Photo above: a stitched-together panorama of the bikes gathered at Kung Fu Tap & Taco.
Click here for the full album!

This was a near-perfect day in so many ways. After last weekend’s Toy Run rainout, I was anxious to see what the weather would have in store for Theresa’s benefit ride. I needn’t have worried - our high for the day was in the upper 70’s, with a beautiful bright blue sky. This in late October, in Iowa! The ride was scheduled to begin around 11 a.m. at Big Barn Harley Davidson, where Theresa works in the Warranty Service department. We arrived shortly after 10 a.m. to find there were already around 100 bikes gathered. By 11 that number had doubled and they were still coming in, so the ride start was bumped to Noon. Eventually I think they had almost 300 bikes and probably 500+ people.

Around Noon the bikes started leaving, and we made a very impressive and continuous mile-long column traveling down 2nd Avenue toward downtown Des Moines. (If you’ve never been in such a column, I don’t know how to describe the feeling. But it can be a little emotional realizing that all these people are gathered for the same big-hearted purpose.) Bikes in the lead blocked intersections so we could pass through as a group without worrying about cross traffic. (Probably illegal but what the hell… we’re bad-ass bikers, we’re supposed to do shit like this!) As we approached Downtown, traffic got a little heavier and around Court Avenue there were lots of pedestrians - the Farmer’s Market had just closed, and lots of those patrons were standing around watching us pass, some taking pictures or shooting video. There was a police officer at 3rd & Court who held off the cross-traffic there for us to pass through the intersection as a group.

Just south of the Iowa Cubs triple-A baseball stadium, we turned and headed toward the home of Theresa’s sister Vicki, where T is recuperating. Family members had arranged for T to be outside when everyone arrived - I’m not sure they were expecting quite so many of us! All those bikes took up probably two full blocks! After a short benediction and opportunity for as many as possible to meet and greet Theresa, we took off again, this time for the Kung Fu Tap a few blocks away.

The stop at Kung Fu was really just an opportunity for us to hang out while Theresa’s family helped transport her to the site of the actual pot luck dinner waiting for us at the end of the ride. We were there long enough to enjoy a beverage and then the group took off again.

Our final stop was the clubhouse of the El Foresteros. This is an old-school motorcycle club; these are the folks who actually hosted the ride and dinner. They certainly don’t normally open up their clubhouse to the general public - it’s a members-only gathering spot. I for one appreciated their hospitality and willingness to let non-members show their support for our mutual friend.

As for T herself - she’s doing pretty well but still has a long recovery ahead. I wish her the very best, and I’m really pleased to have been part of such a great turn-out for this event!

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Carole wrote in with a quick report on her recent trip to Utah with Judy (oh, and, their hubbies!) - wow, it looks like a must-ride! Thanks for sharing the trip with us, Carole!

“I thought I would share a couple of photos from our two week trip to the west.  We had a great time with Gene & Judy and saw some absolutely beautiful country.  I must say that I envy those living in Utah with endless rides and gorgeous scenery everywhere!   Brice Canyon was my favorite of all places with Arches being close behind.  The mountain ride on Hwy 191 going from Arizona into New Mexico was awesome and I would love to ride it again without the rain.  Every turn there was a sign posted telling us to watch for wild game in the road ahead.  I was leading at the time and saw four deer, a wild hog, and turkey in the road.  No elk appeared in my headlights which I was relieved by even though I would have loved to see one off the road a ways!  If you have never traveled to Utah please do in the future and I guarantee you will love it!”

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We’re well into Fall here; the leaves are in mid-turn but have not hit their peak yet, and the weather has been really nice. The past couple weekends we’ve taken some nice rides - last weekend we headed up to Jester State Park for a meet-and-greet with some of Kristin and Hollie’s friends, then took a scenic ride home from the Grimes area. Then this weekend we cruised up to Ames with Kristin, Hollie, Howard and Brenda to visit Zylstra Harley-Davidson, where the 2008 Model Year Open House was in progress. I am really enjoying my new handlebars - I feel like Chopper Girl! (Maybe I am shedding the “Rebel Biker Mom” image…?? LOL) One thing I hate, though, is Highway 69 that runs from Des Moines to Ames. This road is AWFUL!! Every spot in the road that’s been fixed is a significant bump for my Sporty.

