3000 mile Motorcycle Ride: Seeing an old friend and Riding through a Tornado.

Todays 400 mile ride is about an old friend and in the end riding through a tornado.  I guess on a 3000 mile motorcycle ride you have to learn to expect the unexpected.  On this day I will get caught in the rain a couple of times.  Waiting one storm out in a road maintenance shed.  It's all part of the adventure.

Early morning I set off from Merrill in Northern Wisconsin and ride to Fairmont Minnesota.  A small little town near the Iowa border in southern Minnesota.   I stop to visit the grave of a childhood friend who died many years ago.  Passing away in tragic circumstances, due to no fault of his own.   Separated by many years I look back on it and rationalize that some people are just too good for this world.   Someone that I spent a few summers with so long ago has come to mean a lot to me, for reasons I really can't understand.   I was good to see his grave and celebrate his short life.  I feel that we may all have an angel watching over us, he might just be mine.


This was the first day into a 3 day ride to Denver Colorado.  I had promised the fantasy football league that I'm in, that I would come to Colorado for the draft party.  It was the excuse that I made to ride my motorcycle for a week and a half.

After visiting my friends grave I set off from Fairmont with the skies growing dark.  I start to run into some rain.  In the distance I can see the sheets of water coming down.   I turn around and plod my way around the storm using the GPS and my Hi-Def Radar App on my smart phone.  Riding around country roads through rain and wind I finally make it into Iowa.

With the storms behind me I stop to fuel up.  A lady comes up to me and ask which way are you going.  She points to the storms that I just rode through saying, "dont go east the radio just said there are tornados on the ground over there".

 After thanking her I laugh and think to myself its good to be alive and on the other side of that storm.   It's funny in life how we spend a lot our lives navigating around storms of one sort or another.  It's another 30 miles to Spirit Lake where I stop for the night.  Only 700 miles left for Denver.

3000 Mile Motorcycle Ride: Day 3 Merrill Wisconsin

Well after riding 750 miles it was good to rest in my personal hometown for a day or tow .  When ever I'm here we spend the time visiting family and getting caught up on haw everyone is doing.  All my aunts, uncles, and my mothers friends are such wonderful people.

On this trip it was all of the gardens of the people we visited they were incredibly beautiful.   While riding the side of the roads were covered in wild flowers.  It is like Wisconsin is stuck in a perpetual spring.  Until the first snow fall anyway.  

3000 mile Motorcycle Ride: Day 2 Northern Wisconsin

Perpetual Spring

Well leaving Lake Geneva Wisconsin was smooth as silk riding through the Wisconsin Farm Country side was absolutely a religious experience.   The fields and woods highlighted by Barns and Farm houses.  It has a unique contribution to the agricultural landscape.

It's a short ride to portage where I stopped to get gas.   An older gentleman with a farm hat walks by saying good morning, and commented, "Nice bike", I replied with thanks.  As he walked into the store, I really didn't think much of it.  When he return in a friendly sort of way he went on, "You know that every morning at 4:30 am someone down my street rides his Motorcycle with loud pipes and wakes me up every morning, I don't know who it is."   Well I replied, " I'm just passing through, but I hope you can find that evil  biker that keeps waking you up."  After a good laugh we parted ways.   Yes, so much for us bad old bikers waking the nation up.

Wausau HD

In Portage I jump on Interstate 39, it is a short 80 miles to Wausau where I stop to get my usual Harley Davidson T-shirt.  Then its another 15 miles up to Merrill.  The flowers along the interstate make me think that this place seems to be in a perpetual spring.  The ride has been awesome and it is all about the ride isn't it.

Lunch with Mom

I get to Mom's for lunch it is good to be home.   It's Friday night and 12 of us head to Fish Fry, a Friday Northern Wisconsin Tradition.  All the small bars/restaurants have there own version of the fish fry and everyone goes to there favorite place.


Merrill Wisconsin although I have never lived here I consider it my personal Hometown.  Both my parents are from here and all my extended family lives here.  It is good to have a personal home town whats yours?