Tree In The Road Ride Report: Pre-Ride Festivities

Image by N.Y. Roll

 The long awaited Tree In The Road Ride occurred on Saturday. This report will start out with happenings from Friday and this will be a two-part report. Today will deal with everything leading up to the ride.

Any ride like this I am involved with putting together usually has at least one surprise attendee. This ride was no exception. The surprises started out on Thursday when Tom, a local rider contacted me via email to say he was coming to ride. Then on Friday morning, I received a text from Jason Boucher who said he was coming.

Okay then! Two surprises! But then on the way out, I received a an email from Tom stating he wasn't coming as he had crashed his bike and was a little torn up from the spill. Now we're down to one surprise rider. But this was fine. I was going to be happy if anyone showed up for this ride besides N.Y. Roll and I.

Ready for the load-out on Friday

 See, I almost did not get to go on this ride at all. My son fainted at work on Wednesday and was hospitalized. They ran a battery of tests on him which all came back negative, thankfully, but I had to sit with him all afternoon on Thursday waiting for his all-clear. Had something been more serious I would have had to have called off the ride altogether.

But I was able to go, and N.Y. Roll stopped to collect me and my things Friday afternoon and we were off on our trip down to Atlantic, Iowa. Along the way we stopped to drop off Morgan, N.Y. Roll's girlfriend, and then we went along back roads through little small Iowa villages with names like "Lyle" and "Jamaica".  Eventually we came into Atlantic.

We checked into the Rock Island Inn and Suites, (recommended), and then went in search of some evening meal fare. We were directed to check out the Rancho Grande by the staff of the motel, so this is what we did.

I'm not sure if saying this was "fast food" in the sense of how little time it took to be served, is fair, because the food wasn't "fast food" fare. It was really pretty good. But N.Y. Roll and I were amazed at how quickly we were served. It took about 50 minutes from the time we walked in the door to when we left! We didn't even have time to eat one basket of chips!

Then we repaired back to our room and I received a text from Jason asking about where I thought we should go for coffee. He also asked about when we were getting into Atlantic. We then realized he was at the same motel, and had a room right across from us!

So, Jason stopped by and we had a nice chat for a bit. Then he bid us goodbye as he needed to eat and get something from the local grocers. Meanwhile, we settled on going to the Downtowner Cafe on Chestnut Street in Atlantic for our morning coffee. It is located in an old hotel. They were one of the only choices which opened before 8:00am. Most other places opened at 8:00am and this was too late for us as we wanted to get going by then.  

Sunrise over Atlantic, Iowa on Saturday, June 28th, 2025.

 You know it is going to be a brutal, hot day when the Sun comes up in a hazy sky and you are already feeling hot and sweaty at 6:30am. This was when we arrived downtown in Atlantic to meet up with Jason and get some coffee.

The Downtowner Cafe is a time-capsule of a joint located in a very well kept old motel building on Chestnut Street in Atlantic. In fact, the entire downtown area is really neat. Atlantic somehow escaped the curse of Walmart and has retained its down town which was well kept, clean, and had many old-growth, mature trees lining the street on each side.

Inside the cafe we found a neat diner with food on offer. So we had breakfast as well. I am really glad we skipped the continental breakfast offered at our motel. This was a much better experience and the food was very good. While we were there, I noted the cafe had an outdoor seating area. This will be an important note for later in this tale. 

Eventually Jason showed up and when he had finished we heard from Matt and Matt. (Yes - there were two Matts) They had just arrived. We went up to meet them at the City square several blocks away. There we gave our greetings and hugs all around. It was great to see MG again after so long and MW was a great treat as I haven't seen or spoken with him in forever, it seems.

Round about this time I learned of the "real" surprise attendee of the event, Kat, who had texted N.Y. Roll that she was going to be there very soon. Along with the local to me couple, the Fry's, this made our group of eight riders a nice bunch. 

The "staging area" at the municipal square. 

 

Jason Boucher's custom titanium Meriweather as seen at the Downtowner Cafe. 

We had to get the group all in one place so we had to gather up the Fry's at the "official start" point in the Mexican restaurant's parking lot, Then we had to go back and meet up with Kat who was a tad bit late. She was parked at the City square park. Whew!

A little back-and-forth there. A few words to thank everyone for showing up, and we were off! What would the ride be like with this heat and humidity? We really had no clue, and speaking of surprise attendees to the ride, there was more in store for us in terms of 'surprises' to come after the start. 

Tomorrow: Part Two of the Tree In The Road Ride Report.