We intended to leave Friday morning, but the word "hail" in the forecast was too much to overlook. We are prepared for rain, but hail is another banana. I could not, with good conscience, actually drive into that knowing the risk was there. Its one thing to get caught in a storm by accident, but to drive into one with the full knowledge thingy, is just dumb. So we drove the truck to Waterloo on Friday for Mark's work meeting (I went along since I had planned to be gone anyway!) then we met some old friends in Anamosa and toured a motorcycle museum. That was pretty fun and pretty interesting.
The biggest thing I took away from that was how many neat things there are "in our own backyard" to go and see and yet how many weekends do we sit around and complain about nothing new to do. Methinks that problem is best solved looking inward and not outward!
Saturday we were able to leave on the bike with great weather. We went as far as Savanna, IL where I got the experience of entering my first bonafide "biker bar". We pulled into town and there must have been 100 Harley's parked on each side of the street and lots of people just standing around in the hot putrid humidity. The bar is called the "Iron Horse" no doubt a nod to the motorcycle itself and they displayed a pretty impressive piece of motorcycle history, too.
The people are what you would imagine to see - some a bit rough even - but strike up a conversation and I can honestly say I met some of the most genuinely neat people I have come across in a long while. Quick to laugh and quick to ask you about your own life. Next door to this bar was an antique place and that was just neat to walk through. Savanna is a unique place. The river is RIGHT THERE and the "river people" the "biker people" the "business people" and the residents all seem to live together in mutual respect for each other. I couldn't help but wonder about this every time a group of bikes would pass through.
Harley's are loud. When there are more than a few, it sounds like a train rolling through town. I wondered about how non-bike enthusiasts felt about that "intrusion" on their peace and quiet. It seems to all work though. Like I said, the mutual respect thing. The boaters toodling through town pulling a quarter of mill behind them didn't do much for traffic flow either - but it all seems to work. I suppose in a way - the residents that do not boat or bike have the upper hand in the off season. I hope they have a loud parade that stops traffic every weekend. ;-)
The ride home was challenging. The weather took a turn that was not in the forecast on Saturday morning and we did not expect to be trying to calculate Mother Nature's next move all the way home. We planned the trip home to go through Balltown and see the newly built for the second time, "Breitbach's Bar and Supper Club". Had a nice time there and if you have never been there the view is absolutely amazing. We got on our way and were only on the road a few miles before torrential rain.
We found this tiny little town with one bar (the only establishment that was open) and ducked in there until it passed. We again encountered some of the most gracious people. Despite the rain - a great stop! While it seems a good many of our stops were technically "bars", I learned through my experience traveling on motorcycle with Mark, this is where a good majority of great food can be found. He has taken this particular trip before with his friends and was eager to share the route with me. The little "dives' (lacking a more descriptive term), ended up being nothing more than "mom and pop" joints that have been in business since before I was born. The food, of course - was an experience I will treasure! We always left with a smile on our face and felt like we had made a couple new friends.
We eventually got our rain suits on and were on the road after about a half an hour. Until this little thing came across our path:
I believe the weather term for this is "WALL CLOUD". Was glad to have my camera in my pocket! We rode a little closer before finding a little park with shelters. We seized that opportunity and sat there for about 20 minutes while the storm whipped through.
And, our last stop was again - a weather stop! About 30 minutes after the wall cloud stop - the rain was coming down hard. On the outskirts of another little town we saw a huge group of bikers in an old run down gas station sitting under the awning that once covered gas pumps. Mark drove right in under the awning and when we turned the bike off - it was like we pulled into a crowd of people we had known all our life. Not to be a broken record here, but we met another group of awesome people who were glad to have us join their group and wait it out.
I have come to be amused by this unspoken "brotherhood" of sorts when it comes to bikers. Perfect strangers embrace you (figuratively speaking!) just because you share the same interest. No brotherhood seems stronger than the one among Harley riders. I think alot of these enthusiast are misunderstood and judged simply "by the cover" and by a few people that have lended them a negative persona.
There were so many life messages buried in this weekend and for me that is an awesome thing. I simply adore living lessons and realizing it at the time it is happening.
A tough act to follow for sure!
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