Day 1 - 345 Miles
I started out a little late on Sunday morning (9:30AM), but that is kind of to be expected for me. I checked my tires before I left, which I should have done Saturday night. Stuff like that.
I like going south to the Eagan area by going down Hwy 280 to 94, then off at Snelling to catch Ayd Mill Road south to 35E. I had to detour through St Paul, down Robert Street since 35E was closed at the Mississippi. (Stupid Reinvestment Act money.) Starting down Robert Trail South out of St. Paul. Headed through Farmington and Northfield. Missed my turn and ended up going through Faribault. Went east a bit, then south to Brownsdale. Had a little bit of gravel road to recover a bad turn again. Passed a farm with wind power generators, lots of them.
Out of Brownsdale, headed east to catch up to Hwy 16 to Lanesboro and stopped for lunch. Nothing spectacular. The Das Wurst House is closed on Sunday. (I should have thought of that.)I continued east to the Mississippi on Hwy 16. Great ride. Pass many bikers coming the other way too. Caught the Great River Road south (Hwy 26) to Prairie Du Chen. Again, a great ride in this area. No cell coverage at all at the Iowa border. I did take a picture though.
From Prairie Du Chen, I headed east to Spring Green, WI. This was a valley ride I was pretty excited about, but the cloud cover caused a muted scene. There was about 40% leaf change though, which was nice. About half way to Spring Green, it started raining and continued all the way there. At the campground I was planning on staying at, the lady said rain was slated all night. They didn't have any camper-cabins available, so I decided to give in (being pretty wet from the last 1.25 hours of raining) and called a local motel. Got a room for $48 for the night, with AAA.
Day 2 - 310 Miles
Woke up to rain around 7:00 AM. Checked my phone for weather forecast, which didn't look good. 
I waited until around 8:30 to see if it would lighten up, but nope. While I waited, I did make my coffee. The tea thing didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I'll need a better way to soak my grounds.Packed and headed out into the 53 degree rain. I worked my driving plan with a few small variations all the way up past Sparta, WI. It rained the whole way. By that time, I was pretty soaked through and getting cold. Wet was okay, but cold not so much. Even my grip warmers weren't doing the job. In Melrose, WI, I decided to head to Black River Falls and jump on the 94 Fwy home. Stopped for hot cup of tea and some lunch at a truck stop in Osseo.
From there it was still raining, but not as hard. Around Eau Claire it cleared up and I was able to make pretty good time the rest of the way home. It didn't warm up until I crossed the Minnesota border. Funny that.
Lessons Learned
- Check your power cords before you leave. I had the wrong one for my GPS unit.
- Have more respect for weather predictions.
I'd say I accomplished about 70% of the ride I wanted to make. I'd still like to get through the western Wisconsin area, just inland between the Mississippi and Eau Claire. Looks like nice riding area.
Below are the Spotwalla data points downloaded and uploaded to Google Maps. A few spurious points popped in but pretty accurate for the most part.
View Moto Ride 2011 - Results in a larger map
Happy Riding!
You did fine.
ReplyDelete"A rally without rain is just a ride"- Will Outlaw
Couple of thought- coffee press, like I suggested earlier, is the probably the answer to your kamping koffee kuestion.
And- why were you wet? Rain suit? Goretex gear not so waterproof as it was supposed to be? Behind that fairing and screen, you should be able to ride all day and be dry as a bone, except maybe for perspiration. Your gear will evolve as you experiment, but if you are getting wet in gear that is supposed to be waterproof, you've got lousy gear. We'll have to talk more about that. Rain should not keep you off the roads, ever, on a trip like that.
Glad to see you had some fun though, and I enjoyed following along a little bit with your tracking technology.
I do like the coffee press, but some of them were over $30. I was hoping to find a less expensive option. I saw them at REI. I'll have to pop for one I guess.
ReplyDeleteI have a good Tourmaster coat and pants, but I imagine the 4 hours of constant water eventually soaked through. I would imagine that even Gore-Tex would last with soaking. The prior evening I was fine for 1.5 hours of rain. Perhaps I need to add some spray water proofing on the inside?
I am thinking about a Spot device. They are $99 right now. Subscription would be about $170 a year for 911, tracking and road side service. In many of the places I was, there was no cell coverage.