Sunday, May 11, 2014

A Good Day For Breakfast

Since I did what I could for the moms in my life yesterday, today's bright and mild morning dictated a ride to breakfast.


Going down County X and stopped for a photo of the vista.  This laboring Mack was pulling a pretty good sized Cat at about walking speed right here, hoping to soon shift up a gear as the uphill leveled out just enough.  There's an almost switchback with quite a rise just beyond and around the corner that he's still working through.


Mostly the ponies were ignoring me......


More livestock appreciating the real stuff........


I stopped for a gas/coffee break in Arcadia and had a nice chat with Eric and Cindy.  They were out wandering and wondering about what to do for lunch; hopefully finding what they were after.


I made a run through North Creek (Rod, how are you doing?), looping back on Church Road to Arcadia.


I went right on past Caddie Klink but decided that it was mandatory to do Pretzel Pass and Alligator Slide today.  Here's the famous intersection.



Here's a video that I took from the spot in the photo above near the most right hand edge of  the 'bowl'.  Pretzel Pass loops, just below the trees, around the bowl shaped hayfield and then drops down the road above to the point where I'm standing when I took the above photo.  In the video, I finally zoom in to the Alligator Pass/Pretzel Pass junction.  You can hear the tick tick tick of the cooling exhaust pipes on the bike.




After a stop at the Nelson Cheese Factory for a cone, I crossed the river at Wabasha and then pulled in to this Wayside Rest near Lake City to check on the Mississippi's high river.  According to the daily reports, it has gone down slightly.

This is a loop through the wayside that runs down much closer to the river.  In years when the river is really flooding, I'd be standing at water's edge right here.



14 comments:

  1. The area is greening up nicely! Motorcycle, bicycle- I'm thinking how nice it would be to travel the area on horseback. Off road, of course.

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    1. There would be so much potential at this time of year without the undergrowth for horseback travel. Of course the land is all private; it would be a fun way to explore some areas where very few humans have been, even in settled Wisconsin.

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  2. Nicely greening up! Was it overcast?

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    1. It was. Bright overcast early and then darker with the warmup halted. A few light showers just before I made it home.

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  3. Awesome! My kind of country!

    I'm glad you had a great ride day!

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    1. Based on my time a bit further south in KY, I imagine that at least some of the Ihio valley is not all that different.

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    2. I am a native Kentuckian and southern Ohio looks a lot like most of Kentucky.

      Northern Ohio, however is flat as a flitter for the most part!

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    3. We know almost more than we need to know about the 'hilly' plains of northern Ohio. We will be back in Cleveland this weekend.

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  4. A lovely ride through the country to breakfast. Perfect.

    How were your temperatures, it looks a little chilly.

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    1. Upper 40's to start, a fast rise around noon to upper 60's and then some cooling when the rain came through. Felt pretty nice to me. :)

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  5. Coop:

    we are still cool in the mornings too but it has been warming up into the mid 60's. Glad to see the snow and mud is gone but the river level still looks a bit high.

    I'll bet that it feels nice to be out and about after such a long winter of having to shovel/clear your driveway

    bob
    A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. We are still very cool, average high is around 70. Too many of may have early garden trouble tonight as clear and cold refuses to go away.

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  6. Pretzels I understand, but how many alligators do you get up there? Looked like a great ride, glad the Moms were all suitably recognized before though.

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    1. I carefully watch for them each time I ride there. The worst I've seen are cows on the road at the bottom where the 'slide meets River Road. Very possible the gators alarmed the cattle, a stampede the result.

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