Well we are planning a little trip on July 10th-13th Starting in Southwest Ohio near Eaton,heading to Milwaukee to the HD Museum then thinking about swinging out through Iowa and stopping in Anamosa at J&P then back to Ohio,not sure about the Iowa part yet but for sure heading to the HD Musem first,anyone have any must do roads or points of interest to recommend in these areas?

Thanks for your input

 

BTW we are planning to take mostly 2 lane roads like 127,40,State Routes,not too much highway,we wanna avoid Chicago for the most part if we can,we're gonna have the mother and father-in-law with us so we're going for a little easier pace than we would if it was just us younger guys.

 

Couple of other places to check out:

Galena, Il close to the Mississippi river, old river town very neat, lots of shopping for the wife and lots of old buildings.

Little further south in Savanna, Il is Poopy's very favorite motorcycle stop
http://www.poopys.com/


Also, in Anamosa there is the National Motorcycle Museum.
http://nationalmcmuseum.org/


All three cities are relatively close to each other

 

Have fun
Bypassing Chicago is a tough item and adds lots of miles. You can take 41 and take Lake Shore Drive through the city. Wonderful to see the city from a bike. Then stay on Sheridan Road all the way up to Milwaukee. See the North Shore of chicago. In evanston stop at Northwestern
BUT if you want to bypass the city, I can give you a route. The "country roads are quite west of chicago. The suburbs go 30+ miles west of Chicago

So get to South Bend. Visit Notre Dame , see the Gold Dome and visit the grotto. It is a wonderful sight. If there later in the day, have pizza or fettucine alfredo at Rocco's
From Notre Dame go to the west part of South Bend and take 2 west. a fun road , see cows, a nice long 65mph stretch then some two lane riding. In Valpo take 30 west. You can take 30 to 45 Then take 45 north to 83 and take 83 all the way up to the north part of Illinois 173
OR you can take 45 all the way to 173 (suburban main road driving)
or take 30 all the way to 31 , take 31 North to 173. Most country of routes but longer. 31 is varied type driving from 2 lane to 4 lane
(note 31 has some twists and joins up and then separates from various roads, watch the signs, for example in McHenry)

If you take 31 You have a couple of options
Take 173 east to Wilmot Road North (large gas station and flashing red light stop) this will veer east and take you to 45

If you take 83, you can stay on that and go into wisconsin and see some nice country , it veers west. Maybe at Highway 20 go east and get to Racine, see later

If you take 31 , you can go past Wilmot road and go to 45.
So if you do that or take 45 go north into wisconsin

The first town will be Bristol. The Bristol Diner is there on your right. a nice place and biker friendly. not a bar

Stay on 45. You can then go through some nice towns and take 45 all the way up to west parts of Milwaukee. Note there is joining of highways on 20 west. (45 goes on 20 west for a few miles)
Or just after Bristol you can take 50 east to the Brat Stop, (world famous) This is right at the I-94 exit on the west side.
Then go east on 50 and go to 32 and ride the lake. 32 and 31 join and take you right into Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, try Real Chili, world famous. Or Miss Katy's Diner both on the west side near Marquette.

 

Hey nice tips guys,Thanks! I was starting to think I wasn't gonna get any help on this one but I was wrong,lol...Keep it coming guys,Good stuff so far for sure!

 

Don't know about iowa. If you do go there, work west to Galena Illinois. A quaint town. Then go to the actual Field of Dreams in NE Iowa. Fun
BUT I would consider going North of Milwaukee and go to Door County (the "thumb" of the Wisconsin) It is full of little tourist towns. Nice rides around the peninsula. Your older companions would like it and you will too. Seriously, great food at Sister Bay Bowl or at Mt. Greenwood Supper club in the upper middle of the peninsula. Then work back down and take the ferry across Lake Michigan to the lower half of Michigan and work your way home.

 

if you want to avoid chicago, and if you aren't use to it, it does get busy. the intersections around I80 are all pretty ugly a lot of the time.

- the chicago skyway can be interesting and they just redid the road, but that also puts you either on the dan ryan or lake shore drive. again, if city driving ain't your fortee then avoiding it would be good. if you plan ahead and hit chicago like early on sunday morn, then traffic is way down and that would be okay. if you hit the skyway around 7-8am, then you would be able to be north of chicago around 10ish and then the sheridan suggestion would be good.

- the ferry(s) are good suggestions. go up the east side of lake michigan and take the ferry directly into milwaukee or take the ludington farther up. check the internet for specifics. you might want to bring you own tie downs.

- in milwaukee, try the "safe house" bar and restaurant. also, lots of good german restaurants in and around milwaukee.

- for something different, the milwaukee zoo is a pretty nice zoo.

- the botanical gardens (looks like 3 big *****) if your into that type of thing

- you could plan a trip of the HD factory also (at least i think you can)

- in iowa, check out amana, an amish settlement

- coming back to iowa, would springfield, il, be on the way?

 

I would definitely go to Holy Hill which is just NorthWest of Milwaukee. It's a huge old church in the middle of some nice hills and it's a beautiful ride. I also agree with the people above who talked about Galena and Savannah. We take at least one trip there every year. Savannah is a little biker town and Galena is beautiful, sitting right on the banks of the Mississippi. If you do choose to go up to Door County which is great too, I'd make sure to stop at and take a look at the restaurant with the goats on the roof (see pic). It's pretty cool although we've never eaten there.

 

make reservations if your going to the safe house in milwaukee...

 

Go through Chicago. It's not that bad on the off hours.

We always ride staggered when going through Chi.

_ - _ - In one lane. You're not too bunched up, and cars (95% of the time) don't go between the riders.

Perhaps stop in Chi-Town and hit Navy Pier.

When you're in Milwaukee, The Kettle Moraine is close, and a nice putt.