70 Moonshine

    At the start of the journey we only had 4 time sensitive destinations, doesn't sound to hectic a schedule for five months, I should add one more.   We wanted to be far enough South to not get caught in snow.  The only other destination was the Moonshine store.   This raised a lot of eye brows.  None of our friends had heard of it.   For several years I had read about a one day hamburger run to the Moonshine store.  Ruthie had also heard about it from blood donors.  (if we hear of a frequent motorcycle destination we probably will like it). Not wanting to travel from Minnesota thru Illinois on the store's busiest day we had never done the trip.  Since we were headed thru Illinois anyway I had included a stop on this trip.  We at least wanted to see it and have a hamburger.  We assumed the trip from Janesville Wisconsin to Moonshine would be a straight shot and we would get there by late afternoon have our burger, then find a place for the night.  Because of the time of year I also assumed we would be one of the few travelers to this remote spot.   You know what they say about assuming anything, wrong again.


I ask you, does this look like anything we packed

      With breakfast behind us we bid our goodbyes to Vonnie and Verne (with an E).  It was uneventful until we stopped for lunch along the freeway.  Back on the road it seemed we had just gotten up to the designated speed plus a few mph to allow for speedometer error.  Suddenly a car pulled up along side of us with someone hanging out the window.  We were used to cars pulling along side and taking pictures especially when weather dictates that no one should be traveling on a cycle.  But this was different, he was shouting and pointing, what? Tires?  Ruthie spun around in her queen seat and seen my hooded sweat shirt dragging from the storage trunk mounted to the tongue. 


We don't like to turn around and admit defeat!

We gave our good Samaritans a thumbs up and pulled onto the side of the road.   New plan: We seen several things were missing from the trunk.  It was a busy freeway so I pulled as far into the ditch as I dared.  When there was a break in traffic we crossed over to the North bound lane watching for our items in the ditch.  There was a very strong wind coming from the West so I figured any thing we lost would have been blown to the center median.  We seen a couple of items but continued to drive until we reached the exit where we had stopped for lunch.   With our emergency flashers on and freeway traffic flying by us we drove in the lane closest to the median.  I was concentrating on driving and watching traffic in my rearview mirror while Ruthie was scanning for our gear.  When she spotted something I would drive into the median, dismount, and walk back to retrieve it or discover it was just road debris.   For the next hour and a half to two hours this continued, I was getting plenty of exercise and quite warm with my riding gear on.  At one point I was starting to think Ruthie was having a good time sending me back.   I could just see her grinning as I trudged back to discover a road gator or  truck taillight.  My roadside hikes had left me tired and ready to stop for the day, we have plenty of time, no need to hurry.  We found an economical motel in Farmer City Illinois.   The next morning we took our time getting on the road waiting for the Sun to do it's job. 

Another pretty Harley!

    Some times I get in trouble without even trying.  One day friend Wes said he had stopped at a local auto parts store in Wabasha and Jeff was ticked at me.  Why?  Evidently I had told friends that Jeff's new Harley was "pretty"  evidently pretty is not a word to use when describing a Harley Davidson.  Hence the caption.
      With the address of the Moonshine store on our GPS we headed out.  A few miles before our destination the GPS had a hiccup, sent us North to the next road corrected itself, turned right, turned on a gravel road that went between a farm house and a barn curved thru a hayfield and a woods and finally met up with the original road we had been on. ( don't know, just following directions.)    



Wayne's tree service eats pretty good!

    We had heard it was in the middle of nowhere, however you do expect to see some houses around a store.  Population 2 but not today.  Ruthie guessed at least 70 cars, 3 cycles and now 1 trike.       
      We were visiting about the ride and trike when a man came up and said if we came for a burger we better get it ordered.  It seems their is a guard at the door and at 12;30 he stops the line and the grill goes off at 1pm.  Today we ordered our own burger
 just one patty, A triple cheeseburger pictured above only $8.50.   It is a crowded little country store with people milling around waiting for their orders.  No frills,  the condiments on the old wood stove.  Take your burger outside to the picnic tables.  In the summer (when it's busy) they use a PA system.  The store over a hundred years old.  At first they fried sandwiches on a little electric grill then they added a gas burner.  Somewhere along the line CBS Sunday Morning with  Bill Geist visited the store and the rest is history.  A motorcycle ride destination of one of the forums I read helped spread the word.  On one day they sold over 2,000 burgers.   Delicious!  By the time we finished, took some pictures and mounted up there was only two cars left in the parking lot.  Guess they were serious about closing time.  Glad we made it.