The Prophet

The wife and I are off this morning to Galena, Illinois, for a four day "getaway" weekend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena,_Illinois

Galena is a nice, scenic little town, up in NW Illinois, just minutes from the Mississippi River. A very popular motorcyle destination, as the area is known as the "Driftless Zone"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area

Missed by land flattening Ice Glaciers way back when, so the area remained hilly and scenic, with almost zero straight roads. Lots of twisties, hills, valleys, and so on. We arrive roughly 11:00 am this morning, Thursday, July 01. returning Sunday Morning, as Monday the 4th I'm off to Australia on Business untill July 16th.

The actual "Field of Dreams" baseball park is 1/2 hour from Galena, just across the border in Iowa.

The "Spirit of Dubuque" is an old timey Riverboat / paddlewheel boat with lunch and dinner cruises. We're booked for lunch Friday on this.

Lot's of odd's n' end's shops, restaurants n' stuff on Main Street for the mizzuz. Old Victorian era homes to tour galore. The town is built on the side of a hill, and you have to walk up long flights of outside stairs to go up a street. General Grant lived here just prior to the Civil War / War between the States, and recruited a bunch of his drinkin' buddies from town as additional Union Generals, Officers. Tons of memorials, statues, museums, etc.

As you'll read in the attachment, this was once a big-time town, Lead Mining and stuff. Now of course it makes it's livelyhood on tourism.

Super yuppified, with pitiful guys walking around with lemon yellow Cashmere sweaters draped around their necks, and sportin' trendy boating deck shoes whilst whining about the wine selection. Women who talk through their nose, always seem unhappy about somethin', wear matching Prada Sunglasses and purse, and endlessly complain about the restaurant not having their favorite Bottled Water, etc.
Life is tough... deal with it.

No worries, all you can do is feel sorry for 'em a little, and hope they get over it someday. Ignore the silliness, keep on ridin', and have a great time sez me. The weather is A#1 perfecto, roughly 78 to 85 degrees, low humidity, and not a single cloud in the sky all weekend (the prediction anyway!).

I vow to take much more Pics on this trip. I always say that, but I don't like to stop once I'm on the road. I need to adhere to the first quote on my signature thingie down below!

Ride Safe!

Bob

__________________

• A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu
• Motorcyles are not my whole life, but they make my life whole. ` me

Speedtrip

Have fun Bob! Expecting lots of pics.

I'm spending the long beautiful weekend installing wood floors.

The Prophet

Back save n' sound. Pics to come once I get to Australia and get settled in. Short on time.

Suffice to say it was a perfect trip. Great weather, great roads, great little town(s), great hotel, great companion (the wife!)- the bike ran fantastically through the steep hills and constant twisties, as well as avg. 80-85 mph on the slab-ways.. I'm thankful now for the mod's that produced the extra torque and wider powerband. Two-up on a Bonnie with a full load of luggage, plus hardbags full, plus tankbag full = lotsa weight. The bike handled it very easily, and ran perfecto. From what I can tell... around 44 MPG average all in.

More later... bye.

Ride Safe!

Bob

The Prophet

Here is trip report. I'm in Sydney, Australia on business, so no pics until I get home next week, but anyway, here's something...

Thursday: July 01

I woke up very early (as in 4:30 AM), as I was too excited to sleep, and had been looking forward to this trip for a few months - endlessly planning things for at least a month. Being a nice guy, I let the wife sleep in until around 7:30, then began making noise to “accidently” wake her up.

We packed the bike up very quickly, using my new hard bags, and a nice motorcycle specific luggage set the wife had purchased over the internet. Actually a pretty nice set, that I will write a review on and publish in our “Gear” section later on. We double checked the house for locked doors, windows, etc. , then headed for the local Shell / Circle K filling station for a few gallons of gas. Tire pressure(35F / 39R) and DuPont chain lube had been taken care of the night before.

The base route we chose was the I-88 Tollway west to I-39/51 Highway north to Route 64 west to Route 84 north to Blackjack Road north to I-20 west into Galena. In all, a very decent route, but in hindsight, the route home was much better. I-88 and I-39/51 are just… boring. We’d rather lose some travel time if the road(s) taken have some better scenery and interest points.

We had departed home at 9:30 am. Traffic was good, and we stopped in Oregon, Illinois, roughly the halfway point. We tried the Sunrise III Restaurant in Oregon for Breakfast. Excellent food, old-time country diner atmosphere. Friendly, cheerful waitress. Very reasonable prices. Highly Recommended.