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Labor Day weekend couldn’t have been better, weather-wise… I took Friday off so I’d have a four-day weekend, and it was mid - to upper 80’s and clear blue sky all weekend! On Friday night we went to the final “bike night” in the East Village section of Downtown Des Moines - this is always a great time, with a street dance, lots of bikes, and really good vendor food, not to mention all the usual restaurants and bars in that section of downtown.

I teased my DH because Shirley came up to ride over with us w/o her hubby (who was at a car show in KC) and our neighbors Kristin and Hollie also went… so it was Steve “sweeping” after a group of four women! Susan (Coyote) joined us downtown, so that made 5 gals and Steve - yes he seemed pretty pleased with himself!

Did not do much of anything for the next two days except take lots of naps - LOL, hey it WAS the weekend after all! -  but then today (Monday) decided to go on a lunch ride… our DD rode with Steve - she’s not that into the bikes but she is, once in a while, a good sport! - and we went up to Ames, IA about 30 miles from here and ate at one of my favorite restaurants called Hickory Park. After a great lunch we trekked home - only put about 65 or so miles on the bikes but it was beautiful and we really enjoyed it.

Last couple rides I have been riding in my new red Ariat cowboy boots, instead of my HD’s, and I have really gotten used to them. In fact, I love the way they look and feel - and they have a decent grippy sole so I feel like I have a good footing when stopped. You can sorta see them in the picture above, which my daughter snapped today. These are kind of “interim” boots til I can find a good deal on HD Laredo’s in brown.

OTHER NOTES:
I added one new video to the video channel - it’s a cute clip from the movie “Roman Holiday” that I found on YouTube. If you have a neat video you’d like me to link to or post, just drop me an email to let me know!

Also - remember I mentioned we were set to break 12,000 visitors in August? Well the final total was (get this): 13,873!! WOW!! Thank you for coming back here again and again to read my junk - I’m so glad you’re here!

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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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The weather on this trip had simply been unbeatable: temperatures in the mid-80’s, low humidity, mostly sunny. Monday was no exception, though it may have been just a touch warmer. It was still well within “perfect” range for a bike trip.

We gathered Monday morning in the hotel parking lot. A few riders were going to take the Interstate home so they could fulfill some evening commitments; a few others were going back down to Galena’s shopping district before heading home. The rest of us - 11 bikes, I think - had planned a slow westward mosey with stops that included the Wilwert’s dealership in Dubuque and J&P Cycles in Anamosa.

Leaving Galena the same way we’d come back from dinner the night before, Holly lead us on a short detour through Dubuque so we could all have the experience of riding through a particular neighborhood. It wasn’t the historic homes she wanted to show us, though - it was the street itself: I swear to God this thing was a 45-degree incline, with a 90-degree turn-with-incline at the start and another 90-degree-turn-with-incline at the end, followed by an immediate steep decline back down. It was a road that would have really intimidated me had I not encountered something nearly identical last summer out in Deadwood at Mt. Moriah Cemetery. I knew the key was to keep my speed up (though the instinct is to take it slow) - the challenge was to do that while being mindful of what the riders ahead of you were doing.

We all made it through without problems - and gave another WOOHOO at the end - and then we were on to Wilwert’s for more shopping.

After Wilwert’s, we headed out of Dubuque and traveled Highway 151 to Anamosa, where we stopped at the Iowa biker mecca, J&P Cycles. J&P is a retail and mail-order company offering all manner of bike parts, accessories, apparel and gifts. Their catalog is a must-have for anyone who rides, and their annual Open House event draws thousands of bikers from around the Midwest. We did some shopping and then headed on down the road to Scooter’s, a biker bar and grill that looked brand-new, where we had a really good lunch and took some time to pass our cameras around for a preview of some of the weekend’s pictures. That was an eye-opener, to say the least.

I’ll pause here a moment while you ponder that statement.

We continued down 151 through the town of Marion on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids (larger Iowa city), and it was here that we had our biggest traffic problems with cars separating our group and trucks unwilling to give an inch to help us keep together. More butt puckering as we ran the gauntlet down to the junction of 151 and Interstate 80 at the Amana Colonies, then thankfully a gas stop where we could breathe again for few minutes, count fingers and toes to make sure we were all still in one piece, and get familiar with the westward route home. (I didn’t get the full story, but I know Judy B. had a close call with an impatient driver during this portion of the ride. She was understandably pissed and a little shaken at the gas stop.)

