Yesterday Kevin was getting some help from Mark to get his blue beamer to Tytlers in Green Bay, as the insurance adjuster deemed it could be fixed vs. totaled. So besides being busy early in the day, I also figured he’d eventually get his Magna out, but I didn’t try to get a hold of him for joining up.
However, for today, I had reached out to him last night about getting a ride in together. Although he said he did not want to go too far or all day since it isn’t his luxury bike with all of the comfort and technology, I was fine with that since I always put in around 80 more miles anyway with meeting up with him in Fondy.
We did not plan anything for a route. Just that I’d get a hold of him this morning after taking care of a few items, and since it was way too chilly early on. However, when he said it was only 54 in Fondy it was already 64 here. Go figure! So I put in a walk before getting ready to head out, which was around 10. This time I took a little further route heading a little north out of Elkhart to avoid the intersection at A and J where there is field corn and sorghum which makes it very hard to see any oncoming traffic without going pretty far out into the intersection. Also, because Cty T is still closed east of Fondy, I headed south to go through Eden to get there, and I arrived around 11:15.
First thing was to check out my kickstand which seems to be catching ever since I laid it down on that side while rolling it in the parking lot in Port. Kevin noticed that one of the two springs was not connected, and after a bit of work, he finally got them both reattached. Still seems like not much clearance to get it all of the way down without tipping it a bit, but as he stated… it probably is in my head. I do want to get it cut a bit yet though, as it stands pretty straight up while it is down.
After that, I suggested going to Ripon to finally try Mr. & Mrs. P’s, since the last time we were going to do that, they were closed. Not much of a route there, except around Fondy and then Hwy 23. They were pretty busy when we arrived, close to 1 o’clock, but we were seated right way. He ordered pulled pork mac n cheese, and I a breakfast sandwich with fried potatoes, and both of our meals were very good and very reasonably priced. Even with my $2.75 coffee, which I swear was Valentine’s and very good, it only came to little more than $19.
From there we hit the Kwik Trip across the road for Kevin to fuel up, as the Magna only has a 2 gallon tank. Then I asked if we could head west a bit before heading back, and he was fine with that. So, we hit Cty J west off of Hwy23 into Princeton, and then south on Cty D before taking Hwy 73 north for a little bit before connecting on Cty T east. I really did not recognize that road, but find it very hard to believe I’ve never taken it over the many years of riding. While on it, Kevin noticed a road that went off of it south towards a lake, and although it eventually dead ends at an isthmus, we decided to take it just to check it out. The elevation there was very high overlooking the lake and there wasn’t a shack along the lakefront properties. At the dead end there were two homes with tennis courts and when we turned around to head back, we passed a new Tesla truck. Money, money, money! Probably FIBs. Hah!
From there we stayed going east on Cty T, which eventually ended at Hwy 23 just west of Green Lake, so we took that east to Cty A south with a stop at the park along the east end of Green Lake, and all the while we weren’t sure what lake those nice homes were on, became very clear to us at this point.
From there we continued south on Cty A, then K east back onto Hwy 23 for the remainder of our way to Fondy. Kevin dropped off at Park and Pioneer, and I continued onto Hwy 45 south and some roads north of Eden connecting again on Hwy 45 south to Hwy 67 north, and when I got into Dundee, I continued on all the marked Kettle Moraine scenic route roads, until I screwed up on the last stretch by turning right instead of left. Which brought me to Hilltop Road, an equally nice and windy road that lead to Cty S, and then Hwy 23 east to Cty P north to Cty J into Elkhart, and from Elkhart I took Garton Road back to Grove. As much as I was trying to make it a 200 mile day, I only managed 187 miles. It was an exceptionally nice day to be out with the temps getting up into the 70s, not much wind except a few good wind gusts, very low dew points and hardly any clouds.
With the cooler nights and the much cooler temps arriving in a couple of days, the trees and all vegetation will really start to change as well. I just hope it warms back up after this cool snap, so that I can get some more good rides in to enjoy the fall foliage.
And, I am so glad that Kevin still has his first ride, so that he’s able to still do some riding before the season ends, and by the time he gets Blue back, he can still ride some more with all of the heated equipment on it.
