Day 7 - Arrived in Madison Wisconsin

Wednesday, August 30th

I left Sioux Falls around 8:30AM with every intent of getting to the Badger Harley-Davidson in Madison. I need to get the bike serviced since I have covered over 4,500 miles and it is time for service. The morning started out cool at 57 and got up to the mid-80's in the afternoon. Overall the trip was pleasant.

I crossed over the Minnesota border a short time later but the picture of the welcome sign did not turn out. I continued on to the center of the state and had lunch in Albert Lea, MN. As I was parking the bike a couple parked their motorcycles next to me. They were from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and had been on the road since July 11th. They were headed to Sturgis before finally heading back home. We sat together at the table and swapped stories. Outside the fast food place there was a really cool Hudson Hawk that was restored as a Hot Rod.

I headed to Austin and turned south. My secondary goal on this trip was to hit as many states as possible without going out of the way too much. My GPS is on my phone, so I typically use it only on the very last segment of the day in order to preserve the battery. I primarily use it to listed to music or podcast which helps pass the time as I drive. This side trip into Iowa was a shorter distance to Madison but would take more time since it was not Interstate highways. Since I was not using the GPS, I missed a turn on US-18 and instead continued to head south until I hit the Waterloo area. I was getting tired so I found a park a stretched out in the shade and took a nap. I then proceeded to check the map to see if I was on the right track and discovered that I had seriously gone off track which added a hundred miles or so to the days journey.

I got my bearings, and proceeded to our daughters place in Madison. I ended stopping for gas in the town of Dyersville which is where the "Field of Dreams" baseball field is located. Since I was running late, I didn't do the tourist side trip. I hit some traffic in Dubuque before crossing the Mississippi (yes, I sang the Jiminy Cricket song) and finally into my 12 of 40 states I intend to hit.

I finally got to Kristie's home around 6:45PM which was three hours later that I had expected. We had a nice conversation and Mike grilled some Bratwurst and Italian Sausages for dinner. I then proceeded to unload the bike and discovered that I had left the headlights on for over two hours. Even thought the battery was not completely dead it did not have enough juice to start the bike. I called it an early night.

Thursday, July 31st - A day of rest

I got up and had breakfast with Kris and Mike at their clubhouse. I came back and checked the bike to see if it would start and it did not. I had to call the dealer and they came out and picked up the bike to the shop for service.I got a call around 5PM that they had finished the work on the bike but would not be able to get it washed until morning. I refuse to take pictures of the front of the bike since every bug in 5 states were embedded.

Kris went to get her driver's license renewed while I got my haircut. They did a nice massage on my shoulders and neck. I also caught up on laundry doing a couple of loads. It was nice to be able to go back to bed after lunch and catch a 3-4 more hours of sleep. Kris and I spent a fair amount of time just talking. Normally, she and Trish are off shopping or planning the next family event so I seldom have the one-on-one quality time with her like this.

Tomorrow morning is spa day. They are going to have to take an industrial grinder to my feet to get the calluses off my feet. A lesson I learned in the service is "if you don't take care of your feet, they won't take care of you".