Anderson Power Sports Ride..

Eight of us met at Jackie's Family Restaurant for a ride today.  Phil Smith rode his riding mower down to see us off.  After making sure Phil had enough gas to get back home, the other seven of us took off for Chism's Corner (at the intersection of IN 13 and US 22&35) and lunch.

I had planned to lead the guys on a ride around Greentown, and environs, but Billy said he was going to Anderson Power Sports, in Anderson, to order a clutch pack for his T-Rex. I decided we needed to go with him so we could look at all the motorcycles at the store.  I'd never been there before but some of the guys, Larry Burke being one, had bought bikes there.  Off we went to Elwood on IN 13, over east on IN 28 to Alexandria, then down south on IN 9 to Anderson.  The rest of us looked at bikes while Billy ordered his clutch parts at Anderson Power Sports.  They have a lot of outdoor equipment and four brands of motorcycles.

We decided it was time for ice cream, after looking at all those motorcycles, so I led the riders to Gaston and then on to Upland and Ivanhoe's.  The ice cream was great on a hot summer day (95 degrees).  It really wasn't that bad as long as we kept moving and didn't stand outside too long.

We split up for home, after ice cream, and I got home about 4:00PM.  It was a very nice ride and I think we all had a nice time.  Something to remember this winter when the snow is flying! :)

I rode 106 miles.

Riding today was Larry Burke, Larry Miller, Larry Davis (do you see a pattern?:), Jerry Cole, John Nave, Charlie Thomas, and Billy Niverson.

Jerry Cole rode his new (to him) 2006 H.D. Roadking that replaced the H.D. Fatboy that was wrecked.  Really nice bike.

                                                                   Click to enlarge:

Ride video:

Click to Play:

Breakfast at Elwood

So, be careful going over the railroad track on the east side of Elwood!  It's gotten worse!  I came clear off my seat this morning going over it.  We were riding to Richards Restaurant for breakfast.  Merle Combs, Larry Davis, Jack McClain, and Billy Niverson rode down to eat. 

Who should be at Richard's eating breakfast but Larry Burke and his daughter.  They were there with Larry's Christian riding group before going to Indianapolis for a charity "ride around the 500 mile racetrack" event.

Jack went home after breakfast.  I rode north with Merle and Billy, on IN 13 from Elwood, for a couple of  miles and then I turned off east and north on country roads until I got north of Sweester and then turned east for home.

I like to ride out in the country (slowly) and look at the scenery.  This time of year it's interesting to see how the crops are doing.  This spring was so wet that some farmers didn't get their crops planted until late and a few fortunate ones got theirs in early.  I saw some field corn over by Swayzee with ears on it that had silks out already!  But some corn is only three feet tall.  It's been a weird spring.

Montpelier..

Merle lead us to Montpelier were we ate at "Uncle Leo"s Cafe":

We then road over to Warren where Larry Burke led us along the Salamonie River on Belleville Road.  We left the river, after a few miles, and road up near Huntington where we picked up Division Road south of Huntington.  We road west on Division Road over to Andrews and then west on East Blue Star Hi- way to Lagro.  Out of Lagro we rode "Old 24" to Wabash.  After having a cup of coffee at Wabash Gardens, we rode home.

Riding today: Merle Combs, Larry Burke, Charles Thomas, John Nave, Larry Miller, Larry Davis, and Billy Niverson.

I rode 109 miles and had a pleasant ride in upper 70's temperatures.

Short Ride today..

Only had four show up at Jackie's today.  Merle Combs, Billy Niverson, Jack McClain, and myself, Larry Davis. We left Jackie's at 8:00AM and rode to The Mill Street Inn in Gaston, Indiana.  After breakfast Jack rode home and I rode with Merle and Billy to Portland where I turned off for home.  I didn't want to ride much farther so I headed off home.  I assume Merle and Billy went on to Berne before they rode home as that was the destination.

I rode 103 miles today and that was plenty for me.

No GPS (I'm in between a Garmin Zumo 220 and a Garmin Zumo 660 like I had on the Harley-I miss the MP3 player in the 660).  No pictures as I forgot my camera.  I was late last Saturday morning so I left the house at "0 dark 30" this morning (7:00AM) so I would be there on time and I was half awake.  Merle said we were going to Gaston for breakfast and for the life of me, I couldn't think where Gaston was!