We followed County Roads F52, F57 and F62 west, and took our final gas stop at Prairie City about 20 miles east of Des Moines. We toasted our trip and said our good-byes, as we’d all be peeling off in different directions once we hit Highway 163 into the city. It was the last “group moment” of an awesome three-day adventure, and we vowed to expand on the idea for next year with more days and more amazing women.

I rolled into my driveway at home at about 6:30 p.m. Monday night, wishing I’d taken an extra day off work to recover from my vacation but happy to see my family and thrilled to note my biker sunburn: the lower two-thirds of my face are deep red, while the parts covered by my sunglasses and do-rag/helmet combo were distinctly lighter. It’s a look I wear with pride!

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Having conquered Poopy’s, we left Savanna around 5:45 p.m. with Laurie and her GPS-equipped bike in the lead, and headed for Sunday night’s supper destination: Breitbach’s Restaurant in Balltown, Iowa. Breitbach’s is Iowa’s longest-existing restaurant and bar, dating back to the mid-1800’s.

It’s located in the tiny town of Balltown, west and a little north of Dubuque. The owners told us they had served some 1200 customers that day by the time we arrived around 7 p.m., and that was just the bikers!

Our route from Savanna took us over a grated-surface bridge back into Iowa (which gave new meaning to the term “squirrely” - riding that surface felt like the bike was going to slip out from under me! - interesting!) up Highway 52, through Dubuque, Bellevue and St. Donatus, then up County Road 9Y into Balltown. Of these communities, a couple things were notable: First, Bellevue is a very pretty little town with the highway running right alongside the river and a lovely, curving recreational trail running parallel on the water-side of the highway. On the other side, beautiful old and well-kept/restored 1800’s buildings line the road - I’m sure several of them must be bed-and-breakfast inns.

And second, Highway 52 between St. Donatus and Highway 151 is TERRIBLE for motorcycles! It’s scenic enough, but it seems that every hundred yards or so there’s literally a hump in the road where it’s been repaired and surfaced with road-gouging equipment. Whoever in State Government is responsible for this method of road repair should be fired… or forced to ride his/her handiwork on a Sportster: it feels like speed bumps! And it thoroughly ruined any enjoyment I got out of that portion of the road - perhaps the gals on the larger bikes didn’t feel it as much, but for me it was miserable and it actually ruined my good mood for awhile. (It also doesn’t bode well for the community of St. Donatus - this is the ONLY thing I remember about passing through what may very well be a lovely town.)

Pulling into Balltown, we met up with the gals who had skipped the side-trip to Poopy’s and had traveled over directly from the hotel in Galena. Once again, the restaurant was prepared for us with an excellent, well-stocked buffet and plenty of available seating for all. By this time there were plenty of shared road stories flying around - deer sightings, favorite scenic views, notable Galena shops, over-eager McGregor locals, etc. - so dinner was a delightful combination of great food and spirited conversation.

The ride back to Galena was interesting. I hate riding deer-laden roads at night. (I’m quite certain the little buggers hover behind every tree on these dark country highways, just waiting for the opportunity to spring out onto the road and offer a cheerful - if stupidly mutually-destructive - “hello!” to us bikers.)  By the time supper was concluded, it was dusk and now we had to ride back to Galena… along an unfamiliar deer-laden road at night. To further complicate things for me, I happened to be the last bike out of the restaurant, and the closest bike to me was a good hundred or more yards ahead for the first several miles of the trip. I had to ride about 10 mph faster than was comfortable for me on that road just to keep tail lights in sight, and that made me far less confident that I would spot any lurking deer far enough in advance to avoid a collision. (This is where the “ride your own ride” advice kind of fails: if I had ridden my own ride, I would’ve slowed down - but then would have quickly lost the rest of my group, and been forced to ride alone at night without a map in unfamiliar territory.)

I caught up with the group once we got to Dubuque, but I still felt like I was riding too fast. (And we were not speeding - the group was riding the speed limit! I just felt very unsure of the territory.) I was pretty damn happy to finally roll into Galena - it was only a half-hour ride, but it was for me a 30-minute butt puckering, character-building ride.

The rest of the evening in Galena was spent on the hotel patio, enjoying drinks and again sharing road stories. The next day would be head-for-home day.

Next up: More butt-puckering roads, a stop at J&P Cycles, and home!

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Day Two started out with a fond (if slightly hung-over) farewell to McGregor and a short hop down the road to the Isle of Capri Casino, where we enjoyed the breakfast buffet.

