Wanna Be H.O.G.s

Day 45: Chad has wanted to ride the motorcycles to Milwaukee to visit the Harley-Davidson Museum for a while now and we were finally able to see it.

We did try to eat another cannoli to see if they tasted good at Peter Sciortino Bakery....not super great compared to the East Coast. The other Mexican Wedding Cakes, Biscotti and Pecan Fingers were tasty.

Parking: Free at the museum
Viewing Options: Recommend the audio tour for $4 per person – super informational and well done story line.

They had a ton of bikes, even a few from 1903 when the friends first banded together to make the motorized bikes and company. They didn’t have either of our bike models …☹ They did have a bike that looks like Chad’s, but the details were wrong.

Side Story on Chad’s Bike

The 1983 Harley-Davidson FLTC Tour Glide belonged to his dad, Don.  He originally had a 1982 version, but some guy really loved his black bike and they traded. Don was then a proud owner of a bike that was a year newer and had less miles.  How could you not take the deal?  When Don passed away, Chad took over the Harley and still rides it today.  The bike used to comfortably ride at 55-65 mph and would top out at 80.  Chad put a new sprocket in the transmission and now it can ride easy around 80, if need be.

Side Story on Katie’s Bike

It’s actually Chad’s, but he refers to it as my bike.  Since I really wasn’t around to ride it while in Fargo for school and work, it became the spare bike for friends to use.  I was able to ride it to my college graduation in jeans, sneakily changed into my formal outfit (yes, dropped the jeans in public and WHALA, a girl in a dress!) and after the event, I took some pictures with it.   Then, I rode it away in all it’s glory.  It was super awesome, as I was the only girl on a massive bike and everyone watching all thought it wasn’t mine (because I just had a dress on a moment ago lol).

(My earing also got stuck in the helmet one day and it was a struggle to break free...).

I commented, “we are racing through time right now…”, after just walking by 50 years worth of bike models, come including race bikes. Bahh, bad joke.

The audio tour made the event more than 3 hours and it was wonderful. By the time we made it through a century of mechanical inventions, Chad and I were famished, and knowledge overwhelmed. It’s a great place to go!

After the museum and numb from all of the information, we piled into the car and GPS-ed to an Indian buffet called Café India. Oh yummy. My favorite was the chicken dishes and the saag paneer. Chad kept packing it in and he especially loved the chicken&garlic dish. Oh, we had a fun ride home in the car. First it was the feet smell, now it was the air quality. To be kind, I also contributed to the foul air value.

I did ask Chad if he wanted me to drive home.  He exclaimed, “huh?  Did you say, ‘do we want us to die today’?  Even if the journey was safe, you have three blogs to write. Type type!”

THANKS! 😉 I’ve maybe driven like three times this whole trip and Chad has survived the crazy east coast driving. Granted we were in Wisconsin (really chill driving environment), Chad preferred to not take any chances lol and I did really need to catch up on words.

To take the highway west toward home, Chad reminded himself of the directions with a little saying, “Never Eat Soggy Wheaties….we want Wheaties.” And we proceeded onto I-94 West.  Clever, isn’t he?? (North.East.Sout.West – directions…) 😊

On the way home on I-94, we hung out with everyone on the highway for about an hour due to some lovely humans repairing the freeway. We didn’t talk to anyone, but we waved and shared the same feelings. It was a nice connection.

Oh, the fuel light came on and the car rapidly decided to eat the remaining gas we had. So, limping into the gas station about 45 minutes later, we were finally safe. Culver’s was across the street and I was able to publish a blog using McDonad’s WiFi. It was worth the traffic wait.

I-94 never seemed so long. The journey home was going by quickly, but at the same time super slowly. There were mixed feelings of excitement to be freed from the car but also a little sadness that the Great #EastCoastJetta road trip was ending (sadness on my part, Chad wanted to go home since we finished New York ha 😉).

The trip doesn’t officially end until the next morning because we have to clean everything. DEEPLY. So, I’ll save the emotions and stats about the trip for tomorrow.