Wisconsin Dells Bar

Day #1: Twin Cities to Dells: Headed out of Twin Cities on sunny Wednesday morning and wound our way down to Durand, Wisc and got lost on windy roads on the way to Independence and Whitehall, and a lot of other small towns…Ended up staying at the Dells…a good 300 mile day.

Costal Road along Lake Michigan

Day #2: Dells to Sturgeon Bay: Have to admit we didn’t find many good roads as we worked our way to Lake Michigan, or maybe we were just hungover…if anyone has good suggestions, let us know. We ended up popping out to the Lake around Sheboygan, and road all the way up to Sturgeon Bay…Once again, not great roads…we need suggestions, as the Driftless Riders were out of the Driftless Region.

Safari Motel

Day #3: Door County to Wabeno: Well, well, well…let’s just say the Driftless Riders were somewhat unimpressed with Door County, but we did happen to find a cool old lighthouse to climb. Ended up on a death march through Green Bay and into the Great Woods on northern Wisconsin and stumbled on a gem of a town that goes by the name of Wabeno. I can best some it up as a small town, with many bars, a motel by the name of the Safari, and pole shed party with dollar beers sponsored by the local EMS, illegal fireworks, and regrets for drinking Absinthe.

Kick ass road through the woods

Day #4: Wabeno to Hurley: If we didn’t defile ourselves enough in the small town of Wabeno, the granddaddy of them all lie ahead..that’s right, Little Vegas…you might know it has Hurley. If you don’t know what Hurley is, you shouldn’t be able to call yourself a ramblin man.

After a night out in Hurley, you’ll feel like this too…

Day #5: Hurley to Twin Cities: Licked the wounds, got the bikes up over 100 MPH on GG, and flew oursleves back home to the cruel reality of the year of our Lord of 2008.

Curves on highway 60

Another wonderfully sloppy Dam Saloon bikini contest has come and gone and the Drifless Riders took in the action in our usual fashion.

We started off the day by getting drenched and abused by an isolated thunder storm, but once we broke through it was clear sailing for the rest of the day. Our route took us down through Zumbrota and east on the beautiful and twisty highway 60 (one of the best Minnesota biker roads out there).

Highway 60 pops out in Wabasha. From there we headed down hwy 61 to Minneska for a quick stop at Buck’s Bar. Crack a cold one and let a little rain move through, then on to the contest…..

Shake your tush on the catwalk

This years contest had all the accouterments: There was alot of sunburn mixed with alot of beer mixed with alot of sweat mixed with alot of cheering. Throw in some overflowing Biffie’s and a couple fights and you’re starting to get the picture.

The bikini contest turns into a bikini-less contest

Lets be sure not to overlook main event – the parade of topless sea-hags. As usual the main event did not dissappoint. This years contestants left any form of decency at home. They and strutted their stuff and gave the fans what they deserved and more.

The party’s winding down

Eventually everyone had seen enough, boats & bikes started shipping out, and those pesky drunken hicups set in. All in all it was another great Dam Saloon bikini contest. Time to head for the hills.

Scene from the top of a bluff somewhere in southwest Wisconsin

I’ve posted a few more photos on this message board. If you have any of your own, please post em.

See ya next year.

Harley Davidson Ride Planner Interface

Harley Davidson recently launched a new ride planning website. The idea is that you can input locations and waypoints and it will chart a course for you. There are also extended features that allow you to find good roads, Harley dealerships, hotels, events, and fuel stops. There even 105th anniversary routes preset for out of town’rs headed to the big show.

Check it out at: http://www.harley-davidson.com/rideplanner

The concept is just what I’ve been looking for – but upon review I’ve discovered that there are a few pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.

The core component of the site works alot like Google maps. It’s easy to pan around the world and look for roads – both user generated and Harley approved “Great Roads”. You can input address data or right click on the map to create way points that join together to plan a personalized “My Ride”.

One of the best features that I found was it has the ability to join roads to “My Ride”… so for example you can simply plan a route from one city to another and then view the nearby “great roads” and if it looks like this road is worth a detour, you can add it to “My Ride”. The site will recalculate all the associated information.

Sharing your saved rides or routes is possible via the website by using an email input form. Unfortunately I didn’t see any ability to link directly to a route or embed your saved maps into a webpage or blog.

The biggest disappointment is the events functionality. I was hoping for a map that displayed events and rallies by location and date, but the events listed are limited to Dealer events, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. events, and H.O.G. events. So don’t expect to find the defrost yer nutz run or the dam saloon bikini contest listed on this site.

