Of Lighthouses and Cheese Curds.

[BikerGeek99]

Saturday, September 20, 2014.

This day would be truly epic. I’m talking – epically epic.

No, really.

We knew what we needed to do today, so we lollygagged a bit and got rolling on our first epic ride of the day.

The Epic Post Office Ride. Since we’d been on the road a few days by now, and had accumulated some trash and trinkets, we needed to mail ‘em home to ourselves. I pulled up a post office in the trusty GPS, and 4.7 miles later, our Epic Post Office Ride was deemed a success.



Just down the road, one of the NAFO sponsors – 2Brothers Powersports – were hosting an open house. We popped in to see what was happening.

Only Marty (oface) can consistently make this fashion statement ‘work.’ Or something.



Folks milling aboot.



Wayne (extrememarine) and Tyler.



With the Epic Post Office Ride complete, and our visit to 2Brothers done, it was time for our next epic portion of our day: The Great Laundromat Loop. At a distance of approximately, 1,245.8 feet door-to-door, it was awesome!



OK, so maybe today wouldn’t be THE most epic of days, but we had crap to do, man. That’s what happens when you ride.

Upon finishing our laundry (sorry – no pictures of that, you weirdos) and while loading up, I noticed that my left side-bag would not properly latch. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that one of the security torx screws had backed all the way out. After standing there for a minute trying to figure out a plan to get this taken care of since I did not have one of those specific bits with me, it dawned on my slow wit that we were approximately 1,245.8 feet from a Yamaha dealer. Who had an open service department. DUH! So we made the approximately 1,245.8 feet return loop to 2Brothers. I ‘splained the situation, and they got right on it. Now, I know that on the new FJR owner’s checklist, adding LocTite to those screws is on the list. Quite frankly, I figgured that after 109,000 miles, if those things were gonna back out, it woulda been long before then. I was, obviously, incorrect. So, a few minutes of their time and few dabs of LocTite, and we were all set. Thanks to the guys at 2Brothers for the help!



Side bag securely, uh, secured, we dropped our clean unmentionables back in our room. It had rained overnight, and while we were washing our unmentionables, the remainder of the weather had passed through the area and it was a perfect afternoon for a ride. We were gonna take the Follow The River route, but my stickin’ GPS wanted to make it a 3-minute loop (one of those waypoint things) so instead I chose the Country Roads Part 1 route, since it looked like it would get us out in the country a bit and still get us back to the hotel in time for the group picture. So, we headed out into the ‘Sconsin alphabet roads.

Easy. Wayyyyy too easy.



‘Sconsin barns and farmland bare a mighty strong resemblance to Ohio barns and farmland. Just sayin’.



But it had turned into a gorgeous day to ride in that countryside.

 

[BikerGeek99]

I need to admit something here that Sooze knows all too well: when I’m oot and aboot on a ride, I tend to not get hungry and, therefore, tend to not stop for lunch. Sooze has been with me all over the country and is keenly aware of this, so she “encourages” me to stop for lunch. Some days I listen, some days I don’t – what can I say? I’m just a damn man.

This day, we came across a decent-looking place in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Interesting thing: the place (a bar and grill, complete with ‘Sconsin rednecks playing pool) had a full bar of people, in University of ‘Sconsin garb, watching football. ‘Actively’ watching football, if you know what I mean. But it was the Texas A&M game or something. I’ve never seen people with nothing at stake in a game get so ‘in’ to it. It was weird.

I had a BLT which was decent enough, and Sooze had a wrap. The whole ‘Share a Diet Coke with’ thing hit us a bit, since Sooze’s dad passed away earlier this summer.



Back on the route, we were in and out of farmland, tight twisties, fast sweepers, the occasional bit of gravel in the road, and small towns that have a charm that only small towns can offer.


















Mmm… Brew pub….






Following the route, it said we’d arrive at our destination with aboot 40 minutes to spare. Perfect! When we got to the end of the route, however, we were aboot 20 miles from La Crosse. CRAP! Making as good of time as I could through small towns and low speed limits, we made it back for the group picture with aboot 12 minutes to spare. Whew!

Let the cat-herding begin…

 

[Fred W]

Let the cat-herding begin…

That sign in the back says it all... That is one tough hand to draw on.

