We Walk the Line

After a tasty breakfast in the Library of the Iron Horse, a hotel we can highly recommend, we set off across Milwaukee to Harley-Davidson Powertrain Operations for the factory tour. The factory where a motor motorcycle like ours is assembled is not open to the public so we have to make do with viewing the manufacture of what drives a motorcycle namely the engine and the transmission. The castings for most of the parts are done by an outside company, shipped here and then machined in this factory. We must stay within the walk lines in this busy, hot place where it is quite something to watch the activity of both humans and robots. This location only manufactures engines and transmissions for the smaller motorcycles up to 1200 cc, however, it also does remans - the remanufacture of all size engines including the powerhouse 110 cubic inch Screaming Eagle (Barry‘s next life).
We shop at the Milwaukee Harley Davidson dealer picking up our requisite souvenirs and some screws (we’ve only lost one but bound to lose more).
The weather is very fine so we set off toward Green Bay on highway 45, hoping to ride through the Kettle Moraine State Forests, however, somehow we miss the turn-off. Rather than backtrack we decide to ride some county roads as they are in really good condition in Wisconsin and take us through some very interesting landscapes. We travel a long way on county road W which is very interesting because it criss-crosses an area where many huge wind turbines are generating power. We are riding with the wind today, a nice change, as we can travel much farther on a tank of gas. Gas costs less in America than it does in Canada but after one factors in the exchange rate it’s only a bit less. But we’re not complaining as the beer is considerably less!
We try to move over to highway 55 so we can ride along Lake Winnebago, however, the bridges along this route are being replaced and we have to make many detours. It’s very difficult to get road conditions on secondary, particularly county roads and there is much road construction everywhere we‘ve travelled - perhaps it is due to the Stimulus Programs. We are finally successful in seeing Lake Winnebago and cut our time losses by riding on Interstate 41 from the top of the lake through Green Bay, stopping in Marinette for the night.
Once again today we have ridden through beautiful farmland and occasionally breathed in the aroma of manure which dairy farmers fondly refer to as the “smell of money”. Northeastern Wisconsin has much timber so lumbering is an important industry and we‘ve also smelled the tang of freshly cut wood. There are also many rivers that are popular for recreational fishing and boating. At the Comfort Inn where we are spending the night there are at least six vehicles trailering what appear to be some very fast boats. We have thoroughly enjoyed our travel in Wisconsin and will miss it when we cross the Menominee River into Michigan tomorrow.