Although it was supposed to be extremely breezy today, it sounded borderline for me and also it was supposed to be warmer today vs. tomorrow, Sunday. So, I checked with Kevin Friday as he was debating whether or not to go bow hunting, but he said when it’s this warm, the deer don’t move as much, so he said ride. Yeah, he had me at ride. Hah! So, I planned a route I knew would be tolerable for my bike… pretty much into and out of the direction of the wind. To go through the Kettle Moraine and eventually into Saukville for lunch. First though, I had to replace a bolt on my left side panel of my bike.
Since we were both ready a tad bit earlier than we planned on meeting, we both left around 9ish to meet in Greenbush. I arrived around 5-10 minutes before him and then we proceeded south on Kettle Moraine Drive, and we never ran into any traffic at all through the Kettles. In fact nothing until we got close to West Bend. Where we stopped to potentially check the air in my tires, as I noticed the tar snakes were grabbing my back tire pretty good, and it isn’t nearly hot enough for them to be doing that. However, they didn’t have any air, so Kevin gassed up and I used the bathroom.
From there we took Wallace Lake Road east and M south to Hwy 33 east into Saukville where we stopped at Casey’s and they had air. However, my back tire had close to 42 psi which is where it should be. So, I gassed up and then we were off for J’s for lunch. Thought I’d try this place instead of MJ’s a block away because we have been there before, but from what I could tell, it kind of looked dumpy, so we agreed to go to MJ’s after all with hopes they’d also have the Badger football game on. When we got there the open light was on, but the door was locked. As we were walking away, the staff opened the door stating they forgot to open both of them. So, we were the first patrons, and there were some games on, but not the Badgers and we knew the game started at 11 because Brad and Tim had posted they were there to FB. Lunch was pretty good, I had chili and wings and Kevin had tacos.
From there I had planned for us to take Cty O south along the Milwaukee River, but Kevin’s Garmin wanted us to take I-43. We both turned south on Cty W and between our squabbling about that not being right, I lost Kevin. Literally and also on our headsets. So, I took the first right after that and circled back and tried calling him through my headset, but no luck. After getting back near Saukville, I stopped along a bridge and pulled out my phone to call him and he was quite a ways south of me on Cty W. So, I sat there on the side of the bridge with my flashers on waiting for him, but keeping him on the line the whole time. And low and behold, I saw a police officer approaching me from behind and I could tell they were slowing down to talk to me. Yep, they did, first giving me a thumbs up as if questioning if all was good and I gave him a thumbs up back, and then pulled my visor up to tell him I was just waiting for a friend.
When Kevin met back up to me, we proceeded towards Cty O and he asked where my friend went, and I said he turned the same direction as us, but he was a little bit ahead of us. When we got onto Cty O there was a squad up ahead with it's lights on and someone pulled over in the opposite direction, and I told Kevin there was no way it could be the same officer because he wasn’t that far ahead of us. Well, as we passed, sure enough, it was him!
From there we ended up into Cedarburg where we took Hwy 60 west to Covered Bridge Road north and although there is an ice cream place right there, neither of us were quite ready for that. Instead I decided to stop in at Cedar Creek Park where the old covered bridge is that used to be the main road through there and we walked around, and I of course, took photos.
From there we meandered north through Waubeka, Fillmore and changed our route to go to Dundee with thoughts of cream at the Hamburger Haus, but they were extremely busy. So, we decided to forego that and proceed on Cty G north and eventually split up by the former Baker Cheese. On my way home while I was on Garton Road, I noticed the bracket that held the bolt I screwed in earlier today was loose now too. I had already noticed earlier during our ride that the bolt had vibrated out, so I stopped at Rhine Auto and got my tools out to at least save the bracket and tighten the outside bolt.
I was actually glad we didn’t take a much longer ride as I felt like I was parasailing going down Garton with the wind hitting me broadside and it sure felt like it had picked up even more than earlier. Although we had seen more patches of vibrant fall foliage, they were never in a good spot for stopping to take a photo. Based on Kevin’s map below and the miles I put on by myself, it was right around 140 miles for me today.
