2018 Ride to the Prairies of the Midwest (Iowa & Illinois)
Stafford
to Gatlinburg. Have you ever been on a motorcycle trip wishing it would rain?
The ambient temperature gauge on my 2006 Street Glide reads 100 degrees. It is
hot and sunny. I could see the dark rain clouds ahead. I can see heavy rain
falling in the distance. The cold rain showers me for a few short minutes. I
immediately took shelter by stopping under a gas station pump canopy. I check
my handy dandy weather radar phone app. The app shows more rain ahead. I put on
my rain suit with the idea that the rain is not going to interrupt my ride. I
am back on the road. The ambient temperature gauge fell to just below the 90
degree mark. The cold rain feels pretty good cooling my skin as it pelts
against my rain suit. In less than ten minutes the sun appears. The clouds are
gone. The sky is clear ahead. That ambient temperature gauge on my dash shoots
back up to 100 degrees. I still have my rain suit on. I begin to think, that
radar app has been accurate in the past. Where is the rest of the rain? I start
to feel like a turkey baking in a plastic oven bag. All I see is blue skies
ahead. Where is that rain? I’ve only been in the rain suit a short distance. I
feel that it took longer to put on the rain suit than the time I spent wearing
it in the rain. Should I take it off? Will it rain again as the weather radar
app indicated? What if I took off the turkey oven bag...the rain suit? How long
will it take me to dry off if it does rain again? I was suited up and ready for
more rain. Baking in the rain suit I wanted a downpour so badly. I eventually
stopped to get out of the rai suit.
Great
Smoky Mountains.
My
first stop was Gatlinburg Tennessee. During breakfast I did a map study
plotting the day's ride. I was to navigate west making my way from Virginia to
Iowa. I jotted down a few notes with a numbers direction indicators such as LT
(left), RT (right), EAST, WEST in large enough writing for me to reference
while navigating the mountains. I began the days ride enjoying the cool morning
air as I rode thru the tunnel of trees in the Great Smoky Mountain National
Park. I had the direction notes wedged to my gas tank for quick reference. I
found the road leading to Clingman’s Dome. It is the highest point in Tennessee
and the Appalachian Trail crosses it - so I had to go. I enjoy backpacking
while not on the motorcycle and could not resist a short hike. So as usual, I
deviated from the loosely planned route. I changed out my riding boots for my
hiking shoes and walked up to the lookout known as Clingman’s Dome. Awesome
site above the trees.
I felt
satisfied after the hike. I am back on the bike enjoying the twisty road thru
the National Forest. I enjoyed the coolness of the shade and curves so much that I must have missed a turn. I was surprised to read a road sign that stated, “Asheville 10 miles.” I think to myself, how did I end up east of Gatlinburg and almost into North Carolina? Easy fix, I’ll avoid a U-turn and navigate west again. The minor detour was worth it when I recognized that the revised route took me to the “Tail of the Dragon.” It had been a few years since I rode this route. I’ve also taken a motorcycle safety course or two since then. I was stoked to be able use some of the new leaning skills from a sports bike course taken last year. So in my brain I was flying around the turns. Lifting my body off the seat pushing the bike upright more so I could take the curves faster and with more tire traction. I was getting the hang of it, moving off the seat to the left, then immediately to the right and so forth. The curves were coming faster and faster. I was feeling like a pro sports bike racer on my old Harley. Well, that was until I downshifted while leaning in a turn. The rear tire squealed sliding slightly to one side. It felt like I was sliding on a banana peel. Reality set in and now in my mind I was a weekend rider who was riding the curves much to fast on an old Harley. So I counted my blessings for keeping the motorcycle upright. I slowed down the rest of the way into Maryville, Tennessee. 
Brad
will tell you that my bike needs service or breaks down during our annual
rides. Well....It did. I arrived in the Tennessee town of Franklin. It is near
Nashville. I stopped on a not so busy street to check the map. I needed to find
a place to sleep. I searched for parks and hotels. Yes, I sleep in parks at
times. I got back on the bike and it would not start. The battery was dead. I
am in a no parking zone. It is dark. I pushed the bike around the corner to a
better parking spot along the street. I am in downtown Franklin. No hotels
near. I think that I should have learned to use that Uber App! Instead of
calling a taxi to help me find a hotel, I contacted a new friend who I met
running the Marine Corps Marathon the year prior. Surprisingly the new friend
arrived in minutes. We decided that I’d go to a hotel and tackle the problem
together the next morning. The next morning we went to my bike. Removed the
battery and took it to the Harley dealership to get a new one. By the time we
got back to my motorcycle the temperature was pretty hot. I put the new battery
in the bike and it started immediately. Sounds simple - not. In order to access
the battery I had to remove my seat. In order to remove the seat I had to take
off my chopped tour pack. Lucky I had a tool kit with everything I needed. I
need to add a short screw driver so I might not need to take off the tour pack
next time.
My new
friend and I went to lunch in Nashville. We both ended up with parking tickets!
Iowa.
The next day, I met Brad near Burlington, Iowa. He was at Conesvilles, Iowa at
the RedNeck Revival and Rally. Brad had already parked his camper and was
making new friends. I rode the camp grounds observing the temporary residents.
There was a paved drag strip with bleacher seating. Tent camping was on one
side of the strip and RV type camping was on the other side. This was a
motorcycle type rally and it had four wheeled vehicles to race down the track.
The race participants are some awesome fearless people! I saw professional cars
with nitro, professional motorcycle race bikes, every day riders racing their
bikes, golf cart racing, ATVs racing and there was a picnic table that raced
down the track. Yes, a picnic table. I got to ride it around the camp ground.