 

[BikerGeek99]

I can’t find the final group picture, but I’m sure you get the idear.



Group picture done, we hung oot a bit awaiting the start of the banquet. I like my Geek socks.



Petey is my hero. Just don’t look him in the eye.



See no, hear no, speak no…



Swag.



More swag.



Annnnd more swag.



The buffet was pretty tasty.



We were the ‘fun’ table so … We had fun. If you were there, you know which table I’m talkin’ aboot.



We had some damn good laughs and good times.

 

[BikerGeek99]

We were all REALLY happy when Wayne’s name was finally called and he got himself a hat. Ohhhh the inappropriate comments that were uttered at our table that night….



Marty stopped by to chat with our table for a bit.



Lucky for him, his face didn’t get ‘stuck’ making that face like the singer dude from “Men At Work.”



Spanky, Sooze, and Tyler.



Needless to say, we had quite the time.



After many, Many, MANY laughs, and maybe an oat soda or two, we called it a night.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Sunday, September 21, 2014.

Last night, at the NAFO banquet, we had some discussions with Wayne, who was the organizer for the next FJR gathering, EOM down in North Carolina. Sooze and I hadn’t registered for reasons I will not go into here, but during our chat with Wayne and FYB I made a Command Decision: “Screw it. We’re going to EOM.”

We didn’t really have an exit strategy outta La Crosse. Initially, I wanted to go north and go across Da Yoo Pee and check out more lighthouses. But, we didn’t really have our colder-ish weather gear with us, only our cool weather gear. So, if you combine 30-degree temperatures with the fact that Sooze gets cold very easily, and the fact that the lighthouses are not (hopefully) going anywhere, we thought aboot taking the ferry from Manitowoc over to Ludington, MI. But, we were too late getting moving this day and would have to wait until the Monday afternoon boat over to Ludington which would force us to lose a whole day. So, we decided to do something I REALLY did not wanna do: ride through Chicago. Ugh.

Easing into the day, we headed to breakfast. Not many NAFO folks were left – it seems that a contingent of FJR riders – whom I will refer to as “Old Guys” – get up at the azz-crack of dawn and head out. Since we’re not old, this does not apply to us. So, we chit-chatted a bit with Tyler and eventually made it out just before hotel check-out.

It was just a little bit chilly today, but not too bad at all.



Leaves were juuuust starting to show their fall colors.






Our plan – if you can call it that – was to get through Chicago, see where we were and how we were doing on time – and figure out a place to stay then. We prefer to travel knowing where we are gonna stay, ‘cause we’ve gotten burned looking for a hotel at the last minute. Ask me sometime how much the damn hotel was in North Dakota back in 2010. Eeesh…



Eyeballing the skies, if you woulda asked me, we were riding directly into some nasty-looking weather. Greaaaaaaat…. But, even though the skies looked ominous, we never hit any rain to speak of.



Making our way to the Windy City, it seemed like the whole damned area was one big construction zone. Traffic was moving fine and dandy, though, which was good.



At a gas stop, I checked the NAFO Spotwalla page and noticed that Marty was pretty much right behind us. I was looking for him but never saw him. He’s sly. Like Petey.

After that gas stop, I realized that I spoke wayyyy too soon aboot the traffic. A friend of ours who used to live in Chicago took great pride in telling us before the trip, “Why not go through Chicago? It’s a great city and traffic on the weekend won’t be too bad.” Yeah, we were cussing him.



Bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go crap for miles and miles. I don’t even know how many and don’t wanna know.



We had checked and there was not a home Bears game this day, but there was a home Cubs game. I have no idea if this cluster-fsck of traffic was to that or not, but planes heading into O’Hare or Midway were flying right over us.



See?

 

[BikerGeek99]

Funny thing about Chicago drivers: I was in a 55 MpH construction zone. I was not going 55. I was going, uh, well, not to post it on the neenernet or anything, but let’s just say enough over to earn a performance award. And there was this dude – in a Prius! – who just HAD to be in front of me. I just don’t get it… He was constantly changing lanes and I would just ease past him. Then he’d change lanes again and haul ass past me, while both he and his old hag passenger were giving me the stink-eye. I dunno what the deal was. Maybe they thought I was Marty.

Anway.