The hotel listings show only Best Westerns. Fine for some. Not acceptable for those of us who seek out the classic small town motels.

I didn’t see any indication that the website is available on mobile devices, which is key for us riders, but it does have import and export functionality for GPS systems in a .gpx format. (Haven’t tested that yet)

Summary:
The Harley Davidson Ride Planner could be used a good resource if you’re route takes you into unchartered territories and you want to rely on route suggestions from those who have gone before you. I like that this website has the potential to harness user input and opinions, but unfortunately its not the end all solution for rider information. Perhaps it will evolve to meet my expectations.

Side note:
In the future I expect some type of low jack system installed on all Harleys allowing the brethren to see, in real-time, a map of where everyone’s riding. Without crossing the “invasion of privacy” boundaries I’d like to be able to see where my friends are at, catch up with a rally that I don’t have a map to, or just watch the convergence on Sturgis. Who’s with me?

Get’n out of Dodge
If you’re like a Driftless Rider, you’re likely headed out of the Twin Cities metro area as soon as you start your engine. The map above shows some of the routes and stops that we like that are all reachable within a hour or so.

First of all, let’s talk about getting out of the Twin Cities. Of course there’s all four directions you can head, but we’re the Driftless Riders and that means we usually head east to the St. Croix & Mississippi River valley. So east-wise… our most widely used route takes us down to Newport and then east on Glen Road or 70th Street South. If you keep going you’ll eventually get you to the St. Croix Trail, a great road, north or south along the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River.

We prefer this route out of the Twin Cities because it’s the quickest way to get clear of heavy traffic and start enjoying the countryside. It also leaves you poised to take a short scenic ride to either of the nearby river crossings – north to Hastings or south to Prescott.

The loop
My quick ride “loop” starts with the get’n out of Dodge path mentioned above. From there I jet to Hastings, WI. Sometimes I take the St. Croix trail north and other times I add a little extension by going down to Prescott and then taking the Wisconsin side up.

After a quick stop at Dick’s in Hastings, I continue north to Stillwater. If you take highway 35 it’s only a few miles, so to make it a little more interesting I like to go through Burkhardt on County A before venturing back to Minnesota.

A couple other notable routes
I’ve added a couple routes that deserve to be included becuase they’re in the proximity and they’re kick-ass roads. And by kick-ass I mean scenic, twisty, and deep in the river bluffs.

County Road O: This road is like what you see in motorcycle postcards (not sure if these exist, but they should). There are twists, dips, curves, nips?, single vehicle bridges… the works. There are trees hanging over one side and a brooke wandering down the other. It connects 35 to highway 10.

County 7 Blvd: If you’re ever going down 61 in or out of Redwing, there’s no reason not to take this little detour… you won’t regret it. The 90 degree curves lead you down in the valley, past Welch (ski) Village, and back out.

Bars:
The map also labels a few of our favorite watering holes. Some of these are pretty well known in the biker community, but there’s a couple that you might not have heard of, so if you’re looking for a destination maybe….

The Cave Bar – Its located in Hersey, WI, which isn’t much more than a wide spot in the road, but its worth a stop because of the friendly people, cold drinks, and it’s decor. As you might guess, its cave-ish. http://www.herseycavebar.com

Neumann’s Bar – Its located in North St. Paul, just off highway 36. Its been serving the thirsty since 1887. Every Thursday there’s a ride – be there at 6pm – leave at 6:30pm. Any rider that returns receives a coupon for a “buy one get one free” beverage. http://neumannsbar.com

Willow River Saloon – Located in Burkhardt, WI, it’s a big bar for such a small town. The word “saloon” really describes the atmosphere.

See ya’ll there….

All the county roads are pretty right on as you wind your way up and down through the valleys that are held down by generation old dairy farms and very small towns (Note: These people are working hard for a living, so these aren’t speed routes, take it easy and keep your eyes open for farm implements and trucks on the roads).

Your options for routes in this area are endless, but we usually make a ride east into the country and work our way back to the river…especially awesome roads are around the small village of Montana (roads C, CC, X and XX).

I might also mention that a great little town to hang it up for the night is Buffalo City, which is located on the Mississippi River backwaters…lodging can be tricky, but I recomend the Viking Hotel (you can’t miss it because there’s a huge Viking in the front of it).

Following is link to a nice road map: http://www.buffalocounty.com/Maps/travel%20map.pdf