Month: June 2006

Today we rode from Baraboo to Richland Center.
We completed the ride sucessfully and I will add more details later.
We spent a lot of time in a larger pace line.
We had ice creme in Prairie du Sac
We had lunch out in the middle of no where – but it was delicious.
We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
We had a planning meeting in the President’s room to optomize our time when
we finish the ride tomorrow.
Tomorrow is our last day. We ride from Richland Center to Prairie du Chien.
kws

Todays ride was from Adam-Friendship to Baraboo – a distance of 59.3 miles on our route. (The distance by car would be much less). Our motel didn’t serve breakfast – so we ate at a restaurant just before we got to Friendship. John and Brian and I had fun with a 3 person pace line early on. We were sailing along over 20mph but then stopped everyonce in a while for our group to catch up. We stopped for a scenic view at a dam along the way and took some pictures. It was one of the 33 dams along the Wisconsin that generates electricity. We also stopped for our required picture with hay.

We had lunch in Wisconsin Dells and stopped at the International Crane Foundation in the pm. It was very informative and interesting.

In Baraboo we stayed at the Park Plaza motel and had appetizers on the Sky Deck on the 5th floor. We ate dinner at a Italian restaurant on the square in downtown Baraboo.

Tomorrow we have our longest day of the ride. We will do 81 miles plus another 2.5 because we are going through Devil’s Head State Park.
Needless to say we are trying to get to bed early.
kws

GRABAAWR Day 4
From Stevens Point to Adams-Friendship.
The listed for today is 69.2 – but our motel is about 5 miles north of town so our mileage was closer to 74. I drove the SAG wagon in the morning so I only got 37 miles in. Normally I would have gotten more by driving to the midway point and then riding back to join the group and then riding the normal route. But I chose to do some work on my computer for an hour or so before I drove to the lunch stop. By the time I got there, the group was only 4 miles away so I decided to just stay. The terrain was mostly level – no big hills and much of the route was along various bodies of water – very pretty to look at. Rick drove the SAG in the pm. We are staying at the Inn of the Pines a few miles north of Adams-Friendship. We stayed here once before on the 4th of July and celebrated with some sprinklers – and plan to reenact it tonight.

We stopped for an opportunistic photo on a dock along the way by a large lake. Please excuse the helment hair!

We had dinner at the restaurant associated with the Inn of the Pines. It had its normal unique way of doing things. Including the brown and serve rolls that are steamed but not browned. We still managed to have a good time.

The fireworks have been postponed since it was too light and people were ready to go to bed.

Tomorrow we go from Adams-Friendship to Baraboo. Amy and Janet will join us there. It is another reasonable distance at 55.6miles. Friday will be another storey with 81.5 and an optional scenic route of an additional of 2.5 miles.

Today we rode from Merrill to Steven’s Point – for a distance of about 66 miles. We had some interesting hills today – but mostly it was rolling hills. We saw one accident where we think the person broke his collar bone – but not sure. Janelle drove the SAG vehichle today all the way from Merrill to the motel. but did stop by a farm for a picture with some cows.

We had lunch at a church in Mosinee and then headed out to get to the finish. We didn’t stop at the cheese factory, but noticed the park where we ate lunch in 2002 where Patti and Ruth prepared a picnic feast overlooking a lake.

We were joined on our ride today by Chuck the Christmas Chicken sponsored by the Guilford family. Chuck is a very well traveled rubber chicken – having been all over the world.

At the finish we went to the school and asked for directions to the Stevens Point Brewery where they were serving food and free beer.

While getting directions we met some locals who recommended Rusty’s Backwater Saoloon for a place to eat dinner. We tried it out and it was very interesting. They had great homemade french fries.

Tomorrow we will be heading out from Stevens Point with a destination of Adam’s-Friendship. The milage tomorrow should be 69.2.
kws

Today was another great day for riding a bike in Wisconsin. It was sunny all day and not too cold and not too hot.

It was a little hilly at the start – just to make sure we were awake. After that the terrain was rolling hills except for one steeper one as we got close to Merrill. Somehow I thought that the group was ahead of me so I was peddling hard to catch up just before lunch but they were behind me. Anyway we all got together again at lunch.

Brian had a problem with the rear cassette (shifting mechanism) and the bike mechanic at the lunch stop said they could fix it in a few minutes once their parts truck arrived – which should be in about 30 minutes. So the rest of the group left and Brian and I waited for the parts truck. About an hour later the truck arrived, the bike was fixed and we took off to try and catch the group. Unfortunately my bike developed a loose spoke and the wheel went out of true and the tire started rubbing on my brakes. We fixed it the best we could and continued on trying to catch the group. We passed several strawberry fields that were actively being picked and they smelled really good too.

