Driftless

It was supposed to be a nice weekend and Paul, Brian and I had made plans to have a "guys night out" in Madison, Wisconsin. Unfortunately Brian couldn't make it, so we asked another Brian (known as 'Dave' in some circles) whether he would like to join us. He had just purchased a Buell XB9R from his friend and was also eager to ride!


Our trip was supposed to be real nice on Saturday but the forecast for Sunday was for thumderstorms, hail and tornado's. So we went anyway ;-)



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Our route went through the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, named that because the glaciers did not extend here. There are lots of hills and rock formations, deep valleys, and thanks to Wisconsin supporting its dairy industry, lots of roads through these valleys. 


All of this makes for a great place to ride. The pavement is usually pretty good because the large trucks avoid the area. Traffic is nearly non-existant, and since there is little traffic there is little enforcement. 


As we rode the sun came out, and the closer to Madison we got, the warmer it was. After about 250 miles we arrived at our hotel, changed out of riding gear into normal gear, and sought places that had good beer. In particular that included the Great Dane brewpub as they have an outstanding Black Earth Porter on the menu (including some dayum good meatloaf). Next stop was the Capital Brewery which didn't have much for a selection and what they had, a Maibock and a Doppelbock, appeared to differ only in gravity and the glass they were served in. 


Moving on down State Street we popped into Pau'ls Place, for a Delerium Tremens Belgian golden strong (Paul and Brian compared tequila's ...). We were hoping to find some good music at the student union, but it was decidedly pathetic. I think the audience of five were friends of the band. Eh. And we could have passed for their professor's.


Heading back up State Street we stopped at State Street Brats and didn't have brats. But it was  a reminder of what it was like to be in college again, except a) the beer is better, b) the beer is more expensive, and c) not many folks were here. While it wasn't a ghost town, the place was decidedly not hopping. Maybe 10pm was too early? 


But our final libation station was Cooper's Tavern. This was apparently not where the college kids hung out as everyone was older and dressed better, and there was a line - we had to wait until someone else left. At least we weren't denied entry, which happened to Chuck and I once in Oslo, because we wore jeans. Cooper's Tavern had a great beer selection too - I started with a sour flemish that was waaaaaay too sweet for the style and nowhere sour enough, and finished with another belgian which I have no recollection of what it was. 


Being old farts we made our way back to the hotel around midnight. Paul threw on his swim trunks and went to the pool. After a minute I looked at Brian and said "I'll go keep him company" and Brian pointed he'd be back in a minute, cuz there's a cosmic law that pools close at 10pm. That's when Paul walked in the door. Teehee!


The next morning we were greeted with a hazy yucky day. Breakfast was served continental-style (i.e. bagels, fruit, yoghurt, oatmeal and donuts) by the hotel, with excellent coffee. One step outside yielded a surprise: it was warm! Like, 70F warm. Very humid too, and the sun was burning the haze off, but that nice warm temp had us itching to ride!


And ride we did. We had to jump a couple curbs to get out of the hotel parking ramp (we left the room keys in the room, not knowing we needed them to get out of the ramp). 


Having used our fancy schmancy phones to look at the weather we decided to stay south a ways and then go north to avoid the weather. 



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That worked great! The temps where about 80F most of the way. After a lunch stop in Richland Center the clouds a bit dark but it never rained on us until we were in Wabasha. Our waitress told us it had hailed earlier in the day.

Just outside of La Crosse Brian and I swapped bikes. I rode his XB9R and he got on my couch-like FJR. The Buell is a very compact motorcycle. Once we got rolling I had a hard time bringing my legs up to the skyhigh pegs, but I managed. Then I bounced the twin off the rev limiter, and couldn't figure out the shifter as it had very little engagement feel. And, yes it shakes. Other than that .. it was a fun bike. The motor, while it has no top end rush, has a solid and flat torque curve and a very "planted" feel. The suspension soaked up all the little road bumps (at the expense of 'feel') without being sloppy. If I didn't have access to Jenn's SV650 it would be a fun 2nd bike.

We took some back roads up to Wabasha and were thwarted by the flooding river ... oh well. A few miles south of Paul's place the temperatures dropped, the lightning started, and rain came down. We waited out the microcell in Paul's garage.




The final leg to Red Wing was uneventful but cold. 


And that was our ride.