Whoever said “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey” never rode a Sportster on a four-lane highway in 30 mph cross-winds. It sure seemed like a beautiful day when we were standing in the driveway… there really didn’t seem to be any wind, the temperature was around 70 with a clear blue sky.

Our original plan was to collect Garry and Shirley in Carlisle and then make a loop to the southeast and then back up to Newton and home on old highway 6. When we got to Carlisle with Howard and Brenda, Garry & Shirley suggested that we go a little farther on to Pella, where the annual Tulip Festival had just concluded. Since I’m not as familiar with that area, we had Garry take the lead to get us there.

We rode south on Highway 5 out of Carlisle, and I was really noticing the cross-wind pushing me around on the road. We turned left onto Marion Co. highway G40 at Pleasantville and took that to Lake Red Rock. G40 ends at highway 14, just shy of the entrance to the Mile Bridge going over the lake. We crossed the bridge and turned southeast onto G28, which we took into Pella. This was a really scenic ride that took us past Cordova State Park, where the water tower-turned-observation-tower is located. (Lake Red Rock is an Army Corps of Engineers lake farther downstream but part of the same system as Polk County’s Saylorville Lake.)

We parked on the square in Pella and took a little time to walk around and look at the tulips in bloom. The Pella Tulip Festival is a long-standing Iowa tradition. The town has a distinctly Dutch heritage, and every year they build a community festival around the thousands of tulips planted around the square and in a variety of gardens around town. Although we missed the official festival by waiting til Sunday to ride down, the tulips were still beautiful - a few were fully bloomed and blown, and some will peak in a few more days. Most, however, were in full regalia and it really was a lovely time to visit. (Full photo album here.)

We decided to take the faster, less scenic route home - we took Highway 163 from Pella into Des Moines, and this was where I really got sick of the cross-wind. I swear I have never been pushed around so much as I was on this 40-mile stretch. (Even our first day of riding home from Sturgis in 2006 wasn’t this bad!)

One of the most annoying things for me is that I seem to have a problem with my jacket ballooning up from the wind. I don’t know if it’s the fact that my sleeves don’t fit snug, or that the jacket’s not vented… it doesn’t even matter which jacket I’m wearing, I always have this problem in strong wind. So I was battling the balloon, and had to keep my jacket zipped all the way up to my chin - only to find that this caused the little fabric zipper pull to whip me repeatedly on the chin and mouth. My solution was to clench the fabric pull between my teeth. I must’ve looked like a dog pulling on his chew-rope. At least it kept me from getting whipped in the face. (Turns out, Garry had a whipping problem too - the radio antenna on his ‘Glide kept catching him on the back of the head and ear!)

In all we rode a hundred miles - and I am FINALLY sporting that “sun-burned from the forehead, down” look you get from wearing a do-rag and sunglasses!

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We took a 60-mile ride on Sunday from Des Moines down to Carlisle, over to Martensdale and then back up to Des Moines. It was chilly, but it was so great to get out and ride that we didn’t really notice til the very end. Well, most of us didn’t.

Six of us - Steve, Kristin, Hollie, Howard, Cassie and myself - left Des Moines around 2 p.m. My car had told me it was 53 degrees at 1 p.m., so we figured it might hit 55 even though it was overcast and clammy.

We rode down to Carlisle where we collected Garry and Shirley, then the 8 of us took off down Highway 5 to County Road S23, south down S23 to Highway 92, west on 92 to Martensdale at Highway 28, then north on 28 back into Norwalk and then Des Moines. This is a really nice loop, one we have done a few times before as an alternative to riding “up around the lake.” Our only stop, once we met up with Garry and Shirley in Carlisle, was a Casey’s in Norwalk. By the time we got there, everyone was noticing the chill a little - especially Shirley, who wasn’t wearing gloves. (Okay, it’s really not enough to say she was “noticing the chill a little.” Her comment was that she was glad she didn’t have to do any sudden maneuvering of the clutch or brake levers, because her poor hands couldn’t have managed it. We need to get that girl some proper handwear!)