Been Away For Awhile..

I've not blogged for over a month as I lost interest, for awhile, in blogging and riding.  I've traded bikes and that's restored my interest in riding (and blogging follows) so I'll try to record "The Over The Hill Gang's" adventures, again.

We're meeting at Jackie's Restaurant in Gas City, now.  Same time--7:00 AM on Saturdays and 11:30 AM on Wednesdays.

Only five of us, yesterday, at lunch -July 6th, 2011.  Four of us rode to Wabash, after lunch, and visited the Wabash County Historical Museum.  One of the reasons I wanted to go there is Brant's (Wabash Harley Davidson dealer) has a display of old motorcycles there in the museum. It's a nice museum considering how small it is.  Here's a link: http://wabashmuseum.org/

After the museum, we rode out east of Wabash looking for the Canonball Race Track.  The track was a "big deal" back in the 30's and 40's as many races were held there.  It's now called "The Cannonball Motorcycle Club" and they race dirt bikes and four-wheelers.

Here's a link: Cannonball Motorcycle Club 

We found it without too much difficulty but there was a "No Trespassing " sign at the entrance so we turned around in the driveway and left.  Some of us turned around in the gravel with more difficulties than others! :)

Next, I found the  Hanging_Rock_National_Natural_Landmark along the Wabash River.  We got off the bikes and sat in the shade in a wooden deck-like structure that's right on the river.  It is very peaceful there in a pretty setting.  We didn't see a "hanging rock" there, but it was nice place.

I tried to find a McDonald's, on my GPS, near Huntington, with no success, so we rode to "The Country Post Inn" on the north side of Huntington and had coffee and pie.  As it was after 3:00PM we rode on home.

What a nice ride!  I really enjoyed myself and I hope the other three riders did, too.  No camera today so no pictures.

Here's what our ride looked like:

                                              (Click to enlarge)

At lunch today were Billy Niverson (who, along with Charlie, put me on the trail of a cheap cell phone deal), Charlie Thomas, John Nave (who, I think , fell in love with an old truck we saw at the Wabash Museum), Art Adrianson (who's suffering from a bad back and can't ride), and myself, Larry Davis.

I rode 96.8 miles on my new 2011 Honda CBR250R bike.

Ride to Adams Mill

We left Marion at about 11:30 for a ride-to-lunch at Burlington, Indiana.  Eleven of us today for a nice, warm, ride.  We rode IN 18 west to Converse, Bennett Switch, Young America, and turned south on IN 29 to Burlington. 

We dismounted and had lunch at the Dinner Bell:

After lunch we rode west to Adams Mill:

After studying the water going over and through the dam, we rode through the covered bridge that is north of the mill.

We rode west over to Cutler, Indiana and then south on IN 75 to Frankfort, IN.  Upon leaving Frankfort we once again had "separation problems" and somehow lost three of our riders.  We stopped as soon as we noticed but alas, it was too late.  Nine of us continued on until we lost Jack McClain, who had to go home for a previous engagement.  Eight of us continued to Tipton were we stopped at McDonald's for ice cream.  We rode east from Tipton to Elwood and then home.

A map of our trip:

Click on map to enlarge.

Riding today were Merle Combs, Larry Davis, Larry Burke, John Nave, Larry Miller, Jack McClain, Jerry Cole, Art Adrianson, Bill Maynard, Charles Thomas, and Billy Niverson.  The last three were "lost" in Frankfort.

I rode 167 miles and it was warm (90 degrees) and little wind.

Nice Ride to Cammack Station

Eight of us left town on a ride to Cammack Station for lunch.  That's in Cammack, Indiana...  I know, I had never heard of it either.  Cammack is located 2.5 miles north of Yorktown and 2.6 miles north west of Muncie.  There's a restaurant there that looks like a old time gas station with gas pumps out front.  They have a 1940-1950 theme to the place with old gas pumps and globes inside.  Good food and 1950's music playing while you eat.

