Day Thirty Seven - Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana - A day of challenges

Poor WiFi connection and late getting into hotel so text for today's blog will likely be delayed. Will try to load the pictures first and then write the commentary later, or maybe even tomorrow or maybe Saturday!.

Today was one of those days where everything we planned went NOT according to plan...

Day 37 Track

Our "plan" was to get an early start so that we would get down through Chicago around mid-day to alleviate the stress of trying to go through at rush hour... It started out well with us leaving the hotel at 6:15 AM. It was just an 18 mile ride up Hwy 69 to get to our first waypoint in New Glarus, WI which gave us the "n" in Strange for the TS30GT Tour.

New Glarus, WI - "n" in Strange for TS30GT

From there we headed up to Madison to get our 2nd waypoint of the day. As you can see below the Post Office didn't have the city/state showing prominently, but it was on the door, so we took a 2nd photo to show that. But getting there wasn't so easy. There was a large bridge construction project going on and between that and the routine morning rush hour traffic in the capitol city, it took us 20 minutes to go the last 5 miles to the post office!

Madison, WI - Presidential Tour

Closeup of Madison, WI Post Office Door

I wish I could say this was our biggest problem, but it wasn't. When I opened my side case to get my "flag" it wasn't there. I knew right away what happened. I forgot to stow it after I took the picture in New Glarus which meant it was somewhere back in New Glarus - about 30 miles back... If it were just the flag, we might have blown it off and had a new one made, but in the green clip-case that I was using to hold the flag, I also have my checkbook and passport - so we HAD to go back. This also meant going back through the traffic nightmare we had just done getting in! When we finally got back, the case wasn't right there in front of the post office, but after a while we retraced our route and about 1/4 mile from the post office, out on the highway, I spotted the broken remnants of the case. We pulled over and picked up everything we could find and when done, I had the flag, my passport, and my checkbook! We grabbed a quick breakfast here in town but this episode would set our plans back by nearly 2 hours which meant we would be getting to Chicago later than we'd hoped.

After breakfast we headed back out, this time detouring around Madison by running up Hwy 83 through towns named Mt. Horeb, Black Earth and Sauk City where we got on US-12 to get up to our next checkpoint - Baraboo -  for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

Baraboo - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

From Baraboo we headed east on Hwy 33 out through Portage, Randolph and then Waupun where we got on US-151 to get up to our next checkpoint in Fond Du Lac. We were doing OK progress wise until we got to within just a half a mile of the post office when we got to be in line for a railroad crossing with a train that seemed to go on forever. It actually was only a 3 minute wait but it seemed longer. We then got our photos. It was now 12:34.

Fond Du Lac - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

From Fond Du Lac we headed south, first on US-41 through Lomira and then on Hwy 83 just north of Hartford. At this point we were on secondary city roads that while scenic had posted speeds of just 35 mph so we weren't making very good time. We continued down through Chenequa and Genessee Twp and Mukwonago. From Fond Du Lac to Mukwonago was a 67 mile stretch that took us 1:44 to cover, averaging just 39 MPH. Now that did include an 18 minute lunch stop where 83 crossed I-94. At any rate, we finally got down to the state border and entered Illinois just north of Antioch which was our next checkpoint. We rolled into town and got the post office only to find yet another example of a post office with no city or state names on the outside. And since this was for the ts30gt tour we HAD to get something with both city and state names listed. We searched the GPS and found the police station was right across the street, but even that only had the city name in big letters!

Antioch, IL - "a" in Strange for TS30GT

While over there taking the photo of the police station, I noted the police SUV parked on the left of the above photo, and I could see that IT listed the Antioch Police and had an Illinois tag so I figured that should work!

Proof that Antioch is in Illinois!

