Never trust a weather man

PART ONE

Weather man:  Cool mornings and highs in the upper 60’s, may even hit 70!

Translation:  Stinkin’ cold mornings and highs maybe in the upper 50’s

Weather man:  Partly sunny skies with a few passing clouds

Translation:  Sun for 5 minutes and mostly clouds

Weather man:  Light breezes

Translation:  pretty constant 20 mph winds

Weather man:  Very slight chance of a brief shower

Translation:  Drizzly rain most of the day with a downpour or two thrown in

When riding a motorcycle, being cold isn‘t great but tolerable and being wet isn’t so much fun but tolerable, but being cold and wet is not incredibly fun.

We used to say that if we needed rain, we should go camping.  We could be in the middle of a drought and if we planned to go camping, we would get rain.  That theory held true this weekend as we took off for a couple of days on the motorcycle.    The weather forecaster was saying unseasonably cool for July but an overall nice weekend.  Boy, did he call Friday and Saturday wrong!  Understand I’m really not complaining too much as we’ve been pretty fortunate with the amount of traveling via motorcycle we’ve done and have really only got caught in nasty weather a couple of times.   I do have to say though that it’s the first time we’ve ridden in July and needed our heavy cold weather gear.

We left Friday morning in sunshine but the weather went downhill from there.   However, it was still a nice time away just the two of us. 

We stopped for lunch in a neat little town, Mineral Point, Wisconsin at the Red Rooster Cafe.  Have you ever walked  into a place and all the heads turn to look at you with a “stranger danger” look?  We obviously must not have been from around there.  We sat at the counter and ordered a pasty which they are famous for.  The pasty was filled cube steak, potatoes, carrots, onions & rutabagas.  Yum! -- Some good ole hot comfort food.  Just what we needed to warm our cold bones.

After leaving Mineral Point, we headed further north and passed by this huge motorcycle dealership just outside of Richland Center.  

 

As we pulled in the driveway, we saw a couple of new CanAm Spyder motorcycles. 

We’ve noticed a couple on the road in the last year but had not seen one up close.  As we were checking them out, the salesman asked if we wanted to take it for a test drive.  At first, we turned him down, but another customer who was walking by encouraged us to do it.  He did, however warn us, that if we rode one we would want one.  WOW, did he ever know what he was talking about.  What a blast!   These bikes have two wheels in front and one in back.  The one I drove had an automatic shift and computerized downshift.  Virtually, idiot proof!  Now, that’s what I need.  

After blowing a couple of hours here, we moved on to our lodging for the night in Wonewoc with Bob & Judi P.  We’re part of a Motorcycle Travel Network.  We pay yearly dues and then are able to stay with others in the network for $20 a night which gets you a bed to sleep in, shower facilities and breakfast the next morning.  In turn we agree to host other network members in our home.  It’s a wonderful way to meet new like-minded people.

Tomorrow I’ll share a few pictures of  Wisconsin Amish country.