Ugh.  Hungover again.  But worth it.  No, the soaking wet boots on the other hand.  Ugh.  I am literally squishing as we start our ride.  Totally forgot to stuff them with newspaper in all  the ruckus last night.  And oh yes, we brought the ruckus Larry.  We brought the ruckus.  But my toes are freezing.  Oh well, it’s only a 5 hour drive to Milwaukee.  How bad can that be?

She's all muddy but she doesn't care.

The morning starts out in colors and more colors and more crisp colors.  It’s one of those mornings that slaps you in the face (in a loving way) and lets you know you’re alive.  I mean really alive.  But alas, today is about hitting the freeway and making our way home amongst the morons on the big roads.  We settle in at about 80-85 and just let the GS’s go.  They have once again shocked us in what they can do.   From moguls to gravel to pavement to deep deep puddles to high freeway speeds – they kicked ass in every mode.  So incredible.

Early morning ride starts in full color.

Tara's pad the morning after. Unreal. I think Brad's still laughing at my crash the day before. Dick.

We stop for breakfast and are still laughing about everything that’s happened on this epic trip.  It was just sort of an unexpected vibe that developed –  much more exploratory than we’d even thought, and we didn’t get to ride as much of the TWAT as we’d have liked.  Definitely coming back next year.  Maybe it’s an annual trip now – especially during the magnificent color change season. So, TWATters reading this – put the first weekend in October in your calendars for next year.  Definitely  needed one more day to truly enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to write the blog on the journey, so I had to do it at home.  It’s really difficult to capture the moment a few days later after hitting work and getting into the grind, but I did want to share the ride and photos with anyone interested.  Hopefully you weren’t too bored.  And if  you were, good news – it’s almost over!!

I’ll take this time to do a quick recap:

Wildlife Seen:

• 7 bald eagles
• 75+ wild turkeys (one of which bombed me)
• 1 huge porcupine
• 1 doe
• 1 buck (they were not together but would make a cute couple)
• 1 red fox
• 2 dogs chased us
• Dozens of lamas
• 2 elk

Other Oddities:

• 1 cute girl at the gas station (yes, this was odd)
• 1 grotto (is there another?)
• 1 bike on fire
• 1 crash
• 1 dumped bike
• 1027 miles ridden
• One B&B kitchen terrorized (still don’t think this was me, but maybe? stupid rufies)

How I felt when we got home. Did all of that really happen?

I wish you could see just how muddy and soaked we are. Good stuff. Look at La Gigante - she doesn't even care about the mud and tears and blood.

So, that’s it.  I hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit.  It was one of the most amazing trips I’ve ever taken.  So much more happened that I  just can’t document, and I wish we’d stopped for more photos, but really, we could have been stopping every five minutes.  It was spectacular.

Until next time…