 Click on picture to enlarge:

 Click on videos below to view on YouTube:

Outside Cammack Station

After leaving the restaurant we stopped at the nearest gas station so Billy Niverson could buy gas.  We left the gas station and rode on in close to Muncie.  Our intrepid leader, Merle, lead us around Muncie and we headed east. At this time Art rode up to the front to tell us Billy was no longer riding with us.  After much palavering, we decided to ride on and see if Billy joined us--he didn't.

Just a gentle reminder:  We should join the ride with a full gas tank and an empty bladder, not the other way round!

We proceed to ride over every road in Delaware County with potholes until we got to IN 36.  We rode IN 36 to US 27 and then on to Mrs. Wicks Pie Store in Winchester, Indiana.  Of course, being old men, we forgot that Mrs. Wicks Pie Store closes at 2:00PM on Saturdays and it was 2:30PM.  We'd been there before under similar circumstances but had forgotten (that's the old men part).  We decided to go back to US 27 where there was a McDonald's to get a cup of coffee and pie.

We rode on to Portland where Dave bought gas.  We came home from Portland on IN 26.


I rode 154 miles.

Riding today was Bill Maynard (a new rider), Billy Niverson (at least part way), the three Larry's (Larry Burke, Larry Miller, and myself, Larry Davis), Art Adrianson, David Payne, and our leader, Merle Combs.

Click on above map to enlarge.


P.S.  Just so you know, you can comment on this blog (I'd really like that) using your Gmail account.  You can setup a Gmail account here: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=mail&continue=http://mail.google.com/mail/e-11-1162a682c5f753bbc47e48f9cc338a-805a157ddbcce2d189a97de8fa4018ee074af1ac&type=2

Even if you never use Gmail, having an account will allow you to log on to lots of internet sites.

When is it going to warm up!

No one rode Wednesday as it was too cold.  Six of us ate at Gabriel's.  Merle shot this video:

I thought I would add videos to this blog as we ride this Spring, Summer, and Fall.  We'll see how it goes.

Meeting today were Merle Combs,  Billy Niverson, Charles Thomas, Larry Burke, John Nave and myself, Larry Davis.

Hopefully we will ride next meeting but the forecast is not good.

Lunch at Gabriel's

Too cold and rainy for a ride today so we just ate lunch at Gabriel's Pancake House and then went home.

Attending today was Steve Smith, Charles Thomas, Billy Niverson, Larry Burke, John Nave, and myself, Larry Davis.

Most of the world problems were discussed and just so you know, solutions were found for most of the problems!

It looks like we will ride Wednesday as the forecast is for sun!

Ride to Roann

There were nine of us at lunch today. We ate lunch at Gabriel's Pancake House, as usual, and six of us rode north to Roann through Wabash. We rode through the covered bridge at Roann and then headed west on IN 16 to Denver (Denver, Indiana that is!) It was time for a break so we rode to McDonald's north of Peru on U.S. 31. After a cup of coffee, we left the McDonalds/truck stop and rode to the exit where it enters US 31.  The light was red and we must have sit there for 5-6 minutes with no light change.  I tried a "trick" I'd heard about, which was to turn off the motorcycle engine and then restart the engine to get the traffic light to change.  The idea is, that starting the engine over the pick-up loop in the pavement will produce an electromagnetic pulse (current to the starter) that will trigger the pick-up.  I restarted my bike three times ( I couldn't see any pick-up ring in the pavement so I don't know where the rings were) and I don't know if the last time did it or the traffic light timer finally "saw the light" (pun intended) but the light changed.  Meanwhile, Merle suggested I turn right (I was leading the ride) so we could get away from the stuck traffic light.  No sooner I had turned right than the traffic light changed.  So, I rode north to Rochester while the rest of the guys went across US 31 and turned south. I turned around at the first "cross over" and rode south, where we got back together.

On a side note:  I read that some states were passing a law that states if you're riding a two wheel vehicle and you are sitting at a traffic light for over five minutes, if the way is clear, you may proceed.  I believe Indiana needs such a law.  There isn't enough metal in most bikes to trip traffic lights.

Anyway, we rode home on U.S. 31 to IN 218 to IN 19 and home by way of Converse.

It was a nice ride to break the winter chill. It got up to about 60 degrees and with it being sunny, made for a nice ride.

