Donna and I, Pam and Glenn, Ray and Judy, and Carl and Donna all left on Friday before Labor Day and headed up to Postville to ride the roads in the area over the weekend. Pam and Glenn and Ray and Judy left earlier in the day and the rest of us left after we got off work.
We set up camp at a little Mom and Pop motel owned by a young couple that just purchased the place recently and is working on fixing it back up. It needs quite a bit of attention but they are slowly working on refurbishing it while tending to their young children. It's no Ritz Carlton Hotel but for the price, it was an OK place to stay. Hopefully they will be able to keep working on it and if we get in the area again, we can use the place to stay at while we look over the area. The couple was very nice and worked really hard at making our stay as pleasant as it could be. I hope they can make a go of it. It is hard to keep something going in that area with all that was lost from the pork plant closing.
Both Saturday and Sunday we took off on rides that ended up being a couple of hundred miles long. Weather was fantastic. Cool in the morning but then got nice. Not too hot though. Saturday we kind of took a northern route along the scenic byways. We found a nice local place to eat. Food and ice cream was good. For dinner we went to Gunder and the Irish Shanti for the one pound gunder burger. It was worth trying just to say I'd done so but I don't think I'll do that again. Pam got a ham dinner that I think could have fed us all. It was absolutely the biggest piece of ham I have ever seen on a dinner plate. It was about an inch and a half thick as well. She gave us some samples and it was very very tasty. With salad bar and potato for about $11. A heck of a bargain. I know Judy had shrimp and she said it was very very good as well. I can' t remember if anyone else had anything but the burger but we all had good food. Such an amazing place to find in a town that boasts of a population of 27 persons. I highly recommend you stop in when you are in the area. That night we settled down and just sat outside talking. Very peaceful.
Sunday we took kind of a south eastern route. Ended up at Pikes Peak Park and then down into Guttenberg before heading back towards St. Olaf to the St. Olaf tap to try the huge tenderloin. It weighs in at just over one pound. In St. Olaf, we were met by Randy and Deb Heath. They had been to J & P Cycle and decided to come on up and join us for the rest of the weekend. After St. Olaf, we headed back to Postville and just sat around and talked again. Another relaxing, peaceful evening. Good times, good friends, good fun, good stories.
Monday we got up and took a leisurely trip to Balltown to eat at Breitbach's Restaurant. This is the oldest bar/restaurant in Iowa and has been plagued by fires twice now. Hopefully their bad luck will end here. Donna made a reservation for us so we got in quickly. Good thing as they had a pretty good crowd. Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed with the place. The waitress seemed miffed that we decided not to eat off the buffet and the food was not up to par. Mine was OK but several noted that theirs was cold or just not too good. They also had run out of pie and that was not a good thing. From here some split off from the group and made their way home by themselves. The rest of us came back with me in the lead and maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I had a few problems finding the roads I wanted to take so the trek home was much longer than I had planned. We wanted to take a scenic ride home but didn't want to take the side treks I unintentionally took. I do apologize for that.
All in all, I think it was a great weekend. I do believe everyone enjoyed themselves for the most part. It was fun to have the group we had out having a good time. Next time, I hope more of you can come out and enjoy the fun as well.
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