Breakfast completed, we continued on Route 64, and onward. Best route on this “To” portion of the overall trip was “Blackjack Road”. One warning though – it comes up out of nowhere, and is not marked well at all. I just happened to glance up to see the small street sign on the post as we passed it, while going about 50 MPH, so we missed it and had to pull a U-Turn. Otherwise, once on this road, - great. Lot’s of twists and turns, uphills, downhills, rural scenery, and… a small deer standing in the center of the road. Luckily, we saw it in plenty of time, and were able to slow to almost a crawl. He just stared at us, and had that look of “what the …?”, We passed very slowly, and respectfully.

We Arrived in Galena at 1:00. Parked in town right on Main Street, then walked around looking into shops and browsing. Mostly trinket shops, expensive antiques, trendy (read expensive) clothes, scented candles. The best shop in town is a Toy Store, whose owner is enthusiastic and friendly and totally into it. This shop has reproductions of toys and candy from the 50’s and 60’s, so if you’re a Baby Boomer, you’ll recognize a lot of this fun stuff from your childhood.

“Medium” bike traffic in town today (Thursday), almost all Harley Davidsons, one or two Japanese Sportbikes. HD riders here are mostly RUB types, only a few “Pirate” weekend badass fakes. In fact, all weekend I believe we only saw two couples dressed like Hollywood version “bikers” and sportin' the “tough” look. Most were middle aged, normally dressed, and refreshingly, most – oddly for the HD stereotype - had helmets and gear on. We spent some time just people watching, and enjoying all the old architecture as well as new things like Brick sidewalks, old black iron Street lamps, all the great old time buildings, etc.

We had Lunch at the Victory Café, sorry, but nothing special or noteworthy about this place at all. Non-deserving of any praise, as they weren’t even trying, rather just going through the motions. Sorry. Headed for the Hotel at around 4:00 PM to check in, and have a quick rest up before dinner.

We stayed at the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel.

http://www.theirishcottageboutiquehotel.com/

Very nice place, great Irish Pub (of course!) inside. Exterior and main lobby plus sitting area / library are nicely decorated as in old timey traditional Irish Hotel/Pub style. Dark, ornate, heavy woods, stained glass, wood floors, heavy trim and woodwork, etc.

The actual rooms are… rooms, except for a few “Irish” themed framed prints hung on the walls. Comfortable bed, reasonable sized room, in all, great place. A few ‘cons” –cheap bathroom fittings, cheap, laminated style “fake” wood furniture. Average towels, etc. If anything, they could upgrade to a more ornate overall style in the rooms that would be more consistent with the remainder of the hotel. Not a biggie though, as the Pub and stuff downstairs makes up for it somewhat.

At 6:30 PM we rode over to the Log Cabin restaurant in town for a dinner we had reserved earlier. Excellent Steaks, huge salad, tasty wine, etc. Good service, nice place, nice atmosphere, a little pricey ($$$), but recommend it.

We strolled around town a little after dinner,then had one local brewery beer in a trendy type Sports Bar. Good beer, but I forget the name. Sorry – if I think of it, I’ll post again or edit this post. We hung around here for about a half hour, nothing special, mostly 20 somethings staring at a TV screen. We're outa' here.

We then went for a short, half-hour sunset ride on Route 20 eastward, enjoying the scenery and twisties until just after dark. We went back to the Hotel and headed for the Pub for a few "on-tap" Guinness’s (3 for me!) and finally to bed. It was a long day, slept like a log.

Friday: July 02

Breakfast in the Pub Downstairs, Continental Style. On the road at 10:00. We took Route 20 westward over the Mississippi River Bridge, through Dubuque, to Dyersville, Iowa, home of the “Field of Dreams” actual movie site. About an hours ride all up.

http://www.fieldofdreamsmoviesite.com/


Very hard to find. Interesting place. People really take care of the field and grass, beautiful old home up on the hill as well. If you are already in the area, I’d go have a look, but I wouldn’t make this the “focal point” of a trip. We hung around for a while, took a few pics, and got back on the road.

We headed to Anamosa, Iowa for the “National Motorcycle Museum”. Couldn’t find it. Went up and down the same main street about four times. Finally found it by sheer luck (no signage) – “Closed” sign plastered on the front door. Aaaarrrgghhh!!!

Went into "Zen" mode, calmed down.. oh well sez us, and off we went.

http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org/


Coincidently, we came across J&P Cycle Parts main store, just prior to entering Anamosa. Stopped and parked amid 100 chrome laden and fully accessorized Harleys in the parking lot, and went inside. Tons of “stuff” mostly for Harley's and metric cruisers, but also some generic stuff as well as clothing and helmets to peruse. Worth the time to look around. Bought three t-shirts and got on their mailing list. Rode back towards Dyersville and had lunch at the “Old Barn” restaurant. Great food, fantastic, friendly service. Recommended.

As we were leaving, we met a couple in the parking lot of the restaurant. They had matching Harley Sportsters, and the guy was admiring my bike, and had some questions about my Triumph that began with:"Is that a '76?" (mines a 2007)... they still make 'em? And so on.