Riding today: Merle Combs, John Nave, Jerry Cole, Larry Davis, Larry Miller, and Charles Thomas.

I rode 91 miles.

                                                                        Ready to ride!

Off For The Winter

I'll be off the blog until next spring.  No new entries until it warms up!

Ride for Pie!

Seven of us rode today for pie!  We rode over to Rachel's Restaurant, at Alexandria,  for lunch.  It's a nice place to eat with good food and prices.  Merle took us on back roads to skirt around Anderson and to eventually get us down ond over to Winchester.  I had to stop once as all the farmers are getting the last of the corn and soybeans out of the fields and they are really raising a lot of dust.  I started sneezing and my nose started running so I had to stop and get it all under control (I just got over a rotten cold so that didn't help).  After I caught back up with Merle we rode some pretty roads toward Winchester.  Daryl stopped to buy gas without letting anyone know so we got separated for awhile.  We finally got back together and rode on into Mrs. Wicks Pie Shop in Winchester.  I had apple-walnut pie (warmed up) with a dip of ice cream on top and a drizzle of caramel syrup over it all.  Yum yum!  Some of the guys had peach pie while others had cherry-berry pie.  It was all good.  After pie, we rode to Portland, Hartford City, and then home.

A nice ride on a warm sunny day in the 60s and 70s.  I rode 162 miles.

Riding today (in order of riders): Merle Combs, Larry Davis, John Nave, Jerry Cole, Art Adrianson, Darrel Royal, and Billy Niverson.

Chism's Corner for Breakfast

We went to Chism's Corner for breakfast, Saturday.  Five of us rode over there--corner of US 35&22 and IN 13.  Saw my niece and her husband in there along with my Great Grand Niece that I'd not seen before.  David Simpson, who I went to high school with, came over and said "hello".  Seemed like "Old Home Week" at Chism's as I saw a couple other people I knew.  We rode from there over to Knox Chapel Cemetery (north east of Point Isabel) to check on my Grandmother's grave (I promised my Mother I'd check on it once in awhile and we were near the cemetery.)  It looked in great shape, so we headed north up around Mississnewa Reservoir and beyond.  Merle Combs and Larry Miller left us at Peru and rode back home as they had things to do.  John Nave, Billy Niverson, and I rode along the Wabash River to near Logansport where we crossed the river and went in to Logansport on Division Road and then High Street.  High Street has many older homes with great architecture.  I really enjoyed looking at the older homes along the way.  We headed north to Rochester and stopped in at The Twiddle Dee Cafe across from the Fulton County Airport.  Nice lunch and nice people run the place. After lunch we rode over to the airport as I wanted to check on a friend that's based there with Parkview Hospital's helicopter.  The helicopter was out on a run so no one was there.  Since the sky was getting dark, we decided to call it a day and head home.  It was a nice little ride.  I rode 155 miles.

Riding today were Larry Miller, John Nave, Billy Niverson, Merle Combs, and Larry Davis.

Ride to The U.S. Air Force Museum

The long awaited ride to The U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio was accomplished yesterday, Tuesday, 14th Sept., 2010.  Seven of us assembled at The Outpost Restaurant for our ride.  Phil Smith came out to see us off.  The seven riding were Larry Burke, Larry Miller, Larry Davis, Merle Combs, Billy Niverson, Jerry Cole, and John Nave:

Here's the route:

Pictures I took:

The guys looking at some of the exhibits.

P-40 Warhawk

British Spitfire

F-22 Raptor

Cockpit of F-117 Nighthawk

P-51 Mustang

We had a really nice ride.  I rode 285 miles and enjoyed every bit of it.  Great weather.  All the walking in the museum got us all tired but still very nice.

Rained out!

Once again we were rained out on Saturday.  Larry Miller and Daryl Royal rode to breakfast but the other four of us drove our cars.  It turned out that it started raining as we ate, so driving turned out to be a good choice.  Before we could eat our wait-person dropped our meals on the floor behind us and gave us a start.  It turned out O.K. as three of the six meals were saved and only three of us had to wait for our breakfast to be made over again.  Of course the three that had meals waited on we three who did not.  NOT! :)

Attending were John Nave, Daryl Royal, Larry Miller, Billy Niverson, Merle Combs, and me, Larry Davis.