Once finished, we headed to the parking lot to learn the plan for the day and to say good-bye to several folks who were headed back home, including all the gals who had driven in cars. I learned later that one of our riders had a little trouble and dropped her bike in a tight, slow-speed corner going out of the casino, but she was not injured and neither was her bike so she continued on without incident.

We left the casino in our small groups a few minutes apart and crossed the Mississippi into Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

We took Highway 18 down to Bridgeport. Just south of Bridgeport we picked up County Road C, which is a must-ride for anyone visiting that area. It’s a narrow little road under a canopy of trees which runs right alongside the Lower Wisconsin River (which feeds into the Mississippi back at that Pikes Peak Overlook) and offers constant twists and curves as well as beautiful views (woops! and deer!). Our group spread out a little so we could each enjoy the road, and when we pulled up to the stop-sign at the end of it we all let out a “WOOHOO!!” so Holly would know we had enjoyed it.

From there we headed south down Highway 61 - our group made a stop at a Wisconsin cheese shop where we all purchased fresh cheese, then continued south to Galena. Somewhere along the way we got off our planned route and went through Dickeyville and East Dubuque, eventually coming into Galena on Highway 20 from the west.
Our stop here was at Wilwert’s Harley Davidson (which also has a location in Dubuque, Iowa), and turns out our hotel was right across the parking lot from the dealership - fortunate, because I had a few purchases to haul and thankfully they didn’t have to go far!

Some of the gals headed down into Galena’s main shopping district - I checked into the hotel (Stoney Creek Inn - VERY nice with a cute “lodge-look” theme) and then headed that way. Galena is a popular tourist destination precisely because of the well-kept old buildings and the concentrated shopping on the main business street. Hundreds of little specialty food and gift shops line the narrow street with it’s 1800’s architecture and pretty landscaping.

I met up with Susan S. and Michelle C. once I got parked; my only purchase (besides bottled water) was a bottle of homemade hot sauce from Galena Canning Company. Although Susan and Michelle had been there awhile already, I only got to shop for about half an hour before Theresa called to say a group was headed down to check out Poopy’s, a biker bar/repair shop/parts store located in Savanna, IL about 30 miles south. The three of us decided to cut shopping short and go to Poopy’s.

The ride to Savanna was also very scenic, but this was when we had another bike-down incident. Because we missed the actual turn-off to Savanna, we had to turn around at one point. We pulled into a small utility area with propane tanks situated in it, but it was large loose white rock and gravel. The driveway to get out was a steep incline with only a small cement pad at the top, and one of the gals riding an Ultra Glide got situated on that incline in the loose rock and lost her footing. The bike went so far over the wheels were pointing up. She also fell, but was not hurt. It took about six people working to lift the bike, but fortunately the damage was limited to a broken tab on one of her fairing louvres, a few scratches, and a loosened footpeg.

Once in Savanna we had a little trouble locating Poopy’s (the address we’d been given was on the main street - it turns out Poopy’s had relocated a little ways out of town), but true to our womanhood we were not afraid to stop and ask directions so we soon found it.

What a neat place! Poopy’s is actually a sort of multi-purpose biker gathering place: it consists of a large building with large paved parking lot, a covered patio, and a “backyard” area. In the building are a bike repair shop (they fixed the loose footpeg on the Ultra Glide free of charge!), parts, accessories and apparel store, tattoo shop, bar and restaurant. The bar and restaurant extend out onto the patio, where there’s also an area with pool tables. In the “backyard” there’s a stage for live bands to play, and a grassy area where bikers are inited to tent-camp for free. Every Friday night is “bike night,” so I imagine there’s a bit of a rowdy party followed by “sleeping it off under the stars.” Like County Road C up there in the 2nd paragraph, Poopy’s is a “must-do.” (This is where we saw the best t-shirt of the weekend. Poopy’s servers wore bright orange t’s that said, “Please tip generously. Poopy’s pays shit!”

Next up: A great dinner followed by a butt-puckering ride back to Galena!

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What do women bikers want?

Scenic roads, camaraderie, shopping, and plenty of potty stops. The “Dangerous Curves” Estrogen Ride didn’t disappoint.

Perhaps I should start by explaining that the “Estrogen Ride” was a group of women bikers - some of whom already knew each other, some of whom had never met before - who had gathered to go for a three-day scenic tour of northeastern Iowa and Galena, Illinois. (As a follow-up to a 2006 birthday ride, Holly N. and some friends decided to hold another ride in 2007 and invite a few more women.) The group included one rider from Waterloo, a small group from Carroll, Iowa, and the rest from Des Moines and central Iowa.

