Morning Musings: Woke to a rainy Saturday. Not going to ride in a northeasterly direction which looked like a good route last night. The radar shows the rain heading that way and we’d stand a good chance of riding in it all day. Going east to Oshkosh then we’ll head north along the lakeshore. Looks like that stands a greater chance of allowing us to stay dry.
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I found it interesting that
the sand on the beach volleyball court outside our room in LaCrosse appears to
be dry even though it’s been raining steadily. Kim thinks it may be just
lighter colored sand but I like the fancier notion that it could be waterproof
sand. 😎
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When making reservations last
night I spoke to a young man with an accent who told me his name was
James. While waiting for his computer to
respond he made small talk.
James: “How’s your day been?”
Me: “My day has been wet. We’re
traveling on motorcycles, it’s been raining all day so we’re wet.”
James: “Oh, so you’re on motorcycles.
Do you ride your own?”
Me: “Yes, I do.”
James, with awe in his voice: “You ride your own? That is so awesome! Yes, yes, that is awesome, isn’t it?”
Me: "Why yes....yes, it is!"
😎
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Evening Update:
We didn’t run out of the rain
on our way east to Oshkosh; in fact it was raining harder the farther east we
went. That deserved another look at the
radar. Ding dang! The trajectory of the big green cloud had
changed slightly and now there was no way we were going to get out of the rain by riding east. We decided to head north
toward Rhinelander because it looked like the green cloud would be out of that
area in a couple of hours. Of course, either
way we’d have to ride through rain; just hoping to get out of it quicker by
going north.
It felt like I was wet
everywhere except my back…boots and socks were soaked, water had gotten through
the seams of my rain jacket so the sleeves of my fleece and t-shirt were
soaked, three pair of gloves got soaked, and so on. Wet, wet, wet! Rain felt like needles on my face and I don’t
even know how to describe what was happening with my goggles.
It’s not an overstatement to
say there was jubilation in my soul when we rounded a curve and saw bands of
blue sky up ahead. Heading north had
worked…we ran out of the rain at about 4:30 while it continued raining into the
evening to the east of us. Oh, there was
a lot of drying out and warming up to do but it was such a relief to be out of
the rain! There was evidence that it had rained in the area but the road was
already drying and there was no road splash from passing cars. And when we stopped for gas, the sun actually
popped through the clouds. I think Larry
did a jig when the sun peeked out…and if he didn’t, I know he wanted to. 🌞
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Got gas in Wagner and took
the time to discuss where to go next. If
we continued east there was a good chance we’d ride back into rain. If we went north then we’d be adding miles and
we wanted to be within a 300 mile range of home when we stopped for the
night. So we split the difference and
headed northeast to Iron River, MI. The
radar showed that the sky was clear and Google showed there were hotels. It was a little more than 90 minutes away and
as a bonus, we could be there before it got dark. On the way there I realized that there really
is no way to adequately describe what today’s ride was like or how fantastic it
felt when we were finally out of the rain.
So, three very soggy bikers
walked into the Iron River AmericInn at about 7:30 and got a room. I ordered pizza to be delivered to our room
and then headed down to the laundry area to dry gloves, fleece, t-shirt and
such. Kim relaxed in the hot tub after
pizza and then we watched old movies as shoes, pants, socks and gloves dried on
the heater. Then it was time for a
well-earned sleep.
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Today’s miles: 293
Total miles: 2369
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