I planned today’s route keeping in mind that the mornings are pretty cool and wanted to get in a lot of miles/distance with limited riding time so I mapped out more two lane highways and county roads than back roads. The weather prediction for the day was sunny and 70s without any chance of rain until late in the evening and then it would probably be in northern Wisconsin. However, figures I would plan a route where we would be right there for the one lone shower which popped up today!
We started from my place at 10 a.m. and headed west on Hwy 23 and 73 to Nekoosa with lunch planned at the Lake Sherwood Lodge south of Nekoosa. We had never been there before and we were very pleased with the food and establishment. Upon arriving there we noticed dark clouds approaching from the southwest. It remained sunny for the majority of the time we were there and ate out on their deck overlooking Lake Sherwood. From there we headed back up to Nekoosa to gas up and then take Cty Z south along the Wisconsin River. Around eight miles into it we ran into construction/road closed. Some other people turning around at that point told me they thought the construction was all of the way to Hwy 21 so we took the closest road/Apache to get back over to Hwy 13 south. Eventually the detour took us back to Cty Z and we were heading straight for the rain. When we arrived to Cty Z Pentenwell County Park was straight ahead of us, so we high-tailed it there with hopes to take some shelter from the forthcoming rain. When we pulled up to the Park’s fee station the guy asked me if we were there for camping and I told him “no, we were just hoping to find some shelter from the rain” and he told me not to worry about paying the fee and gave me a map of the park. We were able to get in some photos before the rain started and took shelter underneath the overhang of the bathrooms on a bench. When the rain ended, which was a brief rain, we started to head out and was approached by an older retired gent who was camping there (Papa Z Larry). He mentioned our bikes, and everything else about his life. He went on and on from one subject to the next. We found out about his life story, family and friends. After around a half hour of that we finally got him to understand we had to head out.
From there we took Hwy 21 west because I wanted to stop at the boat launch along the Wisconsin River to take a photo of the bluff on the west side of the river, then back east. We ended up not being able to take half of the route I had planned for our way back home due to the rain and Papa Z Larry delays. We didn’t get back to town until 6:30, but put in 258 miles.