In all, more than 30 women Harley riders (and a few who joined us in cars) gathered at Big Barn Harley Davidson in Des Moines on Saturday morning, July 28. After donuts and juice courtesy of Big Barn, and brief pre-ride instructions from Holly, we staged in our smaller groups and the first of us pulled out right at 8:30 a.m.

The weather was perfect: destined to be a pleasantly warm day, but a little cool when riding because of the mild humidity. (Unbelievable, quite frankly, for July - it COULD HAVE been a hundred degrees!) I was riding in Group 1, which was lead by Holly and swept by Carole B. 

We rode through Bondurant to Highway 330, then northeast on 330 to Highway 14 north of Marshalltown, then north and east to Grundy Center where we had our first gas/potty stop. We eyed the western sky a little nervously at first - it looked like it might rain on us - but eventually the clouds went away and we never saw a drop.

Back on the bikes and on to Waterloo, where we stopped at Silver Eagle Harley Davidson and met  up with the other two groups. Silver Eagle had a great selection of apparel and gifts… a little skimpy on bikes, but the ’08’s are just coming in around the country so everyone’s in between model years at the moment. They did have a copper-and-black Low Rider… a bike I really like in a color scheme that looks really cool and retro. 

With all three smaller groups gathered at the dealership, we proceeded as a large group to a truck stop in Waterloo called Junie’s - where they had a banquet room all ready and waiting for us!  Lunch was the first opportunity to get to know a few of the gals a little better. It was at this gathering that we learned that the range of riding experience in our group was pretty incredible: Carole B. had been riding about 36 years, and Jules from Carroll, Iowa had only been riding for a month! We also presented Sue S. with a card and a small donation to help pay for her weekend expenses as a thank-you for the embroidery on our shirts.

After lunch we took off in our smaller groups again, heading west on Highway 20 and then north on 187, through the VERY scenic Backbone State Park, and into Strawberry Point. Turns out the little town of Strawberry Point provided the first challenge to our collective riding skills: we had to take a brief detour off the main highway that took us through a neighborhood… the loose-gravel portion of this detour was pretty short, but the fine-gravel and POT-HOLED portion was a little more interesting. (These were holes big enough to get lost in! You not only had to try to navigate the pot-hole gauntlet, you had to keep track of the bike/s in front of you to make sure you weren’t going to run into anyone as we slowly moved through the obstacle course.) We all made it through without incident and stopped for gas a block away from the giant fiberglass strawberry. 

By this time the Iowa landscape had certainly changed: in central Iowa, there are some gentle hills and lots of lush green cornfields, but in the northeastern part of the state you start to see some significant bluffs and hills as the land climbs up from the Mississippi River.

There was no shortage of scenic views on Day One - as beautiful as Backbone had been, the best for this day were yet to come. We traveled from Strawberry Point to Pikes Peak State Park, where there is an overlook with a sweeping view of the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers and the town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. It was here that explorer Louis Joliet and Father James Marquette first crossed the then-unknown (and un-named) Mississippi River in the late 1600’s. All three of our groups met up here as well, after a stunning ride through the park itself to the overlook, and we attempted to get some full-group pictures. This proved difficult - we were a noisy, excited group (and some of us were still in the bathroom) and getting everyone to stand still at the same time proved nearly impossible. (I’m pretty sure Marquette and Joliet didn’t have this problem.)

After admiring the overlook, we took off as a full group and descended (literally) upon the town of McGregor, Iowa - our first overnight location. McGregor is a lovely little town right on the Mississippi, home to the Isle of Capri Casino but also to a quaint Main street business district and a touristy motel called The Holiday Shores.  The Holiday Shores is actually the kind of locally-owned place I love to discover… showing its age a little, but run by a very friendly and knowledgeable family… large rooms - some with great views overlooking the river - and right across the parking lot from a great restaurant with a scenic view from the patio.

One of the neatest things about being on this ride was simply being part of the “spectacle” of a group of more than 30 women on motorcycles. I’m confident the town of McGregor is still recovering!

Next up: Our quiet evening in a sleepy little river town.

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WOW!!

I don’t even know where to begin chronicling this awesome trip - the 2007 “Dangerous Curves” Estrogen Ride! From the bikes to the people to the weather to the route to the sights to the arrangements, meals, and gas stops, it was about as perfect a trip as you can imagine.

