Mean Streets, the Mississippi and Angelina Jolie...

MikeO

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17th September

I’m packed and on the road at 0945, heading towards Madison, in Wisconsin. I’ll not arrive there until tomorrow, so I just asked Bettie to find a route via minor roads – I’ll stop when it feels right…

The problem with giving Bettie instructions like this on one side of a city is that she’ll route you through minor roads across the city – which is how I ended up in downtown Des Moines, an area dominated by the hideously over-gilded Capitol building…

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…after some time, and crossing to the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, I’m approached by a scantily-clad black girl whilst waiting at a red light. She asks me for a date – I’m a little non-plussed, then suggest the 4th July, just as the lights change to green – there was just time for her to tell me to :GS:GS:GS:GS off before I left…

I’m soon out in the rolling countryside which typifies eastern Iowa…

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…turning left at Toledo, where they have a very picturesque bronze cow & calf sculpture, celebrating the role of dairy farming in the area. Along with the cornfields which line the ruler straight roads…

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…dairy farming is the main industry. Many of the fields have a series of markers planted at the end of various rows of corn…

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…presumably trying out various strains to find the most successful. I come into Postville…

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…famous for being the childhood home (not even the birthplace) of someone I’ve never heard of…

Soon I’m crossing the mighty Mississippi – which looks great…

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…and entering Wisconsin at Prairie du Chien – Field of the Dog. Never mind – I get a room at a little mom & pop, the Prairie Inn, which has the advantage of backing onto a cinema. After unpacking and abluting, I go and watch ‘Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow’ – a sort of Biggles meets Indiana Jones in an Art Deco alternative 1940s fantasy robot thing. It has the advantage of Angelina Jolie playing a Navy pilot in a vaguely dominatrix manner – enough to recommend the film to anyone, really…

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18th September

I wake early, but have a slow start – tonight I’m going to visit Chris – an ADVRider who rejoices in the forum name of Phloodpants (never did find out why :D) – he lives in Madison, about a hundred miles east of Prairie du Chien, but he’s had lodgers moving out this week and won’t be available until after 4pm.

I start off by crossing back into Iowa, to visit Pikes Peak State Park…

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…the name is very familiar to me – I can’t work out why. It’s a pleasant little park, overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. I meet a Harley rider there, who tells me I’m probably thinking of Pike’s Peak in Colorado, where there’s an observatory. I think he’s probably right.

I ride back towards the bridge over the Mississippi, stopping to watch a parade – this commemorates the Class of 56 – it’s a high school reunion…

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…although, judging by the vehicles in the parade, 56 wasn’t that financially successful a year…

I re-enter Wisconsin and start heading east along the minor roads Bettie has chosen…

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I actually recognized this as a Chevy Impala – I think I used to have a matchbox toy like this when I was a kid – or maybe I’ve been travelling too long over here…:D

I notice, in this part of Wisconsin, that the farmers plant corn in some areas of the field, and some other crop in the rest – in this case in terraces – I’ve no idea why…

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The owner of the Don Q Inn has somehow transported a Stratocruiser to the field outside his hotel, which serves as a handy landmark if you’re looking for it. I wasn’t.

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I get into Madison a little early and arrive at Chris’s place. It’s utter chaos. His tenants have moved out leaving the place in a mess and he’s just finished transporting his own gear out of storage and putting it in the house. The house is full of boxes and it’s clear to me that the house will not be able to cater for visitors tonight (perhaps not this month…:D). I let him off the hook and check into a motel just down the road.

He and a couple of mates pick me up after an hour or so and we go into Madison to a German restaurant (the Essen House? I think…) where we drink far too much German beer (in 1 litre steins) and eat enormous meals. I’m very relieved to report that the pictures I took that evening seem to have been mysteriously erased…

EDIT - except this one I just found - Chris on the right!

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Chris learned to ride a bike a couple of years ago – a Royal Enfield – in India. His survival alone signifies a certain ability on 2 wheels, I feel...

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19th September

I wake, after a fitful night’s sleep, feeling like crap. I suspect it’s not entirely unconnected with the 2½ litres of German lager which accompanied dinner last night. Never mind. I pack the bike and, at 1000, Chris turns up – he’s going to ride north with me today, accompanied by a couple of friends. Chris rides a GS and his friends both ride Harleys. While I’m starting the bike, a couple of local chaps ask me what type of bike it is, and look mystified when I tell them – they had no idea BMW made bikes (do they make something else? :confused: ) .

Chris and I go to a local café and have an excellent breakfast. We’re soon joined by Mark and Al…

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…who wear Harley jackets and boots, but leave head protection to Harley hair gel :D

We set off, first heading through some pretty countryside to the north west of Madison…

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…it must be nice to open the curtains to that view from the house on the hill…

After a while we arrive at Merrimac – allegedly the only free ferry in the USA – except I know better – Buddy & I travelled on a free ferry in Virginia, back in February…

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In the queue is one of those special cars built to satisfy that small demographic blip which includes those both short in stature and having poor colour perception…

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At Fox Lake, after a snack and a drink, Mark and Al say their goodbyes and head off south towards Madison. Chris and I continue, through Oshkosh, home of an annual home-built aircraft fly-in, and then north towards Appleton.

The beer last night, combined with a poor night’s sleep, is beginning to take its toll, so I stop for the day at the Hampton Inn at Appleton, say cheerio to Chris, and catch up on my journal writing…

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Good advice.
 


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