AK1 Day 13

MS Day 13 – 16 Jun 12, Saturday

Mitchell, South Dakota to Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Mileage – 565

WX – sunny and hot with scattered rain showers

States – South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin

I-90, I-90/I-94, I-90/I-94/I-39. I-94

Note 1: When we left Mitchell, SD we could see that there were rain showers along our route but at least the wind had stopped blowing. We shortly crossed I-29 at Sioux Falls thus completing a full circle from our starting point a week earlier. I used the XM Weather feature of my Garmin zumo 665 GPS to identify where the rain was. It works very well in the USA but there is no coverage in Canada. I had brought only a heavy rain suit that was entirely too hot to wear in the heat of the mid west. I picked up a lighter rain suit at a Harley Davidson dealer and put it on just in time to ride through rain showers on our way to Milwaukee, WI.

Note 2: There were only a few times I did not enjoy riding my bike on this trip. One of them was riding in the traffic in Milwaukee. This was a Saturday so we expected light traffic as we found our way into downtown and the Iron Horse Hotel. The traffic was hell and the drivers very aggressive. Several times I thought I would get clipped by drivers who were not willing to give us adequate room to change lanes. I’ve ridden a lot in heavy traffic in a number of large cities but I rate this town as one of the bad ones.

Note 3: Before going to the hotel we rode to several of the Harley Davidson manufacturing facilities in the Milwaukee area so we could get HOG pictures. During this time I was pretty low on gas so when we finally got to the hotel I was sucking fumes. Next morning, which was Sunday, we had to go to several gas stations to find one open. I expected to have to use my back-up saddlebag gas for the first time but finally found one open.

Note 4: We had selected the Iron Horse Hotel even though it was very expensive because it was our last night on the road together and it was just across a canal from the Harley Davidson museum which we were going to tour the next morning.

Note 5: Because of the traffic in Milwaukee, both Jim and I were ready for a beer immediately after dropping off our bags in the room. We went to the bar and didn’t leave until it was time to go to sleep. This was another one of those “what was I thinking” evenings. I say this because the next morning I left my iPad in the hotel room.