Solstice Ride 2019

[emptysea]

0830

The "ride" portion of "Solstice Ride" begins

We continued our trek west along US20 after breakfast. Up until this point, the route was designed for speed. Now, we truly began our descent into the Mississippi River valley. 20 becomes a little more interesting at this point, more hills more curves, but it is still a little mundane. About 15 minutes west of Stockton is the little town of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is not much more than a fork in the road with short rows of old commercial buildings lining the tines, but it reminds me of a mountain town somehow; the type one might find in Colorado. I noticed a couple of antique shops. Maybe Cheryl and I will stop and walk around here sometime.


Welcome to Elizabeth, Illinois

Just past downtown Elizabeth, we turned right on Washignton Street in the direction of the town of Hanover and just before we arrived in Hanover, we took a very hard right turn onto arguably the coolest named road in Illinois --Blackjack Road.

Blackjack Road is more or less a farm road and it could use a repaving, but it serpentines its way beautifully down from Hanover into Galena. Blackjack's condition is probably due to a combination of record rainfalls in the area and fiscal irresponsibility statewide. I always have a problem with pavement that varies in color and texture from shiny, smooth, and black to dull, grainy, and gray. The latter sometimes looks gravel coated in contrast to the former. That combined with actual gravel, apparently used to fill cracks caused by the erratic winter and soaking wet spring, kept me alert and maybe a little tense as I lead the two of us down the road. All the same, I managed to maintain a reasonably quick pace on a road that deserves pavement worthy of its name.



A good shot of Tony and of contrasting pavement hues

15 miles of Blackjack and we found ourselves in Galena. Galena is a tourist and resort town with loads of great restaurants, antique stores, and other quaint shops that make a tourist town a tourist town. It can be crowded, especially in the fall when the trees finish their season in a blaze of color, but it's a beautiful town along the banks of the Mississippi.

Galena is named after a mineral that is (or was) abundant in the Mississippi valley and the Driftless Area of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The town was originally a mining town in the early 1800s and was at one time the largest steamboat port on the Mississippi north of St. Louis. Ulysses Grant, Civil War general and the 18th President of the United State, who was born down in The Ferret's neighborhood, moved to Galena in 1860 and was among nine Civil War generals who called Galena "home". Staying in Galena can be a bit pricey, but with great dining within walking distance and great riding within minutes, it's an ideal motorcycle destination.


Entering Galena from Blackjack Rd.


Galena street view.

We rejoined US20 in Galena to carry us across the Mississippi into Iowa, The Hawkeye State.


Crossing "The Big Muddy"



Welcome to Dubuque, Iowa. Nothing to see here. Move along.



Stopped for gas in Dubuque. Ran into a small group of riders from Minnesota doing a similar ride to ours but in the opposite direction.

After traversing the (so far as I can tell) uninteresting city of Dubuque, we hit the Iowa section of the Great River Road Scenic Byway. For the sticklers following along, we have been on the Great River Road through Dubuque and even on the Illinois portion in and around Galena, but the Dubuque portion of the road is far from scenic so this section of the byway doesn't really start until the right turn that takes you to Balltown


Fun fact: Last year, Cheryl and I rode from Dickeyville to Balltown. Make of that what you will

There are many local road making up this section of the Great River Road: Sherrill Rd., Balltown Rd., Ridge Rd., Buena Vista Rd., County Highways C63, X56, and C9Y, and more. it's one beautiful ribbon of road from just south of Sherrill to McGregor. Beautiful views of the Mississippi Valley and Iowa farmland abound. The road winds more than it twists which suits me and my CB1100 just fine.




Views from Buena Vista Road.
Mi Espanol es not so good, but I know a Buena Vista when I see it.

Speaking of Buena Vistas, when Tony sent me the route i suggested that our ride along the Iowa side of the the Mississippi deserved a stop at Pike's Peak State Park. He never responded to that particular email, but since he wanted me to lead, I can only assume that he concurred.

1045

Scenic overlook and a stretch of the legs.

There's a lot of history in Pike's Peak State Park, but by far the most interesting to me is that Peter Egan rode here from Madison, WI on a 1964 Honda C100 with a bicyclist as his riding partner.

It is a beautiful park with miles of hiking trails and a triple-deck observation platform from which you can see north and south along the Mississippi and East along the Wisconsin River. After stopping here I am even more convinced that any motorcyclist traveling the Great River Road needs to stop here for at least a few minutes. Oh, and they have motorcycle parking.


Yes, we're blocking the view


There. That's a little better. (panorama view)


Cloudy day, but we've stayed ahead of the rain so far.


Lucky shot - Pike's Peak State Park

MC parking. Pretty Cool