Adventure in Ohio?

[Whitey1]

Originally Posted by GailCallsMeKarl

That's EXACTLY what I thought. One of the people I stand next to and think "if I had legs like that, I'd be a pair of walking boobs"

You are going to fit in perfectly around here.

[GailCallsMeKarl]

Originally Posted by buildit

Can you find me in this pic.

sooo....yea.....
You know that height strip they have on the doors as you leave a gas station? That 5' mark always taughts me and if you are standing close enough, you will here me mutter "fuckers" as I pass through the door.
This will be quite humorous.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by buildit

Group Ride to Invisible Monsters Garage Day from Iron Pony.

Meet up at 11am and we roll by 11:30 or after I finish shopping, whichever happens last. We can do a short route, long route or a scenic route that may or may not get us there.

Post up if you wanna ride along. I plan to leave sort of early, so for those staying past 4pm you might wanna bring a GPS to find a way home.

Buildit
Army Joe
Dagny Taggart

Hey Luke, would you want to take the scenic route to the Garage Day? I want to go re-run some of the cool gravel roads and other stuff from last weeks Flint Ridge Road Enduro. We did a few muddy bits, rode across Wakatomika Creek (no bridge), and rode down into the ravine and over the Gregg Mill covered bridge. It was pretty cool.

We can hit some gravel roads heading south down to Crooksville and the garage Day. Want me to meet you at Iron Pony so we can ride together? I don't know of a lot of gravel roads between Columbus and Utica but once we get east of Utica it'll get fun.

Let me know if you do and I'll make it the plan. I'll show you this stuff and then you lead me next weekend on the Kids Ride down at Tar Hollow.

Later,
M

[sion]

so, today was a most excellent day for me...allow me to explain:

last night while reading my SabMag email list, I found out that a fellow Maggot from Cleveland was going to be heading (sort of) this way on his way to W.Va. for the weekend. I shot off an email suggesting we meet for lunch. He was amenable to that so we arranged to meet at noon in Woodsfield at the Subway. This worked out to my advantage because to get to Woodsfield, I'd have to pass through Caldwell, where the current Farnsy Tag was located, so I'd be able to knock off two birds with one stone. So, I got up at the ungodly hour of 7:45 am and was on the road by 9.

After a quick stop at the ATM, I headed out of Lancaster on 37, which was lightly trafficed today so I made good time through Junction City, New Lexington and Malta, arriving in McConnelsville shortly after 10. There I picked up 78 which would take me the rest of the way to Woodsfield. Had a nice, mostly uneventful ride on 78...the big excitement was the couple of deer off to the right while a local cop was coming the other way...fortunately the deer decided they didnt like the music I had blasting (Alice Cooper - Is it my body?) and bolted into the woods instead of out in front of me, so I ended up not needing the services of the local po-po.

Just a couple miles past I-77 sits the bustling burg of Caldwell and the intersection of 78 and 564, where the Farnsy tag was...which was convenient timing as my butt needed a break by then. Stopped and got my pictures and took a 10 minute break. Then it was back on the bike and off to Woodsfield, where I arrived at about 11:40. That gave me time to gas up Maggie and find a nice parking spot right in front of the Subway. My Maggot buddy, David, was very punctual...arriving at almost exactly noon. David was riding two up with his lovely gf Polly on his silver ST1100. After a couple minutes of intros and hand shaking we adjourned into Subway for lunch, accompanied by lots of bs about rides gone by and plans for the rest of today.

Some 45 mins or so later, we were gearing up with plans to take 26 down to Marietta, where upon David and Polly would head to W.Va. while I would turn towards home. After gassing up the ST, we rolled the couple miles down 800/26 to where 26 proper begins. David led and I followed. Once on 26 proper, David proceeded to leave me in his dust...I kept up, sort of, for about 2.5 miles. By 3 miles in, I wasn't even seeing glimpses of him up ahead. And remember, this is 2 up on an ST1100 which is, in David's own words "a wallowing pig" in the corners. No matter, he still ran away from me like I was standing still. Told you those Maggots were fast.

Fortunately, I was expecting this, so I wasn't particularly disappointed. I've got about 30,000 miles under my belt, while David has over 200,000. And we had a rendezvous point picked out for just such an occurrence. So I just rode my ride and hustled my own wallowing pig down 26 as fast as I dared, which was fast enough that no one came up behind me needing to pass my slow ass. And I even came upon a couple of Harley riders that I thought I was going to have to pass, but they turned off just before that became necessary. The only pass I ended up making was the farmer pulling a john-boat on a trailer behind his tractor...he noticed me coming and pulled way over for me and I blasted past him on a shallow uphill corner. Gave him a wave and a toot of the horn as I accelerated on by. Thanks Mr. Farmer.

By the way, for those who may be interested...26 is, as of today, in very good shape debris wise...very little gravel in any of the corners and I only had to dodge one pile of Amish road-apples. There were leaves all over the place, but since there hasn't been any rain the past few days, they were dry and not really a concern. Couple spots had walnuts, but they were mostly already smashed by previous vehicles.

