annual bro ride

Several years ago, when my brother, TJH and I decided to do an annual "Bro-Ride" on our motorcycles, the main reason for doing it was to enjoy each other's company. After all, what good is it having a brother if you never see each other?

This year's ride was planned to take us on the famous Circle Tour around Lake Michigan. We were going to go clockwise around the lake with a side trip to Pictured Rocks on the Lake Superior shoreline. We were going to hit the Tunnel of Trees, the Dunes, the famous restaurants and other sites. Scratch that idea.

When my motorcycle began to overheat and create problems we had extended stays at my brother's house in Illinois and our sister's house in Wisconsin. It was ixna on the Circle Tour but ended up being a wonderful trip because we spent so much time visiting, sharing memories, and talking about the future.

Riding motorcycles and enjoying scenery is time well spent but family time is the best!

Here are some additional highlights of the trip:

Best scenery:
Lapham Peak in the Kettle Moraine area of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Lapham's Peak is the highest point in the county and you can't really appreciate the ancient glacial action of the Kettle Moraine area until you've seen a panoramic view. A close second would be the Great River Ride near the Mississippi Palisades State Park just outside of Savanna, Illinois.

Best food: The Reuben sandwich at Popeyes in Lake Geneva. On the negative side, no free refills on your Diet Coke even though they charge as much as restaurants who give free refills. Next time I'll just get water--the crooks. An honorable mention goes to "The Spot" in Marengo, Illinois. The place is a dump but the burgers were exceptional.

Most unique city we visited: Sabula, Iowa, the only island city in the state of Iowa.

Best motorcycle museum: The National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa. This was also the only museum we visited... but it was well done. The ones in the picture are the gaudiest motorcycles I've ever seen...which is why, I suppose, they were in the museum.

Scariest bridge: The bridge at Savanna, Illinois over the Mississippi River to Sabula, Iowa. It was all metal grating so that you could look down through the bridge and see the water below. Metal grating pushes your tires around and makes you feel like your motorcycle is out of control. I could just imagine hitting the rather low guard rail and flying over my handle bars into the Mighty Mississip. Your imagination can do a real job on your head when you're on a motorcycle trip.

Best church building: Basilica of Holy Hill National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians. From Lapham's Peak we saw a structure on top of the tallest hill in sight. We had to go see what it was. We got to the church building and my motorcycle had the worst overheating of the two days that we had been riding. Water and antifreeze seemed to be gushing from everywhere. I thought I had cracked the block. But I filled it up with water and it seemed fine. As a special measure I got another bottle of the water from Holy Hill and poured it over the entire motor as an attempt to...I don't know...why did I do that?

Best passenger: My brother's 11 year old daughter wanted to come along with us on our trip to Anamosa, Iowa to the motorcycle museum. She was a lot of fun. I love a visual image I have of her on the back of her dad's motorcycle reaching out to catch cottonwood puff balls as we were riding through the Mississippi Palisades State Park. She also ate chips out of a bag while riding on the back of a motorcycle at 60 MPH without losing a single one.

Maybe next year we'll do the Circle Tour and a side repair excursion. Hopefully my brother will continue to be patient.