We left Des Moines promptly at 8:30, proving to the skeptical husbands/SO’s that 30+ women CAN all be ready to go at an appointed time (the SAME appointed time, mind you!) if the occasion is worthwhile enough. And the last of us arrived home, as far as I’m aware, around 6:30 p.m. Monday night - perhaps the gang from Carroll took a little longer?

I do know that before I get to the actual ride reports, a few big thank-you’s are in order:

First, Holly N. put together this awsesome trip from start to finish. She planned three days of scenic rides, secured hotels with plenty of room, arranged for restaurants to accommodate us, ordered perfect weather, and still left enough time for a side-trip to Poopy’s!

Sue S. made sure we all looked the part with awesome denim shirts embroidered with a ride logo and a nickname - this started out being a fairly safe bet for her, because originally she was only expecting maybe nine or 10 participants. I’m sure she must have gotten a little panicky as the number of riders grew and grew, but she hung in there and all who wanted them ended up with a “Dangerous Curves” riding shirt!

And, each of our sub-groups had a ride captain and a sweep rider - I don’t think I can remember all of them… I know that Holly, Lee, Diane, Carole, and Carla all helped out in this way.  But I know there were others,  so ladies if you served in these roles, THANK YOU!!

I’ll close this first-of-several posts about the ride with a tip for anyone organizing a group ride: do what Holly did - break the large group up into smaller groups, with a captain and a sweep for each small group and a common destination at the end of the ride. It’s easier to keep ten bikes together than 30… more efficient at gas stops and potty breaks… and safer on the road because there’s less chance of cars sneaking their way into the column.

Coming next, DAY ONE ride report!

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Oh.

My.

GAWD!!!!

(more later!)

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More great riding this weekend - man the weather has been beautiful! Mid- to upper-80’s, sunny, no humidy… which is so unusual for July in Iowa! Last weekend we had the nice group ride up around Brushy Creek State Park, and this weekend we went to Indianola for Bike Night on Friday and then up to the local Harley dealership on Saturday to celebrate the grand opening under the new owners. They had a poker run, BBQ feed, carnival games and of course in-store specials.

Here’s the Webshots album with the photos from the weekend!

We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and met up with Garry and Shirley to do the poker run. The way this works is you follow a prescribed route to various stops along a 100-mile route, and a person is waiting at each stop (usually the clerk at a convenience store) to mark your poker ballot with a highlighter marker. You get your last mark back at the dealership, and then you get to draw a poker hand out of a box of cards. The person who draws the best hand, of course, is the winner - although none of us even came close to having best hand. Didn’t matter, the ride was really the point and it was just a perfect day to be out on the bikes. The ride took us west through Granger, Minburn, Perry, Woodward and Madrid, then back to Des Moines. We got off the prescribed route a couple times, but it was all Iowa countryside so it was all beautiful.

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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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Another beautiful weekend here, 70’s and 80’s for daytime temperatures - a little windy, but bound to be that way in Iowa til July so might as well ride. And attempt to answer the age-old biker chick question, “Rizzo? Or Corn Dog?”

Friday night was Indianola Bike Night, one of our favorite monthly events. Only part of this event I don’t like is the ride home… it’s usually 10 p.m. when we head home, up Highway 65/69 which is hilly - meaning, visibility is bad enough because it’s dark - but add lots of hillcrests where you are really trusting there’s nothing stopped (or crossing) in the road just over the top of the hill, and it begins to feel like a sort of “gauntlet.”

This particular night we rode with Garry & Shirley, Susan “Coyote” & Paul, and Kristin & Hollie - had a little trouble when we got separated on the way down, but everyone made it to the event within a few minutes of each other so all was well. As usual we just walked around the square looking at bikes, had supper… should note that Shirley got awesome loud pipes on her Yamaha V-Star… just in time to take a trip to Colorado!

Cute side story: Susan and I are going on a “Ladies of Harley” 3-day ride in late July. This group decided it would be fun to adopt road names for the event, and since I always liked the Stockard Channing character from the movie “Grease,” I was going to call myself Rizzo. Susan was debating calling herself “Coyote.” So as we’re walking around the square in Indianola debating the road name “Coyote,” we round a corner and come upon a food stand called “Howlin’ Coyote.” “See,” says Susan, “it’s a sign - I’m supposed to call myself Coyote.” Well I turned and just 10 yards up the way is another food stand that just says “CORN DOGS.” So I said, “Well if we’re relying on signs to pick our names, then mine must have to be ‘Corn Dog.’” Maybe you had to be there, but we got a huge laugh out of that and decided that we would have to produce a female buddy film called “The Adventures of Coyote & Corn Dog.” And now I’m not sure if I should pick Rizzo or Corn Dog for my “road name” for the LOH ride… if you’d like to cast a vote, just send me an email!