So now we're off headed for Chicago, but it is already 3:06 PM. I'll spare you the blow by blow details, but suffice it to say the traffic to and through Chicago was beyond un-believable. It would take us 60 minutes to cover the last 6 miles into the post office location in town. Aside from the time issue, there was another problem. My bike had developed a cooling problem where the fans that kick on when I'm not moving enough to cool the engine weren't working. That meant I either HAD to stay moving at 30+ MPH or stop and let the bike cool down when the temperature gauge showed too high a temperature. Even Larry's air-cooled bike was having elevated temperature warnings, so we did have to stop a few times to let the engines cool a bit. When we finally got to the post office waypoint - it was nowhere to be found! We both did GPS searches for alternatives and I found another PO listed just .3 miles from where we were so we headed over there and were rewarded with the following photo.

Chicago - I've Been Everywhere Man Tour

OK, so it's now 6:00 PM and we need to get OUT of downtown Chicago! Again, sparing the detailed blow by blow, we tried to work out to Lakeshore Blvd, along Lake Michigan but the access to that was limited. Then we ran into a detour due to a closed bridge. We finally did get on, but it was very congested so some more stop and go and cool off, and finally we got to where it did open up a bit more and eventually got to where we could run mostly unrestricted and finally my engine temperature came back down to normal. From the "good" post office to where we got open running was 27 miles that took us another 1:27 to cover (Avg Speed 16 mph). It's now 7:30 PM. We're only 30 miles from the hotel now and we managed to get there in another 42 minutes, getting in just as the sun was setting at 8:08 PM...

So, it was a TOUGH day. I don't know how much better it would have been had I not lost the flag and had to go back, but that certainly made it worse, though I suspect it still would have been tough regardless. Anyway, nobody broke down and had to be towed away so we had that. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.

Today's Stats: 418 miles in 14:06 elapsed time, 10:18 saddle time. 

Day Thirty Six - Missouri to Wisconsin via Illinois

So here we are at day 36 - and back east the roads get crowded and the cities more congested so we need to plan carefully to time when we will arrive where so as to avoid the most congested places/times. Chicago is looming so we had to plan some long days in the run up to ensure we would hit downtown Chicago near noontime.

We got off early again today at 6:49 AM. It was a nice start to the day with partly cloudy skies and temps in the mid 60's.

Day 36 Track

We left Kingdom City MO and headed north on US-54 towards Mexico where 54 jogs east, then north, and then east again until it crosses the Mississippi and the border to Illinois. Our first waypoint of the day would be Louisiana, MO - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour - and it's right at the border to Illinois. That was a 75 mile leg and it took us 1 hr 25 minutes to get there. It was a nice ride, but no twisties - just lots of farmland with never ending corn and soybean fields.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Louisiana

From Louisiana we crossed over the Mississippi River on one of the narrowest two lane bridges I've ever been on and just 30 minutes later we were pulled up in front of the Pittsfield, IL post office for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Pittsfield

After Pittsfield, we continued north on US-54 up where it crosses I-72 and turns into Hwy 107. We would continue on that until just south of Mt Sterling where Larry had a little detour on some back country roads through the corn fields on 550, 400 and 300. These were some slightly twisty country roads but we saw lots of action on them. Almost immediately, I got dive bombed by a bird - a Cardinal I think, that just barely missed my head. Shortly after that, I saw a small fox run across the road quite a way ahead of me. Not too far after that, I had a deer run across from right to left. I slowed quickly and let it pass, all the while on the lookout for more to follow. We finally got back onto to "normal roads" like US-24 near Mound Station. That would take us up to Clayton where we split north on 2903rd lane which would take us up to Augusta where it turned into Hwy 61 which we took up to Plymouth where we finally stopped for coffee and to shed a layer of gear. It was now 10:00 AM and it had warmed up to the low 70's.

After coffee at Plymouth, we stayed on 61 until we caught 136 and just after that turn eastward we would snag our next I've Been Everywhere Man waypoint - Tennessee.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Tennessee

We then continued on 136 and would take that on up into Macomb, IL. which was the biggest town we'd been in all day. From there we zig-zagged on some back roads up to Avon where we picked up Hwy 41 which we took north on up through St. Augustine and Abingdon and just short of Galesburg we turned east on CR-10 which would take us into our next waypoint - Knoxville - Where we would also fuel up the bikes.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Knoxville

