A Sunday Afternoon Motorcycle Trip From Arlington Heights, Illinois to Cambridge, Wisconsin. Everything Was Great Except The Flies On My Hamburger.

My wife and I decided to take a short road trip this past Sunday and run up to the former home of my 99 Valkyrie Interstate, the quaint town of Cambridge, Wisconsin. We settled on a route starting on Northwest Highway, coincidentally heading northwest, in Arlington Heights, Illinois to Route 59 in Barrington, Illinois, turning north and get on Route 12 at Wauconda, Illinois then northwest on Rt 12 to the state line and follow Rt 12 to Cambridge, simple enough. We thought we would catch the first changes in the leaves and have a pleasant trip since we planned to take our time, have lunch and do the leisurely cruise back, getting home just before dark.

Saturday, as it turned out, would have been better since the sun was out all day and the temperature was in the high seventies. Sunday was overcast and in the low sixties when we rolled the bike out of the garage. I packed rain pants and waterproof gloves and made sure the clear glasses were in the box, since we have more than enough experience to know that the first time you don't have rain gear along you will probably get wet the hard way. Our cordura jackets are waterproof and armored, and we've ridden in plenty of downpours with the full face Nolan helmets and know they're good in the rain.

I don't run the roads in that direction very often, I usually head west from Chicago and when I do go to Wisconsin it's closer to Lake Michigan, so we thought this change in routing would be good. I will preface this by saying that all of southern Wisconsin has great riding roads and even better scenery. There are more restored small towns with more character than a state has a right to. That being said, we were anxious to get moving. After one last gear check we got under way. Arlington Heights is an older town located about seventeen miles northwest of Chicago along the railroad tracks and is commonly referred to as a bedroom community because of the commuters who work in Chicago and ride the train each day. Arlington Heights is a nice upscale community that, like many in urban areas has seen a renaissance of sorts in recent years with the restoration of old buildings and the construction of many new ones, along with the addition of new restaurants and shops and best of all is relatively bike friendly.

After the first two miles I thought we might have to call it a day as we caught every stop light in that distance, you see getting to Wisconsin requires riding through suburban areas that are littered with traffic lights and clogged with cars, anyway the lights finally started going our way. We flowed with the traffic through Palatine, Illinois, another nice community along the "tracks" (we say that since we have friends that live there and don't want them to get mad at us for not being complimentary of their hometown) on Northwest Highway. Palatine is actually has quite a few fun concerts and public events during the year that Norine and I always pencil in to attend. The stop lights and the traffic started to thin out a little and about fifteen minutes later we were at Rt 59 in Barrington, Illinois and making the turn north. Barrington is also, a bedroom community that was built up along the old Northwestern Railroad tracks in the late 1800's. It has always been known a rather genteel town favored by the landed gentry, definitely not a shot and a beer town. We headed north on Rt 59 for about eight miles to the town of Wauconda, Illinois. Wauconda is OK, not much to see and not a whole lot to make me want to stop and throw out the anchor a hook or roots. It's a little far out for me because of the distance from my office and in reality I'm glad it is, although I can honestly say I have never met anyone from Wauconda that wasn't a nice person and went to high school with several kids from there. We turned northwest off the cloverleaf on to Rt 12 and settled in for the ride to the state line. Route 12 is an old limited access highway that runs northwest from the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Illinois. Rt 12 is like the ugly stepchild of roads in Illinois in that it never gets the royal treatment that the toll roads get even though it is a major thoroughfare, the surface is always rough, has multiple surfaces and is always in a state of minor disrepair. The next town we come to on Rt 12 is Volo, Illinois. Volo's claim to fame is their car museum, several boat dealers and a couple of fast food restaurants and bars. And I think there was a whore house there when I was young, but never went in to confirm it's existence, so it kind of lives on as urban legend.

Traffic on Rt 12 was heavier than I expected, but the population has grown so much in recent years in this area, I should have known it would be that way. Up the road from Volo is Fox Lake, Illinois, Fox Lake is an old vacation town on what is called the Chain of Lakes. The "chain" as they are called locally are a series of shallow bottomed lakes that the Fox River runs through and if the dam was ever to break would probably cease to exist. It is a very heavily traveled waterway because of it's close proximity to Chicago and it's convenience to recreational boaters and fishermen. I will try to put this nicely, the entire town is in need of the same renaissance that many other older towns have undergone. I grew up not far from Fox Lake and actually lived there during a disastrous first marriage and don't want to come off as a snob but I can attest to the fact that Fox Lake hasn't changed in thirty years, it's tired, real tired, you can probably guess we didn't stop for coffee. We crossed the bridge that divides Fox Lake from Pistake Lake and continued through Solon Springs and then Richmond, Illinois. Richmond is an old farm town that sits right on Rt 12 and over a period of years has become a local biker and poser destination and an awfully fine tourist trap peppered with restaurants, antique shops and boutiques to help wile away a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, a little to close to home for us to stop though, and besides I wanted to get to a highway with no stop lights or stop signs.

