Mel and I took our first long ride on the new bike this past week. We left for Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin last Tuesday after work and got back Saturday (yesterday) afternoon.
We stayed in an Airbnb house across the road from the shipyards. It was indeed a very good time. We rode many of the scenic roads on the peninsula (technically it’s an island) while we were there including a dirt road to an amazing lookout point at Ellison Bay. We also rode to a lookout over the “ice age trail”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Age_Trail
Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin is a bay in a bay. It’s part of the much larger Green Bay which is part of Lake Michigan. As it was explained to us, the house we stayed in originally belonged to the founder of one of the shipyards across the road. We had a great front porch from which we could see the Bay, the shipyards and an endless army of gulls.
I was told by a local the name Sturgeon Bay originated from the huge number of sturgeon which inhabited the bay when settlers first arrived. The legend was that one could nearly walk on the sturgeon’s heads to cross the bay.
We took two days on the ride up since we didn’t leave till evening Tuesday but rode back in one day on Saturday. Mileage there to home yesterday was 454 miles.
Although it was “rainy” on the way home, it never really poured on us and we didn’t really need our rainsuits except when going though Chicago. Of course, there was no safe opportunity to stop and put them on there so we just rode it out. Thankfully interstate speeds coupled with the bikes weather coverage kept us relatively dry. Most of the time through the urban areas we didn’t even look at the speedometer, we just stayed in the fast lane and kept up with the traffic. Our GPS was going crazy interrupting our intercoms with "you are speeding alerts". Grin
Stopping to pay tolls in the drizzly conditions was a PIA and was the only money we spent in Illinois. If they can’t recognize our carry permits then we’re not buying gas, food or lodging there.
I feel kinda guilty, even with all the miles we shared with the Valk, “Little Martha”, we never took her on a boat ride. Guess we just never found a boat big enough until we took the Ferry across the lake to Washington Island. The boat did a lot of moving with the waves so I sat on the bike to make sure she didn’t fall over. The sensation of riding a motorcycle across part of Lake Michigan was a one of a kind experience!
I can’t praise my wife Melody’s organizational skills enough. Somehow she managed to pack everything we needed into our saddlebags and T bag in such a way that anything we needed on the way was accessible and yet protected from the rain. I’m a lucky guy!
A couple of funny things to note about this ride. Number one, the best meal we had on the trip was at the Crate restaurant http://www.crate.restaurant/ at which Mel ordered the "flaming hooch". Needless to say, we couldn't keep a straight face when she ordered it.
The other funny thing had to do with Dyckesville, Wisconsin which we rode through on our way there and our way back. Mel pronounced it Dicksville, I pronounced it Dykesville. Freud would have a ball with that I think. Grin
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