After Knoxville we would get on I-74E which would take us down and over to Peoria, across Peoria Lake and onto US-24 which we'd take up into our next waypoint - Washington - again for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Washington

Since it was now 1:12 PM local tome we would stop at a McDonalds for lunch on the way out on Hwy 89 in Metamora IL. After lunch we continue on 89 up to Magnolia where we turn east on Hwy 18 to get over to I-39 for a short hop up to Tonica where we head northeast on some back roads to get up to our next waypoint - Ottawa - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Ottawa

From Ottawa we jump onto I-80 westbound to get back over to I35 which we then take north all the way up to Rockford, IL and then turn west again on US-20 to get over to Freeport where we get on Hwy 26 north which we take up to our last wapoint of the day - Monroe, WI for the Presidential tour. Monroe is another of those "problem post offices" where the city name is not on the face of the building - instead it is in tiny lettering on the door. We took two photos to try to document this one.

Monroe Post Office - Presidential Tour

See just under the red sticker

We thought we were home free now, but that wouldn't be the case. We had expected to stay at the Super8 in Monroe, but when we got there they had no rooms. They did call around and find us a room at another hotel in town so it wasn't a total loss, but we picked the Super8 because they have guest laundries and we NEEDED to do laundry. The alternate hotel didn't have a guest laundry so we were forced to go to a laundromat to do the laundry. On top of that when we left to go to the laundry Larry;s headlight blew out AGAIN (3rd one this trip!). After the laundry and some dinner we got back tothe hotel, changed Larry's headlight and I finally go to work on this blog!

Today's Stats: 482.6 miles in 112:34 elapsed time (includes running around after arrival for dinner & laundry) and 9:03 saddle time

Day Thirty Five - The Rush is ON!

Wow - Day 35.... We can feel the pulse of getting back home and it is motivating us to step up the pace to make it happen!

We got another early start today, leaving the hotel at 6:55 AM. It was a cool 57 degrees, but we expected that so were well prepared. The skies were clear so we knew it would warm up nicely. We had another big day planned at 430+ miles and several waypoints so we wasted no time getting to it.

Day 35 Track

We headed south and then west on a couple of county roads that weren't too bad, but when we got to the town of Wahoo, it was a bit of a slog getting through the city, especially stuck behind a truck hauling building materials. It was only 3.7 miles, but it took almost 8 minutes and felt like much longer. Once we cleared the town and turned onto US-77 southbound we picked up the pace and made some time. We got into Lincoln for our first waypoint, but had a little difficulty finding the post office. After looking, then asking for directions - twice - we finally found it.

Presidential Tour - Lincoln

It would be just 16 miles to our next waypoint, but we ran into some construction zones so it took us almost 30 minutes to make the town of Panama for the I've Been Everywhere Tour

I've Been Everywhere Man - Panama

From Panama, we continued south on Hwy 33 and then turned easterly on Hwy 41 and in just another half hour we arrived at our next waypoint - The Johnson County line for the Presidential tour.

Presidential Tour - Johnson county

From here we continued on Hwy 41 to its end at Hwy 50, then took that south to Hwy 4 eastbound, took that to its end at US-75 where we headed south again and in an hour and ten minutes we covered the 63 miles to the Nebraska-Kansas border. Now, if you've been following the blog, you'll recall that we already got the Nebraska border the day before yesterday, but we weren't happy with how the photo was - the sign was so far away that you needed to zoom in on the photo to see it, so we stopped again today and fixed that with a much better photo.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Nebraska (again)

It was now 10:23 AM and the temperature had warmed nicely into the low 70's so we shed our extra layer of gear at this stop before heading out again. At this point, we had covered 151 miles so we were ready for a coffee break, but there wasn't much around. We finally found a little cafe about another 15 miles down the road in Fairfield, KS where we took a short stop for coffee and bread pudding (their kitchen wasn't open for much else!)

We were now on US-36 headed east to Hiawatha where we picked up US-73 southbound. We took that down to US-159 at Muscotah where we turned east again, and then followed 159 right into Effingham - which would be the "e" in Strange for the TS30GT.