We milled around Casey’s for a half hour or so, got warmed up, and then headed home. By the time we pulled into our driveway, we were all feeling the cold a bit. I mentioned to all that it felt like the temperature had dropped five degrees in the time since we’d left Norwalk. As it turns out, I was pretty much right: I looked up the 24-hour temperature history on Accuweather.com and it showed that at 2 p.m. the temp was 50. That means it had already dropped 3 degrees from the day’s high of 53 before we even left home! And at 5 p.m., when we pulled into our driveway, it said 45 degrees! Now eight degrees might not feel like a significant difference when you’re talking sub-zero. (Does minus-28 really feel all that much different from minus-20?) But when you’re talking 53 vs. 45, it’s HUGE - especially when it’s cloudy.

Despite the chill, it was great to finally get out and ride. WOOHOO!! Riding season is here!

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We took probably our last ride of the season over the weekend - Sunday was beautiful, sunny with a high in the mid-60’s… so we took a scenic ride with Kristin, Hollie, Howard, Brenda and Cassie down to Indianola and Lake Ahquabi just a few miles south. Fall colors are nearly done (there are still a few really amazing trees here in town, though), and it’s getting dark pretty early what with Daylight Savings Time over… plus it’s the height of lust-crazed deer season and that always makes things interesting - but we had a great day riding with no troubles.

I’ve got a little over 13,000 miles on my bike now - it had 4900 when I bought it. I put the saddlebags back on recently and I’ve got some thoughts for things to do/add over the winter, so we’ll see what the PB looks like come spring.

So what’s in store for the off-season? Oh the usual shopping for chrome, leather, etc. LOL But also, I’ve put my name in the hat to be an officer in the local HOG chapter (new member ambassador - does that sound like me or what??) so I’m looking forward to see if that comes to pass.

I also have lots of blogging fun in store so hang in there with me, just because it’s too cold to ride doesn’t mean the blog goes quiet!

More soon!

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As it turns out, there’s one more thing The Picky Bitch is picky about: road surface! She likes paved highways, and she will tolerate fine, hard-packed gravel as long as it’s dry. But she will throw herself to the ground in a temper tantrum (and take me with her) if she’s forced to slough through the kind of slimy mud we encountered on Saturday.

We debated going out at all - chance of rain was 50-50, it was cloudy and cool. We didn’t particularly want to ride in the rain, but decided to chance it. The plan was to ride over toward Panora with Howard, Brenda, Hollie and Kristin, where we were going to look at a possible new bike for Brenda at Jackie’s house.

We put on full leathers and I chose not to wear my brand new jacket because I didn’t want it to get wet. I’d later be thankful for that decision. We headed out Hickman Road in Des Moines, which is old Highway 6, and took that all the way to Adel. We then proceeded west on F60 to Redfield, F59 to P28, and then north on P28 toward Panora. This is a really pretty ride, and was a road we’d taken a couple times before - once on our way to see Albert the Bull with Garry and Shirley, and once last summer when Coyote and I traveled to LeMars.

At some point just south of Panora, we turned onto the road that led down to Jackie’s house. It was gravel… fine hard-packed, clay-based gravel, and it was wet. We had to travel on it about a quarter-mile, but it was a downhill ride with a curve. The first couple hundred feet were okay - I’d loosened my grip and slowed way down. But toward the bottom of the hill, where the curve set in, there was a spot where I could see that the gravel was actually mostly mud. Slimey, rutted clay-based mud. As I started through it, going probably less than 5 mph, I thought, wow I could drop the bike pretty easily through here, better be careful. The next moment, I was splatted on the ground face down, arms out-stretched ahead of me and the Picky Bitch laying on my @#$ foot.

I wasn’t hurt, but I couldn’t pull my foot out from under the bike. I looked up the road behind me to see my fellow riders all trying to safely get whoa’d on the mud-slimey hill (THANKS, everyone for not running over me! I still have no idea how they all managed to get stopped in that mess without going over)… Steve came running up asking if I was okay and I said, “I’m alright, just get the bike off my foot…” so he and Howard pulled the Bitch up and then helped me up. My gloves, my jacket, and my chaps were covered in mud slime - my knee and ankle were a little sore, but no serious damage to me.

As for the poor Bitch - totally destroyed front turn signal (not just the lens and housing, but also the post that mounts it to the triple-tree), broken back brake linkage rod and dangling/bent brake pedal (cobbled back together for the ride home), and - !@#$- bent my brand new ape hanger handle bars!!

We got the bike down to the garage at Jackie’s house, she and her family helped me get cleaned up a bit and the guys managed to get the bike put back together enough that I could ride it home (THANK YOU!!). Brenda did make that bike trade, so she got to ride home on her new-to-her Honda Shadow Aero 750… and yes, I rode The Picky Bitch back through the slime up the hill to the road and home.

A few things I’m thankful for:

1. I’m thankful I was dressed for the fall. I have a burn mark on my chaps (they’re branded!) where the hot pipes were laying across my leg and pinning my foot; my gloves protected my hands from serious harm; and my poor right boot (yep, my red cowyboy boot) has another battle scar.
2. As noted, I’m thankful I wore my old jacket and I’m thankful that Steve had just put the saddlebags back on the Bitch on Friday - they probably protected the back end of the bike from serious damage.
3. I’m thankful, obviously, that I wasn’t hurt and that none of my friends were hurt trying to get to me - this could have turned into one big pile of broken bikes.
4. I’m thankful for Jackie’s hospitality.
5. I’m thankful for the friends who were with me and eager to help.

All of this is why I missed the 2007 Toy Run; I need to get the bike back together in time for the benefit ride next weekend.

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Friday night was Indianola Bike Night - we rode down with Kristin and Hollie (Hollie got her bike fixed!) but along the way noticed a person waiting with a bike on the side of the rode… realized as we rode by it was SUSAN (Coyote)!! So I stopped and waited with her while she waited for Paul to return with tools to fix the problem… they then rode home to switch bikes and I went on down to Indianola. Got there just as Steve, Garry and Shirley were getting off their bikes… Susan and Paul arrived a short time later. Did our usual pass around the square and had dinner at the One Stop Cafe.

Normally I hate the ride home from Indianola - it’s always in the dark and I always feel like it’s a deer gauntlet… this week, though, the ride home was pleasant. I happened to hit the highway behind a guy riding a bike with a sidecar rig, and he maintained a speed of about 50 mph the whole way home. I was able to rely somewhat on his headlight beam to light the road ahead of me, so I felt like I had a good “advance view” of any animals that might be lurking.

Saturday night we went up the HD dealership and enjoyed a free showing of “Wild Hogs” with about 100 other club members. We really liked that movie the first time we saw it in the theater, but it was even more fun in a room full of bikers.

Then today (Sunday) we went to breakfast at a local diner with Garry & Shirley and then went on an afternoon ride to the east. We traveled Old Highway 6 east through Mitchellville, Colfax and Lambs Grove, then south on Highway 14 down to Monroe where we hit a little rain. We had intended to go a little farther east to Pella, but we could see the wall of rain off in that direction so we changed plans and just took 14 on south out of Monroe, over the Mile Bridge over Lake Red Rock. We turned to the west on County Road G-40 into Pleasantville, then north on Highway 5 back into Carlisle where Garry & Shirley live.

I did try something  new today - instead of wearing my usual HD boots, I tried riding in my new red Ariat cowboy boots (I got mine on eBay for $30!!). The only issue I had was that the upper is a lot thinner on these than it is on the HD boots, so I could feel the shifter through the top of the boot as I pushed it upward. I did find a comfortable way to accomplish the shift, and these seemed to have a decent grip sole so I might ride with them a few more times until I can get a good deal on the brown HD Laredo harness-style boots I want.

In all a good weekend on the bikes… summer is winding down but I think we might try to get one more over-nighter in. 

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What happens when 30-plus high-spirited biker women go bar-hopping in a small town?

Tables get pushed together…

music cranks up…

beer gets bought…

dancing ensues…

friendships are forged…

the local men try to crash the party…

ask us if we’re a lesbian biker gang (we tell them YES - LOL!)…

more beer gets bought…

the music cranks further…

more beer…

more music…

some of the locals are following us from bar to bar… are we THAT much of a spectacle?? (YES!)

locals trying to dance with us… we feed them to the crocodiles…

more dancing…

… then slowly start trickling home… a slow mosey to the convenience store for snacks… why’s it so friggin’ BRIGHT in here?

And the next day comes around far too soon!

Needless to say, we all had a great time partying in McGregor on Saturday night. Josie’s and Crazy Carl’s received the brunt of our “Surge the local economy” program, as they were within easy walking distance of the motel. I’m sure they are still wondering what the hell happened!

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AT LAST, I got to do a little riding! Wednesday and Thursday nights last week, we took a couple short jaunts - one to the HOG club meeting and on Thursday, out to supper followed by a park-and-walk through bike night at Porky’s - first visit to Porky’s all year!

Then on Sunday, we set out with a group of online friends to make a day of it. Our original plan was to travel from Des Moines to Fort Dodge and back by way of some two-lanes. We left about 11 a.m. from Waukee, and stopped for lunch at the Golden Corral in Boone. While there we hooked up with another rider who had an alternate plan, and while we ultimately didn’t go as far as Ft. Dodge we took some outstandingly beautiful roads just south of there. We left Boone about 1:30 p.m. and traveled north up Highway 17, then cut over going west on County Road D56. Some beautiful twisties - the kind my Sportster loves! - and then took a turn to the north and went through Brushy Creek State Park. Coming out on County P73, we jogged back south down to D56 and continued west into the town of LeHigh. Entering this little town on D56 has got to be one of the most picturesque spots in Iowa: D56 comes into town at the Des Moines River, and just as you cross the little bridge you come to a stop sign where you’re stopped in front of historic business buildings and tree-lined roads going uphill to the north and south. It reminded me of some of the historic towns in Colorado and the Black Hills.

On through LeHigh and then through Dolliver Memorial State Park, then south to Jefferson, a stop in Perry, and then home. About 220 miles total - only a couple of flat stretches and some really beautiful roads in between. Minor problems included me taking a big sweeping curve a little too wide and having to “look HARD at where I wanted to end up” to get out of it… Steve says he did the same thing on a big sweeper to the left and we wondered if it was the same curve. And a suicidal black dog who came charging out of a farmyard and chased us down the highway til our 2nd-in-line blasted a good-sounding horn at him. Some of these folks were people we had never met in person before - all became instant friends and we are so glad to have met them! In all we spent nine hours and traveled about 220 miles in absolutely perfect summer weather.

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It was a beautiful weekend here in Iowa and here are two biker chicks who took full advantage of it!  After our successful trip to Albert Lea last summer, my friend Susan and I decided we needed to plan another overnight trip for this year. We had originally planned to visit Galena, IL, but the day before the trip we checked the weather and learned that “they” (whoever “they” are) were predicting rain for that time period in that locale so we switched gears and decided that it looked like it was going to be warmest over in northwest Iowa. So we decided we’d ride the Loess Hills Scenic Byway from about the middle of the western border of the state up to Sioux City, and then spend  the night in Le Mars.

We had both taken Friday off from work so we met at my house and left about 9:30 a.m. We went west out of Des Moines on Highway 6 then picked up Highway 44 at Panora. From here, 44 is designated in Iowa as the Western Skies Scenic Byway. Now Susan and I are not “let’s get there” kind of people. We are more “let’s take our time getting there” people. So to say that we stopped frequently would probably be an understatement, but generally speaking, we stopped frequently. We passed through several lovely small towns, including Adel, Redfield, Guthrie Center, and Harlan, and finally picked up the Loess Hills road in Logan.

The Loess Hills region of Iowa is beautiful, and fall colors have not quite peaked here so everything is just barely turning red and gold. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see anything terrain-wise that really surprised me… but, I think if we had explored the State Park or the western side of the hills, we would have been better able to appreciate what makes this region so unique. 

We rode north keeping to the designated scenic highway, which zig zags its way through the hills. We stopped for lunch at the Old Home Fill’er Up and Keep On Truckin’ Cafe in Pisgah (immortalized by C.W. McCall in the Old Home Bread commercials) and then went on to Sioux City. We took Highway 75 north through Sioux City to the Harley dealership, where we stopped to shop and make phone calls home, then continued on up 75 to Le Mars at about 6 p.m.

We checked into a motel and walked next door to Uncle Albert’s Pub & Grille, where we had a very good dinner and a couple drinks. We got a good laugh out of the fact that it had taken us 8 hours to travel 250 miles!

