Solstice Ride 2014 - The Rustic Road Tour

[Randy B]

For the past 3 years, my brother-in-law Tony and I, along with whoever we can muster out of the rack before dawn, have done an all-day ride on (or at least close to) the longest day of the summer. The first one was just the two of us and we rode north from Chicago along Sheridan Rd. and into southern Wisconsin. Year 2 took us west with 2 other riders to Galena, IL, Iowa, The Great River Road, a ferry across the Mississippi to Petosi, WI, New Glarus, and home. Both great rides and both with great people.

Our third iteration of The Solstice Ride included the same riders as 2013: Me, Tony, Mike (well known to readers as "Bump-Start Mike"), and Cyle (who should add a C to his name since he rides).

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation created in 1973 a program to preserve the state's rustic roads. Being the creative people they are up north, they named it "The Wisconsin Rustic Road Program". If you travel around Wisconsin, you can see the little brown signs here and there. You can learn more about this here. [url=http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/travel/scenic/rusticroads.htm]Wisconsin Rustic Roads Interestingly, their slogan "Wisconsin's Rustic Roads: a positive step backward" struck me as being a good slogan for our bikes "The CB1100: a positive step backward".

The DOT also set up a little incentive for folks to explore the Rustic Roads. If you document by photo that you have traveled on 10 Rustic Roads, they send you a patch. For free! Now, I don't know about you all, but I'm all about getting patches; and free patches?!? Well, be still my heart.

Cyle, with a little help from me, was in charge of creating a route that would enable us to hit at least 10 roads that happen to be in relative proximity of one another. So the plan was to meet for breakfast close to home and then head north.

Rules for the Solstice Ride are simple enough. The first one is be on your bike at or before sunrise. Check.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/4f2ab0eb7591230cbab614a98d1c7996_zpsf06ca7ad.jpg.html]

Breakfast meetup was scheduled for 6:15am at a very cool little restaurant in Fox Lake, IL called The Whistle Stop Cafe. Mike and I live in the same town and rode out together to meet the others. Very good food. Cyle was late, but he had not violated Rule #1..he just got lost.

I have a much better picture of the bikes and the restaurant, but I like that Tony is scratching his head under the "Food for Thought" sign.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/b0b323ce4844a7f8dab4053487cdae16_zpsa43dd514.jpg.html]

L to R CB1100 (Matt) Goldwing (Mike) BMW GS-not a clue (Tony) BMW-even less of a clue than what Tony's model is (Cyle). For some reason I cannot remember any of the BMW model names GS? RS? BS?
[/img]

Taking a cue from my friend, The Ferret, I put my Sony camera around my neck on a lanyard so I could take some great pictures from the road. Taking a cue from myself, I forgot to reinstall the battery before I left. Photo documentation will be minimal for this report.

Tony lead most of the ride, mainly because it's easier to see the map on his bike than on Cyle's. I was asked to lead a couple of legs since I was more familiar with particular roads in the area, having spent most of my summers growing up in the Whitewater Lake area.

The job of capturing photos for documentation was not delegated to a particular person or persons. It should have been. The result of four guys taking pictures at every one of the stops was a hodgepodge of bikes and people, often not looking at the camera, but with a brown sign in the background.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/769a97224c077cf920401b3a322762d5_zps121c8841.jpg.html]

[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/79f23d0e4e4dc1e5083e0dc074357ffc_zps5dec3416.jpg.html]

At one stop, though, we were fortunate enough to have a woman stop and offer to take our picture. She was from the area and a rider, so she knew why were there. This one came out pretty good. You may notice that my tailpipe is really filthy. I had returned only the night before from a 4 day ride from Chicago to Chattanooga and back, which you will be able to read about in an upcoming ride report.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/09490526-0dd3-4de2-9ee9-ee9f38b19bb0_zpsa4f931a6.jpg.html]

It was cloudy most of the day. It rained a little, but did not slow us down. The cloud cover kept the temperatures down. By the end of the day the sun did come out and it warmed up quite a bit.

Cyle saw that there were some curvy roads inside a state park in the general vicinity of a couple of the Rustic Roads. I was tasked with getting us there since, again, I was familiar with the area. Well, I wouldn't say that I got lost exactly, but my route was a bit ummmm meandering. Eventually, I got us to the Bong Recreational Area, which you may guess is my FAVORITE of all recreational areas. There is usually an access fee to the park, but they do provide a "drive through" pass for free. We were cautioned not to stop, not even to use the restroom. The roads were pretty enough, but rough and frankly, if the place wasn't named "Bong" I would not have recommended this detour.

The sign in the background says "Richard Bong State Recreational Area". Some years ago, they changed all the signs to include "Richard". I think this was to help prevent theft of the signs by college students for dorm room decor.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/607fc200-a7a9-4b5b-8b71-c4620de2f24c_zps19a2f819.jpg.html]

I may draw up a detailed map of our route for the day, or see if Tony still has his, but for now imagine a red spider web layered on top of a map of southeast Wisconsin.