It was pretty neat. There is a pole on it for entertainment too. I hear it is
pretty popular at Conesville.
Conesville
Drag Strip - you can race your bike against yourself if you like. There is
plenty of open track time before the competition begins.
In
addition to the drag strip I witnessed:
· That motorized picnic
table was an automatic party where ever it went.
· Mud bog. I saw a big
tired truck get stuck and pulled out. There was a daily driver Ford Explorer
that had the doors removed and it was first in the mud. I think the four
rednecks inside had removed their clothes too.
· There was a male and
female dash or gash for cash event. It was a foot race thru the mud. The
contestants were slipping and sliding to the finish. The prize was a bucket of
money that was passed around the crowd for donations. Part of the donations
went to a local charity. The runners were pretty smart. They avoided dirty
laundry by taking off all their clothes before the mud run. Ha!
· Zip Line at the main stage
area. There was a large ten foot cylinder thingy laying near the end of the zip
line. People were falling off the zip line bouncing on the soft cylindrical
thingy. I heard a story that some broke their legs the year before so the
height of the zip line was lowered.
· Did I mention there was a
drag strip? It was the main attraction!
The
ride from Burlington, Iowa to Savanna, Illinois wasn’t far. We had a slight
delay to fix the tire on the trailer Brad was using for his bike. We were at
one shop to repair the tire but I ended up riding to another shop to get the
new tire to be mounted on the rim that was at the other shop. I am scratching
my head trying to remember how this happened. Regardless have a cool picture of
the spare tire tied to my rear seat.
In
Savanna, we set up camp down the road from a well known place called Poopies Pub.
We spend a few days exploring the small town along the Mississippi River. We
frequented Poopies and the Iron Horse Saloon. The Iron Horse has a really neat
museum in the back of the building. It also has a horse statue up front near
the bar. That horse gets rode often with people dancing and having fun around
it. Poopies Pub had a live band nearly every night we were there. We ate our
meals there since it was close to camp. It rained there every day during our
stay. Despite the rain we rode north to Dubuque, Iowa for lunch at Catfish
Charlie’s. It rained the whole ride. So from Dubuque we rode west to the
J&P Cycle mega store. Well it used to be a mega store. You can still order
from the catalog but the brick and mortar (warehouse really) store has down
sized. Brad and I both were soaking wet because our rain suits failed. I know
my rain suit is about 12 years old with literally hundreds of miles of use. The
set has hundreds of hours baking in my saddle bags too. So we were going to get
new rain suits from J&P Cycles but there were none on display or in stock.
A group of riders coming from Milwaukee had just wiped out their store
inventory. So Brad had the idea to go to Walmart and get some water repellent
spray - we did and it worked. 
Dutch
Windmills at Fulton, Illinois. This Dutch Wind Mill is near the bank of the
Mississippi River directly across from Clinton, Iowa. There is a museum to
learn about the story of the wind mills and the town. It is worth the short
detour if you are riding thru. There are some neat downtown small town shops
too. We got some home made pie around the corner.
Bike
Repairs at Rock Falls, Illinois. After sampling all the homemade pies in
Fulton, we decided to visit Workman Harley Davidson in Rock Falls Illinois. I
lived near the area and the team at Workman’s has done much of the maintenance
on my motorcycle. I continue to visit Workman’s during my rides for tires,
brakes, and maintenance. This dealership is special because it is family
operated and as a result has outstanding customer service - why else would I
ride fourteen hours to get maintenance done? So I thought my clutch was
failing. I wanted to get a mechanic to take a look at it. On the way, we
stopped for gas and Brad’s bike would not start. His battery was dead! I think
this was the first breakdown for Brad during our rides together. Brad had the
idea that we could connect the pigtails for our battery tenders together to
jump the batteries. We connected the wires with no success in starting his
bike. We asked a gentleman in a pick up truck for a battery jump. Sounds easy
but that seat had to be removed and we were wearing rain suits. Whew what an
experience. Check out the pic of Brad. He had fun with the jumper cables!
We
arrived at Workman’s. Brad got a new battery. The mechanic came to talk to me -
my clutch was in great condition. When the inspection cover was removed oil
exploded out of the clutch side! There is normally four ounces of fluid on that
side. The engine seals had blown. The excess fluid had made it difficult to
shift into neutral. Luckily the bike warranty was still active. The bike stayed
the night at the shop. I have been renewing my warranty since I purchased the
motorcycle in 2005. I discovered that I could not renew the warranty for another
term. The motor company stated the bike was over 12 years old and they would
not issue another warranty for it. Perhaps it was my warranty history. I’ve
used it as needed which was frequent.
Once my
bike was repaired Brad and I visited a place called Psycho Silo Saloon. It is
located just south of I-80 near Langley, Illinois. It is a grain silo turned
into a saloon. This is a unique place to see too if you find yourself traveling
I-80 across Illinois. It continued to rain until we arrived in the parking lot
at Psycho Silo. We noticed some tents set up for an event. Tables with center
pieces and motorcycles on display under the large tents. We saw no people. In
the parking lot, Brad was getting out of his rain suit and putting on a dry
pair of jeans. He is standing beside his motorcycle in his underwear when two
dozen cars pull in one after the other just as if they all convoyed together.
The cars were loaded with people. It turns out the tents were set up for a
wedding reception. There is Brad getting dressed beside his motorcycle!
We
stayed one more night in Illinois and headed home. I know it rained 100% of the
time during the two days it took me to get back to Virginia.
More photos to view are at:
