I decided almost very last minute to see about taking an overnight trip with the bike to some place up north Saturday of Labor Day weekend in an effort to get in some really good riding both Saturday and Sunday, especially since the mornings are getting pretty cool and sun sets around 7:30 now. Kevin said he was game and I didn’t check with anyone else just suspecting with that late of a notice everyone probably already had their own commitments for the holiday weekend.
I planned for us to leave town until 10 a.m. since it wasn’t going to be close to 60 degrees until then. There was some rain being forecasted but it was mostly supposed to stay up north and head due east. With that in mind we figured we’d run into at least a bit of it, so Kevin packed rain gear for both of us. I layered up with a shirt, long-sleeved thermal and non-vented jacket. Good thing cause it kept me warm hence there wasn’t much sun either on our way out. I planned a more direct route up to Plainfield and then more county roads in an effort to get us up to Tomahawk with time to possibly take a late afternoon or early evening ride after we arrived there. Well about 8 miles before hitting Plainfield it started to rain and pretty darn good. We stopped under a canopy at truck stop to get the rain gear out and plug my headset into the battery because it died just before Plainfield. I needed gas so we stopped at the BP by I-39 and then looked for some place for lunch since that was where I had hoped for us to do so and it was around 12:30. Only thing close that looked good to us was a Subway at the oasis on the other side of I-39 so that is where we went. We ordered lunch and spent around an hour trying to wait out the rain and when it looked like it should be ending soon and was letting up, we fully geared up with the rain gear and headed back on our planned route. Unfortunately the rain lasted much longer than I thought it would based on the radar. Good thing for the gear but my gloves and boots were soaked and it was really hard to see because my visor kept fogging up and I hadn’t thought about bringing the anti-fog spray. Definitely need a sealed helmet for next year and more rain gear! It finally let up around Wausau and while making a stop in Merrill, Kevin checked the radar and it looked like we were going to be heading straight into another shower/storm. We high-tailed it from there taking Hwy 107 along the Wisconsin River to Tomahawk and luckily didn’t hit any more rain. It just missed us heading into Tomahawk. We checked into the Rodeway Inn and immediately hit the hot tub/sauna to warm up. We saw a lot maples turning red up north, not unlike by us but much more of them further north already.
The next day I had planned a route east out of Tomahawk zig-zagging east, west and south. By the time we made it to the Clintenville area and realized we’d be home in around two in half hours and it was only around one, I decided to forego the remainder of the route and head for Waupaca and onto Wild Rose for a stop at the ice-cream/pizza place just south of there along Hwy 22. It was an excellent time to stop, stretch, relax, eat ice-cream and feed their two goats. Today was so beautiful, especially compared to yesterday and knowing how many days like this are limited, I just wanted to keep on riding. Put in around 260 miles today.