We made our way to the outskirts of Richmond and follow the sign that pointed to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.. Ah Lake Geneva one of the finer vacation spots in the great state of Wisconsin. Home to many fine resorts, hotels and grand old homes built by industrialists from Milwaukee and Chicago. It's a nice town to visit while touring and it gets my recommendation, although we didn't stop on our trip to Cambridge. Rt 12 in Wisconsin is a nice ride, the road is smooth, not clogged with traffic and the rural scenery is good. The leaves were just starting to change and we settled in for the last leg of our day trip. It took another forty five minutes and a quick fill-up at a BP station in Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin, which by the way I have never been through before but will visit again, and then into Cambridge.

We scouted out a restaurant along the main street, a newer looking place with several bikes parked outside and figured it was probably OK. I can't remember the name of the place and when I checked my receipt while writing this piece found only "Guest Check" on the receipt and the address of 159 W. Main Street, Cambridge. Anyway, we went in and the place looked good. The bar was full as everyone was watching the Packer game and the dining area was about half full, we found a convenient table so we could see the the last few minutes of the game and decided on Hamburgers as the meal of the day, shortly after our server brought my iced tea and my wife's coffee the flies made their entry, these were big flies and not one single person in the employ of this entomologists dream land seemed to notice there were flies large enough to take a place at the table and have their own hamburger. So, Norine and I spent the next twenty minutes of so waving away the flies that were approaching our burgers like the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. We finished as quickly as we could, paid our bill and decided to head for home. Going home for us, because it was later in the day was basically the reverse of the course we had taken there. My speed control on the back seat didn't give me the slow down signal once on the way home, she must have been glad to be heading back. The most redeeming factors of the day were the scenery and more than anything else, getting out and riding, and really I've been in a lot worse places in my life.

This is my first effort at a travel piece and I have to feel my way through. I usually write Political and topical pieces on my other blog www.theindependentpost.com I hope this was OK and I can guarantee they will get better going forward, describing a trip is quite different from lambasting politicians or just giving an opinion. Thanks for reading.

I'm switching to motorcycles for tonight, I need some happy thoughts and a break from lying politicians, bailout hysteria and campaigns!

I ride to work every day of the year that the temperature is above 35 deg, the streets are dry and there's not frost or snow on the pavement. Now in the mid west that still limits riding in winter but I get out as often as I can. I have a 99 Valkyrie Interstate as a daily rider and use the excuse that my bike gets far better mileage than my cars do so I'm doing my part to conserve gasoline, there really isn't a whole lot of truth to that explanation though as the mileage is about the same as my small car. I just like riding, always have and as far as I can see, always will. Anyway as I am just about to turn 60 in October and the thought occurred to me recently that I have only so many years left to ride, on two wheels that is. Not that I'm planning to get a trike, a sidecar, one of those new three wheeled scooters or other hi-bred machines any time soon, I'm just covering my bases so hopefully I never have to stop until such time as I'm scrapping my pegs making that final steep banked turn onto that big highway in the sky where there are no speed limits, no traffic jams and no matter how long or how many miles you ride that sport bike you'll never get butt burn.

I had the opportunity to see a Scorpion, the new hi-bred three wheeler on I-80 in Nebraska while riding back to Chicago from Denver this summer and that pretty much did it for me, I can't picture myself on one. I've thought about a Ural, the Russian bike with a sidecar and I run hot and cold on that idea, they're a little slow for me, although having reverse would be cool and they look like they are pretty simple to maintain and I do want to move to the mountains in Colorado and the two wheel drive and reverse might really come in handy off road, ah, who knows they're still a little slow. My wife and I talk about a Wing or at least did until Honda decided to move manufacturing out of the US. There is still nothing like one and there are an awful lot of options from side cars to trike conversions if it became too much to handle as a two up rider. Then there's always an Ultra, my wife has been after me for the last three years to test drive one and make the move over to the dark side, I have absolutely no objection to that whatsoever, HD has finally got it right all the way around.

Well, it's all just a fleeting thought since I estimate I have between twenty and thirty years before I have to begin to worry about geriatric motorcycling. For the time being I am just going to keep going down the highway, taking everything in that I possibly can and enjoy the ride.

Ride safe.

