Day 1 Janesville
Janesville Wisconsin...that’s not very far from home and with me hoping to make New Hampshire in 3 days, well that just might take quite a bit more riding on my part.
I actually got started earlier than I figured for as tired as I was last night after a late night of packing, but when you wake up wondering if you’ve packed everything or too much, well let’s just say you can’t fall back to sleep. You can see my classic picture of the bike packed before I leave, let’s just hope it’s in the same shape when I get home. Today I was hoping to get as far past Chicago as I could and figured since I’ve ridden most of the back roads in Wisconsin, I’d hit it hard and take free way. Yep, I could tell you stories about the back roads in Wisconsin, remember I grew up in a small town sconny and seemed to have a problem running out of gas back then too.
There wasn’t much construction nor traffic so I was able to hit it hard. Kept it under 90, but for those that remember the story, my cruise doesn’t set at 90, only 87 to 88. Maybe I’ll have to ask one of those state patrols what they clocked me if they ever caught me, but today was more comfortable at 80. For some reason the bike scares me now that I’ve pumped it up to get more horsepower out of it.
Sorry that the pictures are out of order, but not having done this again for awhile, I’m just getting the hang of doing everything to blog. You’re right, no excuse. Most of the pictures of the road are just that, except that it’s in God’s country, Wisconsin honey…I know some who’ll get a laugh with that comment. Let’s just say I slipped into biker mode my last day on the job yesterday.
I made a stop in Wisconsin Dells just to see the lake that is no more, Lake Delton. You can see from the pictures that where there was a lake, there’s definitely nothing there any more. I did get a picture of one of the houses that was swept away and if you look close enough at one of the pictures, you can probably make out the phone number for the lake shore condo’s someone is trying to sell. I probably should have stopped in and asked how much they were going for, but I was a little disappointed with the view.
Ok, where did I say I was at before, Janesville, well, right now as of the authoring of this blog, I’m actually in Jefferson Wisconsin, 25 miles north of Janesville, more on that later. I finally saw a Harley shop close to the freeway, yea, that’d be Janesville and figured I should get my tires checked since St Croix told me I’d need new ones soon. Well, I didn’t think so soon until Pat checked them out and said the back one was maybe 100 miles away from popping, that ain’t gonna get me too far. Thanks to James, the chief cook and bottle washer, they got me in to get what turned out to be, both tires that needed to be replaced because there was no way they were both going to get me to Eastern Canada and back.
Thanks to Amber and the rest of the Hooter girls, I had plenty of fun passing the time while they worked on my bike. All I had to do is show them the Hooter pictures from Florida on my first trip and they said they could top that…hard, but I think these Sconny girls have it. With any luck, my bike might be done by 6:00 which if I hit it hard, might at least get to Chicago before it’s too dark. In the meantime I started calling those people that I know who have relatives in Chicago to see about a place to stay, but no luck, either they were out of town or may not be too welcoming to a stranger…I’m no stranger, am I?
Back to the Harley shop and they had their top mechanic on the job, Aaron. Only the best for my bike and you wouldn’t believe what they found. Not only did both tires need to be replace, but the fairing, you know that windshield and shield in front of me that holds my radio? well, all of the brackets that hold it together were busted that they were surprised the thing hadn’t fallen off since I was hitting it so hard. Have no idea how that could’ve happened, but it must’ve been those road in Alaska. Not a problem, they can fix that, but yep, it’ll cost me. The other thing, yes there’s more, the brackets that hold my saddle bags on the bike were cracked…yep, those roads Alaskan roads again. Well instead of replacing them, Aaron welded them up for me so they should hold for the rest of the trip but’ll probably need to be replaced…I knew I should’t gotten that extended warranty.
Ok, now how I ended up in Jefferson Wisconsin. Well, James, you remember the chief cook and bottle washer? he offered me a place to stay which included my own bed, made myself, a hot shower and dinner and beers to boot, now how could I possibly pass up an offer like that. You can see from some of the pictures, this town was drowned by some of the flooding. From here it’s following James back to Janesville in the morning because I found out on the way here, my front the front brakes are used to stop a bike – yep, 70 percent.
More riding to come and I gotta move on, I’ll be back to God’s country again soon.
