The alarm went off with its shrill, unwelcome tone. I opened my eyes and assessed my situation. I was still sick, but perhaps I felt a little better? It was hard to tell lying in bed.
Today was the day I was to ride home. My least favorite day of any motorcycle trip. South Dakota is a long way from most of the interesting spots to ride, which means it's a long way home. Leaving home on a trip I get the excitement of heading somewhere new, so I don't mind the boring ride as much. Coming home though, there's no excitement to motivate me.
I prepared and packed the bike. I made sure the room was extra tidy, as I had talked a bit with the owners of the hotel and liked them, so I wanted to make it extra easy for them to clean. I even made the bed, which I knew was pointless as they have to undo it to wash the bedding, but for some odd reason made me feel better.
I walked down to the office to check out. The owner was behind the desk, and immediately laid into me. It caught me off guard for a second, until I realized he was smiling and his complaint was that I hadn't come down and talked to him often enough during my stay.
This morning he had some fruit, doughnuts and coffee. I ate a banana and we chatted for a while. He said that he usually only put breakfast items out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. We also talked about the beer festival that was going to be in full swing starting this coming afternoon, and that after this weekend he's closing for the season.
I stood there and talked for longer than I intended, but that's OK. I don't mind delays like that when I'm enjoying good conversation. I bid him adieu and promised that I'd return again in the future to visit.
I got on the bike and fired it up. I had eaten a banana, but wanted a little more to eat, plus I needed coffee if I was going to make it home. I decided to ride to Reedsburg and stop there for a short break.
I took the back way to Reedsburg, riding on county highway H. This was the route I was trying to take the previous morning when I missed the turn and wound up on the interstate. Armed with my new knowledge of what the intersection looks like, I didn't miss it this morning.
In Reedsburg I found a Kwik Trip and stopped for some breakfast. This one wasn't as nice as the one in Mt. Horeb. I don't know if there is another gas station as nice as the one in Mt. Horeb. I grabbed some coffee, a breakfast sandwich and a couple boxes of cake doughnuts that were on sale (chocolate and blueberry.) Kwik Trip old fashioned cake doughnuts are awesome. I didn't need more than one doughnut, so I packed the rest to bring home and share with the family.
While it wasn't as fancy, the guy manning this Kwik Trip was very nice. We chatted a bit and then I went outside and ate my food and drank my coffee.
From Reedsburg to LaCrosse was only 78 miles via highway 33. I figured I could be in LaCrosse as early as 10:30. This made me consider making a stop at Dave's Guitar Store in LaCrosse, which is a famous guitar shop. I had been there back in 2010. I thought it might be fun to stop for a few minutes and browse around.
I continued west. The day was pretty nice, and traffic was light.
The pretty part of the day's ride was happening this morning. Once I would hit Minnesota things would get dull. I made it a point to try and enjoy the scenery while I could.
Occasionally I'd see a sign indicating how far I had left until I reached LaCrosse. I would do the math and calculate that I was right on schedule.
After a while I realized that I hadn't seen a sign for LaCrosse in a while. I also realized that I couldn't remember seeing a sign that I was on highway 33 for a fair bit of time either.
I made a note to consciously watch for either of these signs. Maybe I had passed some and just not noticed? Nothing. Although I did see a sign saying that Richland Center was a few miles ahead. That didn't sound familiar, but I pressed on.
Sure enough, I rode into Richland Center. I couldn't remember if this town was on 33 or not, so I was watching for some sign to tell me what direction I was heading. To my horror I saw a sign that I was heading south on highway 80.
I pulled over. My phone wouldn't connect for me to access Google maps and figure this out. I dug out my atlas, which didn't have a lot of resolution so it was hard to see the little roads. I was hoping that I just missed my turn by a mile or two.
Unfortunately, no. There was a junction where I was supposed to turn right to stay on highway 33 back in the town of Hillsboro. I had missed the turn and the highway had turned into highway 80 heading south. And I hadn't noticed until I was in Richland Center 29 miles out of my way. Ugh.
With little choice, I turned around and headed back north towards Hillsboro. I wound up unintentionally adding 60 miles and more than an hour to my trip. I certainly wasn't going to arrive at LaCrosse early now.
Sure enough, in Hillsboro I found where I missed the junction for highway 33. In my defense, it wasn't an obvious junction. Just a little sign that pointed traffic down a quiet residential street. It certainly wasn't a junction that jumps out at you.
Now that I was back on highway 33 I continued west. Just to the east of the town of Ontario the highway passes through Wildcat Mountains state park. This is the highest point in Wisconsin, which admittedly isn't that high. But the highway through this area was extremely pretty and the road was very twisty. It was a fun ride. I wanted to take some pictures but the road didn't lend itself to pulling over without risk of getting clobbered by a car.
The closer I got to LaCrosse, the more uninteresting the scenery became. When I finally pulled into town it was almost noon. I had a solid five hours to go before I would be home. I decided that I would skip Dave's guitar shop. At this point I just wanted to make time.
I did need gas, though. I found a Kwik Trip on the west end of the city across the river. Again, not as nice as the one in Mt. Horeb. But decent enough. It was very busy. I filled up with gas and then went inside to use the restroom and grab a snack. I didn't need a full meal as I had eaten plenty for breakfast. They had corn dogs on sale. I decided that sounded good, so I grabbed one.
I merged onto Interstate 90 heading west. It is pretty for about 10 miles until you get out of the Mississippi river valley, then it turns into dull, flat, boring interstate. There really isn't much to say about this stretch of the trip. I sat on my bike trying to keep my mind occupied and my body from getting too sore. I didn't find a whole lot of success with either endeavor.
However, I made pretty good time, reaching the 181 miles to Fairmont in about 2 1/2 hours. My body wanted to get off the bike for a couple of hours. My heart wanted to make it a quick stop and get home. My brain won.
I did stop and get gas and grab a chocolate chip muffin for a snack.
As I was eating the muffin, I noticed that about a hundred yards away there was a herd of Longhorn steer. I strolled over and took some pictures.
I was on the home stretch now. Only a couple more hours. With a full tank of gas I should be able to make it the rest of the way there without stopping.
Then there was more dull riding. However, on this stretch of the interstate I did notice that my clutch was starting to slip a little. At first I wasn't sure if that's what I was hearing or not. With a little experimentation I confirmed that if I really laid into the throttle, sure enough the engine was revving a little faster than the bike was increasing speed. Rats. Well, that will have to get fixed soon.
As I got close to the South Dakota border, I remembered all of the road construction on the interstate between the border and Sioux Falls. It was also approaching rush hour. I decided to get off the interstate in Beaver Creek and take the same back roads home that I took when I left four days earlier.
About 5 PM I hit the Sioux Falls city limits. I made my way through town, stopping only to top off my tank with gas and get my final mileage numbers. Then I headed home where I could relax and after a few more days finally kick the creeping crud I had been fighting.
Another trip was in the books.
See the summary of the trip...
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018