BMWMOA Rally Trip, Day 2, Iowa and Illinois

Start Mileage: 34085
End Mileage: 34445
Total Miles: 360
Dave and I left West Des Moines around 0800 and continued heading east on the I-80 slan until we neared Davenport where we were looking for State road 1 to take us to Anamosa where one of the BMWMOA rally contributing writers had said was the home of the National Motorcycle Museum.

I was following the directions from the gps and it led me north from the slab on an expressway west of what we wanted. In fact, it could not even find Route 1 on the map! I finally figured out that I had to switch back to the Western USA map database and lo and behold there was the road we'd been riding on for several miles already! You'd think the Navicore software folks would have designed in some smarts into their gps software to invoke the right database when a user is traveling in the border areas!

Regardless, we get to Anamosa around 1100, secured the motorcycles and paid the $7.00 to tour what turned out to be quite the collection of antique/unusual/classic/unique motorcycles and related items. The museum is worth a stop is you're near it.

Here's some of the many motorcycles on display at the museum:

I liked this German Army Motorcycle

Ducatis

From the movie "Easy Rider"

A Steam-Powered Motorcycle!

We had lunch after the museum at the Anamosa Family Restaurant which had been highly recommended by the same author. Here both Dave and I tried the Reuben sandwich. We both found the sandwich a bit "wanting" and cannot recommend it. Service was good but whatever you do, don't get the reuben!

Here's Dave before he headed off towards the North

Here I am after touring the museum

We headed out of Anamosa using 64. We followed this eastward for quite a while until we reached the Missisippi river and crossed over into Illinois. Here's where Dave and I parted ways with him headed north to Wisconsin in search of pics of himself at Rustic Roads to hopefully qualify for a patch under that Wisconsin tourism program.

Bridge near Savannah, IL

I headed south on 64 which eventually turned into Illinois 26 and which took me south to the town of Polo. I tanked up here, got my bearings and pointed the gps at Batavia, IL where I had planned to overnight with an army buddy of mine and family.

I'd been watching storm clouds; over SE Illinois all afternoon as I got nearer and nearer to them. The roads I was on showed signs of recent recent rain and things cooled down nicely feom the beastly heat of the morning. Unfortunately, I managed to catch up with the storms and got pretty much rained on once I crossed under I-88 and started heading east on state 30. Had to stop in the town of Hinckley about 20 miles west of Aurora and seek shelter from the now pretty heavy rain. I used a self carwash place's empty bay, finished stowing away my electronics and followed my friend's directions into Batavia by way of IL47 to Main Street and my friend's house.