was still hungry and no one else had arrived, so I ordered the "Lube Burger"... Love that hot sauce on it...  Just about 12:30 Jen, who lives locally, rode out to share lunch (mommy time as she called it), and the three "instigators" came a few minutes after that.

Well, we put down lunch, lots of water, and some beverages, and discussed the route.  Jiri suggested I lead since I had the GPS; overall the route seemed to match what Jiri thought we should be taking, so seemed like a good idea... It didn't take long before we made a couple "excursions" which made it clear that the GAPS was kicking in and if we wanted to make it to Trempealeau in any kind of reasonable time we'd need to take the "less scenic" route...

Not a whole lot of picture taking going on... This is only one of two stops we made...

And before you know it... we are in Trempealeau WI, on the banks of the Mississippi, sitting on the Hotel deck relaxing...

Click on the image below if you want the full effect of Jiri's bare feet...

Who do we have here... The man on the left is actually a guy that Iowabeakster (Kurt) met at the hotel.  This guy had ridden from Texas, on some dual purpose bike, and was headed into Canada.  Then we have Kyle, Jiri, Ves (yours truly), Dan, and Kurt. Kurt was already at the hotel bar having appetizers when we arrived...

Click it...

Click it... (if you like these photos, they get better on evening two...)

Click it... it's a big one...

At dinner I laughed and cried (I mean I was laughing so hard I cried) about some of the moments and Dan's perspective on rules... After dinner (Dan had the Walnut burger... which he wasn't real impressed with, but you have to have it at least once, cause you can't get them anywhere else...) they take the top off the eating bar in the dining room, and we have shuffleboard...  Kind of cool how the salt on the board, which you don't really see, reflected the flash and showed up as bright white...

After the game, where Kurt and I got creamed by Jiri and Kyle, I took off for my room in the separate building down the road.

Next Morning

The sun was coming in through my room window and things looked promising...

Got up at my usual early time.  I had a while before we would meet up so after getting ready I decided to take a ride down the road leading from the Hotel along the river...

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We were meeting at 8:00 so I went back to the hotel to cruise by the bikes... couple of the guys were gone... Based on the conversation the night before I figured they were out looking for coffee.  So, I rode to the local gas station and figured I'd get gas and come back.  The gas station only had 87 Octane... so I passed... but I turn around, and who do I see sitting kitty corner across the street waving at me?  Dan, Kyle, and our friend from Texas...  There was a little coffee shop there and they were sitting out in front...

Now what do you think we're all smiling about...  I asked if this was breakfast, and apparently it wasn't, but it turned out to be anyway...

Obligatory food shot...

Got a few people eating the sausage-egg-bacon-muffin thingies... and I opted for the breakfast burrito... eggs, cheese and spicy sausage patty wrapped in a soft, grilled, shell with a little salsa on the side... mmmhm... that will get your morning started...

Well, with bellies full, we said goodbye to our Texas friend and it was time to go... or should I say GOOOO! You can click on this one... That little speck in the distance is Kurt.. and the rest of them are long gone... It's amazing how much ground you loose when you stop to take a photo and how fast you have to go to catch up to a bunch of guys going really fast... You could take those curves at 100 mph+... not that any of us would... just that you could if you had to...

Again, not a whole lot of pictures, but lots of nice roads.  

It, became apparent that we needed to stop and put our rain gear on, cause that dark band in the sky was right in the path of travel...

Crappy shot below, but you get the idea... and it just kept getting darker by the minute...

Click this one for the larger view...

Well, we definitely got poured on, but we got through it pretty quick, and before we knew it, we were near Alma and the rain had stopped. We wound our way into the hills above town to an overlook (we stopped here last year too).  We're all kinds of spread out, walking around and swatting, cause soon as we stopped, the mosquitoes descended on us like vultures on a fresh roadkill.

Click for larger view...

Click...

Here's a good one... click it..  That town down there is Alma...

And then there was more swatting and ducking... Notice Kurt's shirt is a little wet there... He sort of forgot to bring his rain gear...

And more with the smiling... 

Well, we made our way down the road into Alma where we ate some food, had some refreshments, and played pool... and Kurt and Dan went down to the local laundromat to dry some clothes... There was some talk of photos in the laundromat alley with half dressed people... but I'm not privy to those photos... so someone else will need to step out to the plate...