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A candidate fabricated by Mayor Daley's Chicago political machine? Oh come on now you know there's no such thing. Really, Honest, Trust Me.

I have said it over and over again and finally it has made the papers, well the Chicago Sun Times which is kind of a hi-bred version of the Enquirer and a real newspaper. It's actually easy to read and has several decent columnists that I try to follow regularly as they generally have a different point of view than the other paper in town which leans more to the right. Anyway back to business, the gossip columnist, Michael Sneed reported on a story that the Daley Machine, as in the famous Chicago mayor, Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Illinois State Legislature which the machine has been reported to have a degree of control over, was accused of being responsible for the fabrication of Barack Obama as a viable candidate when he has been accused, whether true or false, that he lacks everything to be President. And what's odd is it appears that around half of the country thinks the same about him. Bill Daley, the brother of the famous mayor and a behind the scenes deal maker and former Commerce Secretary, it appears was outraged as there were several inconsistencies in the report, not about the fabrication of Mr. Obama as a candidate but about his being a lobbyist when it is his son who was a lobbyist and then stopped just short of demanding a public apology, which indicates there may be some truth if even a sliver.

I have been saying for a long time that I would not vote for any politician from the Great Sovereign State Of Illinois as anyone elected to office here will be preoccupied with the return of political favors to their benefactors and handlers. That it has been reported in the local papers that the president of the state senate Emil Jones actually is the person behind Mr. Obama's rise to fame and with all that election hoo haa (actually a nice name for bu_l sh_t), fortune, lots of fortune. There was also, an investigation by Fox News that tries to link Mr. Obama with the "Machine" which has some credibility, then to Tony Rezko, you know the crook who has bought more politicians than just about anyone in Illinois history and was recently convicted for same which has so much credibility that I'm sure will rise to the surface several more times, like a Trident missile from an Ohio Class submarine as the election gets closer . Also, they tried to make connections to the not so popular Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich which is probably true to a point. Anyway, before I would jump onto the Obama float or even get dragged behind it in the election parade I would look at this guy and all of the people who deny they are part of his behind the scenes people very closely to see if they are the kind of guy's I want in charge.

Don't forget to check out my other blog site. Just click on the link and it will take you right there. Thanks for reading. http://www.theindependentpost.com/

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to speak at the UN again and this time is suggesting the UN' move to a neutral country, I'll help them pack!

One of the lower assistants to the devil, better known as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the puppet of the Ayatollah's and current President of Iran is going to speak at the UN this week. And the God of all Christians and Jews is the only one who knows what inflammatory rhetorical bu_l sh_t this little weasel is going to come up with this time. I hope the administrators at the various socialist educational institutions in and around New York will stop sipping their lattes long enough to think back to the last time this terrorist was in town. And by the way, for you Obama boy's and girl's you may recall he spoke at the same institution your beloved obtained his college degree from, hmmm, maybe this is where he got his socialist bent.

Anyway, prior to his trip he told the world they, the all powerful Iranian's would break the hand of anyone who attacks them, in order to prevent these nut's from becoming a nuclear power. But the hollow threat of a broken hand is not anywhere near the best comment he's made while preparing for the current circus act he headlines, he wants the UN to move to a neutral country. He's finally played into ours and the rest of the free world's hands. Other than our government, there are not many who see much value in the UN and most would welcome the exit by this most benign of organizations which is basically a cover for foreign spy organizations and a periodic podium for the likes of Mr. Ahmadinejad. Having the UN in New York costs the American taxpayers a fortune each year they continue to occupy space in Manhattan.

Moving out would give a real break to the taxpayers of the United States in this time of financial crisis and economic downturn. The perfect move would be to some little paradise, say, Iran or one of the other garden spots in that part of the world. The ambassadors, their families and staff would be able to take advantage of all of the cultural attractions, spectacular restaurants, top flight entertainment, excellent transportation, first class housing and great educational opportunities available to their children. And the world over knows that because it's in the middle east and especially Iran it has to be better. My best guess is the membership at large, with the possible exception of the the US and our European allies and maybe a couple from South America and a few from Africa, would be so happy with their 21st century newly located UN that they would no longer condemn us at every turn. Probably the single greatest advantage to having the UN in one of the many peaceful middle eastern countries is that Mr. Ahmadinejad would only have a short ride by donkey cart from his digs in Iran to the new UN center and could address them on a more regular basis.

Why, I would even bet that there would be no shortage of Americans who would help pack up the UN and see that it gets a good send off, tomorrow.

Don't forget to check out my other blog site. Just click on the link and it will take you there. Thanks for reading. http://www.theindenendentpost.com/

Some other thoughts to make you feel good about the bailout, Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer.