It was decided that the group would ride to The National Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio next Tuesday, the 14th of September.  We are going to leave The Outpost Restaurant (IN 26& IN 9 near Fairmount) at 8:00AM.  Anyone wanting to eat at The Outpost should be there at 7:00AM or sooner as "the train leaves the station" at 8:00AM sharp.

We'll ride down US 35 to Interstate 70 and then go east on Interstate 70 to Ohio 4&235 north of Dayton.  We'll then ride southwest on Ohio 4& 235 to Harshman Road.  Then southeast on Harshman Road to Springfield Street where we will turn northeast on Springfield Street to Bong Street then southwest on Bong Street to Spaatz Street.  Then southeast on Spaatz Street to the museum.

About 126 miles and about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

We'll try to stop near Richmond for a bathroom and fuel break.

It should be a "fun ride"!  Hope to see everyone there!

Decatur Hi-Way Airport

Seven of us rode to Nick's Restaurant in Roanoke, IN for lunch.  Nick's is becoming one of our favorite places to eat as they have good food, fast service, and good prices.  After lunch Merle led us over to I-469 around Ft. Wayne and over to roads along the Maumee River.  We had a nice ride along country roads and traveled through Woodburn, Monroeville, and down to Decatur.  I asked Merle to go over to the Hi-Way  Airport buildings at Decatur as I wanted the guys to know about the place.

The Hi-Way Airport, outside Decatur, was a very important airport as many of the famous pilots of the 1930s had landed there on their record-setting coast-to-coast flights.  The airport was owned by Josephine Richardson and her brother.  Josephine was a member of The Ninety-Nines, an association of female pilots.

Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-Nines

Leon Garrett and I flew our Challenger ultralight airplanes there in 2001 and landed.  The buildings are still there but the runway is now a cornfield.  Sad.

The "gang" in front of the old airport building:

Here's some information about the airport and Mrs. Richardson's obituary:

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Decatur Hi-Way Airport serves Decatur and Adams County and is owned by Josephine Richardson. The turf runway extends for 2562 feet. The facility is at an elevation of 842 feet at a distance of about 3 miles east of Decatur.



News-Banner Obituaries, July 1-7, 2003

July 1, 2003

Josephine M. Richardson, 88

Owner and operator of Decatur Hi-Way Airport, Josephine M. Richardson, 88, of rural Decatur, died at 8:15 p.m. Monday, June 30, at Adams County Memorial Hospital in Decatur.

Mrs. Richardson also was a scientific massage and physical therapist.

She was a member of Crossroads Church, Silver Wings, Three Rivers Ninety-Niners and past member of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association.

She was born in Chicago, Ill., to James and Helen Zivider Ivetich. Her marriage on Feb. 15, 1959 and was Alden Wesley Richardson, who died March 15, 1994.

Surviving are one niece and one nephew. A brother and a sister are deceased.

Services will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Crossroads Church in Decatur with Rev. Anthony Stidam officiating. Interment will be in Covington Memorial Gardens at Fort Wayne.

Visitation times will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Zwick and Jahn Funeral Home in Decatur and Thursday at the church for one hour prior to services.

Memorials to the donor's choice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I told the guys she was in her nineties but she was 88 years old when she died.


After we left the airport we went to McDonald's in Decatur for ice cream.  We then rode home through Berne (saw the new clock tower but didn't get a picture) and then home through Montpelier.

I rode 166 miles.  It was hot (90 degrees) and windy.  Nice ride, thanks Merle.

Seven who rode were Merle Combs, Jerry Cole, Larry Miller, John Nave, Art Adrianson, Charlie Thomas, and myself, Larry Davis.

Columbia City Ride

Six of us rode to Huntington's Country Post Inn for breakfast Saturday morning.  After breakfast, Merle led five of us up to Columbia City.  We then road over to Warsaw and back down to North Manchester.  We had lunch at North Manchester and after riding downtown, we rode through the covered bridge on the south side of town.  After riding south awhile, we ran into a group of motorcycles riding north--maybe 25 to 50 bikes.  I don't know if they were coming out of Wabash or where.  We rode to Andrews and along the Wabash River for awhile, before heading home on IN105.



