Back in July a friend invited me along to her family compound up on Kekegama Lake in Sarona, WI. Even though it was rainy as hell I decided to take the sportster and hope for the best.
The trip up was a downpour until I hit Janesville then the sun broke through the clouds and I dried out a bit. After a decent afternoon of riding, the sun started to go down and the rain came back along with a decent amount of fog to make the trip from Eau Claire a pain.
Once I got to Sarona, I had no idea where I was supposed to go and cell phones don't work so I did the smart thing and headed to the Teddy Bear Tap. They had awesome chicken wings for a quarter and being a small town knew exactly who I was trying to find and gave me directions as I had just missed them stopping in for a night cap.
After taking a small break I borrowed a car and decided to head to Shell Lake and take in the nightlife. It was awesome to have friends I could use like Enterprise because after nightfall the Deer were everywhere and riding became and exercise in sphincter clenching.
In shell lake the only bar that had anyone in it was Klopps which was cheap and a lot of fun. If you would like to see the locals go nuts call it Klumps and watch their exasperation.
This is my friend Tom.
Tom is slightly drunk.
Tom is eating pickled eggs
Shortly after eating said eggs he managed to vomit into my beer mug on the bar which meant it was time to head back to the compound.
At daybreak I finally got to see the Lake.
I decided I would take in as much scenery as I could so I headed to Shell Lake and grabbed some breakfast.
I stopped in at the edge of the woods cafe and had an awesome Corned Beef Hash Skillet.
The Awesome skillet, not pictured the guy across the restaurant who had no legs but just small stums of thigh with these awesome rubber platform things so he could walk around like a short version of Cotton from King of the Hill. I wanted to 0get a picture with him but he was eating with a group and I didn't want to be rude.
Before leaving Shell Lake, I poked my head into the creepy assed Museum of Woodcarving but all the lights were off and it looked terribly shitty so I started to gear up and some cryptkeeper looking lady ran out and I just pretended to not hear her and rode away. If I wanted to see Jesus statues I'd run to a church and keep my $5.
Next I headed to Spooner to see the WI DNR fish hatchery. I grabbed a quick shot with Smokey THE Bear.(It's not Smokey Bear you cretins.)
The Hatchery
The parking lot was actually across a spillway from the visitor center.
They had a small pond that was supposed to contain all the native fish of Wisconsin but all I could see was scum and algae.
Overlooking the massive hatchery pools
The only live fish I saw for my trouble
Dead beaver
Dead Fish
Empty Hatching tanks
All was not lost, I got to use the restroom and they had this weird sign telling me where it went
THE MOOOOREE YOUUU KNOWWW!
They had a nice display of pamphlets
The Drunk boating one was my favorite
My next stop was the Chamber of Commerce in Spooner to find out what attractions I should see and ask them what the hell a Jack Pine Savage was?
While they knew several good restaurants and had a few suggestions of places to see they sadly had little info about the Jack Pine Savage quandary.
My next stop was the Canoe Museum in Spooner
They had many canoes
Apparently the area was a hotbed of wooden canoe manufacturing before fiberglass took over
Each canoe had a slightly different purpose
Because I'm awesome I got the overly excited about canoes guide to show me the workshop where you can build your own canoe if you join the museum.
This in one of the antique canoe forms with a canoe being started
This was a beautifully done canoe that was for raffle or something
My next stop was the Railroad Memories Museum also in Spooner
The museum was in an old trainstation and was possibly more of a monument to hoarding than a museum. Each room was pcked to the gills with train memorabilia. Or just junk that could be somehow squeezed in.
I missed the tour so they said to wander back and pick it up where I could find it.
Engineer friendly has a surprise for you!
It's in that funny can over there
Oh wait that's a shitter
Wheel truck bearings
Random tools of all kinds
Child sized gas train
The sink/seat/toilet chair
Flip down for a sink
and up for a toilet
Flip down shaving sink
Crew grooming sink
Pissed off Owl
A display of Conductor watches, The guide was a former conductor and recalled spending $100 back in the 60's which was a King's ransom to buy his required watch to start on the job.
Caboose stove
Rail inspection car
Article detailing it's purchase and amazing abilities
Gas inspection car
The rack of sadness
The back yard had a few neat relics
I liked this snowplow
In the evening we returned to Spooner to observe the local bar scene. Tom felt the need for a Wobblin Duck uniform.
I stopped in and used the facilities at Big Dick's Buckhorn Inn
It turns out someone beat me to it by a few years.
I spent another day relaxing at the lake and it was time to head for home.
I saw Mel's Diner in Osseo, Wi and figured I'd grab some lunch.
The burger was pretty terrible :-( The fries were pretty good and I was hungry so I lied back and thought of Illinois.
Parking lot Cock Shots
I detoured through WI Dells to grab a photo at the Deer Park
And gas at the Sinclair Station
At this point it was just putting on miles til I got to Janesville when I hit more rain. I waited around the local drinking establishments and had a few sodas and waited out most of it but I still drove home through a bit of drizzle and where it was done raining I got soaked by road spray. I thought it was bad getting soaked all the way to Janesville on the way up but driving back in the rain at night was awful. After finding the Darien Truck Stop isn't 24hrs I pushed home and got dry.
I put on about 650 miles roundtrip.
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