Janesville Pics
I actually got started earlier than I figured for as tired as I was last night after a late night of packing, but when you wake up wondering if you’ve packed everything or too much, well let’s just say you can’t fall back to sleep. You can see my classic picture of the bike packed before I leave, let’s just hope it’s in the same shape when I get home. Today I was hoping to get as far past Chicago as I could and figured since I’ve ridden most of the back roads in Wisconsin, I’d hit it hard and take free way. Yep, I could tell you stories about the back roads in Wisconsin, remember I grew up in a small town sconny and seemed to have a problem running out of gas back then too.
There wasn’t much construction nor traffic so I was able to hit it hard. Kept it under 90, but for those that remember the story, my cruise doesn’t set at 90, only 87 to 88. Maybe I’ll have to ask one of those state patrols what they clocked me if they ever caught me, but today was more comfortable at 80. For some reason the bike scares me now that I’ve pumped it up to get more horsepower out of it.
Sorry that the pictures are out of order, but not having done this again for awhile, I’m just getting the hang of doing everything to blog. You’re right, no excuse. Most of the pictures of the road are just that, except that it’s in God’s country, Wisconsin honey…I know some who’ll get a laugh with that comment. Let’s just say I slipped into biker mode my last day on the job yesterday.
I made a stop in Wisconsin Dells just to see the lake that is no more, Lake Delton. You can see from the pictures that where there was a lake, there’s definitely nothing there any more. I did get a picture of one of the houses that was swept away and if you look close enough at one of the pictures, you can probably make out the phone number for the lake shore condo’s someone is trying to sell. I probably should have stopped in and asked how much they were going for, but I was a little disappointed with the view.
Ok, where did I say I was at before, Janesville, well, right now as of the authoring of this blog, I’m actually in Jefferson Wisconsin, 25 miles north of Janesville, more on that later. I finally saw a Harley shop close to the freeway, yea, that’d be Janesville and figured I should get my tires checked since St Croix told me I’d need new ones soon. Well, I didn’t think so soon until Pat checked them out and said the back one was maybe 100 miles away from popping, that ain’t gonna get me too far. Thanks to James, the chief cook and bottle washer, they got me in to get what turned out to be, both tires that needed to be replaced because there was no way they were both going to get me to Eastern Canada and back.
Thanks to Amber and the rest of the Hooter girls, I had plenty of fun passing the time while they worked on my bike. All I had to do is show them the Hooter pictures from Florida on my first trip and they said they could top that…hard, but I think these Sconny girls have it. With any luck, my bike might be done by 6:00 which if I hit it hard, might at least get to Chicago before it’s too dark. In the meantime I started calling those people that I know who have relatives in Chicago to see about a place to stay, but no luck, either they were out of town or may not be too welcoming to a stranger…I’m no stranger, am I?
Back to the Harley shop and they had their top mechanic on the job, Aaron. Only the best for my bike and you wouldn’t believe what they found. Not only did both tires need to be replace, but the fairing, you know that windshield and shield in front of me that holds my radio? well, all of the brackets that hold it together were busted that they were surprised the thing hadn’t fallen off since I was hitting it so hard. Have no idea how that could’ve happened, but it must’ve been those road in Alaska. Not a problem, they can fix that, but yep, it’ll cost me. The other thing, yes there’s more, the brackets that hold my saddle bags on the bike were cracked…yep, those roads Alaskan roads again. Well instead of replacing them, Aaron welded them up for me so they should hold for the rest of the trip but’ll probably need to be replaced…I knew I should’t gotten that extended warranty.
Ok, now how I ended up in Jefferson Wisconsin. Well, James, you remember the chief cook and bottle washer? he offered me a place to stay which included my own bed, made myself, a hot shower and dinner and beers to boot, now how could I possibly pass up an offer like that. You can see from some of the pictures, this town was drowned by some of the flooding. From here it’s following James back to Janesville in the morning because I found out on the way here, my front the front brakes are used to stop a bike – yep, 70 percent.
More riding to come and I gotta move on, I’ll be back to God’s country again soon.
Janesville Pics
posted by Dalej Webb at 11:12 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Dale,
Good luck on your journeys and I'll be watching. I'm sure we'll get to hear about it at Fall Ride. Are you going to the 105th in Milwaukee? I'll be there at my Aunts house. I even have Springsteen tickets, Museum passes & a Parade Pass!
Ride Fast & Take Chances!!!
Chris Horak
PS. Ride Safe!!!
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