I rode 156 miles and had a nice but tiring time (I had to take a nap when I got home. :)

Riding today was Merle Combs, John Nave, Billy Niverson, David Payne, Jack McClain, and Larry Davis.

Mrs. Wick's Ride

Ten of us rode over to Gaston for lunch.  After lunch we decided to burn off some of the calories we'd picked up by pushing Art Adrianson's Harley through the streets of Gaston.  Actually, Art's Harley wouldn't start and after a few attempts at push starting, Art took the battery connections off and scraped the corrosion off the terminals.  His bike started right up after that.  Good thing, as we old men were running out of "gas" during the push starting attempts! :)

We were joined today by Derrill Royal and his Honda Night Hawk:

 Derrill, at 83 years young, is our oldest rider. 

(Edit-I'm sad to say that Derrill pasted away this spring.  It was a privilege to have known him.)

Also joining us today was Jack McClain and his Honda Goldwing:

We were especially happy to see Jack as he's been going through some health issues and is doing better.  We hope he can join us more often.

Here's a picture of our vehicles parked outside the Gaston Restaurant:

Three riders went home after lunch and seven of us continued onward to the east side of Indiana on IN 28.  We rode through Albany and Ridgeville to US 27 where we turned south to Winchester and Mrs. Wick's Pie Shop.  After pie and coffee, we headed west back around Muncie and home.

131 miles today.  Beautiful, sunshiny, day!

Riding today were:  Charley Thomas, Larry Davis, Larry Burke, Larry Miller, Derrill Royal, John Nave, Jack McClain, Merle Combs, Art Adrianson, and Billy Niverson.

Milford and Syracuse Ride

Merle Combs called and wanted to ride so he and Billy Niverson came over to my house and we rode up IN 15 to Milford and then over on County Road 1300 to Syracuse.  We stopped at McDonald's in Syracuse for coffee and then rode on back home.  It was a nice little ride on a sunny day.

Geist Reservoir Ride

Nine of us met today for our ride to Geist Reservoir.  We rode south from Marion to Rachael's Cafe on the south side of Alexandria, Indiana for lunch.  Nice meal and good service.

Merle Combs rode his new Harley Ultra Limited:

and Charlie Thomas rode a new Suzuki M50 Boulevard cruiser motorcycle instead of his scooter:

Three riders left for home and six of us rode on down to Frankton where we ran into road construction.  We then had to ride on new chip-seal for about a mile.  Not too bad.  We went south through Lapel and Fortville on our way to Geist Reservoir.  I have all the McDonald's restaurants in my GPS database so I asked my GPS for the nearest one.  It then guided us through two housing additions and said the McDonald's was in the middle of the second addition.  Of course, it wasn't.  So I entered "Fast Food" and the nearest McDonald's came up two miles away in Lawrence, IN.  We went there and guess what?  There really was a McDonald's at that location!  It's a "crap shoot" with my GPS, if things are located where it says they are.  We then traveled across Geist Reservoir and west along 96th Street to I-69.  We went south on I-69 for a couple of miles and turned off to go around Metropolitan Airport.  I'd never been in that part of Indianapolis so I got to see the airport and several golf courses that were new to me.  We traveled over to IN 37 and north to Elwood were we bought gas.  Then on home.

Riding today were Larry Burke, Larry Miller, Larry Davis, Merle Combs, Jerry Cole, John Nave, Art Adrianson, Charles Thomas, and Kenneth Royal.

Nice, warm, day with blue skies.  I rode 144 miles.

(Click to Enlarge)

Ride With The Governor....Well, Not Really!

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and a few of his friends (over 500 motorcyclist) rode north from Indianapolis to Brookston, Indiana where they stopped for lunch.  The group later rode to Plymouth, Indiana. 

Above:  Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels rides his Harley Davidson Fat Boy into the parking lot of Pioneer Middle School parking lot at Brookston, Indiana.

Above: The Governor (green hat, blue shirt) getting his picture taken (with the lady in the white top and black vest).

Above: The parking lot at Pioneer Middle School in Brookston, Indiana was overflowing with over 500 motorcycles.

