Tony with his K and my ST.
The plan was to make it all the way to London, Ontario for dinner. We took some great roads in addition to some slabbing through PA and NY. We stopped in a little depressed town in NY for lunch, there were several NY State prisons in the area, including Attica. The crossing over into Canuckistan was uneventful, if a bit anti climactic for me. There I was, with my 72-page twice-expanded passport with hundreds of stamps after having traveled to 44 countries (but never to Canada) and after a few questions about weapons and the bike, the guy doesn't even grace me with an entry stamp....anyway, we cruise westward through ON and get to the hotel in London. After a nice dinner at an Outback or whatever we're ready for a good night's rest.
TonyT flanked by Tom and his Dad.
Tony K-bike and Charlie
Tony doing what he does best.
Wednesday morning brings a bit of a misty rain as we pack the bikes up and grab a coffee at a Tim Horton's. As we're ingesting our caffeine I notice a blue R with a tan seat at the gas station next door, fueling up next to a silver and red K1200RS. Both piloted by women. Herb thinks he knows the rider of the blue R so he goes over to chat. Turns out he's met these women before at another rally. They were from Canada. We kept running into them all week. We hit the road and make it back to US soil crossing over at Sarnia. Michigan is full of road construction so our progress was slowed a bit. We stopped at a rest area for a break and ran into a nice couple from the Ohio club.
While we were there I took this shot of my bike loaded up like a pack mule. And yes for you eagle eyed types that is a K1200RS tankbag on my bike. Worked great.
Mugging for the camera with Tom:
Our next target was the Lake Express Ferry which sails from Muskegon, MI to Milwaukee. Like hundreds of others, we were booked on the 4:45 PM MOA reserved ferry on Wednesday afternoon.
Hurry up and wait to board the boat:
The view of the passenger cabin from our seats:
The view from the sun deck. The two red R's belong to Charlie and Herb.
Making good time across Lake Michigan:
We got off the boat in Milwaukee and shot straight up to Grafton where he had rooms booked for Wednesday night. Our group had one minor casualty as Herb got nailed in the chest by a wasp or something on the ride from Milwaukee. The little bastard somehow got into his jacket and caused a nasty allergic reaction with his sting. Tony and I abandoned Herb in his hotel room and took Tom out to dinner.
The next morning Herb is feeling better and we head off to West Bend. Registration is a breeze and we go off in search of a campsite. Herb knew some people who had a good spot so we located them and set up camp:
Herb's buds Mark (seated), Rhonda, and I forgot the name of the other guy. Mark pulls a pop-up camper with his LT and has solar panels which provide him with all the power he needs. His is the blue camper you see in these pics. Hell of a nice guy:
Rhonda's husband Greg likes to park his GS horizontally. No, really, he does. He even has his turning signals mounted on magnetic stalks so they would breakaway when parking (or riding in the dirt):
Another buddy from NY joining us was Big Josh, who rides an '05 LT. Josh rode to WI over the weekend, left his bike at the airport, flew to a business meeting in Kentucky, then flew back to join us at the rally. The man is committed (or should be !).
The indoor vendor pavilion:
Near the food area:
Speaking of food, this place was one of the most popular serving up some great chow from the Fatherland:
Mmmm Mmmm Good !
With Herb and Charlie enjoying a beer in the Biergarten:
Herb talking to his broker. Or something:
Everyone showing their good side. Boy, I sure look like a happy camper, don't I ?
The Beer barn:
Oops, looks like it's actually the Swine and Sheep barn.
Lunch on our way to Port Washington. The WI roads were wonderful. Great scenery, lots to enjoy.
Port Washington is a cute little town on the shore of Lake Michigan. Nice little marina, a stone jetty, plenty of places to eat, drink, and sleep.
On the way back from PW we pulled into a True Value hardware as Herb's windscreen was loose. The plan was to buy some nuts and bolts for the repair. As we pulled in the Manager came out and asked if we needed to borrow some tools - I could never see that happening in NJ.
The Braintrust working on Herb's windscreen:
Also met another board member Josh (thenewcamus) on the ferry along with his wife Megan. Bumped into them at Port Washington.
Tony K-bike and Big Josh back in the Beer Barn:
A bunch of us took a ride into Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon to have dinner at Cubanita's, a highly regarded Cuban restaurant. Great Cuban cuisine but I must say not quite as authentic as the local joints in my old NJ neighborhood. Still, I would imagine pretty damn good for being in the middle of the country.
We (TonyT, Tony K-bike, Herb and Tom) decided to crash in Josh's hotel room Saturday night so we could get an early start on Sunday morning.
We left West Bend at about 0630 and were in Chicao by 0830. The plan was to push hard all day Sunday through WI, IL, IN, OH and stop somewhere in PA for the night. We made it as far as Clarion, booked into a Super 8 Motel, and had Pizza Hut for dinner. Big Josh is a regional manager for Pizza Hut's parent company (Yum Brands) so he treated us to a nice dinner. It was a great meal washed down with a few beers, and we got really good service from our waitress.
Monday morning we were up at 0430 and on the road by 0515. With about 300 miles to go we all made it to our respective homes by 1030 - 1100 am.
A great rally overall. Well managed, great facility, lots of great on-site food and plenty of cold beer. We even had great weather except for the rain during the wee hours on Thursday night/Friday morning. The shower trailers were a good move, other than early morning hours never really had a huge wait in line.
Managed to meet some more cool board members Steve (OU812), Mark (mad1150), Josh (thenewcamis) and Megan as well as other brother/sister riders from around the country. Apologies if I forgot anyone.
The real question for us on the East Coast is: "How can we pull off Wyoming ?"
)
.and it looks like you had beautiful weather for it.