That's Seymour at the bar serving appetizers and drinks...  and there are Jiri and Dan planning the next move...

I was sitting on that bench myself, when one of the locals comes by and says... You look real relaxed... thought for a second and responded... Yes I was!  Nothing like some high speeds, rain, and beautiful scenery to relax a guy...

We then made our way to Stockholm... more high speeds, beautiful curvy roads... etc... We stopped for some more snacks and drinks.  There was a little out cove consisting of a bake shop, a small restaurant, and a trinket store, with some umbrellas and seating areas.  I went to the bake shop and bought myself a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread... man was that good... so I'm sitting munching on that and here comes Dan with his own loaf, except he has them swirl some icing on it... 

Fact is these signs are right above a public bicycle rack... Yup, take a bicycle, ride it around, bring it back... honor system...

Time to hit the road again... again, not a whole lot of picture taking... but a lot of riding... We did have a couple incidences... At one intersection as we were stopped looking at maps and Kurt's bike decided it didn't want to be upright any more and laid it's self down.  No major harm done... remember boys and girls... all it takes is a slight hill, and a slip of the foot... and bike is napping....  Also, we had a dear near miss... Jiri was up front... I was a split second behind him, when this huge dear bounds out of the trees, down the hill, and across the road right between us... I slammed on my brakes and lucky there was enough room between us that I wasn't picking anything up off the road...  That would have been ugly... It was as much of a moment for the guys behind me as it was for me... they saw it unfold whereas I just reacted... Luckily we didn't have any more of those during the weekend, but I did see no less than four dead deer by the side of some of the roads... Then there was the turtles... Anyway...

On our way back to the hotel the weather started getting cloudy again...

And sure enough, it started raining again... and Kurt got soaked again...  At one point I looked in my rearview mirror and he wasn't there any more.  We turned around and found him hiding in a gas station.  We gave him the option that we'll just wait it out, but he chose to go on... I don't know if I would have... cause when you're wet, even at normal speeds, it's cold...  It was on the trip back to the hotel that I saw this big turtle walking on the side of the road... Jiri later said there was one in the middle of the road too... guess I missed that one (in more ways than one).

We all got back to the hotel in one piece, thank God. Of course by then the rain was just stopping.

We got cleaned up, got a table, and ate dinner.  It was after dinner that the light show started...  Now, the light show... the small ones should be clicked on for the full image... all I can say is some of these are just unreal, but they are completely untouched photos, taken right there at the hotel... drum roll please...

The following are two to four photos stitched together... so, they are big...

You can't dream this kind of stuff up.

Well, after the light show we also had some entertainment when a 3x3 or 3x4 (I forget) barge came to the lock right there in front of the hotel.  The boat pushing the barges was turbine powered.  This think sounded like a 707 spooling up for the runway as the boat maneuvered the barges around.  It was a site to see and hear.  Unfortunately my attempts to take the images in the dark ended up with black and a few colored light dots.

We agreed to meet at 7:30 to take off the next morning.  Kurt was going to get some sleep and would leave later.  He's used to waking up at 10:00 am because he runs a pizza joint in a university town; stays open pretty late.

I got back to my room and the thunder was shaking the building... I checked the weather... talk of flooding across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana,Wisconsin... record season for tornados... some guy on a cell phone giving an account of a storm he was chasing in Illinois that spawned multiple tornadoes... tomorrow... more of the same.  Nice.

Going Home

Well, I ended up waking at about 5:00.  It was raining out and I'm trying to decide what to do... I'm going to be ready way before 7:30... I could just wait, or get ready and take off.  They guys were talking about maybe taking the slab toward Madison.  I was thinking I'd rather not do that... especially since I was going to be doing nearly 300 miles in the rain. Last thing I wanted to contend with was trucks kicking it up.  And the sooner I get started the better.  

One issue I had to figure out was what to do about shield fogging... My shield fogged up in the rain, and I could deal with it for a short time, but for 300 miles I needed a better plan.  So, I started looking around the room looking for anything that I could use as a fogging prevention.  Tried spitting on the shield ( I remember that use to work on goggles during skiing)... didn't work... then I tried rubbing some oil on a spot and buffing it out... didn't work... then I tried some soap... It worked!  I rubbed soap on the shield buffed it out, and I could breath on it without fogging... I did that, and I took the small bottle of shampoo with me out of the shower just in case... (Yes, I need to get some anti fog stuff... it's just one of those things you don't think about until it's too late..).