We caught the group at the 2nd lunch stop and joined them for a bite to eat. We checked into our AmericInn motel and each went our own way on activities. I finally got yesterdays blog and pictures done after having a terrible time with Internet access yesterday in Rhinelander. I have several different options that I use, and none of them worked. Other people could connect so it was some cockpit error on my part – but I don’t know what. We walked to dinner at a nearby restaurant to the motel.
The official distance for the ride today was 57.5 miles. We rode a little more because our motel is on the far side of town from the school.
Tomorrow we head from Merrill to Steven’s Point. We are having breakfast at 6:30 and should be on the road shortly after 7:00am
kws

GRABAAWR Day 1
Today was the first official day of the 2006 GRABAAWR. It was
raining when we got up, when we loaded the car, while we got our
bikes, and then it stopped just as we were ready to start the ride.

The highway mileage between Eagle River and Rhinelander is just 27
miles, but by taking backroads in the beautiful wooded countryside
and along many lakes and rivers we managed to do 51 miles for the day.

As the day went on, the clouds gradually went away and the sun came
out and it was a wonderful day.

Halfway there in Three Lakes, the town was having a festival and had
blocked off the main street. I got a flat just before we pulled into town
There were lots of craft booths and food
booths. Some of us had an early lunch (brunch?) and tried out the
brats and sweet corn. We continued through rolling hills and lots of lakes and made it to Rhinelander about 12:30 and decided
to have our (2nd) lunch. We ate lunch at “Pauls Pub” and enjoyed it. They had huge hamburgers and great fries.


After lunch we went our various ways, some enjoyed the motel pool and
hot tub, some worked on their bikes, some did laundry, some snoozed,
etc. We got together for drinks and appetizers in Robin’s room at 5:00pm
and then went for dinner at 6:00pm at the Rhinelander Cafe and Pub.
We were joined by Ingrid’s sister and brother (David) who live nearby

Tomorrow we have another shorter ride (57 miles) from Rhinelander to
Merrill. John is driving the SAG Suburban all the way to Merrill and
then riding back to the group. He says all bags must be on the SAG
wagon by 6:30 so he can leave before we do.
kws

We start the ride tomorrow.
Today we registered, got our new bright yellow T-shirts, put our bikes on the truck, and had a very long bus ride from Prairie du Chien to Eagle River. It rained off and on on the ride and for a while after we got here. Brian joined us on a later bus. He had driven from St. Paul to Prairie du Chien and then bussed north.

We ate at a restaurant called the “Hiawatha” where their featured entre was prime rib which most people ordered.
We took this picture after dinner.

Tomorrow we start our ride from Eagle River to Rhinelander. We wil go about 51 miles so it iis one of our shortest days.

Today we had a great breakfast at the Blair Maple Cafe. We met Mick’s gardner friend Barbara who has done a number of bike rides across Iowa and she shared some of her experiences with us. Betsy volunteered to drive the SAG wagon and prepare meals for us next time we do the GRABAAWR – but we need to give her more notice.

After meeting for breakfast at 7:00am we finally got underway about 8:30am. Shortly we were in Iowa and driving through lots of cornfields. It is striking how much greener things are here than in CO. We had lunch at our favorite Deli in Waterloo after making a U-turn for old times sake. We went by back roads to get to Prairie du Chien and arrived mid afternoon. We are staying at the Quiet House Best Western. We walked to dinner at the Angus Supper Club which is .6 mile east of where we are staying.

Tomorrow we are gathering at 6:30am for breakfast and then will register for the ride, those in the SAG wagon (Robin’s Suburban) will drive to Eagle River, and the rest of us will turn our bikes in for transport to Eagle River by truck and take a bus ride to get ourselves to the start. Brian should join us for the bus ride, and Herb and Ruth will meet us in Eagle River tomorrow. I can’t upload Flickr pictures because it says it is having a massage!
more tomorrow
kws

The pictures for this can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kws1111)

Day 1 2006 GRABAAWR
We gathered in Lafayette, CO at 6:30am to head towards Wisconsin for this years GRABAAWR.

We had 4 cars and 8 people. Jensen’s, Hinks, Burkley’s, Robin and me(ken). We took our first rest stop in CO just before we crossed over into NE.(Brush?) It was nice and cool and slightly overcast with periodic sprinkles. The first hard rain was as we crossed into NE. We stopped in Paxton, NE at Olie’s (sp) for an early lunch (late breakfast). The table by the African Elephant was occupied so we had to settle for a group picture by the giraffe. The weather turned warmer and drier as we headed east but was still very nice.

We split up at exit 432 on I-80 and Robin and the Burkley’s went on into Omaha to pick up Martha who had flown in from Annapolis to join us for the ride. We met up in Blair at John’s “younger” brother Mick and Gail’s house for appetizers and then headed to a “local flavor” tavern for dinner. The featured entre was catfish.

John seemed to know everyone there (or everyone there knew John) I am using a different computer than normal and it doesn’t have the camera driver for downloading my pictures – so hopefully I will be able to add them later.

Tomorrow we are meeting at the Blair Maple cafe for breakfast at 7:00am and then will be on our way to Prairie du Chien to register for the ride.
kws