Slept in Saturday morning and after getting the bikes packed we went to see the Wells Blue Bunny Visitors Center. Le Mars bills itself as “The Ice Cream Capital of the World,” because the Wells Blue Bunny company produces more ice cream in their Le Mars dairy than any other company in any other location in the world. They’ve built a very nice museum which tells the history of the company and the history of ice cream, and includes a 3/4-scale model of part of their production line so you can see how the products move around on the line. The facility also includes a full-service ice cream parlor, where we learned that ice cream tastes even better when it’s fresh - meaning, you’re eating it right next door to where it was made and it hasn’t been frozen, thawed, re-frozen/etc. at the whim of your freezer’s defrost cycle.

We spent about an hour at the museum and then took off to the east on Highway 3, where we passed through more lovely small towns like Cherokee, Ida Grove, and Carroll. (Note to self: need to return to Ida Grove with the family to visit the COOL Pizza Hut with outdoor patio that overlooks a lake!) We picked up Highway 44 again at Panora, which took us straight back into the Des Moines area in our northern suburb of Johnston. In all, we traveled 460 trouble-free miles with beautiful weather - we are going to have to come up with a name for these little overnighters!

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We are trying to put on some miles in preparation for the two-day ride to Sturgis, so today we took off to the west with the added goal of taking some pictures of Albert the Bull. Albert is a 30-foot-tall, 45-ton sculpture of a Hereford bull, erected in Audobon, Iowa in 1964 to acknowledge the impact of the beef/cattle industry on the local economy. He’s something of an Iowa landmark and an excellent biker destination. The weather was outstanding for late July - it was 80 degrees and sunny, with bright blue sky and scattered clouds. (The whole week prior, it had been in the upper 90’s and humid - so this was a welcome break!)

We took off from home heading west out of Des Moines on old Highway 6, which we took all the way through Adel and Redfield, picking up Highway 44 (the Western Skies Scenic Byway) at Panora. We hit some road construction  between Redfield and Panora, but I have to say, Redfield has got to be one of Iowa’s prettiest small towns and the landscape along 44 is just impossibly lovely - lush green fields, immaculate farmyards, century-plus-old homesteads, all perfectly green from recent rains.

We stopped for a water break in Guthrie Center along Highway 44, and a very friendly gal at the gas pumps asked us where we were headed. When we said we were going to take pictures with Albert the Bull, she told us that her dad had been one of the men who had done the original plaster work (actually concrete troweling) on the sculpture - so Albert was a special point of pride for her, and she still lived in Audobon.

We finished up with Highway 44 at Hamlin, then turned North where we found Albert just four miles up the road in the middle of Audobon City Park. You can’t help but smile when he comes into view from the road, and of course there’s a little information kiosk where you can learn all about how and when he was made. (Here is more info about Albert online!) The park is lovely, and includes a well-maintained campground and playground.

After snapping several pictures, including one of Albert’s rather impressive testicles, we headed on into Audobon proper where we had a late lunch at the Chatterbox Café. This little spot on the west side of Division Street was just what we were looking for - a mom ‘n pop place to eat and visit. The food was very good, the service was especially friendly, and we had a leisurely meal before heading back for home.

Because of the rather iffy stretch of road construction we’d encountered between Redfield and Panora, we decided to take an alternate route home so we headed south out of Audobon on Highway 71, down to 83 and then east to Anita. Stopped to top off gas, and headed up to I-80 east back to Des Moines. This was about a 70-mile stretch of one of the nation’s busiest Interstates, but all went well. (We will be taking this same Interstate out of Des Moines as we head to Sturgis.)

We had left Des Moines around 11:30 a.m., and got home just about 5:45 p.m. It was a perfect day riding - good weather, good friends, no mishaps - and a photo op with a giant concrete bull!

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I had a truly awesome day riding, Saturday July 15 - possibly the best day ever for me on the bike.

Last Wednesday night at our local HOG chapter meeting, I noticed a flyer on the bulletin board that just said, “All Women’s Ride” - gave a starting time and place, and a couple phone numbers to call for info. This was just the kind of thing I had wanted to do last year, but never got around to doing it - organizing a women’s ride. So I decided I would participate, although I was a little nervous about joining a group I‘d never met before.