Effingham - "e" in Strange for TS30GT

From Effingham we would stay on 159 which zig-zagged east and mostly south until it turned into US-59 at Nortonville. We took that all the way down into our next waypoint - Oskaloosa for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Oskaloosa

From here we ran Hwy 16 east through McLouth and then south and east through Tonganoxie where it became US24. We ran that east over to Bonner Springs which is the edge of the Kansas City metropolis and seeing as it was now 1:36 PM we decided to stop for lunch. It was a short (less than 30 minutes) lunch at an Arby's since we had not been able to find any diners or cafe's conveniently located along the way.

We were now headed east on I-70 which we would take into KAnsas City, KS and then over the river into Kansas City, MO. There the "real fun" would start. We had 3 waypoints in KC to get. One would be fairly easy, the other two not so much...

First up - The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum - a bonus location for the Baseball tour. We got to it and there was a small loading zone right in front of the sign which would make a perfect location for our photos, but before we could execute the necessary U-turn to get into it a Fed-Ex truck pulled up and parked right there! So, we had to wait for 5 minutes while he made his delivery and cleared the site before we finally got in and got our photos.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum - Baseball tour bonus

Next up the Kansas City Post Office. It wasn't far - just .7 miles, but - when we got there, there was a large sign outside "US Post Office" but the location was only in tiny letters on the door which was a hundred feet back from the sign! We conferred for a minute and decided to try for the police station - which was just another 1.2 miles away. We headed that way, though it was through a LOT of traffic and red lights only to arrive and find a similar dilemma - a HUGE building with great big lettering stating "Police Headquarters" but no reference to Kansas City! We even spotted some police cars but they were lettered simply "KC, MO PD". So we decided to go back to the Post office and try the following. We would get a photo of the bike, flag and Post Office sign, and then another photo of the actual address on the door and hope it is acceptable under the circumstances. We'll have to wait and see on that...

Post Office in Kansas City, MO

Kansas City for the I've Been Everywhere Man tour

So we've got one more left here in town - the Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium for the Baseball Tour. We headed over there - it was 5.7 miles mostly on I-70. We got there and rode down into the parking area and saw no signs so we asked a guard for advice. He shuffled us off to another guard, who let us take one photo which did show the logo "Royals" on the side of the stadium, but he suggested we go back to the entrance where we came in to try for something better. We did that, but still weren't too happy - I'll post the photos and you can be the judge...

KC Royals Stadium for the Baseball Tour 

There are actually TWO stadiums - one for the football - Chiefs (left)  and one for Baseball - Royals (right)

So thus ended our saga in Kansas City - All told we spent 1:16 to cover just 16 miles to get the three waypoints... From there we got on I-70 eastbound and took it 15 miles to exit 24 where we got off to get one last point for the day - the town of Grain Valley - for the "g" in Strange on the TS30GT tour.

Grain Valley - "g" in Strange for the TS30GT

SO, it's now 3:30 PM and we still have 126 more miles to make our planned overnight stop in Kingdom City, MO. We did not have a room booked so we did have the option to shorten or extend the day, but we decided to try to stick to our plan. Fortunately, I-70 was running smooth and we were able to make those miles in 1:58, and that included one more fuel stop along the way. We rolled into the hotel at 5:30 PM and were ready to get off the bikes.

Tomorrow - we get up and do it all over again!


Today's Stats: 437.3 miles in 10:14 elapsed time, 8:15 saddle time.

Day Thirty Four - IOWA!

Now that we're past the BMW MOA Rally, we are starting to hit our stride. We rolled out of the hotel parking lot at 7:00 AM sharp this morning, under partly cloudy skies and a coolish 68 degrees. Actually very similar to yesterday's conditions, just without the wind - YAY!

We would spend much of the day zig-zagging north and west in Iowa almost to the very north-west most corner before heading south from there. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Day 34 Track

Our first  objective today was Parkersburg IA. That would be for the I've Been Everywhere tour and we got it at 7:30 AM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Parkersburg

From there we continued north and west, but the skies were looking ominous the more north we got. This next photo was taken on Hwy 3 westbound.

Sky looks like trouble brewing...

