Riding With Todd - Abort, Abort: make the best of it!

Sometimes you have to make the best of what you have to work with.  That is how this weeks journey ended up.  Stubbornness and a refusal to believe that riding North this weekend would be better than riding South, lead us to a change in plans for this weekends ride. 

But first!  LoriAnn got a new helmet, Nolan N1004, this week.   On Saturday I spent a few hours adapting the helmet to fit the Sena 20S audio unit we use.  We tried the audio units out that evening to be sure that everything worked.  However, on Sunday when we left home, and got a few blocks away, LoriAnn informed me that she had a rattle in her new helmet.  It was bad enough that I could hear it through my headset.  We made a big circle back to home, trying to isolate the cause.   It became clear that it wouldn't be a simple fix, so LoriAnn jumped back into her old helmet so we could ride.

Leaving home, again, we started a freeway blast down HWY 52.  Our intentions were to blast down south to Preston, MN and then head east thru Lanesboro to La Crescent and then ride north along the river to home.  But as we headed south, the sky got darker and the temperature started to drop on us.  In Zumbrota, we stopped for gas and to put on another layer of clothing.  Checking the weather report, we learned that a storm was coming North out of Iowa, pushing a cold front ahead of it.  We saw that the temperature forecast was better to the East of us.  We made the decision to abort the Preston route for another day.  

Leaving Zumbrota we jumped on HWY 60.   I have a lot of fond memories riding this road with my brothers.  And there was another day I road this with Peter Higgins and Joe Fore with a green sky and a tornado close by.  Today was just a great ride, with the temp getting warmer.

After crossing the Mississippi, we meandered our way East into the town of Gilmanton WI and stopped for lunch at Donna Mae's Panther Cafe.  We walked into the cafe and everyone turned and looked at us.  It was mothers day and there were many families there with mom.  In we walk with our dirty motorcycle jackets and pick out a table.  Hey, it really was a welcoming place.   The special was a BBQ chicken / ham dinner with potatoes, vegetables and a roll.  The chicken was excellent and plentiful.  The ham topped it off.

After lunch we road into Elmwood WI and found an oddity at Sailer's Meats.  Neither LoriAnn nor I were quite sure what we were looking at and we had to make a stop and investigate.  It looked like we found two alien spacecraft frames and several missile nose cones. It was a great reason to get off the bike and stretch our legs.  Too bad Sailer's Meats is normally closed on Sunday, we might have made a purchase and found out what we saw.   I tried to message Sailer's Meats on Facebook to figure out what the heck we saw.  So far, no reply.

From Elmwood, we headed North through New Richmond, where we stopped for gas.  Then up to Star Prairie, then over to Osceola and then home. We made the most out of a bad start to the day, had a most excellent ride, and saw some great country.

Highways Traveled: South 52; East 60, 25, D, B, Z; North BB; West on HH, 10, A, J, JJ, 10, 25; North 25, 10, C; West 72, G; North 65, M; West M, 234, 95, Panola Dr, Olinda Trail, 97

Miles Traveled: 310