Adventures By Guy

Satisfaction in life is in the doing and learning while reaching for the goal, not in the goal itself.
Guy Galster

I retired on July 14th 2023 after 35 years working in a nuclear power plant. Prior to that I was in the US Navy. Many long hours had to pass before this day. A lot of hardships but a lot of good times too. I learned a lot along the way and hopefully I helped others too.

Two hours after I left I hopped on my 2017 Yamaha Super Tenere (That I bought from a co-worker in February) and headed North to Medford, WI.

This summer has been very dry with low humidity and only a few rain storms. The Illinois grass was brown and parched by the middle of June. That isn’t normal at all. But what does this have to do with my next adventure?

Well, July 14th seemed like a nice low humidity day when I got home from work and went in to finish packing. Two hrs later I rolled up the garage door and it was around 90% humidity. Gulf Coast style! Big rain clouds coming from the west and starting to sprinkle and a severe TStorm watch.

Oh boy! Jumped on the bike and headed North and 80 miles later it looked like I was in the clear. I was… for a while.

One of the great things about riding a motorcycle across the country is that you feel alive because you are passing through your surroundings and not encased in a steel and glass bubble. I don’t know if it was because of the humidity but the smells were stronger than usual. I kept smelling some pungent pleasant odor. In some ways it smelled like catnip but it had to be from some crop I was passing by. In central Wisconsin I saw them harvesting something with a machine I had never seen before. The crop looked like carrots growing. Do they grow carrots in Wisconsin? While I passed these fields being harvested you could smell the strong odor of the earth. I always like to smell fresh mown alfalfa too. I smelled lots of cow manure too. That brings back memories of my childhood. I love to ride into an area that the rain has just left. The smell of hot wet pavement if it was a light rain or after a heavy T-Storm it just smells fresh. While riding you are not in a climate controlled bubble as already mentioned. You feel and experience the heat, cold, rain, wind, and yes even hail and snow if you ride long and far enough.

When I was 50 miles south of Wausau WI I could see a dark mass blotting out the sun. Then a round hole appeared in the clouds and a beam of sunlight streaked across the sky. It reminded me of the scene in Lord of the rings when the eye is looking out. Soon after that there were some awesome bolts of lightning crashing down up ahead. Hmmmm, I stopped and put on my new Held Air N Dry GoreTex gloves. 10 miles later it started raining and then it was getting hard to 👀. Is my visor getting that beaded up? Then I noticed that the cars were slowing down and putting on their flashers. It had gotten so dark all you could see of the cars were their taillights and the sun wasn’t supposed to be setting for another 2 hrs. I was down to 45 mph and passing a lot of cars on the Interstate… that’s how heavy it was. Then the wind hit and you could see it drifting the water across the road in white sheets like wraiths writhing across the road. Wow, I never saw that before. Then it was blowing so hard water started finding its way in around my neck and not just a few drops either. What? That’s never happened to me while wearing my Aerostich RoadCrafter suit. I finally rode out of the worst of it in 10 miles. But I had to get to Wausau and go west to get clear. Remember how I said things smell fresh afterwards? I could really smell a lot of things you would miss in a car. Sure I was a bit wet but I was not soaked. It’s all good. I was only 15 miles away from my motel when more lightning up ahead but now the sun had set and it was dark. Just a few sprinkles but you could tell everything had just gotten a good soaking. Pulled in under the hotel awning and unloaded everything. While unpacking in the room I heard more thunderous booms and heavy rain. Went out to take a look. Glad I missed that one! Day 1 complete. 275 miles

Day 2

Woke up and packed up the bike and made it to the diner where I was supposed to meet up with two gentlemen that I had never before seen! There was a Super Tenere in the lot. I walked in wondering how I would recognize Cycledude (his forum name). I walked in and slowly looked around and everyone seemed to be with a group. Then I saw a guy with a ball cap on that had Honda emblazoned on it in red. (Red is for the motorcycle division and Blue Honda is for the car division) That’s got to be Cycledude. I walked up and asked if he was Mike. Yep, are you Guy? Yep! We chatted and the other guy got there late. We had breakfast and Mike’s brother stopped by too. We got on the road and we were taking some route that wasn’t real direct even though we didn’t get on the road until 10 am. That’s late if you want to do a 500 mile day. It was pretty country. Rolling green hills and as we got further west we entered the Driftless area of Wisconsin. The hilly country with narrow valleys and bluffs that the glaciers didn’t reach. (Wow, climate change way back then too!) He stopped by a Zebra farm… yes, a Zebra farm! Wisconsin is full of surprises. I took a picture of one because it had a foal standing next to it. We finally headed out over hills and valleys until we got back to hwy 53 and took that into Superior Wisconsin. I didn’t need gas but I stopped and said we needed some type of plan as it was getting late. (I was just tagging along)

This group of three kinda reminded me of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. One wanted to go the speed limit and one wanted to go 7 mph over the limit and the last one was happy going 10 over. I asked the slowest one if that was going to be his MO for the trip. He said he was spinning his wheels as fast as he could. His bike is slightly smaller. I replied that my daughter has the older model which is 50 cc’s smaller and two up she was doing 90 across Kansas just fine. Maybe we could meet in the middle and just go 5 over. That seems to have been an OK compromise. One of the three also likes to be off the road by 5 pm. (Very rare for me) Well, since we got a late start how about 7 pm today. Sounds good. So I looked for a town 3 hrs away and made reservations. We made it and had a leisurely dinner. Along the way the Temps never got above 77F. They dropped to 67° and since I just had on my outer shell and a T-shirt I stopped and put on my inner liner. Much better! In Northern Minnesota along hwy 2 the woods were now comprised of birch and pine. You could smell the pines. In Wisconsin after yesterday’s rain the wild flowers were really fragrant. Passing along we saw ferns lining the ditches up to and into the woods. They looked so healthy. Must be cooler and wetter up here. I crossed the mighty Mississippi River but it looked like a big creek. Maybe 17′ across. Then we went by some really large lakes. Beautiful sailing lakes. We pulled into Bemidji MN and I found out that this is where the Mississippi River starts. It is an outlet to Lake Bemidji.

Tomorrow is here so I have to turn the lights off. Supposed to rain tonight and no rain tomorrow and the hi temperature is supposed to be 66°. It’s warmer in Alaska! I’ll try to get more pictures and video soon.