5/30/11 Ice cream festival

Wanting to go somewhere different, I headed to Utica Ohio this morning to the Velvet ice cream festival. Today they had the Goldwing ride in (but all bikes were welcome) I fired the VTX up at 8 am and headed out,,,taking my time my first stop was Rushcreek lake ,where a few fishermen had a good start on the day., Then it was off to Buckeye lake where I rode around for awhile before heading to the festival.

The festival was a good time, they even had a horse drawn carriage ,,but who am I kidding,,I went for the bikes,,and ICE CREAM!!!!

The ride home was just as nice, going down rt. 13 I spotted the Dawes Arboretum,,ok for a change of pace I pull in and take the auto tour. It was much better than I expected,,with an observation tower (there goes my fear of heights again) and the cypress swamp,,it was a nice change of pace.

Almost home, on rt. 22 I swing out to pass slower traffic,,thats when I see the Highway patrolman,,,66 mph in a 55,,yup,,120 dollar ticket ,,,just my luck,,91 degrees out and he had no sense of humor...

1/23/11 Cyclefest,,Columbus Ohio

9/10/2010 day 4-Sumter SC

We wake early, and load the bike's. This morning we decide to ride a little before stopping for breakfast. The plan is to continue north on 521 to Camden, there we will pick up route 97 north to Great Falls and pick up I77 for awhile to make up some time. A short 30 mile ride and we pull into Camden, time to top off and get Breakfast. We find a great little diner, where for 5 dollars we get a couple of eggs,,,toast,,,two pancakes, bacon,and fried Bologna , and a BIG bowl of grits,,coffee and orange juice...how do they make money like this??? 5 dollars and some change bought all of that food,,We are stuffed!!

With breakfast for us, and fuel for the bikes taken care of, we find route 97 north. This is a great two lane,, gray line on the map. I wish we could have stayed with it longer. We do stop for a couple of pictures at Lake Wateree.

We reach Great Falls SC and pick up I77 north,well this is where it gets boring,,I prefer two lane back roads, but with our time crunch we have to make some miles today. An hour later we cross into North Carolina,,crap!! they have a mandatory helmet law. I almost forgot,,we whip into the welcome center unseen by the State Highway patrol,,and put on our helmets.

A quick stop to top off our tanks and its back on the road. Going through Charlotte is awful, 3 and 4 lanes going north. We are riding along when the car to my right decides to move to the left lane, wait a minute,,that's where I am. He makes his lane change without even noticing me and forces me over a lane. I pull along side him, the little turd won't even look over,,the Jerk. OK, I regain my composure and ride on. About 5 mile down the road the right lane peels off to an exit, the semi truck that was in that lane See's that's not where he wants to be and swerves a hard left,,missing my front tire by about 3 feet. I climb on the brakes, drop a gear,,oh I am ticked off now. I pull along side this clown, look up and he his talking on his cell phone,,idiot!!! I give him the one finger salute,,just to let him know he is #1 to me .

150 miles or so and we are in Wythevill VA. WOO HOO, I see a Cracker Barrel and breakfast is wearing thin. We pull in for lunch. Country fried steak covered in sawmill gravy then go to the Harley shop so Curt can get another T shirt,,whats up with these Harley guys and t shirts??? Then top off the tanks. Check the map,,time to look for a two lane road. We find one, just a few miles north of Bluefield WV.

I cannot remember a time I was so happy to get off the highway, about 300 miles of running 70 and 75 mph,,,BORING!!! We exit and head north on route 20 , another great two lane road,about 20 miles and we come to Pipestem state park. Take a quick ride through the park, a quick picture and on down the road. Another 20 miles and we arrive in Hinton WV and Bluestone lake. The day is fading fast, the sun is dropping and so is the temperature. We ride another 20 miles or so and come into the town of Rainelle WV. A small burg with 1 traffic light and 1 small, and old hotel,,The motor lodge inn. It will have to do, we are 75 miles from Charleston and the next hotel...we are tired and cold and do not want to ride that far. 370 miles today,,not bad..

9/11/2010, RAINELLE WV

It's Saturday morning, time to make a hard run for home. West on route 60 for about 75 miles, 75 miles of some of the best two lane twisties of the trip. I travelled this road a couple of years ago, and just like then,,,we got wet. It started raining in Charleston, on to Nitro and followed us up route 35. The last time it followed all the way to Chillicothe,,,today we ran out of it before crossing the Ohio River. An Hour after Crossing the Ohio,,we are home,,tired and a little stiff,,but still a great ride. I have the first week of November off,,maybe,,just maybe I can get in one more ride this year.

9/9/10,,day 3 Patriots point

We take our time this morning, we want to avoid rush hour traffic in the Charleston area. Today we are going to Patriots point to see the USS Yorktown. OK, time to admit my mistake this trip, I had written down the directions to Patriots point before we left Ohio,,then forgot to bring them with me. To make matters worse, my atlas does not have a city map of Charleston, so we decide to "wing it". How hard can it be to find an Aircraft carrier??? Patriots point is in Mt. Pleasant, across the harbor from Charleston SC. I remember we are going to Mt. Pleasant,,and recall something about route 17. Nearing Charleston on route 52 I see a sign for Mt. Pleasant, OK we will go that way. The outer belt, I526, as we ride along we come to a bridge that takes us up,,up and up!!! Over a river, to my right I see a suspension I remember seeing in pictures of the Yorktown,,OK that way. We come to route 17, turn right,,and in minutes we are there.

We spend several hours touring the Yorktown, and we also go through the USS Clamagore, A baleo class diesel powered WW2 era sub. I really enjoyed this stop, and to see how small and cramped the Clamagore was,,I cannot imagine what life was like for the men who fought ww2 in these vessels. It's almost 2pm , and we decide to take the ferry out to Fort Sumter, just to find out the last ferry left at 1:30,,,guess I will have to come back in the future. I was already planning on doing that anyway, Patriots point is also home to a destroyer, the USS Laffey, and it is out for repairs so we do not get to see her this trip.

It is getting late in the day and we have 1 more stop, Curt wants to stop at the local Harley shop. After leaving the Harley dealership we run into afternoon rush hour,,,that's not good. We are stopped in traffic in I26 and Curt's Harley keeps overheating, glad I have a liquid cooled ride. We decide to take the next exit, no matter where it goes. We take the exit and end up back on route 52, OK change of plans,,north on 52 it is. 52 north to Paxville to route 521 north to Sumter SC. We pull into Sumter around 8pm,,find a room and head out for dinner. Tomorrow we will be on the Interstate to make up some time.