When I turned on the news this morning looking for more information to fire at the fodder ( By the way Merriam Webster online defines fodder as; an expendable or exploitable person, group or thing) we know as the American taxpayer I managed to catch the moving headline quoting The Honorable Henry Paulson which said "This must pass quickly to avoid any more stomach wrenching financial news", well, thank you Henry. My best guess is one of Henry's or W's or Dick's friends or maybe Dick himself are on the verge of a major loss if this thing doesn't go through , like, right now. Part of my money is on Henry and his "past life connections", seeing that he is a former Wall Street deal maker, since people who have swam in the waters of that shark pool can never quite shake the fish smell off their three piece suits.

The Democrats are being vilified by the Bush people because they want to limit executive compensation when it's the executives that basically got their, you may notice I don't say we because we are the recipients of the screw job that's coming and not the cause, companies and our entire financial system into this mess. Had they not been consumed personal greed they would not have made the pitifully bad decisions they did. As it was explained in another blog, executive compensation, once set, leaves the option of incredible risk taking up to the CEO who gets paid a fortune whether his highly speculative decision pans out or not because the exit package with tens of millions is irrevocable. And what makes the situation even worse is that the bad decision doesn't leave the goof, who OK'd the disaster to take place, with any liability, financial or legal so as the blogger said, go ahead and throw the Hail Mary pass. I'm not nearly as kind as as the blogger, these guy's are nothing more than greedy pigs that are going to get away with financial murder, and our government is going to clear the pathway for them to get away.

Now for some good old speculation, because I don't think that the mortgage markets are the only place these guy's on Wall Street, have touched the American public. I'm just guessing they have been in bed in some way with the different funds and buy out firms that have dismantled our manufacturing base, parted out one viable corporation after another and sent the jobs to various emerging countries, more often than not for savings that have no effect on the end price of the goods being shipped back to the US and only for personal gain without cause or concern for the lives they have left in ruin. They have literally sacked towns across they country with plant shutdowns and are partly responsible for turning us into a service economy, which by the way sucks. In case you don't know, service jobs never have and never will equal manufacturing jobs in pay and benefits.

Now, I don't put the entire blame on Wall Street for the crisis in our economy, please don't get me wrong, trashing the financial structure of our economy is really bad but I also, blame the large corporations themselves for doing their part to crush consumer confidence, but in reality they all work in unison with one and other, that is Wall Street and the major corporations. My favorite is the Auto Industry, never modernizing their facilities until the burning barn was nothing but a pile of ashes. They have produced product that is so bad it almost rivals the junk coming out of the Chinese factories today and can't understand why they have lost market share at such an alarming rate. And even with the rising price of oil which directly impacts shipping and manufacturing they continue to send jobs out of the country which at some point will cause us to pay excessively for our goods and services.

I would like to see the government wait a while and give a complete assessment of the damages our country and economy has sustained through corrupt and inept management, so we don't have to endure another screwing for bailing out our industrial base right on the heels of being made a man the hard way by the financial markets.

Don't forget to check my other blog site. Just click on the link and it will take you there. Thanks for reading. http://www.theindependentpost.com/

Check out my other site, the current blogs there are Racism in America and The Bailout!

Click on the link to get to my other site. http://www.theindependentpost.com/
Racism was posted today 9/21/08.
Bailout was posted toady 9/21/08

What Kind Of Idiots Are We Electing When A Teleprompter Is Required To Keep Them From Tripping Over Their Tongues And Present Cohesive Thoughts!

I was watching the news this morning, which is part of my daily ritual, when the remark was made on a liberal outlet regarding the use of a teleprompter at a rodeo in Colorado by their candidate of choice. Even these left leaner's had a hard time with the use of a teleprompter because they wondered how difficult it would be to get an idea across to a rodeo crowd. Now, I take exception to that as I like rodeo and I don't think I would have a tough time understanding the Democratic Party's choice unless of course he gave his speech in Ebonics, which is always a possibility I guess. A teleprompter though, this guy is supposed to be a brilliant attorney and senatorial orator, according to his handlers and backers, but it doesn't stop there. They went on to say that Mr. McCain, the Republican Party's choice, well not really their choice, uses one himself and that his choice for veep has never made a speech without using one. Now don't take this out of context, the media stars didn't trash their opposition for using the teleprompters since they would have had to trash their own guy and in fact were somewhat taken aback that their guy had to use one to begin with, genius that he is and all that.