Did I mention the traffic SUCKED donkey balls?



We eventually spotted a familiar landmark.



We eventually made it through Chicago unscathed, and got away from some IDIOT drivers. Eesh.



I had a rough idear of a couple of towns to look for a room. But first, we made it ‘round into Michigan.



We stopped at the Michigan Welcome Center, which happened to have this:



I grabbed an official Michigan paper map inside (for a specific use a little later) and Sooze scoped out a hotel up the road a little ways that had excellent reviews and had a restaurant and bar on-site. Perfect!

By the time we got to the hotel, it was dark and it had gotten a touch chilly, so it was nice to be in the hotel and off the road. We had dinner at the hotel bar and learned that they had just opened a few weeks ago and didn’t have their liquor license yet. Oh, well – I found a party store for some craft brews after dinner.

Sooze had their some-kind-or-other salad special.



And I had the scallops, which were quite tasty!



And that’s a wrap for Sunday.

More to come…

 

[Redfish Hunter]

You are doing great. Please keep it going.

 

[yamafitter]

We stopped at the Michigan Welcome Center, which happened to have this:

Looks like a single wide stood up on end to me.

 

[beemerdons]

You are doing great. Please keep it going.

+1, Gunny; nice work Andy, Thank You! JSNS!

 

[Geezer]

Yes, another excellent ride report. I think I recognize that road in Chicago. Chicago is a dangerous place to ride a motorcycle through.

 

[luvtoride]

I’ve had mornings when I’ve felt like this.

I will lay my money down that you've had more than one morning when you felt like this.

 

[Burnspot]

Excellent report so far! The epic postal trip was mind blowing...

 

[wheatonFJR]

Andy,

Your Chicago friend is an idiot...but glad you got through unscathed.

Actually, what you picture on your photos is not bad Chicago traffic, so maybe your friend gets some points back. Bad Chicago traffic(Monday through Friday, all damn day) is when all the brake lights are on with a following gap of 2 feet, a max speed of 5-10mph, and people crawling by on both shoulders. I see none of that in the photos.

Glad you got to visit down south as well.

 

[Bugnatr]

Loving the pics Geek. Chicago like most large cities are best seen about 3am.

 

[Bungie]

Sunday, September 21, 2014.

Hey, I've seen this before, just east of Tomah.. I spent a week one night in the Tomah Super 8.

Great report Andy!

 

[airboss]

Looks like 290.

Guess your friend forgot to mention. 290 holds a world record. Longest parking lot. EVER!

 

[BikerGeek99]

Monday, September 22, 2014.

One interesting thing about our hotel – the Hilton Garden Inn, in Benton Harbor, MI – was that, for in-room coffee, they have Keurigs!



Even though the hotel restaurant prolly has a decent-enough breakfast, we spied a place on our way in that we just had to go to instead.

The morning was definitely cool and crisp, but it was also perfectly clear.



Just up the road is Sophia’s House of Pancakes.



The portions here are definitely not small. Sooze had this – I think it was a chorizo scramble.



I had their corned-beef hash. And, no, I did not even come close to eating all of it.



After breakfast, we hopped on the bike and told the GPS to take us to a nearby lighthouse. We found the St. Joseph light.



We found the path to get closer.






So we got as close as we could. The wind was pretty stout and the waves were crashing up and onto the walkway.



Selfie.

 

[BikerGeek99]

There is a nice beach-y spot here, but nobody was using it. Go figure.



Our next stop just up the road was at the South Haven Lighthouse.



There were quite a few people milling aboot checking out the lighthouse.



We continued our way north along the shore.



We headed into Holland, MI.



And made our way to the Holland Harbor Lighthouse.



There is a very wide-open beach area that I am sure gets packed on warm, sunny summer days, which this day definitely was not!



But, someone decided to take advantage of the wind and was heading out into the lake.



This VERY nice-looking home was across the channel.



On our way to the next lighthouse, we would up sitting in a construction zone where they had one lane open and one of those temporary stoplights. I looked down and happened to notice – the FJR was on a mileage milestone: 110,000 miles!

 

[Geezer]

Very cool.

I have been to that South Haven lighthouse a few times. Once in the winter and the walkway was frozen over. It was actually for sale for a while, but I think it was eventually donated to the town.