Albert the Bull: Giant Bull with Big Nuts!

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!

All Women’s Ride July 15

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!

Biker Chick and family head to Pella, Iowa

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.

Road trip to Albert Lea, MN – WOW!

Wow, what an awesome weekend!! I just completed my first “real bike trip” riding my own! My plan was to meet up with some of the gals in my online “biker sisterhood,” then we were all going to go on a ride together around southern MN. A friend of mine here at work, who also rides her own, asked if she might go with me as far as Clear Lake, where her parents live, so this became our first ride together, the first overnight trip for both of us, and the longest trip to date for both of us.

We had several people from the online group scheduled to meet us in Albert Lea. We weren’t sure what the weather was going to do – we knew it was going to be hot, but not sure what we would do if it poured rain as some were predicting.

Susan, my work buddy, (who rides an ’03 pearl white Sportster 883) eventually decided to forego the visit to her parents and ride with me on up to Albert Lea. We left Des Moines at 7:30 Saturday morning. It was warm, but humid, so the air was moist and once we got moving it was pretty enjoyable. We rode north up Highway 69, which was absolutely beautiful – the fields are full, and all looks really healthy and green. We traveled 88 miles before our first stop, which was in Belmond. We topped off the gas tanks, drank some water, and then from Belmond we rode straight into Albert Lea, arriving at 11:30 a.m. We navigated through town up to Bergdale Harley Davidson where we bought some souvenir t-shirts, then headed over to the truck stop to meet the other folks.

As it turned out, only one of the other gals could make it down to meet us – the others all got pummeled with a major thunderstorm in the Twin Cities/Minnetonka area. But Lynn arrived and the three of us had lunch and then headed out for our planned ride with her in the lead… we went east out of Albert Lea on Hwy 46, picked up 90, then 63 south at Spring Valley… found a convenience store off 63 and took a long break… then back onto 63 south down to Hwy 56, a designated scenic byway. We travelled on 56 back to the northwest, through Le Roy, Tapaoi, and ending at Rose Creek, which is a few miles south of where 56 meets up again with 90. It was about a 100 mile loop, mostly east and south of Austin, MN.

We gassed up at a little mom-and-pop gas station in Rose Creek run by this older couple, who were pretty interested in the three biker chicks! Then Lynn took off towards home about 5 p.m. and Susan and I took a round-about way back to Clear Lake where we had booked a room to stay overnight. We had decided to avoid I-90 on the way back, so instead we took 218 south into Iowa, passed through St. Ansgar and Osage, then picked up Hwy 9 and went through Manly, Fertile, and finally arriving in Clear Lake about 7 p.m. We totaled about 325 miles for the day.

The hotel was decent, and the manager let us park our bikes right outside the office window so they and the security folks could keep an eye on them for us. We had supper at Perkins, then back to the hotel to sleep. (In bed by 9:30?? What happened to those wild biker chicks?? LOL) 

We were up early, packed, checked out, and were warming up the bikes by 7:30 Sunday morning; south down Highway 69 we stopped again at Belmond for a potty break, then again at Jewel for gas and to watch a train go by (not much choice in that one… LOL) then one more stop outside of Ankeny (close to home) to say good-bye… again a beautiful ride because it was early and still somewhat cool with the wind. My mileage was 460 for the entire trip; Susan had another 15 or so on top of that because she had to ride up to my house for the start and then home at the end. 

It was a beautiful, trouble-free weekend and I can’t WAIT to plan something else!!

Indianola Bike Night and Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad Ride, June 2005

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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