Anyway, Saturday I bugged my family until they agreed to go on a ride… I wanted to go all the way over to Toledo, Iowa to see the last remaining Lincoln Highway Bridge in Iowa, but we ultimately compromised and went down to visit some friends in the southeast part of the county. (I must be hormonal or something - when I saw my friend Kathy, whom I haven’t seen for about a year despite being really good friends with her for about 15 years, I told her I missed her and got all emotional. Gads I’m a dork sometimes.) Visited with them for a couple hours and then took a scenic route home down Highway 316 - through some really severely flooded farm fields - to Highway 5, then back up 5 through Carlisle and home.

Killed the afternoon doing all this and had a blast - beautiful again on Sunday but spent the day working in the yard and doing laundry. Going to have to pick a road name soon… one of the LOH gals will embroider it on a shirt for me if I can make up my mind in time!

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What a great weekend! Weather was beautiful both days, and Mother’s Day was sweet as always with my daughter and husband indulging my weakness for garden statuary.

Steve and I took a really nice ride on Saturday afternoon - our neighbors, Kristin & Hollie, both ride now (Kristin just bought a new Sportster 1200 and Hollie wasn’t content to ride pillion for long - she bought an ‘83 Yamaha 750 Virago “Midnight Special”), but Hollie’s a new rider so just experiencing all her “firsts.” She decided she was ready for the highway on Saturday, so I planned a short (-ish) route that took the four of us south out of Des Moines and down to Carlisle, where our friends Garry & Shirley live. Stopped by their place to see if Shirley was back from the tattoo parlor yet (she wasn’t), then we headed down to Indianola to see if we could catch up with her still at the shop. We took a pretty county road (the one we always take to Bike Night) down to Hiway 92, then west to Indianola, where we found Shirley still at the tattoo shop with her sister. She had just finished getting a really cool mystical dragon on the back of her shoulder, so we hung around and admired it for awhile. Then stopped at the A&W for a snack and headed west out of Indianola on 92. This is a very pretty hiway in and of itself, but then we picked up 28 going north back toward Des Moines, and boy was that nice too! Very picturesque. We rode about 63 miles total, but took almost four hours to do it! LOL - Guess we are good at moseying!!

It was a trouble-free ride but it should be noted that Hollie had had a mishap earlier in the day where she actually took a spill - she was trying to maneuver the bike on a stretch of pavement where there was a “seam” in the road with the two parts of the road at different heights, and the tire caught on that “groove”, and the bike was pretty much yanked right out of her hands. She has a nasty bit of road rash on her arm and a few bumps here and there but thankfully is otherwise okay with only minor quick repairs (courtesy of my dear hubby Steve!) to the bike. I don’t think anyone would’ve blamed her if she’d decided to opt out of the planned afternoon ride with us, but she decided to get right back on and rode great the rest of the day. So glad she is okay, and so thankful for the beautiful weekend!

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Had a nice weekend on the bikes… Friday night we rode down to Indianola for their first bike night of the season. This just continues to be one of the best summertime events in our area - great weather, live music, hundreds of awesome bikes to oggle and drool over. On Saturday, we rode up to our HD dealership for the annual “blessing of the bikes.” This is a season kick-off event where bikers gather for a non-denominational group blessing, followed by individual prayers for those who want them. We spent a couple hours enjoying the beautiful day, the live music (you gotta love a Christian band that plays “Family Tradition” by Hank Williams, Jr.!) and the fellowship, as well as the all-you-can-eat chili served in the HOG club-house afterward. Later that afternoon we took a two-hour ride with the neighbors - Kristin has a new Sportster 1200 Custom - before calling it a day. It was windy (again) but probably will be until June so we can’t really avoid it.

