Kevin had planned to meet his Honda ST group for a camping excursion in Lanesboro MN and I was available to go to Winona to see Dad and Candy those same dates, and the weather was supposed to be perfect. Low humidity/dew points, sunny and high seventies to low eighties. Kevin met me at my place around 8 a.m. Thursday morning and I already had a route planned for there and back on Sunday. I made a bit more of a direct route there with hopes to make it to Winona around 1 p.m. when Dad usually finishes his lunch. Kevin and I split up right after the La Crosse I90 bridge over the Mississippi River. Shortly after we departed and when I was on Hwy 61 I noticed a barge on the River hauling what looked to me as wind turbine blades. I will tell you more about those in a bit. After I arrived into Winona I got delayed for about an extra half hour on Hwy 61 in Winona. It was down to one lane around a half mile with traffic moving ever-so-slowly. My liner suddenly was not needed and my bike’s engine temps had risen pretty quickly. I hid in the shadows next to the semi car hauler ahead of me when I could to keep cool and to keep the wind on my engine. Needless to say, Candy and I didn’t make it to see Dad until closer to 2 p.m. He was tired, but alert and visited with us for a while before laying down for a nap.
Dad was very tired and sleeping most of Thursday and Friday. Friday evening when we left the nursing home, I took Candy for a drive around airport lake and to Prairie Island. After leaving Airport Lake we stumbled on the staging area for the turbine blades I had seen on the barge on my way up Thursday. So I pulled over to take some photos. Candy had never been up that close to them before and was astonished on how big they were. After we got back to the house I Googled them and found this article about them. They were made in Brazil and transported via barge from New Orleans to Winona and then will ship out on 90-foot flatbed trailers with rear wheel steering to the Dakotas. A total of 400 blades are to be expected. Pretty neat that I stumbled on them!
Saturday Dad was feeling much more alert and I took him to their memorial River Birch at the park. We ended up having to go through a good length of grass to get back and that was quite the workout. I was popping wheelies with Dad’s wheelchair to make it easier to maneuver across it. I’m sure it was pretty comical to see.
Sunday morning Kevin came up to meet me by Dad after my morning walk and then we went to the house so he could see Candy. I packed up my stuff and the bike while they were visiting and off we went. I planned a longer ride home with more county roads through the Driftless Area of Wisconsin taking us through Hillsboro where we stopped at the Hillsboro Drive In for lunch. We didn’t end up getting home until a little after 5 p.m. Oh how awesome it felt to get in some really good miles on the bike and seeing lots of breathtaking scenery.
