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.
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