Fall motorcycle trip the the Ozarks. End of Oct 2012

 I had to go on one more good ride of motorcycling before putting it away for the winter. What a better idea than a trip down south, out of Minnesota and into warmer temperatures and nice fall colors. My friend Craig suggested back in August that we plan a trip to the Ozarks in southern Missouri and go riding with his group of pilot buddies. Sounded good to me...... plus we included doing it the easy way, driving my truck pulling an enclosed trailer. Craig called his bud's and got it all organized, all we had to do is get there.

Check out the slick way of securing and balancing my Ducati to the trailer. Its a Pit bull "through the rear wheel and bolted to the floor" way of doing it.

 Steve below and the house we stayed at hundreds of feet above Table rock lake, thanks Glen, our host!

Talk about perfect roads, uncluttered, dry and roller coaster like. The temps in between 75* and 85*

We rode 300 miles one day and 250 the second. Day three was very windy just before a huge nasty cold-front blew in.That was when it was time to quit and head home day on day four.

 Here is Delta's finest pilots/motorcyclist's. left to right,
 Al from Texas, Steve from Kansas, and Craig from Lakeville.

Fall colors near Lutsen, October 1st, 2012

I drove my truck up up along the western shore of Lake Superior, known around these parts as  "the North Shore" for peak fall colors, Oct 1st. The colors were superb! Bright reds & glowing yellows.

  My wife Laura riding "shotgun" and my springer spaniel Daisy rounding up the backseat of my truck. We stayed at Eagles Ridge, the ski condo's up the hill from Lutsen's famous lake lodge. Being up along the shores of Superior, of course I had to fill the back of my truck with many 5 gallon buckets of beach rock and more pumpkin size stone I picked up at a rock pit next to Carlton Peak. I used the stones a week later for a new garden along my backyard walkway...Even  with 1,000 extra pounds of weight, I still squeaked out 19mpg coming back home, as long as I kept it under 65mph.

 Here is the view from near Carlton Peak, this is where I collected a bunch of larger greenish colored crystal  rock.

We saw quite a few of grouse along the gravel roads, where I let out Daisy to sniff and flush them up.
This Grouse hopped up on a branch 10 feet off the ground and just watched Daisy sniff for it from above.

I didn't take this picture of the bear cub, but a friend took it the year before in the same area next to the cabin he was staying at, my 1st question, umm, where's mama Bear!

Fall ride to top of Wisconsin, Little Sand Bay

September 16, 2012 I left St.Paul at 7:30 am, my friend Doug left Ironwood Michigan at 8:00. we met in the middle in Hayward  WI, @ the Norske Nook for breakfast. After a few good cups of coffee and goodies, we synced our Sena SMH-10 Bluetooth headsets and we were off.
 (http://www.senabluetooth.com/ & http://www.senabluetooth.com/products/acc_SMH-A0303.php).
 I've been using my Sena all summer since getting it to listen to Pandora radio and get phone calls, but this was my 1st experience with another friend using them as two way, "walkie talkie" communicators. Well, let me tell you, they worked great! We talked for an hour while riding 55-75 mph and it was better as if we were talking, face to face! We both use ER-6I earbuds connected to the Sena units instead of the small helmet speakers that come stock with the Sena's.
We rode our bikes up to Little Sand Bay, a beautiful spot along the southern shore of Lake Superior and took these pictures of us in front of the protected harbor.  

It was a great, day of riding all over northern Wisconsin, temps in the low 70's and low humidity.  We split up near Ashland WI, and I rode back roads all the way home. 475 miles, 11 hours start to finish. One of my favorite rides of 2012.

2012 "WOI" Wheels of Italy

Here is the "DOOM" display tent, with some of the hosts of the WOI
event surrounding the guys....














2012 Wheels of Italy, Car / motorcycle show.
What a turnout, 100 Ducati's, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's , Maserati's all in one big parking lot.
Near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. The weather was sunny, warm and a lot of RED!, a few silver, black, yellow and an odd orange
A yearly event worth booking out for.

I bumped into a few friends of mine, so Bruce and Kevin, here you are with your sons...

Day at the gun range

I went to Bills gun shop and range met my buddy Clay to shot our pistols. It was my 2nd time out with my CZ 9mm. I'm getting better at shooting it and learning how to pull the trigger smoothly/ better accuracy. Anotherspendy fun hobby to do and get good at....

July 4th 2012

Boy, what a hot trip this one was.
Day 1, when we started out, it was already 95* with high humidity. We rode up to Taylor Falls had lunch, then up through Hayward WI on our way up to Doug & Lisa's place up in Ironwood MI.
Day 2, cool morning, like 70 *when we left Ironwood. Rode up around Wakefield Mi along Lake Superior all the way up to Copper Harbor. Very enjoyable temps and great roads. Looked around had lunch then rode different roads back to Ironwood.
Had dinner with Doug & Lisa and stayed at their home.
Day 3, July 4th, left the Hippe house and rode towards Duluth. Before Ashland, we went into heavy- dense fog, not fun at all on motorcycles! Stopped in Ashland for breakfast and by the time we were done, the fog lifted.... we make a stop @
"Grizz works" and checked out all his unbelievable chainsaw wood art.
back on the road, it was back up to the mid 80's then we started the long descent in Superior, wow the temperature dipped down to 72* fantastic! Onwards through Duluth then westwards on Mn Hwy 210. A long boring road with peat bogs for 100 square miles. Finally rode into Brainerd and made it to Dan and Theresa's lake home on White Sand lake.
First thing, kiss my wife Laura , jump into the lake to cool off and play with Daisy in the water