I called two of my girlfriends, Susan (Coyote) and Shirley, to let them know about it and that I was going, and they both expressed interest. We rode in separately to the starting point and we were all warmly greeted by the gals who had already gathered. I was afraid it was going to be a group of women who already knew each other, and that I would feel like an outsider… but I’m glad to report that wasn’t the case. The two organizers knew each other, and maybe two of the other women thre, but the rest were like me - just checking it out because they’d read the flyer.

My first notion that it was going to be a “sisterhood” kind of day was when our organizer, Theresa, said she wanted to take a group picture so we need to pull the bikes in closer together in front of the building. Most of us had given ourselves a plenty-wide berth to get turned around in the parking lot, so there was lots of room between bikes, and they were spread out too wide to get them allinto the picture. So, each person would in turn get on her bike and move it closer to the center of the group, and a couple other gals would step in andhelp push it backwards up the little incline. Once parked, she’d get off her bike and go help someone else get situated - it took only about five minutes to organize 20 bikes into a nice group photo.

The plan was to just ride a hundred-mile loop, making a few bar stops along the way. It was extremely hot, upper 90’s, with clear blue skies but semi-hazy with the heat. Our first leg was about 50 miles. I’ll admit it was pretty damn cool to be riding in that column - we got into staggered formation like it was a given, used hand signals when needed to keep the group apprised of road hazards and upcoming turns, and generally just rode together like we’d been doing it for years.

The firststop was a small-town bar where a few locals were spending their Saturday afternoon… the bartender was good to us, understanding when we just ordered water (and happily accepting our generous tips!) and letting us take over the place for a half-hour or so. Another sign of instant sisterhood occurred here. My friend Shirley, who debated not coming because she is sometimes prone to heat exhaustion, was overcome by the heat shortly after we got insidethe bar. She kind of collapsed onto the cool cement floor, where I and a few of the other riders provided damp towels and encouragement. Theresa, who had been riding two-up with a girlfriend from Florida, told me that her friend was a licensed rider and would be happy to ride Shirley’s bike for her ifneed be, meaning Shirley could have her spot on the back of T’s bike. I just thought this - and all the concern theyshowed for her - was incredibly kind, given that we’d all just met an hour ago! After fifteen minutes or so she was feeling (and looking) much better, and in another fifteen she insisted she wasready to go on. In all the stop lasted about 40 minutes.

Refreshed with water and sport-drinks, we were then off again to the next stop, and then the next and finally the last. Short stops just long enough to drink a bottled water then back on the bikes. At the last stop, T had arranged for her mother and sister to bring homemade enchiladas which we all enjoyed tremendously.

It was truly a day of the sort of “instant bonding” one could only hope for - a group of very different women from all walks of life, who all shared a passion to ride, just out enjoying the Iowa byways and riding as a group like we‘d been doing it forever. I know we were quite the sight to see, a column of bikes all ridden by women - had I been passing our group in a car I would have certainly been astounded… “Hey lookit all the bikes - hey, they’re ALL WOMEN!” And frankly, that made me feel just a little bit special!

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I knew when I got out of bed on Sat. August 6th it was going to be a perfect day - the kind with a bright blue sky and
sunshine, no clouds, mid-80’s for temps. Decided we were going to ride to Pella, Iowa, a picturesque community about 40 miles southeast of here with distinctively Dutch heritage and the tallest working windmill in the U.S. Got the family out of bed (lazy bums!) and announced our plans… a few grumblings, but hey, if I don’t push ‘em they would just as soon sleep til noon. No sense wasting such a perfect day!

The ride down Hwy 163 to Pella was uneventful (though I missed a turn-off to a more scenic route, being unfamiliar
with the area), and very enjoyable. Once in Pella we saw the klokkenspiel (giant clock in a Dutch-style clock tower, with animated figures that come out and move around when it chimes) and also stopped in the Historical Village. This is a small touristy-type venue that offers a tour of the Windmill, plus a “village” of the types of shops and buildings that would be found in an 1850’s Dutch town. Unfortunately, we were travelling on the cheap so decided not to pay the $20 it would’ve cost for the family to actually take the guided tours. Kinda wish we had spent the $$ now, as I’m sure it would’ve been really neat to see the whole thing. As it was, we got to watch the windmill at work, and studied a very nicely-done (free) timeline of Pella history.