John Nave, Billy Niverson, and myself, Larry Davis, joined the group of riders at Brookston where I shot this video.  The three of us rode on to Fowler and  Kentland, Indiana, before returning home.












(This video was taken with a HD camcorder so you can watch in HD by clicking on 720p or 1080p once the video starts.  Click on the "up arrow" below the "YOU" in You Tube.)


Footnote: I say in the video that "about one forth of the riders are women".  Actually, it's about one in ten.

The riders continued coming in, but I quit taping after six minutes as I was tired of holding the camera.  I should have bought a tripod with me.

The ride was a little "spur of the moment" so I wasn't fully prepared.  I should have invited more of our riders, and done so sooner, but I wasn't sure if I was going to ride over there.  I apologize to those I forgot to ask or asked too late.

Here's the route we rode. It's a good one to see all the wind turbines.  West on IN 18 to Brookston (where the wind turbines start) to Fowler, then up to Kentland.  Back east on US 24 to Wolcott and then south on US 231 back to IN 18. 


(Click on the picture below to see a larger picture of the route)

We use to ride all the way to Fowler to see the wind turbines/windmills.  Then, as they built more of them, we rode to I-65 and saw them.  Now, you can see them before you get to Brookston.  Nearly 900 are planned.  That would make it one of the largest wind farms in the world.

August 13th, 2010.  (Friday the 13th) Temperature was 96 degrees.  I rode 226 miles on this ride.

Ride to Clear Lake

I saw Clear Lake on a map and decided to set up a ride to include a visit.  Clear Lake is in the extreme NE section of Indiana and I had never been up there.  We rode to The Outpost Restaurant near Fairmount for breakfast.  After breakfast, six of us headed north.  We rode up IN 3 to I-469 around Ft. Wayne and exited on IN 37 north to Harlan, Indiana.  Not knowing that Harlan was having a parade, Saturday, we rode right into another parade.  I say "another" as this was our third parade we "involuntarily" rode in.  Actually, the parade had not started yet, but it felt like a parade as traffic was moving slowly and hundreds of people were lining the streets as we crept though town.  The horses and buggies had already ridden through so there were many "deposits" to dodge as we made our way through town.  For such a small town, they had many more people lining the streets than I would have thought possible.  Larry Miller had told me he was going to just ride a few hours with us and when he saw the "parade", he turned and headed home.  We rode on over into Ohio to Hicksville for a coffee break:

Hicksville McDonald's

Hicksville was preparing for a parade but it had not started yet:

Main Street Hicksville, Ohio

I'd planned on going due north into Michigan but a couple of riders didn't have their helmets with them so I decided to head for Angola for "gas and gas".  Lunch and fuel.  We rode to Angola, Indiana to McDonald's, of course.  After buying fuel I decided to head west, but then changed my mind, and decided to ride northeast to Clear Lake.  Clear Lake is a very pretty lake with many sailboats and water skiers:

Close up:

The guys parked while I took pictures:

After we rode half way around Clear Lake, we headed west.  We rode on some very nice roads all the way to Orland, Indiana.  We stopped in Orland and I programmed my GPS for the quickest was to Columbia City as I wanted to head south and go home.  For some reason, my GPS took us south and then east to I-69 and south on I-69.  We got off I-69 at the US 6 exit (they were doing rode construction on I-69) and rode to Garrett for ice cream.  We then rode south to Columbia City, Huntington, and home.  I think the reason my GPS took us off secondary roads (the ones we like to ride) and onto the Interstate was the mode was set on "Motorcycle" and not "Scooter" where I usually have it set.  In "Scooter" mode it won't take you on Interstate Highways.

We had a nice time and ride.  I rode 291 miles

Riders today were: Larry Burke, Larry Miller, John Nave, Billy Niverson, Art Adrianson, and myself.

Close up map:

 

Overall map:

Short Ride In The Rain

We started out on our ride with great trepidation as we all thought it would rain.  We stopped after a short ride out of the Mall parking lot and put on our rain gear.  All but John, who didn't have his gear with him.  Off to Ugalde's Family Restaurant at Warren for breakfast we rode.  I wanted to go someplace different, for breakfast, and the place at Warren sounded like it would fill the bill.  We had a nice breakfast and it started to sprinkle just as we left the building.