It was a long 161 mile haul to our next objective, and we were playing cat and mouse with the rain much of the way. At one point, as we were heading north on Hwy 169 heading into Algona, the clouds were dark and about a mile short of our turn to the west it started to rain lightly. We knew the turn was coming up and it looked better in that direction so we hung in there and sure enough - just a quarter mile after we turned west we were out of the rain! With all the cloud cover, the temps were stuck at 68 degrees, though it didn't even feel that warm. We were sure glad we had on an extra layer of gear.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Spirit Lake

We got the Spirit Lake photos at 11:30 AM. We stopped in town for fuel but decided to press on before stopping for lunch. It was about another hours ride to our next waypoint for the IBEW - Little Rock. The post office there was so small we almost missed it!

I've Been Everywhere Man - Little Rock

By now, I was getting hungry. The GPS search didn't show much but Larry's paper maps promised something in Rock River which was just another 15 miles. It was also the extreme corner of today's route where we would finally turn south and hopefully, out of the clouds for good. We didn't actually find much in Rock River, but there was a "drive-in" that had burgers and fries and we settled for that. It did sprinkle some while we were inside, but soon stopped and we were rolling again with one more dark cloud to clear. We got out from under that with just a couple of drps and then the sun came out, the temps warmed into the 70's and we grew big smiles!

We were now heading south on US-75 and headed for Ireton, IA. Ireton will be the "i" in "Airheads". We get there at 2:05 PM We would shed our extra gear layer here too. Note the blue sky in the photo below!

Ireton, IA

Blue skies, Green fields and all is good!

It would be a short 38 mile hop on "K22" to get down to Sioux City - our next waypoint for the I've Been Everywhere Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Sioux City

It would take us just another 10 minutes to get over to the Missouri River - which is also the state border and Nebraska is another I've Been Everywhere Man waypoint.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Nebraska

From there we would run down to and then 10 miles west on US-20 to get our next waypoint - Jackson for the Presidential Tour.

Presidential Tour - Jackson

Now we backtrack on US-20 a bit to get on US-75 southbound again to make the 60 miles down to Winslow - our next I've Been Everywhere Man waypoint. Just when I thought we couldn't get any smaller post office than Little Rock - this one shows up!

I've Been Everywhere Man - Winslow

We're almost done for the day - just one more waypoint - Arlington for the "A" in Airheads of the TS30 tour. That's just a short 20 mile hop from here and finally we are getting to our hotel for the night in Fremont, NE. We get in at 5:24 PM having captured NINE waypoints for today!

Today's Stats: 435 miles in 10:31 elapsed time, 8:30 saddle time.

Day Thirty Three - Back On The Road Again!

If you followed the Blog to date you know that for the last five days, we've been attending the BMW MOA National Rally in Minnesota. We got our bikes serviced (oil changes and tires) and then helped stimulate the economy by buying gear from the on-site vendors. We walked a LOT, we gawked a lot and by this morning, we were READY to get back on the road.

Day 33 Track

We were so itching to get on the road that we skipped breakfast at the hotel, and since we had mostly packed up yesterday, we were able to get a flying start at 6:38 AM! We headed straight to downtown Minneapolis and at 7:00 AM we snagged our first of seven waypoints today - The Minnesota Twins Target Stadium for the Baseball tour.

Baseball Tour - Minnesota Twins Target Field

It was my turn to lead today and it was a good thing since Larrys GPS was giving him fits again. I got us in and out of town clean and was glad it was a Sunday morning so the traffic was minimal. I should mention that the temps this morning were 68 when we left the hotel and I didn't put any extra layers on. It was also heavily overcast though so it felt cooler than the thermometer said. From here we headed west on I-394 and then caught US 169 southbound.We took that for a short hop to get onto US 212 which we took to get us down to Chaska for our 2nd waypoint of the day - this one for the IBEW Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Chaska

We decided to stop at a McDonalds for a coffee break and to give Larry a chance to try to resurrect his GPS. We took a 30 minute break here and Larry cleared, rebooted and re-loaded his GPS, but even after all that it was still not right. We forged on, now southbound out of Chaska on some named roads that would turn into Hwy 13 after we got through New Prague. Somewhere along 13 I saw gas priced at 3.27 a gallon and that was all the excuse I needed to pull in for gas AND don my rain jacket to cut the wind as it hadn't warmed up at all yet. Further on south on 13 at 9:08 AM we would get our third waypoint for the day - Waterville for the IBEW tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Waterville

From here we continued south on 13 until we turned east onto US-14 just south of Waseka. It would be a 51 mile leg east on 14 until we turned south onto US-52.

