Weekend Retreat & Bike Rally

Canoeing, archery, bonfires, stick-poke tattooing, flaming velocity stacks and tumbling Ural's. The nostalgic camp vibes of the Wandawega resort get a bit muddled when you invite some "industry professionals" of today's custom motorcycle scene, but David and Tereasa (owners) knew exactly what they were doing. It's not as though this camp had a pristine track record to begin with. The Wandawega Hotel was originally built in the early 20's during prohibition, outfitted for liquor distribution, prostitution and gambling.

"We’re talking multiple exits, trapdoors and hidden hatches to conceal stockpiles."- Wandawega

The couple has gone to great lengths to restore the luster of the original hotel, from resurrecting buildings seen in vintage camp photos to period-correct soaps and government issued towels in every room.

The rally centered around the delivery of the Wandawega tailored Ural Sportsman sidecar rig. The new bike rocks a custom tractor seat with matching canopy, custom mixed satin-metallic green paint, black out kit, rally lights, undercarriage coating etc. etc. Basically it's decked out for campground thrashing, within which is a 2 mile dirt trail through the woods. Ural also sent over resident expert David Wayne George to teach us about the dynamics of piloting a sidecar on and off-road... and on two-wheels with a passenger.

Kara and I felt honored to be part of the event and tried to soak up as much as possible; which meant staking out the tree house and its booze hoist (repurposed) until 2am while Andie (wizardly Deus employee) read us passages from a late 1800's book on elementary arithmetic. We had a lot of fun. In the end, the motorcycle which the weekend was centered around became the vehicle for memories and good times with friends old and new.