They had just returned from the Anamosa Motorcycle Museum!!! Say wha'? The museum had apparently just moved a week ago to new digs. Since it was a good 40 mile ride back, and since they (The Museum management/owners) were so inconsiderate as to not think of placing a “moved” sign (with handy relocation map!) as opposed to “closed” sign on the door of the old digs, we decided not to go. Poor business practices should never deserve good paying customers.

Rode back to Dubuque, and the Mississippi River to catch the “Spirit of Dubuque” river boat.

http://www.spiritofdubuque.com/


This is one of these old “Paddle wheel boats, run on diesel engine(s) I would assume Vs. the original Steam, but loads of fun nonetheless. Took the 1.5 Hour cruise- no lunch - as we had already eaten. Great cruise, , very interesting, informative narrative as you troddle along. Awesome, historic river, great sites along the way.

We headed back to Galena to walk around downtown for a while, checking out the many shops. Later in the afternoon, we stepped then back to the Hotel for Dinner at the Pub, and after dinner, a great Irish guitar player / singer. Loads of fun. Very funny entertaining guy, as well as a fascinating musician. He played acoustic / amplified guitar, accompanied by a drum machine, and he played base accompaniment with his right foot big toe (shoe off) on the various keys of what looked like the middle section of a piano keyboard on the floor. We had a front row, right table, and being a Guitar player myself, I found this amazing.

Because he was so good, we stayed pretty late, and rumor has it I may have had more Guinness’s than is reasonably sensible.

Saturday: July 03


Slept well (!), and the next morning we went down for a full breakfast – egg and sausage omelet, potato cakes, juice / coffee etc. Irish soda bread toast.


Packed up, and headed off to home. It was now extremely hot, as in high 80’s / low 90’s… and humid.

We took a different route home – I-20 west to I-26 south at Freeport, Illinois, to Route 72 east at Forreston, to Route 2 south at Byron, to Route 64 east at Oregon, to Route 47 south.

Much better route than before. We stopped briefly at a Rock River overlook turn off, then poushed on through to the “Blackberry Inn” at Route 47 and Main Street, Elburn, Illinois.

Walked in, sat down. Waited for 10 minutes to be served… nothing. Used the restrooms, came back to the table, waited another 7 or 8 minutes, nothing. The waitress was not busy, as the place was maybe 1/3 full. After around 20 minutes, a guy walked in the door, took the table right next to ours, and both the waitress and the bartender jumped up, and literally ran over to serve him.

We got up and left, and no one said a word. Weird. Thi is a decent place, we had been there about half a dozen times before, but for whatever reason were ignored. Wanting to make this a “positive” trip, we laughed it off as just plain bad business practice, nothing to get worried over, and figurativelt “scratched out” any future plans of providing them with additional income. Done.

Headed for home – sans lunch – but had plenty once we arrived. I cooked up some hot dogs and sausages on the gas grill, and the wife prepared a great lunch.

All in all, a fantastic trip. As always, if you stick to roads that align closely to good rivers, lakes etc., or research old Indian or animal migration trails, you can’t go wrong. Galena and the surrounding area is extremely scenic, and worth visiting if you overlook the overpriced “stuff” being hawked in the Main Street stores, and just take in the 19th century architecture and atmosphere, it’s cool. Motorcycle-wise, the roads are A+ fantastic, couldn’t ask for more, and the roadside scenery is unbeatable. Biker-wise – 99% were just normal, everyday folks, just like us, out looking for great roads, good times and stuff. Only two or so “baddass” wannabee type’s sighted, so in that respect, maybe it IS the challenging roads that weed out any squids, and keep ‘em outa’ town?

Do it again? You bet! Anything to be done differently? I’d try our “return” route first, then have some fun devising a new route this next time headed home. Other than that, great times are guaranteed once you’re in the area. BTY, a couple could also go “on the cheap” easily, as there are many. other hotels/motels in the general area. Rule of thumb might be the closer to Galena you sleep, the more expensive it’s gonna be. Simple. There are also much, much less expensive places to eat – in town - if you look around. I’m just “anti” franchise style hotels and restaurants, as I enjoy the adventure of seeking out unusual or new places. To each hizzone, I can’t speak for anyone but myself.

Right now, I have to mow the lawn, which takes me roughly 3 hours, and then tonight we are going to go see our small town fireworks display!

Edit:

No pics today, as I am currently in Sydney, Australia, and the pics are on my home computer. Yeah, if I was savvy I could figure out how to access them… but I’m not!

Ride Safe!

Bob

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The Prophet

See pics attached at bottom of report, just added them today.

Plus, you never tire of seeing a sign like this:

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