If I recall, we hit about 8 Rustic Roads before lunch. Cyle had heard about a place to eat in the little town of Tichigan. It was close to a Rustic Road, so it seemed like a good time and place to stop. Called "The Bunker", it is a bar with a very subtle military theme. You'll have to look sharp to even notice. The menu was typical Wisconsin bar food, but executed very well.
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/5fa50e8f-b52d-487b-b098-6fae00da8d29_zps33a31594.jpg.html]

[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/75fc4cec-01f0-404e-b608-68c93d8288a9_zpsfaceb90b.jpg.html]

After lunch, we knocked off the remaining few Rustic Roads and I lead the group to my favorite watering hole--literally a watering hole--near Whitewater Lake. It is a well that was hand dug over 100 years ago and I stop for a drink of spring water whenever I'm even close to the area. You can see by the picture that maybe Tony has been to this well once to often, but hell, I was leading so...
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/1e29d011-6f01-4a93-b1cd-165aad1d9f44_zps6784235c.jpg.html]

A brief note on my bike. The new tires (Michelin RP3s) are excellent. I felt much more comfortable both in wet conditions and dry and they seem to handle the turns better, too. The seat, which I have complained about in the past, seems to have "broken in" or perhaps MY seat has. Either way, I am much less fatigued on long rides than I was when the bike was new.

OK, so after our water break and a quick ride through some pretty twisty roads near Whitewater Lake, both Tony and Cyle had to break from the designated ride, each for their own reasons. However, they promised that they would continue to ride until sunset and I have been told that each has met Rule #3 of the Solstice Ride -- Be on your bike at sunset. Incidentally Rule #2 is that you ride throughout the day without any other agenda than enjoying your day..which we all did.

Mike and I worked our way back along side roads to Burlington for frozen custard. Burlington is a nice little town that has 3 big things going for it: It always smells like chocolate thanks to the Nestle plant there, Fred's Restaurant--with the self-proclaimed "World's Best Burger" (and they may be right), and Adrian's Frozen Custard. We stopped for the custard.

If there were two guys that shouldn't be eating this...
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/125072dd-3bb4-477f-90b9-14eac3d2d7e3_zpsf9bb65c8.jpg.html]

...it's these guys
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/1d61aada-46a0-43b6-8fb1-9e3162b35b81_zps469dc39b.jpg.html]
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/8f77e366-0dab-4bb3-a44c-fe530c1a7159_zps762893d9.jpg.html]

This was Mike's first trip on his Wing. He traded in his FJR (at least I think he traded it. Maybe he still has both). He admitted to having a little difficulty through turns and in low speed situations, but you couldn't prove it by me. He rode well and he's since taken a number of two-up trips with his lovely wife and they both love it.

Another cool thing about Burlington is their Liar's Club. I don't know a lot of the history of the club, but they have a contest each year for the best tall-tale and then erect a plaque like this one for each winner at various points in town. It could be fun to ride up there with a group, have lunch at Fred's, see who could collect the most pictures of the plaques in an hour or so, then meet up for frozen custard...or just have the burger and the cone. Either way.

This plaque is on the side of Adrian's
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/063904d5-8bfd-43ec-9c48-74b8c2b6a1c7_zps735fbe88.jpg.html]

From Adrian's we had a nice ride back to the Chicago suburbs. Would have been nice to post a few pictures from this last leg, but for the lack of a battery....

Arrived home, very tired. Not only from the day's wonderful tour of southeast Wisconsin, but from all my motorcycling adventures over the previous five days. I thought to myself that some off-bike time was in order...at least 18 hours or so.

Yes, a sign saying "Bong State Recreational Area" would be hard to pass up, but maybe it would spur the younger generation to visit our scenic national parks!

Great ride report, thanks!

Yes, a sign saying "Bong State Recreational Area" would be hard to pass up, but maybe it would spur the younger generation to visit our scenic national parks!

Great ride report, thanks!

[emptysea]

LOL...that would be a bit hard to steal. I knew quite a number of people when I was in my college years who had the smaller signs from around the park tacked up on their walls.

[Randy B]

The first time I saw that I just about fell out of the car....

[Short Timer_imp]

Gives a whole new meaning to BYOB.

Great ride and write-up.

Please - no more pictures of yogurt cones

[emptysea]

It's not yogurt...it is frozen custard. A whole world of difference.

[ValleyCat_imp]

Loved it! Wisconsin is beautiful. Many thanks!

[Short Timer_imp]

It's not yogurt...it is frozen custard. A whole world of difference.

'Groan'......... That'd even worse - better - no, worse.

[emptysea]

We'll go there after Cowmark, ShortTimer
Had to edit some glaring mistakes in my post and the last picture needed to be removed. So, for the record...
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/d560e916-17d5-484a-9642-8d76325a9ad5_zpsb8761cf5.jpg.html]

[Novice_imp]

For some reason I cannot remember any of the BMW model names GS? RS? BS?

Funny! (Unless there is actually an official BS model)

[Pterodactyl_imp]

We'll go there after Cowmark, ShortTimer
Had to edit some glaring mistakes in my post and the last picture needed to be removed. So, for the record...
[url=http://s1318.photobucket.com/user/emptysea43/media/Solstice%20Ride%202014/d560e916-17d5-484a-9642-8d76325a9ad5_zpsb8761cf5.jpg.html]

Hope that engine is not running. If so maybe you should visit an oil thread.

Cheers