Lake Superior Circle Tour, part 4 of 4: Days 8 & 9

Strelnikov

50+ Posts
Gold Member
It's the end of the tour as we know it.

Thoughts: The trike performed beautifully throughout. Plenty of power, comfortable seat, etc. We went around in 5 days and this would have been better stretched out by a day or two next time.

In any event, here it is and thanks for reading and commenting:

Day Eight: Baraga MI to Wisconsin Dells, WI (285 miles)

In the morning I was starving for some reason and went to the restaurant to see if they had a donut. Lady there said no but the cook stepped up and said he had some frozen apple fritters. Gave me one for free. He was a rider, of course (’08 Sportster), so the Brotherhood saved me that morning.

Early on, we ran into an extensive bank of fog that stuck with us for over an hour. Cold and wet. We came out around Bruce’s Crossing (no relation). Shortly after, we hit US 51 which is four lanes, marking the end of our two lane travels for this outing.

After hours of uneventful interstate style travel, we reached the Wisconsin Dells. Difficult to describe this place except to say “Awful”. Combination of a low rent Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach. We actually stayed north of town at the Edge o’ the Dell Resort which combines camping, RVing and cabins.

We stayed in one of the last items. Nice big cabin with sleeping space for eight – but only one bathroom. Oddly, they do not supply towels and all I had brought along that line was a small, ancient bathmat which had used to wipe the bike off in the mornings. Worked just fine.

For dinner we ate at the resort’s bar/restaurant. Pretty good for what it is. Recommend this place if, for some reason, you are forced to go to the Dells.

Day Nine: Wisconsin Dells to home (290 miles)

Our final day of travel was all interstate, down I-90 to I-39 at Madison, and on to IL.

We made our only Indian dealer stop at Englehardt’s Motorsports in Madison. As always, nice place, nice guys. Kevin got the t-shirt this time. And we were recommended to the Parkway Restaurant for breakfast. Another good one.

As we approached Beloit, it became obvious that there was a storm ahead, so we pulled over at a rest stop to access the situation. The storm was good sized but moving fast across our path at Rockford IL with, unfortunately, another behind it to the west. We spoke with a father/son combo on their way back from Sturgis Bike Week to Buffalo NY, who had been doing about 500 miles per day. Ultimately, we put the rain gear on and tried to shoot the gap between the two systems. Almost made it. We did take some fairly heavy rains for a few miles in Rockford and just south. As we ran out of that, we could see the next one on our right and bearing down. We did outrun that one.

We stopped to split up at El Paso IL, where we had met to start the journey. While there, we spotted yet another large storm on my home route, so it was back on with the rain gear. Fortunately, I only got spattered on.

Arrived home approximately 3:30 PM.

We’re looking into The Lake Huron Circle Tour for ’24.

 
Thanks again Bruce, good pics and commentary, glad you're home in one piece.
 
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