Sunday, October 14, 2007

Finishing the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive

It looked like a gloomy and foggy morning through the motel’s window. The temperature this morning was in the mid 40’s and it wasn’t until I went outside to start the bike, that I realized, it was kind of drizzling as well.



Maple Leaf Inn, Plymouth, WI

We packed up, checked out and at 8:45AM took off to another place I saw on the Plymouth’s website. After another short ride in to downtown Plymouth, located near last nights restaurant, was the Exchange Bank Coffeehouse, a historic bank building from 1906 that has been converted to a coffee house. http://www.exchangebankcoffeehouse.com/





Door to the safe that is now an office

The place was pretty cool and the coffee was good, I was expecting more pastries and things to choose from, but muffins were OK too.



Inside the Exchange Bank Coffee House



Breakfast



The white building across the street is 52 Stafford, where we ate dinner last night



Corner of Mill and Stafford





Some guy walking a big cat downtown Plymouth





Antoinette the cow

This huge cow statute was erected during Plymouth's centennial celebration in 1977. Antoinette is a 100% pure, FDA approved fiberglass Holstein cow. She stands 20 feet high and weighs over 1,000 pounds. Antoinette commemorates Plymouth's ties to the cheese making industry.

We took off from Plymouth heading north to finish the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. The roads were a bit wet at times and there was a bit of fog but it wasn't raining.










A bit of natural scenery







Road America Race Track in Elkhart Lake, WI

We stopped in at Road America and then got on 67 to head home. As we passed through Plymouth again, the rain just started falling. First very light, so I didn’t think it would last, but soon it stared coming down harder. We had just left town and it was going to be another 30 minutes before arriving at the next town that had a gas station where we could get out of the rain and put our rain gear on.



Ready for more of the wet stuff

With our rain gear on we continued, but it was now noticeably colder. I kept checking the temperature displays on banks, I never saw anything above 53 degrees. It was past 2PM and we were overdue for lunch again. By the time we got to Williams Bay, WI and Skip’s on route 67, we were thoroughly chilled. OK, I was just chilled with my Widder electric vest and Mike was freezing his butt off having no heated gear. And the rain was still coming down.



A warm lunch for a cold day at Skip's in Williams Bay, WI

We were the only customers at Skip’s. Lunch consisted of a cheeseburger and chili for Mike and I had some white bean chicken chili soup and we split some cheese curds. We hung out at Skip’s for a while, warming up and watching the rain drops fall outside.



The rain had finally started to slow down and by the time we came out to the bikes it wasn’t raining anymore. We kept our rain gear on until we reached Marengo, IL. By then the sun was peaking out of the clouds and it didn’t seem as cold as before but it was still in the mid 50’s.



Skip's

We talked about finding some pumpkins to take pictures with on this trip, I mean, what would a fall colors ride be with out pumpkins. What we found was way better than just pumpkins, we found a pumpkin farm.







Pumpkin farm near Marengo, IL



Then we took off again, the sun was setting already, though the suburbs, the temps were only in the upper 50’s but with no rain it was a pleasant ride. And to think that the forecast yesterday said that today would be a high of 68 and 40% of rain.



Yesterdays and todays GPS tracks, close to 500 miles total

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/01/2008

    I stumbled upon this entry when I was search google for kettle moraine gps coordinates and wanted to say that I love the pictures of the food and the big cat.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by. Yea, that was a big cat. Sometimes I come across the strangest things out there on the road.

    Anna

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