Today was originally to be slated for rain all day, but it was moved into the evening. So, Kevin, who originally wasn’t able to ride at all, decided he could until around 2. Therefore, we planned to ride with meeting at my place at 10 with a planned stop in Eureka for a burger at the Eureka Landing Bar. This was where I took my first ride of the season last year, and first time I ate there, and loved the burger I had at that time.
The morning started off cloudy, but by the time we left the sun had come back out again and it got pretty toasty at times. Kind of iffy on what gear to were, but I stuck with my non-mesh jacket because I figured it would get windy and I hate the feeling of the wind going through my jacket and pulling at it when I wear the mesh.
After a stop at the Shell by me to top off the air in my tires, we headed out on 23 to Cty I north, Cty N west to Olden Road, then Cty M north with a stop for gas in Pickett. Then back onto Cty M north through Waukau to Cty K west and north into Eureka.
Due to the very unseasonably warmer weather this whole past week, we heard the sturgeon were already spawning on the Wolf River in Schiocton. Also due to some very heavy rains recently there was still a lot of water in fields, including the Fox River in Eureka was very high too.
We were the first people to arrive at the Landing Bar and it was around 11, and they didn’t open the kitchen until 11:30. However, they started our burgers a little early for us. Even though they have a very nice patio area to eat outside, we opted to stay in since it was so warm.
From there we headed west on Eureka Lock Road where we saw much of the Fox River over it’s banks, and then a bunch of back roads north of Berlin eventually connecting onto Cty F west and eventually making our way to Neshkoro. Due to time constraints, we did not make a stop at the mill/dam there.
From there we headed west N/E and took Cty Y south into Montello. From there we decided to stop in Ripon at the Sweet N’ Saulty for ice-cream, so we just stayed on Hwy 23 for the remainder of the trip back. Since there was no shade at the outdoor seating at the SNS, we opted to stay inside there as well.
When we arrived in Ripon there were firefighters running a whole block of Main Street in full gear and we weren’t sure what that was about, but that had to be HOT too!
By the time we left Ripon, the winds really picked up and started gusting pretty good, which I found out the hard way the minute we hit the first open area of Hwy 23 out of town. It was pushing me so hard, I was having a difficult time keeping my bike in my lane using all of my upper body strength and leaning into it as much as I could to keep going straight and not directly into oncoming traffic. These are the only times I wish I had a heavier bike. It is very scary for me when this happens, so I was sure glad that we were almost home, except I still had to deal with that a few more times.
