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I
certainly didn’t get the day started out on time. It was my
last day of my trip and by starting out late, and after so many days
on the road, what could have been a beautiful ride along one of my
favorite rides along the Mississippi river was pretty much expected
to be what it was, a long ride without stopping. It was also the coldest
all day of my whole trip. Perhaps, a sign of some sort that needs
to be sorted out. I also quickly ran into some rain but unlike the
day before I: A. had my rain suit & B. I stopped to put it on.
It was a very, very light misty drizzle that started about a half
hour or so into my ride. I waited a while to see if it would let up
but I knew that even if it was light my pants would stay wet much
longer than the rain itself. So I pulled into a gas station in Red
Wing, put on the marshmallow suit, filled the tank and was off.
It, of course, didn’t rain for long. Though I was happy to have
put the suit on for it did rain a bit harder, but the hardest part
was the low gray clouds along the river to La Crosse. The leaves had
only just started to change colors and traffic was a bit more than
I expected so I just settled in to a constant pace to La Crosse.
Along the way I saw my first fellow rider/travelers since…the
Black Hills. The river corridor down to the Iowa border is pretty
popular for riders out of the Twin Cities and I myself would ride
this route as often as I could when I used to live in Madison. That
was on my |
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very
first motorcycle, a Yamaha Maxim 650. Anyway, the rain stopped
before Winona but I didn’t change out of my suit until
crossing the river into La Crosse. For once I was being proactive,
or lazy depending on how you look at it. It was inflating
and I am sure added about a 150 lbs. to my body. Which isn’t
so wind resistant at speed.
Overall, the trip wasn’t much memorable. I’ve
made it so many times in my car that my only real disappointment
was not being able to make it to the Rippin’ Cookie
factory store. Though it did pass a bit quicker on a motorcycle
but my mindset was to get home and back into a life of what
passes for normal, which it has been since early September.
I knew I would have tons of mail stacking up, rejections letters
to throw away, resumes to send out and sleep to get.
I got home and it took me not too much longer than it would
have had I driven. Chalk it up to minimal traffic all the
way in Wisconsin. I got back around 5:30 and unloaded my bags,
made a frozen pizza in my oven that again needs a new thermostat
or some gadget or other.
I parked the bike in the garage, closed the garage door and
went to bed.
Route:
Highway 52 south to Highway 19, Highway 61 south to East I-90
to East Highway 82, becomes Highway 23 to Plymouth. |
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