Up at 6:30 and packed up so we could meet people for breakfast.  The four of us rode to a gas station where Larry was waiting for us.  He then led us to Fox Lake to the Marine Grill where we were greeted by Vito, a friend that I met on last year’s NVAR ride.  Vito, who is recovering from a broken leg, must eat at the small, down home style restaurant often.  A number of people came out to meet us and were glad to see the rat bike that Vito has been telling them about, show up in person. 

I met Maxine, who was very nice, and Art, John, and Emo and a few other fine folks.  Emo is 88 years young, and told me about riding a Harley-Davidson in 1940, across our country and through Medford, Oregon.  He had quite a twinkle in his eye as he recalled the ride!  He is a retired tool & dye maker, and Art told me that he made specially cut gears for a few cars that were in the Indianapolis 500.  Emo has quite a colorful past!  I told him if I make it to see his age, in another 25 years, that I hope to be able to have the ability to fondly recall great memories as he does now! 

Annie served us a super breakfast and made us feel right at home.  Tom, another rider, came in for breakfast and we talked for a while too.  Then I met Dave who is a relative of Emo, and another fellow rider.  His knee was in a brace, getting better from a mishap with an animal, I believe.  Everyone was very friendly and made us feel real welcome there.  We said good bye to Vito, as he had to go to see a patient in a few minutes. 

Larry again led us down some beautiful back roads, after we waved good bye to Gary and Nancy as they rode off to their regular life.  We ended up at Larry’s beautiful A Frame home.  Marge, his wife, was at school doing a two week substitute teaching roll.  Larry showed us around and gave Joni a digital CD player and a bunch of CD’s.  He then led us to Woodstock Harley-Davidson, it was supposed to be the biggest one around. 

We filled up and got a drink, and followed Larry down a few more back country roads.  There are quite a few dairy farms around and a lot of beautiful green fields and trees.  We pulled over in a small town, and said good bye to Larry.  He rode back toward home and we thought we knew where we were going!  Wrong again.  We got off on some small country highway and went for a while before looking at the map.  Joni thought we were on 20 west, but we passed that quite some time ago.  We rode past the Estwing manufacturing plant in Rockford, Illinois.  We sell a lot of Estwing products back home.  We also went past the Klein Tools plant yesterday in Chicago.  We finally found I-90/94 West.  We rode until we needed fuel and it was time for lunch as well. 

We went into a TGIF place and had a good lunch.  We told our waitress about our adventure to DC and riding in the Rolling Thunder XXI parade.  She said that her mom just got back from riding there too, and going to Kentucky on her way home.  She is another female rider, who started riding about five years ago, and loves it! 

We headed off to the west again and got caught up in a real back up from a wreck ahead of us.  That’s what the signs said.  Two guys were standing by as a giant tow truck tried to lift the overturned Enterprise rent a truck back up on its wheels.  I hope they took out the damage waiver!

Shortly after that we pulled over in a rest area and put on our rain gear.  It was looking pretty black up ahead, and we already started to feel a bit of the early warning signs.  I planned to stop for fuel at Black River Falls, which would be about 125 miles on this fuel run.  About ten miles before the stop it was getting pretty wet.  With four miles left we could hardly see the road, as the semi truck was passing us.  When we got off at the exit, I rode right to a Holiday Inn Express and parked under the overhang.  It didn’t do any good because the storm was pushing the rain sideways, just like in Coos Bay, OR back home on a wild stormy day. 

We checked in and the computer was running slow.  It took a while for us to get a room.  When I was taking our stuff from the bikes, two families were just getting loaded up into vehicles out front.  I told them a bit about our NVAR ride and all the Veterans homes that we visited.  One of the gals said that the two guys were just getting ready to ship out to Iraq.  I thanked them for their service, and told them about my web site.  Hopefully it puts a smile on their faces as they get ready to depart into harm’s way. 

 Our clothes are hanging around the room drying out a bit, as Joni ordered Pizza.  It just showed up, so we will see what tomorrow brings……