Today Kevin and I both had some things to take care of in the earlier part of the morning, so we planned for me to meet him at his place in Fondy around 10. The night before I received a message from Mark that he had something for me next time I’m around. Well, that would be this morning and I planned a stop by him first when I got to town. I suspected it my be a gremlin/guardian bell.
I wasn’t able to head out until close to nine, so I had messaged Erickson that I was running a little late. As I approached Cty P there was a loose gravel sign, and sure enough, they had tarred and grey graveled all of the roads around Glen and even through town, all the way to Hwy 23 and a little bit in Greenbush. This would probably have explained why my Aunt in Glen said she never heard any bikes go through there last weekend during the super cycle weekend at Road America. Because, by the looks of it, it may have been freshly done just around that time. So, it wasn’t too bad if I stayed in one of the car tire lanes.
Shortly after getting onto Cty T west out of Greenbush, I got slowed way down by a vehicle in front of me due to the Birky peddle bike race taking place through there, and he absolutely wouldn’t pass them until it was a passing lane. I eventually passed him and a few bikes before hitting Cty G, and at one point blew my horn at the bikers because they were three wide, but they wouldn’t single file up. I came across several more individual riders before Dotyville, but when I got near Green Acres, there was another vehicle again behind groups of them scared to pass. Oh, and I had a Fondy County Sheriff pass me the other way, who gave me quite the stare as he drove by. Sorry, not sorry!
So between the graveled roads and the peddle bike race, I was slowed down a bit more and didn’t get to Mark’s until close to 10.
When I arrived at Mark’s, he had his bike out all ready to go somewhere and I asked where, but he said he didn’t know. I almost forgot that he had something for me, and my suspicion was correct, but not what I would have thought… it was a goat guardian bell. I was so surprised and excited! And, we found the perfect spot for it on my bike. Before heading out, I told him about my plans to meet Kevin for a ride and that he was welcome to join us, but that I didn’t know where we were going either, except maybe west or south, and he agreed to join us.
When we left Kevin’s, I decided we’d head for Breakneck Road since I haven’t been on it with the new bike, and I was a bit confused as the scenery had changed in that area a great deal due to lots of tree removal for new power lines heading through there and all the way to Waupun. From there we headed north around Horicon Marsh to Hwy 49 west to Cty I south, and then Hwy 26 south until Hwy 16/60 west. I was going to take Cty C west off of Hwy 26, but it was posted closed and then remembered they were redoing the intersection by Hwy 151, and I had really wanted to take some back roads! After we were on Hwy 60 for quite a ways and through Columbus, I decided to get off of it by taking some road south, and shortly after that Kevin directed me to a road that would take us to some nice windy country roads, but right where we needed to turn onto it was a police officer with his lights on, but no car pulled over. Well, quickly found out what that was about once we got on that road… another peddle bike run. Kevin said this one was posted for 50 or 100 mile options. Ugh! At least we only ran into a few riders and they moved over for us.
We eventually ended up on Cty V heading west into De Forest, where we stopped for lunch at the family restaurant there.
After eating we headed back east on Cty V to Cty C north, and some other roads which eventually took us to Hwy 22 north into Pardeeville, where we stopped for Kevin to gas up, but were still too full for cream at Carol’s, so we took Cty P into Fox Lake and continued on Hwy 68 to Waupun with a stop for Cedar Crest at Guth’s.
By this time of day it was getting pretty warm and it felt good, but I was over heating a tad bit, so I was looking forward to heading through Horicon Marsh for a cool down. I told the guys I was going to take that to Hwy 175 north to Cty B east into Eden and then head home and they followed me all the way to Eden before breaking off. As I was traveling on Cty B, I noticed a whole gaggle of mostly Harley’s crossing near Timblin’s, and wondered if they would stop as I approached as they kept seeming to squirt across, but they seen me and stopped as I went by. By the time I got near Plymouth my gas gauge was in the red and I did not trust it to make it home, so I stopped there at a BP and had the same issue with my card at their pumps as I did at the BP in Fondy earlier, that it wanted my rewards number (which I don’t have one) and didn’t want to give me my card back. I went inside to a rude attendant and just eventually agreed to pre-pay $8 inside. While I was there a gaggle of young guys, more like boys, showed up on their sporties. I was able to pump exactly $8 and headed home taking 67 past RA and to Garton Road back to Grove. I was pooped!
Although Kevin’s map says 171 miles, I put in an additional ~60 to and from Grove today, so around 230 miles for me. Had a great time today, even though we hit some of the same haunts already this season, but nice to see Mark get out with some people too, instead of being a loner. 😁