Presidential Tour - Fillmore County

Soon after that we would catch I-90 for a 32 mile leg over to Hwy 43. When we got off the exit there was an ominous sign stating that 43 was closed some several miles ahead, but we needed to get to the town of Rushmore and it said the business district was open so we headed down 43 in spite of the detour warning. Just after that turn we would find our 4th waypoint for the day - the Fillmore County line for the Presidential Tour. It's now 11:20 AM and as you can see I am still wearing my rain jacket - because it still hasn't broken the 70 degree mark yet! Just a half mile from the Rushford post office, we got to the detour. It wasn't very clear, but we really had no choice but to follow it and hope for the best. The detour routed us around through some neighborhood streets and into the town of Rushford. I had the waypoint showing on the GPS but every turn we wanted to make to get to it was a closed road. We looped around through town a few times and finally from one of the blocked roads we saw the post office - located behind a gas station that we had almost ridden up to before so we looped back again and finally got our prize - the Rushford Post Office - the "r" in Strange for the Team Strange Tour. It was getting on towards lunch time and we considered stopping right here as there was a Subway right next to the post office, but Larry's paper map showed the town of Lanesboro, which was just another 15 miles further might have more choices so we got onto Hwy 16 and headed southwest for Lanesboro. 16 turned out to be a moderately twisty road as it followed alongside the Root River and it made the miles go by a little quicker.But, as we pulled into Lanesboro we got thrown yet another detour!. We did find a place here for lunch and I made the mistake of ordering a personal pizza which took forever because there were about 4 others ahead of me... That did give Larry plenty of time to eat his sandwich and then fiddle some more with his GPS. He did finally figure out that if he ran it without the XM antenna plugged in (and thus without XM radio AND the XM weather radar) it would at least now display maps and route well so that worked out better for the rest of the day.When we left Lanesboro, the detour for Hwy 16 would take us up along the northern side of the South Branch of the Root River before reconnecting us to 16 near Preston where we would turn onto US-52. 52 would take us across the border into Iowa.

We would catch Hwy 9 at Decorah IA and then 76 near Waukon and that would take us over to the Mississippi River. Here we would run a 22 mile stretch of the Great River Road along the west side of he Mississippi. After we split away from the river we had just 17 miles to get us down to Dyersville for our 5th waypoint of the day - The site of the filming of the Field of Dreams Movie - this is a bonus point for the Baseball tour.

Field of Dreams site for the Baseball Tour

I took this shot of the actual field - and note the dark skies...

Beautiful field - and ominous skies

As we were mounting up here we caught a few drops of rain so we hurried along. We were about a hundred miles away from our planned end of the day but it would be highway speeds and directly into the rather stiff wind (which we had for the entire day!) so I decided to gas up so we wouldn't be worried about making it on the now low tank. The sky was still dark. After the fuel, it was a hard slog westbound on US-20 at a speed limit of 65 MPH and dead into a 20+ MPH headwind. Well, maybe I pressed it closer to 70 because I wanted to get in for the night. We cleared the dark skies for a bit only to get under yet another dark threatening cloud again. I looked like it could rain at any minute several ties today, yet Larry's incredible charm worked yet again and we stayed dry! We got over to Waterloo where we snagged our final point for the day - the Waterloo Post Office - for the IBEW Tour.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Waterloo

We got to our hotel in Cedar Falls just 7 miles later and were happy to have had such a productive day.

Today's Stats: 438 miles in 11:51 elapsed time, and since I didn't zero my GPS before the start I can't say exactly what our running time was...