The only, and I mean the only way I can interpret this is that none of the people running can convey their so called message without help. Now I have seen Senator McCain answer questions in an impromptu setting as well as field questions from reporters and he always appears to get his message across without looking like a deer in the headlights. Mr. Obama, when interviewed at The Saddleback Church by the good Pastor Rick Warren appeared to answer without any real problem, and according to the good Pastor, neither candidate had prior knowledge of the questions, although I wouldn't be so sure that both parties didn't have operatives crawl through the garbage in an "Animal House" attempt to get the answers to the "test". I didn't watch the Bill O'Reilly/Obama interview other than a couple of sound bites and Mr. Obama appeared to handle himself well, the same applies to Senator McCain. When Charlie Gibson grilled Sarah Palin she appeared to answer in an intelligent fashion and didn't embarrass herself or her backers. The only one who has really made a gaff was Senator Biden when he asked the wheel chair bound Congressman at a rally to stand up and when informed of the mistake covered for himself quickly as any seasoned politician would.

Soooooo, if these apparently bright people can answer questions in one on one interviews and in media events surrounded by reporters, why is it that they have to use teleprompters and deliver speech's written by their handlers and speech writers? I for one want to hear what the candidate has to say, in his or her own words. Also, I would like to know what these people think, not what their handlers and party big shots think they should be telling the American public to get them elected and give us four more years of the same old stuff, and again I am referring to both parties when I say same old stuff.

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If The US Wanted To Get Rid Of Hugo Chavez It Woud Have Been Done A Long Time Ago, What An Idiot.

I'm amazed and then again not at all when the Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez goes on one of his ridiculous rants and blames the US for any woes his country is experiencing. In reality he needs to do this as has Castro in Cuba, to continue to buffalo the walking ignorant of his country who helped him ascend to the office of dictator. Today he is kicking out the US Ambassador and recalling the Venezuelan Ambassador from Washington until such time as we have a new government in place to deal with him, as if most Americans care. It's just my guess he is hoping for Mr. Obama who he thinks is some kind of a kindred spirit, or something like that. He probably feels they have similar philosophies being they are both Socialists and as such will help to remake the world a better albeit far more backward place, where everyone will have access to forty acres and a mule, oh sorry thats something else from another time.

I am of the opinion that we should leave this moron alone as long as the oil continues to flow in our direction. Mr. Chavez, who is very much prone to saber rattling does understand one thing though. We, the USA are his largest customer for crude oil and when he threatens to cut off the supply even a goof like Chavez knows it would decimate his country from the loss of revenues, and since he and some or all of his cronies are more than likely stealing as much as they can get they need the large revenues to shadow their theft. Also, I don't understand the great dislike for President Bush, why I'm sure the Bush family or at the very least some close Bush family friends have some kind of ties to the oil in Mr.Chavez' country and if not now, more than likely after the President leaves office. Here's a little piece of advice for Mr. Chavez at no charge. Be extremely careful when cozying up to the Russians, I don't believe any country that has allied themselves with the Russians in the last seventy years or so has ever benefited from the relationship. The Russians are notorious for basically sucking the guts out of their satellites and in the end leaving a poluted broken mess behind when they leave or are finally thrown out.

Socialist hi-bred governments, which are really communist governments of the 2000's are as pathetic as their predecessor's. They initially pander to the lowest common denominator to secure power and then cast them aside when they have full control and then the stealing begins. It's estimated that Mr. Putin in Russia skimmed around forty billion during his tenure, the Castro's are reportedly billionaires, the leaders in China, another of Mr. Chavez' allies are skimming at the speed of light and I'm sure Mr. Chavez close friends in Bolivia are doing the same thing right now and even though he's dead how can we leave out the Islamo Facist, terrorist and as many in his party claimed, great leader, Yasir Arafat who the Palestinians thought was a freedom fighter and patriot. He was a crook just like the vast majority of dictators and terrorist around the world.

Well, enough of a rant about Mr. Chavez, it's my guess he won't be invited to the Presidential ball this January and will have to make due south of the border. He will probably put on some kind of a Venezuelan banquet or whatever to compete with the inaugural festivities and the best we can hope for is that some CIA agent gets to the food and gives him a monumental case of the sh_ts. Something for him to remember the evening by until he is hung by his heals in the main plaza in Caracas.

Don't forget to check out my other blog, just click on the link; www.theindependentpost.com

Check Out My Other Blog - Today's - Is The Bloom Off The Rose?

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My Alternate Site

I have a new site that I will be blogging on as well as this one. I was in need of a domain name and I like the ease of a .com address. Sooooo, you can catch up on new blogs there as well as here, I hope it's not to much of a pain in the rear. Click on the link to go to the other site; http://www.theindependentpost.com/
Regards,
Not Opinionated