Problem number two, how to get the bike loaded up without getting soaked in the rain.  I really had no other choice but to put all my rain gear on in the hotel room.  Problem with that is as I start moving around and exerting myself, without any airflow around me, it's sweat city... Ah well, I packed everything, put all my gear on, and hauled it out to the bike. I wiped my head off with a towel, put my helmet on, and I was off.

Basically I went south on 35 for a while and then gradually cut over until I got to 14 all the way past Spring Green, then took some of the country roads south, gradually making it to 78 south.  There were several spots on the back roads where the road was flooded... basically water flowing off the hills across the roads.  Ranged from very shallow and narrow to almost a foot deep and several car lengths long, with assorted pieces of branches deposited on the road.  

The Bike Dies

I had made a couple gas stops and at each stop I put on another layer of clothes.  What I found out was that my rain suit was not waterproof... I guess you only find out stuff like that after mile and miles of rain.  It wasn't bad but enough to make me put on a couple more layers under my jacket to minimize the contact to my skin contact and heat loss.  Gloves I had were keeping the rain out, but the water was getting in around my sleeves and my hands got pretty wet inside the glove, but fingers were still warm... I stopped couple times to squeeze the excess water out.

Thankfully I made my way across the Illinois border and the rain actually started to let up.  I stopped for gas, to have a snack, and then went south on 26.  Two miles out of town my bike goes... WHAAAAAAAAAA sputter sputter... WHAAAAA sputter caught... and that's all she wrote... The song lyrics came to mind..."Sittin on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere..."  Basically it sounded like it ran out of gas... I tried starting it again... and it sputtered for a second then died again...  Great.  To add insult to injury... I had no cell phone... I was trying a new pay as you go phone company... and there had been a problem with it... so, now I had no minutes... not even enough to send a text message and say HELP!

Well, I pushed the bike to the other side of the road, cause I was thinking of pushing it back to town... that idea died when I saw the grad I'd have to push it up... 

Who is this guy and why is he still smiling... It's raining again... he's stuck on the side of a road 130 miles from home...

Rain stopped again and I started waving my cell phone at passing cars... then over the hill I see a bike coming... The bike pulls right over and a woman gets off (geeeesss... can't believe I forgot her name... well, if you're out there reading this... sorry).  We talked a bit, I explained my situation and she was nice enough to let me user her cell phone.  So, I called my wife and arranged for her and the oldest son to come out with my car and the trailer to haul my butt home. Here's a photo of the nice woman who took the time.  Truns out she had flow down to Indianapolis (?) to pick up a bike... a KLR650 and she was riding it back to Minnesota... when I told her I just came from Trempealeau she couldn't believe it.  She said it was one of her favorite places... what are the odds... I thanked her again and she took off down the road...

So, now it was just a matter of waiting... about three hours... I pushed the bike down by a guardrail and waited... At first it was still drizzling...

Then the sun came out and I played some tunes on my GPS... More cars started coming by, and a few even stopped to make sure I was OK.  More bikers passed by, looking for the thumbs up... One guy stopped, had a trailer with some room on it, and offered to give me a lift.  

Sometimes I think to my self, I go through so many places and sometimes I don't take the time to just stop and take it in... so, this was my chance to sit on the side of the road and take it in...  Actually that's not all I did... I did previously check the fuses and relays... the fuel pump was operating... I had spark... I even tried removing the air filter cover to get some more air into it, in case my filter got soaked with water... nothing...  far as I can figure had to be bad gas or a clogged filter... I'm thinking combination of both... I just don't see that it's a coincidence that I only went two miles after I got gas.

I also found out why the seat and tank are shaped the way they are... with a tank bag strapped on, you can lounge in the sun, relax and listen to tunes... 

My wife says when they came down the road they could see my head from half a mile away... cherry red... I guess a few hours sitting in the sun will do that.  Mental note... bald guys should always bring a hat where ever they go...

Well, we got the bike loaded up and home... my wife left the house at 12:30 and we got home just around 6:00. Now the bike is sitting in my garage... haven't even gone out to take a look at it yet... what's the rush... next trip isn't until July, when I plan on trailering it out to Colorado, visit my daughter, and then ride out to CA and back... that's the plan anyway... we'll see... 

Mileage at breakdown 29292...  902 miles for the trip...