Sunday, May 22, 2011

On The Road Again (by Willie Nelson) May 20th and 22nd, 2011 Chippewa Falls, WI to Wabasha,MN


WEE!


Biking on the bike trail (we love paved bike trails)


Bridge crossing the Chippewa River in Eau Claire, WI


Getting ready to leave Chippewa Falls and start our adventure!


We
Threatening skies - fortunately it didn't really storm until after we were checked into our hotel in Wabasha!

Deb, I think we tuckered Dennis and John out biking today!
John and I are on another adventure bicycling from Chippwa Falls, WI to Bar Harbor, Maine.  We plan on being in Bar Harbor by the end of June or first week of July.  We plan on blogging this trip again and hope that you enjoy our adventure via this blog.

On Friday morning John loaded up our bike into the pick up and we headed to Chippewa Falls for the Couples on Wheels rally.  We went over early so that we could bike the bike path that we will use on Sunday when we head towards the Mississippi River to get back on the Northern Tier trail.  Linda Soltis met up with us around 11:00 and we headed out to bike the trail prior to the COWS rally starting.  We biked 29 miles on the trails.   It was a good thing that we did bike the trail because we ended up finding out that just out of Eau Claire the bike trail was washed out in two seperate places between Eau Claire and Careyville so we had to change our route for Sunday morning.  We arrived back at the hotel around 2:00PM and met up with Deb & Dennis Veerkamp and went out and did the ice cream ride which was approx. 18 miles.  We then got back to the hotel and then went out to eat at the Cancun Mexican restaurant with Deb & Dennis before we headed back to Dorchester.  Dennis had said that we could store our bike in their room as we would be back on Saturday evening after Crystal's graduation.

On Saturday we were in Wausau by 9:15 for the 10:00AM graduation.  We are so proud of Crystal - after being out of school for 10 years she went back to school and not only graduated but graduated with honors.  Way to go Crystal!

After graduation our daughter-in-law picked us up and drove us back to Chippewa in time that we could attend the COWS banquet.  Thanks Shelly!  We had a wonderful visit with all the bicyclist and a great meal! 

On Sunday morning we met Deb & Dennis for breakfast at 6:00AM and we were on the road by 6:50.  Deb & Dennis are going to bike with us for three days so we really look forward to spending the time with them.  We had reservations at the Cobblestone in Durand and we arrived there by 11:00AM and decided to cancel the reservation and continue on to Wabasha, MN.  We had listened to the weather forecast and it sounded like there were storms coming into the area by 1:00PM and we figured we would get there before the storm.  About  or 3 miles from Nelson it started to rain and we got out our raincoats and continued on.  It really only rained for about 10 or 15 minutes (just long enough to get us wet).  We arrived in Wabasha and went to Slippery's for lunch and then checked into the American Inn.  All four of us went in the hot tub and then cleaned up and we sat and played a card game called Hearts in the lobby.  For dinner we walked down to Dairy Queen and then came back to the room for a good nights sleep.  We plan on biking to LaCresant tomorrow which will involve some hill climbing but we will just take it one hill at a time. 

It was a wonderful first day out and great to spend the time with Deb & Dennis!

Life is good!

1 comment:

  1. Hi John and Kathi, I'll be following with intense interest your travels. Are you still considering a return home via Québec and Ontario? On Sunday, June 5, with my son, I'll participate in a 50 km ride in Montreal. Streets are closed for the day and 30 000 riders take over. Have you made a decision concerning St. George next winter? We have not.

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