Although yesterday would have been my preferred day for riding weather-wise, I couldn’t find any takers no matter how hard I tried and Kevin’s on his trip to Maine. Except Brad was available today. Same old, same old… nobody seems to be available. Ugh!
I was having a hard time thinking of a destination for lunch and route for today, but it finally hit me that I have not been to Waverly Beach in ions. So, I thought out a route to get there up the east side of Bago and then through Neenah south to GG west, M north and II West to 110 west, then on and off 49 with some back roads to Poy Sippi and eventually Ripon.
Brad suggested we meet up in Brothertown so I wouldn’t have to go all the way to Fondy and I figured out a route, but to Calumetville instead.
We were going to meet at 10:30, but when Denise confirmed she was a no-go, I asked Brad if we could make at 10 since I only planned it for 10:30 knowing she’s not really a morning person. He agreed and I headed out around 9 on Cty A west, Hwy 67 north, 32 north for the HH detour, and eventually onto HH west to 151 by LaClaire Goat Farm and then to Calumetville. I suggested meeting at Cedar Lodge, but OMG they were so busy already with absolutely no parking in the lot and cars lined up on the road. So I pulled up in front of the last vehicle on the road, and of course, I could not get my kickstand down due the grading on the side of the road. And then I noticed there was a goat farm right there, but I couldn’t get off my bike to go take pictures. I took some from my bike, and asked Brad to take one for me after he showed up. It was so cute because a mama goat and here baby came to greet me, with the baby baaaa’ing at me too!
From there we took Lake Shore road north due to Hwy 55 being closed and then Faro Road towards Bago to hook up on Harrison Road which has a really cool corkscrew up the ledge. Then we got onto Hwy 55 since it was beyond the construction, and through Sherwood to 114, to Waverly.
I was so impressed how nice the place was now, and HUGE! I really feel as though they must have torn down the old structure and did a complete rebuild. Since it really was pretty much a hole-in-the-wall type of bar for bands and everything looked so pristine now. We opted to eat outside near the tiki bar and our waitress was so nice and attentive, that we tipped her really well. During this time of the day it was still mostly sunny, but the clouds were creeping in. We seen the big glob of rain heading this way on the radar, but we both heard the weather man say the huge rain system coming in the west side of the state was going to dissipate and head southeast missing our area.
I think it was close to 12:30 when we left Waverly, and as we kept going it really got cloudier and dark to the west. I told Brad before we left Waverly that I would stop in Winneconne for gas and for us to check the radar again. Well, it wasn’t looking so good and Brad was a bit concerned. However, I told him we were going to be heading north from there and it looked like we might miss it by heading that direction. When we arrived in Fremont I stopped under the Hwy 10 overpass for us to ride out the rain since it didn’t look like it would last long, but Brad wanted to find a gas station instead. So, I pulled into the first one, but felt weird pulling in under the canopy if it wasn’t raining yet. We looked again at the radar and agreed to still attempt to stick to the route taking 49 to Poy Sippi and beyond, and he suggested skipping Ripon. In my mind the only way to do that was to take Cty D east out of Poy and then XX south, etc. However, when we got to the 10 and 49 onramps, I opted for to just head back as it wasn’t looking good for us at that point to even make it to Poy with nowhere to take shelter.
I tried to keep my speeds lower on 10 to keep Brad in view, but it was so busy and I felt it was safer staying more in line with everyone else’s speeds. I hoped that he seen me when I got off on 45 south, but I couldn’t make him out in my review. That is when I kicked it up a notch because I had a lot further to go, and I called him via my Sena and left him a VM in case he didn’t see me get off of 10.
When I arrived to Oshkosh he called me and he said I can’t take calls like you, and I explained I knew that but figured he would at least stop at some point and see I called. We never got back together after that since he was already on Cty S south and I was going to proceed through Oshkosh to the lakeshore get to Fond, and then home.
I never stopped to look at the radar, but could see I was staying just ahead of it by the way the sky looked. However, I did make one not stop close to home by the Sheboygan River on Garton Road for a quick stretch and to take a photo, and I made it home with plenty of time to spare. Actually that main system fizzled out pretty much by the time it arrived here, except a new line of thunderstorms popped up and lasted quite a while after I was home.
All-in-all I still felt like it was a great day of riding! We had to blow a couple red lights that wouldn’t pick up our bikes, and I lost Brad on GG a couple of times. At one point I turned around at a Y intersection planning to wait for him but he was already there by the time I made circled around, so I snuck back in front of him and some cars. I also thought of Critical Bill and Pat when I went through that dogleg they crashed in while riding with Kevin and I around 2014. They were okay, but Bill needed some surgeries for his shoulder. And thank goodness we decided to meet a little earlier or we possibly could not have stayed ahead of the rain.
