2020 Moto Trip - Day 2 - Let the Party Begin

Day 2 (8/13/2020)

We had quite a few miles ahead of us on this second day of the trip, which was okay because when we arrived at our destination we’d be staying a few nights with my wife and her family.  If you paid attention in my last post you already knew that my wife, Alexa, was flying out to meet us in Minnesota while we were there, and then was also staying a few extra days to spend time with her extended family.  So we got up that morning, ate a quick breakfast we picked up the night before from the gas station, wiped the dew off the bikes, and continued on our journey.

It was a gorgeous morning to be riding, the sunrise mixed in the clouds made for some nice photos, and short of that it was a pretty uneventful day of riding.  Just like getting into Burwell we did a lot of going north and then east, and then north and then east, and so on and so on.  We stopped quick in Elgin, NE for some fuel and to use the restroom and then didn’t stop again until we reached Sioux City, IA.  I thought about taking a short detour around the city just to go through a tiny bit of South Dakota to add a state to the list we’d be riding in on the trip and then figured screw it, the ~430 miles we had to travel that day was enough as it was.  And I was also interested in getting into MN as quickly as possible to maximize time with everyone we were seeing there.

We stopped in Sioux City for some fuel and lunch at Jimmy Johns and then on we went through the short stretch of Iowa the road took us on.  And thank fuck it was a short stretch because there wasn’t anything exciting to look at whatsoever.  Fortunately for us that didn’t last long and before we knew it we were in Minnesota where it seemed everything magically turned from brown to green.  We stopped a few more times for gas and then finally arrived at Alexa’s cousin’s house in Cologne!

By now Alexa had landed and was with her cousin and aunt starting their shenanigans.  They were down the road at her aunt’s photography studio in Chaska, and since we’d already gotten off the bikes and parked them at the house in Cologne, and because it was extremely hot and humid, we weren’t about to gear up and get back on the bikes if we didn’t have to.  Luckily for us they were still sober so they came and picked us up in the wonderfully AC’d car.  And that’s when the first party of this motorcycle trip began, and it didn’t really end until we pulled out of there two days later.

We played around a lot at the studio that afternoon; Alexa, Claudia (aunt), and Tab (cousin) turn into wild animals when they’re together so I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves.  This crew is so much fun and always so welcoming I am very fortunate to have married into this pack of crazies!  There was some tequila going on, a little of which got spit in my eyes while filming a lovely video, and then there was a bunny situation of which I’m still not sure.  And the studio is also complete with a fully functional stand alone basement toilet that I made sure to use at every opportunity.

That night we went to dinner at Sticks Tavern on the Dahlgreen Golf Course and then of course ended up at their favorite bar in Cologne, Pounders, where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you cameeeeee (queue Cheers theme song).  But seriously, it seems like everyone knows Tab and her husband Adam when we go in there, typical small town life that I’m slightly envious of.  Pounders has those pull-tab gambling things that I learned about some years back that are addictive as shit, so we pooled $60 among us and ended up winning $100 which was pretty good for a bunch of drunks with luck on their side.  At some point we got tired and made our way back to Tab and Adams to sleep the booze away only to get up and start again the next morning.