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The problem with coming off a long winter is that one becomes really anxious to ride. And that means that one tends to venture out on the first warm day, no matter what the conditions other than temperature might be. Today was a day like that - nearly 80 degrees and sunny, but the “other conditions” were that there was a steady 30 mph wind. This didn’t deter us from taking a ride “up around the lake.” Only about 30 miles total but hey, it counts! Saylorville Lake & Dam is an Army Corps of Engineers project just north of Des Moines. The lake and dam are used to control the levels of the Des Moines River as it passes through the city. (Interesting to note that in 1993, all these efforts failed: steady, heavy rain over a period of weeks in northern Iowa resulted in extremely high water levels in both the Lake and the River, and in early July the River overlflowed not only its banks but also its levees, causing more than $150 million in damage within the contiguous cities of Des Moines and West Des Moines. I think about this every time we ride up around the lake because our house was almost completely destroyed in this flood.)

Our ride took us first to a Casey’s General Store for gas and bottled water, where we got our first taste of the 30 mph crosswind. This was actually worse than what we had experienced on our way home from Sturgis last August, and I decided at Casey’s not to lead us over the Mile Long Bridge that spans the Lake. We rode instead up to one of our favorite campgrounds, Cherry Glen, where we discovered that the lower parking lot and boat launch was closed off and indeed, completely under water. We then rode back toward the dam, and took the road that goes over the it, to get down to the Spillway. (The wind was just as awful going over the dam; I think the only consolation we got from not taking the Mile Bridge was that we were not being thrown around in our lane with a hundred-foot drop into the Lake on either side of us. The dam road contained earthen embankments, steep and rocky though they were, down to the lake on one side and another camp ground on the other.)

The spillway is of course where the water from the lake churns through the opening of the dam and settles back into the flow of the Des Moines River. I wish we had thought to take our camera - we go to the Spillway frequently when we are in the mood for a short ride, but I have never seen the water as high or as turbulent as it was today. The water rushes downward from the opening of the dam into a giant pool, where underneath there is a cement buttress that forces it to splash back, creating the effect of ocean water crashing against shore rocks. This serves to slow the rushing water down so it doesn’t wash away the river banks. The water splashes often some 40 or more feet into the air, and frequently rains down (or washes over) the people standing on the overlook high above. It’s frightening, but mesmerizing, to look over the fence and watch the water rushing down the spillway and being flung back and forth.

After watching the water for some time, we left the dam area and headed back home. I commented on the wind, and our friend Garry said, “The wind must be a ‘woman thing,’ I don’t even think about it.” So now I’m curious - is the wind a ‘woman thing’? Is it a ‘woman thing’ because women tend to right lighter-weight bikes? DO women tend to ride lighter-weight bikes, or is it just a ‘Janet Thing’ because I ride the Sportster? Anyway, doesn’t matter, I’ve got a little bit of windburn on my cheeks that almost looks like a sunburn, so at least it’s obvious I spent the day outdoors. Not bad for March 25 in Iowa.

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Women riders in the news at the Daytona Beach News Journal Online. Oh! And guess what: I GOT TO RIDE TODAY!! That’s March 11, first ride of the year! It was upper 50’s here today and I had intended to just get the bike out of the garage and clean ‘er up/inspect, because we still have a patch of frozen gunk at the end of our driveway. Then my neighbor came out, got on her bike and rode away, and I thought, hell’s bells, I’m goin’ ridin’! I just took a ride around town on the main streets (too much sand still on the side streets), ran out of gas and had to switch to reserve and then fill up… but hey, I was so freakin’ HAPPY to be out on the road. I feel SO much better!

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Participated in the 2006 ABATE of Iowa District 4 Toys for Tots Toy Run on October 8 - it was a nice event with, I’m guessing, over 2,000 bikes. We gathered at the State Capitol building here in Des Moines, left there right at Noon and rode to Plaza Lanes which is a popular “bike night” spot during the summer, where we donated our toys and socialized for a bit before heading home. This event is always an impressive one… a lot of people don’t like the challenge of getting out of the parking lot at the Capitol because it’s not organized. You just *go*, along with 2,000 others, and hope you don’t crash into anyone. I’ve found that the secret is to be just aggressive enough that you can hold your spot (or claim a spot) without actually competing for it: meaning, I will creep forward and get my nose in there (into the column of moving bikes), but I will also let someone else in if it looks like they aren’t paying attention or for they *really* want my spot. (In other words, the secret is to never occupy the same physical space as another rider! LOL) It IS a challenge, but it can be done - I’ve done it without incident for four years in a row now, and many others have done it much more than me.

I posted some pictures over on WEBSHOTS, because the trial version of my gallery-making software ran out and I’m too broke to pay for it at the moment.

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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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