So anyway, after 45 miles or so of twisty-turny motorcycle heaven, I got to the end of 26 in Marietta and promptly spotted David and Polly waiting patiently for me at the rendezvous. They said they'd only been waiting about 5 minutes, but I'd bet it was more like 10. Anyway, we shot the shit for about 20 mins or so then said our goodbyes and headed off on our separate paths. It was good to see David again and nice to meet Polly. Hopefully for him, Polly will stick around a while...she seems really nice and seems to really love riding pillion. Btw, did I mention that this was her first long ride of any kind? She didn't seem at all fazed by David's need for speed, which is going to be crucial for their relationship. He loves to ride long and hard and fast and she'll have to be good with that if they are to last. I wish them luck.

My plan for the ride home was to roll down to route 7, take it over to 50, which would get to to 33 and back to Lancaster. That lasted all of about 5 mins, as I got in the wrong lane at an intersection and ended up having to turn right instead of go straight to get to 7. Oh well, I've taken that route before, so I decided to find a different route home. Found my way to route 60, which parallels the Muskingum river all the way to Zanesville. So I took that out of Marretta. However, I knew I didn't want to take it all the way up to McConnelsville, because then I'd be taking the same route from there back home...so I cruised up 60 til I hit Beverly, the turned south down 339. Nice road...took it to Barlow, where I stopped for my second tank of gas of the day, then turned west on 550. 550 would be a very nice road, except for the fact that from Barlow to about Bartlett it's very wash-boardy...lots of those little pushed up ridges that just wanna rattle your teeth. I could have run it at 65-70 as far as curves go but found that 50-55 seemed to be the least rattly speed for my suspension.

After passing through Bartlett, the road surface improved immensely and the road got a lot more curvy. In fact, the last mile or so before 550 turns south as it joins 377, is downright twisty! Quite enjoyable. Once it turns south, 550 is gently curvy and well maintained....I think I was averaging about 65 through this part. This road ends just below Chauncy/The Plains, where it dumps you onto 33. Since I was getting somewhat tired, and my butt quite sore by this point, I jumped on to 33 and slabbed it towards home. Naturally, as is my custom when I'm out that way, I stopped off in Logan at the Millstone for some bbq pork rolls and 2 Blue Moons. That took up about 45 minutes, which my ass appreciated, then I hoped aboard Maggie for the final push home. I really like the stretch of 664 from Logan to Hide-away Hills road, so I took that and it was mercifully free of cages for once. I like to track my avg speed on that 10ish mile section and I was able to put up a 54 avg today. Not too bad, considering my best is a 55. From there its a hop skip and jump back over to 33 at Tarkiln Rd and then home.

All told today, I did about 260 miles, which includes the 7-8 mile round trip up to Ask for my bearing for the XR, which came in today (YAY!). And only about 30-40 of those miles were on slab. Throw in picture perfect weather and the beginning of the fall foliage color-change and you can't ask for a much better day on Ohio roads than that.

[Whitey1]

Originally Posted by sion

so, today was a most excellent day for me...allow me to explain:

So you are the guy that sends me all of those scammer emails about being held captive in Zimbabwe and need to hide money in my bank.

[GailCallsMeKarl]

Originally Posted by sion

so, today was a most excellent day for me...allow me to explain:

I'm just happy I'm not the only one that still says "most excellent"
Nice RR!

[buildit]

Originally Posted by Solace

Hey Luke, would you want to take the scenic route to the Garage Day? I want to go re-run some of the cool gravel roads and other stuff from last weeks Flint Ridge Road Enduro. We did a few muddy bits, rode across Wakatomika Creek (no bridge), and rode down into the ravine and over the Gregg Mill covered bridge. It was pretty cool.

We can hit some gravel roads heading south down to Crooksville and the garage Day. Want me to meet you at Iron Pony so we can ride together? I don't know of a lot of gravel roads between Columbus and Utica but once we get east of Utica it'll get fun.

Let me know if you do and I'll make it the plan. I'll show you this stuff and then you lead me next weekend on the Kids Ride down at Tar Hollow.

Later,
M

I think it depends more on what everyone else wants to ride thru. I'm good for anything that doesn't require carrying and extra oil filter for the Vstrom. There should be some fun gravel roads on the way to Crooksville. Haul Road comes to mind although it might also be more than some want to tackle on the big bikes.

[Whitey1]

Originally Posted by GailCallsMeKarl

I'm just happy I'm not the only one that still says "most excellent"
Nice RR!

You're losing coolness points.

[ArmyJoe]

Originally Posted by GailCallsMeKarl

I'm just happy I'm not the only one that still says "most excellent"

[sion]

Originally Posted by Whitey1

You're losing coolness points.

she has boobs...that trumps your coolness points

[Whitey1]

Originally Posted by sion

she has boobs...that trumps your coolness points

Shit, so do I.

[GailCallsMeKarl]

Originally Posted by Whitey1

You're losing coolness points.

CRAP! Really!? like how many?
I have boobs.
There....did I recoup some points with that one??

[GailCallsMeKarl]

Originally Posted by Whitey1

Shit, so do I.

LOL! Great minds.....(or maybe just drunk ones?)

[GailCallsMeKarl]

Originally Posted by ArmyJoe

Righteous!!!

[MeefZah]

Originally Posted by GailCallsMeKarl

"if I had legs like that, I'd be a pair of walking boobs"

Hmmmmmm........