Iowa

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June 11-13th. Another 3-day weekend! For this trip, I ride with my friend Ingrid to her friends' place in Guttenberg located in Iowa. We are both doing the contest so it was a perfect opportunity to get some tons and bergs along the way. The plan was to ride to Iowa on Friday, go canoeing on Saturday, and ride back on Sunday. The trip didn't exactly go as planned, but it was most certainly an adventure.

We met in Beloit, WI and headed west. Our first stop was Darlington. This town was a milestone for me because it is #25. Yeah! I get a shirt for my efforts. Livingston was next, followed by Bloomington. We crossed the Mississippi in Praire Du Chien and got Clayton, Farmersburg, Clayton Center, and finally Guttenberg in Iowa. We made it to our destination safely until the dreadful gravel. I normally don't have a problem riding on gravel as long as it isn't thick and the road has been around for while. You just go with the flow and ride through it slowly, so no worries, right? Wrong! Ingrid's friends have a gravel road leading to the property and then more gravel for their driveway. I'm been on it before and knew what to expect, but this time was different. They just built an addition to their barn and had fresh gravel put down. I made it up to the house no problem, but once I stopped and tried to move the bike to a more firm ground, disaster struck! I laid my brand new bike down. Once it goes, there's no stopping it. Thank goodness I have crash bars to protect my engine and saddle bags, but there was some cosmetic damage. Gravel vs fiberglass, gravel wins. Oh well, shit happens. With Ingrid's help, we managed to pick the bike back up, but there was no more gravel for me that day. After the bike was upright, I got off the gravel and traveled by grass.

Saturday was the canoe trip. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to rain on our parade and we had to cancel. Lightning and metal boats don't mix. Instead, we headed to Park Farm Winery for a wine tasting and lunch. The wine was yummy! That night Ingrid's friends had a small neighborhood party and we all enjoyed a wonderful taco dinner, drinks, baggo, and campfire. By the way, did you know throwing Christmas lights on a fire emits green and blue flames? You should try it sometime.

Sunday we headed home. The weather in the morning was foggy and cloudy. Not exactly the best conditions, but at least it was dry. We got Luxemburg and Colesburg in Iowa and were empty handed on Bankston. We crossed the Mississippi in Dubuque and headed north to find Louisburg. That was a dud too. We stopped in Cuba City for gas and a bite to eat when we noticed dark rain clouds coming in. As we were leaving the gas station, it started to drizzle. By the time we got to Benton, it was raining pretty good. We put the rain gear on and when I started the bike back up, my GPS died. Thank goodness I knew the way home! We managed to get one more sign in Shullsburg, but after that it was high tail home. Well, not exactly.

The rain was coming down in buckets! I couldn't see a damn thing. I finally opened up my helmet shield and that was much better. My face was getting wet, but at least I could see. We had a line of cars behind us and one idiot decided to pass into oncoming traffic. The van coming in the other direction actually had to pull over on the shoulder to avoid an accident. Ingrid split off in New Glarus and I made it to Beloit when my glasses fogged up. I took them off and held the glasses in my left hand while trying to shift. I'm surprised I hung onto them. At this point I had no choice but to pull off at a gas station. I was completely drenched, cold, and miserable. I really need to get some better rain gear. After the rain settled down some, I headed back on the road and finally made it home in about an hour. Total mileage - 518.

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