"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.