We had lunch at a little diner called the Windmill Cafe, then back on the bikes and travelled the short way down to Lake Red Rock and Knoxville. While en route we passed Cordova State Park, home to the tallest observation tower in the Midwest. This thing is an interesting structure: it used to be a water tower serving the state parks in the area, but when they all hooked up to the rural water system the tower was no longer needed. In 1995 they decommissioned it, and in 1998 they built a spiral stairway around the outside of it and an observation deck at the top. The deck is 106 feet, and 170 steps, off the ground.

Stef and I decided to make the climb - she’s afraid of heights and I’m not in the best physical shape for this sort of thing (two days later and my thighs are still burning!), but we both made it and discovered that the view of the surrounding Des Moines River Valley is breathtaking. On this clear day you could see several miles in every direction, and we spent about 20 minutes enjoying the vista.

The only bad part of the day was that at one point on the road, I started to feel these little needle-sticks on my shoulder… then down near my waist (okay my “spare tire”, which is not so much flab as it is a protective overhang for my nether-region)… and then more back up on my shoulder. It was painful, and driving me NUTS, as the sticks were hitting me every few seconds. I decided that a bee must have got into my shirt, and I had to pull the bike over because there’s not much patting and shoo-ing one can do while going down the road. Pulled my shirt out of my jeans and Steve said something flew out - but only one something, so he said it had to have been a wasp because of the multiple stings. Anyway, got it out of there and put myself back together; now I’ve got about six sting marks that are itching like CRAZY.

In all we put 120 miles on the bikes - I am fast-approaching the 2,000-mile mark for the season.

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Had a great weekend here, it was extra-long – I had taken three days off from work with my DD going away to summer camp on Sunday, and told the DH: we are goin’ ridin’!! Friday night we all went down to a “bike night” in a small-town just south of here; we rode with our friends Garry and Shirley… well over 700 bikes “on the square” in Indianola!! Beautiful evening, great ride both directions. On Monday with Stef at camp we set out to ride from Des Moines to approximately Unionville, MO – actually a tiny town called Livonia – where Steve’s folks live. It is a lovely ride mostly down Highway 5, and we know it well because we’ve done it so many times in the cage. So the landmarks seem to fly by pretty quickly – it’s about 100 miles door-to-door, but we had to gas up and also took a lunch break along the way so it took us about 3 hours to do what’s normally a 2-hour car trip. It was a nice ride down, but we were hot and tired when we got there; we visited a bit with the folks and they encouraged us to take a short nap, which we did, so we felt a whole lot better after that!

My MIL gave me the garden tour of their little converted one-room schoolhouse home, then they took us for a late-afternoon snack up the road at an antique-and-general-store place. After that we headed home and rode it straight through – just as we pulled off the interstate, with about 3 miles to go to home, the wind picked up and the temp dropped about 15 degrees. It was gonna rain, and raid HARD!! We pushed through to home with nary a drop, BUT with 40- and 50-mph wind gusts!! Boy my poor little Sporty was drifting all over the road – even Steve said his Heritage Softail was getting whipped around!! Made it home in the nick of time.

Tuesday was a bust for riding because Steve wanted me to go to the auto auction with him (he’s a car dealer), so we did that – it was an eye-opener, that’s for sure, but man is it tiring! (Who’d think that standing on concrete for four hours, with FIVE auctioneers blaring across five lanes of cars rolling through the sale… would tucker me out! LOL)

On Wednesday I had planned for us to visit either the Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa (original 1920’s soda fountain and candy store) or the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, Iowa. We chose Boone because it’s closer, and Steve was still a little sunburned from Monday. (Everyone at the auction commented on his WHITE forehead and RED face… we explained to everyone that his do-rag was the cause of the mid-forehead “split.”) Had a nice but hot ride to Boone about 45 miles north of here… hung around the Railroad museum and took a ride on the “Fraser Line” – a daily passenger/sight-seeing excursion that travels along the Des Moines River and goes over a 150-foot-high trestle bridge… it was beautiful and we decided that we’d have to come back at some point to take Stef on the train, and then come back yet again to ride the Dinner or Dessert train in the evening. It was an uneventful and easy ride home. <p>

I was glad for the opportunity to take a couple of “destination” rides (as opposed to the generic “riding around” I normally do on weekends), and I’m all the more determined now to do some sort of longer bike trip yet this season… I need saddlebags and a backrest though for sure! <p>

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