July '09 my "Meeting new people" roadtrip... lots of pics!
And man did I ever meet a lot of new people on this trip... it was great!! Had an awesome time, got to meet some great people, and even added a new state to my "visited on my bike" list, bringing my total up to 19 so far
Anyways... on with the pics
Saturday June 27th... Old Faithful is all packed up and ready to hit the road. I wanted to try and leave early cuz I knew it was gonna be super hot that day. Didn't end up leaving as early as planned, but left around 6:30 so it wasn't too bad. I had wanted to try and avoid the mid day heat, but it ended up being up to roasting temps by 10:00 anyways so it didn't make much difference, lol
Always a beginning odo shot at the start of every roadtrip
Just south of Paducah, Kentucky.... it was so hot (around 95 + humid) I had to stop and take a break for awhile. I was getting hungry anyways
Made it to my dads house in Decatur, Illinois (central IL) by late afternoon/early evening. Was I ever ready for a nice cool shower when I got there! hahah
An air compressor that takes credit cards?? Definitely the first time I've seen that
Now here comes a big gaping hole in pictures.... I went up to Bloomington, IL monday night to meet up with some guys and hang out and ride for a lil bit. Stupid me, ran out of the house and completely forgot to bring my camera...doh! Anyways, I met up with Kurtis from 600rr.net and he brought his friend Matt along too. We rode around for awhile then went and met up with his brother and we all rode around for awhile, then went back to his place and hung out and relaxed for awhile. They had to take off, so I left and got ahold of another guy there in Bloomington, Justin from cbrforum.com. I had tried to meet up with him when I was up there back in November, but he was busy with schoolwork and couldn't meet up then. But this time he had nothing going on, so we met up and went and grabbed something to eat and hung out until about 1am. Good times!
Tuesday afternoon I was supposed to meet up with another guy from 600rr.net in Decatur, but I couldn't get ahold of him and he never returned my call, so we never got to meet up. So I made my way up to northern Illinois to see my mom. I took the rural route and went through some of the old towns I used to live in along the way. I made a stop in Sandwich, IL and met up with Bill from cbrjunkie.com. We hung out for a lil bit then headed over to the SantaFe Mexican Restaurant to get something to eat
Continued on route and made my way into my moms, closer to Chicago
Wednesday night... yea unfortunately there's another big gaping hole of pics here too.... stupid me for got my camera at home, again! I went and met up with a guy from chicagolandsportbikes.com in Palos Hills, IL and we rode to Portillos in Elmhurst for bike night. Once we got there I also met up with Tony from cbrjunkie.com. Bill (from the night prior) also came out too, and brought a friend as well. We all hung out at bike night and had a great time
Stayed there for a few days and pretty much just relaxed and helped my mom with a few things. Friday the 3rd I started to make my way back down to central IL back to my dads place. I took a detour over to Henry, IL and met up with Larry from 600rr.net
After we rode around for a lil bit, his friend Dan met up with us and we all rode around a little more, then went over to get a pizza
Dan had to take off after that, so Larry and I rode over to Roanoke, IL. They were doing their fireworks show on the 3rd, plus having a classic car show as well. We get there just in time for the fireworks, so we grabbed a drink and watched those. After they were all done, everybody was getting up to leave and somehow (I didn't see it happen), 4 people ended up getting run over by a car. This whole big crowd of people just started running down the street over to this car, and a group of guys picked up the whole side of the car and yanked the people out from under it. Since all the emergency personnel was already right across the river where the fireworks show was, it was only a minute or two before the street we were on was flooded with ambulances, firetrucks, police cars, etc. We decided it was time to get outta there, lol
A storm came through later that night, and it ended up raining alllllll night long and most of the day saturday. It was late when we got back so I just stayed the night at Larrys place friday night. We get up saturday morning and we're sitting there eating breakfast, and his phone rings.... it's a friend of his... "hey.... I kinda got a problem"
So we finish breakfast, then leave and go over to get his 4x4 truck, and head over and meet his friend over by Peoria, who was quite happy to see us. We get there, and find the problem to be....
This:
This is the ravine down below.... it was a good 15-20ft drop and straight down
If you look closely, the ONLY thing holding the truck there is that little tree stump it's pressing up against. Had that not been there, the truck would have slid down into the ravine. The RF wheel was dangling over the edge. This mud was super slippery and with deep ruts, even the 4x4 truck was sliding all over the place. The Ranger was a 4x4 as well, but it wasn't working so it was essintially a 2wd, lol
Luckily, we had a winch (this guy pulls people out all the time, or himself sometimes, lol). Absolute lifesaver, and saved the day for sure!
WooHoo! Success! Only damage was a bent up licence plate... no biggie
But we still had to get out.... it was a good 1/2 mile or so to get to the paved road, and this muddy road was in absolute hellacious condition, with huge ruts and holes everywhere. We were bouncing and sliding all over the place even in the 4x4. We went first and the Ranger followed so that we could pull it if need be. It got stuck a few times along the way, and we thought we were gonna have to hook the strap up and tow it
But they were able to rock it some and it made it out all on it's own
Success once again!
This was the road going in.... pretty nasty since it rained pretty hard the entire night prior, and all day that day so far
I went back to my dads in Decatur later saturday afternoon after the rain stopped. Sunday afternoon after washing and waxing my sisters car for her, I left my dads and made my way out to Columbus, Ohio
Anybody remember my roadtrip up north back in November?? For those that don't.... it was freakin COLD!! I was doing this exact same route, and I made a stop in Montezuma, Indiana around 1:30 in the afternoon, and this was the highest temp I saw all day
So since I was taking the same route, I made another stop in there to snap a pic. Most definitely a little more comfortable of a trip this time! haha
Made a stop at a truck stop in Dayton, Ohio.... I couldn't believe it, for a decent sized truck stop.... 4 gas pumps
Made it out to Columbus, Ohio just a little after 9pm and met up with my buddy Vinny from cbrjunkie.com
Didn't do too much sunday night.... Vinnys roomate cooked us some dinner using deer meat, it was actually really good! Hung out for a little bit then went to bed... we were both tired
Monday morning we got up and headed over to one of our favorite breakfast spots
After breakfast, we headed here
This place is freakin awesome!! The building is an old Big K-Mart building, so you can imagine how big this place is, and it's allllll motorcycle stuff. Real good prices too! Clearance section rocks! But we had a reason for coming here.... Vinny's GF was taking the MSF class several days later, so she needed to get some riding boots
We caught Vinny doing a little modeling action.... ROFL
A little later on in the afternoon Vinny and I went for a little ride.... he said there were some really good roads not too far away. He was right! Ohio, especially in the southeastern part, has some kick ass little roads! I was quite surprised
He took me down to Hocking Hills, near Logan, Ohio. There's a state park there along with some kick ass roads... had a great time! We stopped at a gas station right before we got to Hocking Hills and we switched bikes... Vinny let me ride his '09 Phoenix 600RR through the twisties....awesome bike!!
We stopped at the state park to take a short break, switch bikes and then head back home
We were trying to be back home by around 6-6:30 or so because Vinny had a leak in his tire. He found a guy in town that would put a mushroom patch on it, but we had to be there by no later than 8:00. The Hocking Hills trip ended up taking a little longer than originally planned, and we didn't get back to Vinnys house until a little after 7:00. We still had to take the wheel off the bike and drive over to the guys house, so we hauled ass trying to get the wheel off (it's alot easier on my bike... errrr). But we get it off by about 7:15, wash up and we're on our way
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