"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

August 4

The WI Dells is home of the best mini-golf courses in the country.  Take it from us, we played them all this trip.  After a morning of mini-golf (loser has to eat anything from a menu that the winner tells them to) we left Wisconsin. 

The weather in Sturgis will be cool, with scattered showers, so we stopped at a Wall Mart to pick up some more tarps, camping gear, and an easy-up canopy.  Now, the bikes are very loaded.  But, our gear still weighs a lot less than having a second rider on the back. 

We stopped in LaCross WI for dinner at a pleasant little diner.  We rode till almost 9pm and got half way across Minnesota.  To bad it was late, because the SPAM museum was closed when we went by it.  Next time…

August 5 – The boys agreed to ride  an extra 90 miles so we could go the the Surf Ball Room in Iowa.  It is the last place Buddy Holly played before the plane crash.  For those how don’t know, Buddy Holly did a song called Rave On that I am quite partial to.

We rode well into South Dakota, and stayed in Chamberlin on the Missouri river.  Sam and I took a sunset ride down along the river.

We stopped for dinner, and I ordered the Rocky Mountain Oyster apetizer.  I think you can see from the picture how well they guys liked it.  They must really like eachother though.  nether brought up the winner-eat-anything bet from the mini-golf.  The boys crashed when we got into the motel.

July 28 – Left Washington DC

Chris took Maddy to the Washingto Dulles airport and then rode up to Gettysburg to see the war museum.  Along the way we stayed in touch with Maddy, and eash time we talked they cancellel her flight and rescheduled a few hours later.  By the end of the day she had had changed planes 3 times, none of which were fit to fly.   We rode back to DC, picked her up, and got a hotel near the airport.  The next morning she finally got on a plane that could fly. 

July 29 – Leaving Washington Again

This time we rode north to Antietam, the scene of the bloodiest cival war battle.  This little church on the high ground was a focal point of the battle.  (reconstructed in the 20s).

The memorial is very nice, an because it is not as popular as Gettysburg, there are no crowds and you can walk around the battlegrounds at your own pace.

From Antietam, we rode for a few hours. The radar weather app showed a massive storm all across PA, so we check into a hotel to wait it out. 

 July 30 –  We got up early and rode to Cedar Point Ohio – the largest roller coaster park in the world, and home of some of the largest and fastest roller coasters.  And, they had parking in the front for motorcycles.

The highlight ride for all of us was the Millenium.  It is rated as the nest metal coaster in the world, and takes you up 30 stories.  An amazing ride.  After racing Baja with Kevin Walsh, I thought no amusement park ride would ever scare me again, but this one was exciting.

The lines were VERY long, with 1 1/2 wait per ride, so after a few rides, we went back to the hotel and watch Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Jose Wales. 

July 31 – Played a round of Goofy Golf at an arcade in Sandusky OH (Chris won round 1, Sam round 2) and then we headed west toward Wisconsin.

I’d been keeping in touch with Jeff Plass, as he and his family were headed to Cedar Point from WI, and we were going to meet for lunch.  But, as luck would have it, by the time we meet on the Ohio Turnpike, there was no good place to pull a U turn and meet up. 

August 1 – We got up early and hit the turn-pike again.  We really don’t like these turn-pikes.  Too many trucks, few gas stations, and poor food choices.  We took a break at the Oasis north of Chicago, and in the paper I saw this article.  Record heat all summer long across the USA. Sam and I were just talking about how much hotter and wetter this trip is compared to 4 years ago. 

But, we made to to Grandpa Richard’s house (5500 miles behind us).  He cooked us chicken and corn on-the-cob for dinner, and then we played a game of poker along with Uncle Al and John Boetcher. Grandpa won.

August 2 –  We took the boy’s bikes into Appleton Harley and got mine changed by Motorcycle Johnny – a shop just down the road from my dad’s.  It was hot and rained all day, so the boys wwatched movies and I hit the antique shops looking for Utschig dairy items and a civil-war musket. I didn’t find either. 

That evening a bunch of my high-school friends came over and we cooked brats, drank Old Style and Pabst Blue Ribbon, smike cigars, and told stories.  I had a great time, and it was the first time we all had been together since graduation.

That afternoon, my friend Perry just got back from a 10-day motorcycle trip to Colorado, and he came by with his sport bike.  Sam got to take it for a spin.

The next morning, we played golf with dad, packed up, and headed down to Wisconsin Dells.  Here we are with my father at his house, just before we left.

At the Dells, we stopped into a campground where a couple more high-school friends Dean and Carol were staying for the week.  We had a few more PBRs and went to a bar up the road for dinner. 

July 25 – The night we arrived in DC

We walked down to the National Mall from the hotel. The White House is only 6 blocks or so from our hotel.  We’re going to take 2 days off from riding, unwind a bit, and see the city.

To me, the memorials are the most powerful part of touring Washington, and the Vietnam Memorial is always my first stop.  Seeing the Wall is a very moving experience. 

July 26 – In Washington

I gave Chris a day away from dad.  Maddy and Chris toured the Natural History Museum and Smithsonian while Sam and I walked around the city. 

The highlight of the afternoon for me was a pub Sam and I found.  Just stitting down, relaxing, and having a cold beer with Sam was great.  Later I got my directions messed up, and we ended up at the Kennedy Center, so we went in.  Nothing was going on, but it was fun to walk around inside.  As luck would have it, a show Wickedis playing tonight, so we bought tickets. It is the prequil to The Wizzard of OZ.  Maddy bought us dinner at the roof-top restaraunt at the Kennedy Center. 

We found out Chris does not like goat cheeze. I wish I had a picture of him when he tried it.  The musical was outstanding, and we’ll never look at the Wizzard of OZ movie the same way again.  (The Wicked Witch is actually the good guy). 

After the theater, we went to the Lincoln Memorial.  To stand under Lincoln’s statue and read his Gettysburg Address incribed on the wall is special. 

July 27

We were going to take a tour bus around town to various sites, but after looking into the cost for 4 people, it seemed cheaper to take a taxi between stops.  First, we walked to the “Crime and Punishment Museum” which is also used as the set on CSI.  It is just bast the Chineese district.

The Crime and Punishment museum was a very interesting stop.  Much of it a tribute to law enforcement.  They had a police-car driving simulator to show how hard it is to drive fast through traffic in a city.  Only one of the three of us made it through without crashing. 

Uschi, can you pick out your husband in this line-up? 

We walked down the block to see Ford’s Theater and across the street to the house where Lincoln died.  I remember being in that house in 1972 on a field trip to DC.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  Back then, they still had on display the blood-soaked pillow where Lincoln’s head rested.

After lunch at the Hard Rock, we took a taxi to the Air and Space Museum.  The 3-D movie about the Hubble space telescope is a must see.  The displays of space-craft, moon rocks, engines, and technology is great.  The need more displays about radio though.  Without radio, would we have made it to the moon?  I did learn something new… Did you know, back in 1957, America had not yet launched a rocket into orbit yet?

We then went to the Washington Monument to put up our tired feet, and watch the sun go down.

After dinner, we took a taxi to the Jefferson Memorial and the Roosevelt Memorial.  The night-view of the mall is great, and there are fewer tourists.  What are the odds we got the same taxi driver twice in a row?

That wrapped up our tour of Washington.  Thanks much to Madison for joing us in DC.  She’s a very fine young lady, and a real trooper putting up with us guys.  Like most Sonnenberg vacations, it was a lot of things crammed into too short of a time, but I think we all had a great time.