2020: Is it Over Yet?

When the riding season began in early March the threat of Covid 19 was just beginning to come into focus. My first ride was on 7 March and within ten days the coronavirus axe had fallen. Within a few more weeks all summer plans and reservations were canceled. 

The specter of a summer without concerts, sporting events, and motorcycle trips blacked out the horizon and I felt like I was going to be living out an Edgar Allan Poe poem. The crows in the yard were tap, tap tapping louder than usual, or maybe it was just my darkened imagination.

Fox River Trail

The weather slowly warmed and my wife and I spent a lot more time in the yard and on the deck in back of the house. Our bicycles found their way down to the Fox River Trail more frequently and the miles piled up. Many of the things that never seemed to get done in the house were welcome activities. 

By the time June rolled around we knew which of our favorite restaurants could make a decent takeout meal and which could not. Some may have been able to put out a good meal, but they disdained mask wearing and were off the list. For a couple of weeks we tried dining in, but the virus became a raging bull in Wisconsin and we returned to avoiding the red capes that are restaurants and bars.

Door Headlands County Park

Any type of travel that involved an overnight stay we considered a virus risk, so we took a lot of day trips. Sometimes we took the grill and some meat and sometimes we picked up sandwiches on the way out of town. We visited Point Beach State Park, Governor Thompson State Park, Hartman Creek State Park and numerous State Forests and county parks. 

The county parks within 50 miles were a real surprise.  I discovered most of them on motorcycle rides and then my wife and I would go back a few weeks later for a picnic. If not for the virus we may never have had the pleasure of visiting them.

At the beginning of the riding season it did look like I would ride many miles. Health officials were discouraging people from taking any risks and filling up the hospital beds. But as the hospitals did not really begin to fill up until the fall, I put on more miles this summer than in any one previously. They were all on day trips except for one overnight that I spent at Fort McCoy in August. Somehow an afternoon trip to Holy Hill ended up the Harley Davidson Headquarters in Milwaukee.

My riding season ended last month as the weather got colder and the deer got bolder. My Harley Davidson is in storage at the local dealer and my BMW is in my garage. I had fresh services done on both near the end of the season so they will be ready when the weather is in spring. We are preparing for a quiet Christmas season and waiting patiently, or sort of patiently, for our turn to get the vaccine. The weather has been pleasant for December in Wisconsin and we can get out and walk every day. 

Juneau Avenue Site

My brother and I have made hotel reservations for the BMW National Rally in Great Fall, Montana, in June. It felt good to make them but at this point I do not have much confidence that the rally will happen. If it doesn't and 2021 looks a lot like 2020, the tap, tap, tapping of the crows will not sound quite as ominous after the great time I had visiting local sites this year.