After a bit of much to do with attempting to get my bike in for service, I was finally able to secure a wait while they do the work appointment with Fondy Power Sports, formerly Miller Equipment and Pro Motor Sports, at 9 a.m. today. So, I headed out from here at 8 a.m. and thankfully it was already 64 degrees when I left, as previous temps overnight have been down into the 50s, yet it was supposed to be close to 90 today.
I worked up a route last night for Kevin to put into his GPS taking us a very long way around Lake Winnebago. Mostly since the fall color report showed all of those counties were at 50% and also to get over towards Lake Michigan for a cool down near the end of our ride.
Kevin showed up Fondy PS to meet me around 10, but it still took them another hour before my bike was finished, and I had to ask them about it as it seemed as though they had forgotten about me even though I was sitting in their service waiting area.
From there we headed towards our planned lunch stop The Cove on Poygan along wouldn’t you guess it… Lake Poygan. We even knocked off some roads from the route to save time and I think we arrived close to noonish. Except we weren’t too sure if they were open with hardly any cars in the lot, but luckily they were. Very nice place which clearly had recently been renovated with an equally nice areas to sit outside too with a tiki bar for the boaters. Kevin also said he overheard the owner who was there talking about the remodel and opening earlier this year. I believe it was formerly The Captain’s Cove. We were going to sit outside, but opted to stay inside with the nice A/C as we knew we’d be getting overheated on the bikes with our gear and we both ordered a smash burger, which were extremely good. Messy, but as I say… the messier the burger, the better it is!
From there we headed west on D through Borth and 49 north through Poy Sippi, and eventually taking 110 east to 96 east. However, one of the roads I had planned north had a bridge out so that messed up the route a bit, but we eventually got back on track. My goal with the route in this area was to avoid getting too close to Appleton due to congestion and how hot it was. However, I also forgot that part of the route I planned took us into and through Kimberly to reconnect on Hwy 96 east, but that wasn’t congested and turned out okay. I was already getting very overheated by this point though and quite cranky. Poor Kevin!
From there we eventually made it into Wrightstown and were going to take Washington Ave north along the east side of the Fox River for a ways before heading east again, but there was some Fall Festival going on right there and we were rerouted south. Turns out some of our car friends from Fondy were there for the car show associated with the Festival. Small world! After a short stop for Kevin to check out his GPS, we ended up traveling north back into the east side of Wrightstown to reconnect once again on 96 east. The plan from there was to eventually connect to Cty V east off of Hwy 147, and then to take Cty O south into Trivers, but we were so warm and without many stops, I was getting quite sore too. So, once we hit Cty B in Mishicot, we just took that south into Manitowoc. My intentions originally for the route was to stop at one of the pullouts along Lake Michigan between Trivers and Mani, but oh well. There was also some Halloween/Fall Festival near Petskull in Mani which slowed us down too with all of the congestion. I later found out via FB it was Nightmare on 8th Street. Don’t these towns know it is too hot yet, for these things?! Haha!
We were so incredibly warm by the time we made it to Manitowoc, that we didn’t even stop at the Cedar Crest Parlor when we drove by, and go figure, there wasn’t even a line out the door, but the parking lot was packed. At least there was some cooler air coming off of Lake Michigan, which started already when we dropped south out of Mishicot and all the way south along Lakeshore. Which Kevin found quite baffling since the winds were out of the southwest, but I didn’t care why, since it felt so refreshing!
From there we took Lakeshore all of the way south to Cty MM west and then Hwy 42 south into Grove where Kevin continued on back to Fondy. I cannot tell you how glad I was to be off the bike, peel my gear off and slam a tall glass of ice-tea!
I forgot to turn my tracker on when I left this morning, but Kevin put in around the same amount of miles as me to get back to Fondy and his states 238. Mine was probably roughly 10 more miles since I went directly south on 32 to 23 east, and then I also took the 151 bypass south around Fondy to get to Fondy PS. However, I believe that the main reason why I was so sore today was due to hardly any stops after lunch. Only when we stopped for gas in Freedom and when we were rerouted in Wrightstown.
Kevin wants to go up to the Reservation tomorrow on Hwy 55 along the Wolf River, and I told him no way, I am out since it is going to even windier with 30-40 mph gusts and still in the 80s. Hopefully the temps don’t drop too much after Monday’s rain front moves through here. Especially since we’re not close to the fall colors peaking, and I love taking them all in on the bike. Fingers crossed!