I planned on riding along the river from Andrews west to Wabash and if it didn't rain, I thought we could ride the Wabash river to Peru.  I thought perhaps riding slow along the river, in the rain, would be better than out on the highway, especially under the trees.  As we rode along west on IN 124 it started raining harder and harder.  As we went North on IN 9 toward Huntington, it got even worse.  I asked John how he was doing when we stopped at the stoplight at Huntington and he said he was ready to go home.

Unknown to me, Billy had "abandon ship" when we got to IN 9 and went home.  I can't imagine riding in the T-Rex in a heavy rain is much fun.  It's pretty open and the rain would come right into the cockpit.  John and Art Adrianson turned and went home while Art Heer, Larry Miller, and I contiuned on down US 24 to turn off at Andrews.  The three of us "rode the river" until the rain became so heavy I couldn't see anymore (my glasses were wet on the back and front plus fogging up) and I decided to call it a day.  I followed my new GPS (Gamin Zumo 660) trough the countryside back to IN 105, and then south to IN 9, and on home.  Thanks to the GPS I never get lost and can see which roads to follow to get back home, even in heavy rain.

The sad part of the story was that I was only home for about and hour, the skies cleared, and we had clear skies the rest of the day.  I had looked forward to a full day of riding, as I'm sure some of the other guys had, also.  Oh well, there's always next time.

Riding today were Art Adrianson, Art Heer, Larry Miller, John Nave, Billy Niverson, and myself.

P.S.  Thanks for the breakfast, John!

I only rode 76 miles and it was miserable.

Adam's Mill Revisted

We rode over to Burlington to "The Dinner Bell" for lunch.  There were six of us including Art Heer:

Art is on the left and Charley Thomas on the right.

It springled rain a little while we were eating, not much, just enough to "spot" the bikes.  We rode over to Adam's Mill after eating.  We were surprised to see the dam had washed away sometime over the winter or spring.

It looked like they had poured concrete over earth to form the dam and the earth had washed away under the concrete.  Without support from the earth, the concrete collapsed and washed away.

Billy Niverson walked out on the dam and "inspected" it:

 
Art Heer gave it a look, also:

We rode through the covered bridge, that is there, and then on home.  It was very hot--the thermometer at The Via Credit Union said 95 degrees so it was just as well we made a short ride.

Riding today: John Nave, Billy Niverson, Art Heer, Charley Thomas, Larry Burke, and myself.

I rode 135 miles and had a nice time.

P.S. The food at the Dinner Bell sure was good, especially since Larry Burke paid for my meal! :)

Ride to Roanoke

Seven of us rode to Roanoke to eat:

and rode up to my son's house, in Ft.Wayne, to surprise him with a picture of us sitting in front of his house:

My son, my daughter-in-law, and my granddaughter are vacationing at their place at Long Lake so I thought I'd surprise them.  After finding our way out of their subdivision, we rode home.

Riding today were John Nave, Jerry, Cole, Larry Burke, Charley Thomas, Larry Miller, Billy Niverson, and myself.

Hagerstown

Larry Burke led six of us down to The Sunshine Cafe, in Muncie, Indiana.

After a great breakfast, we rode down south to Prairie Creek Reservoir and rode about 2/3rds the way around the reservoir.  I led the group down south to Hagerstown (Dave Payne "peeled off" after about an hour to go home).  I knew there was to be an "Off To Oshkosh Fly-In" at Hagerstown next Tuesday, July 20, 2010, and thought there might already be some airplanes at the Hagerstown Airport.  There was one.  An N3 Pup with a VW four cylinder engine.  A very nice, light, aircraft.

  He took-off while we were there:

After we left the airport we went south to Interstate 70 and stopped at McDonald's for a senior coffee and an apple pie.

We then rode back up north to Farmland and Redkey on Indiana 1 to Indiana 26 where we turned west to Hartford City and on west to Upland.  We stopped at Ivanhoe's at Upland for ice cream.

It was near 90 degrees and all of us drank several glasses of ice water besides the ice cream.  We split-up at Ivanhoe's and rode home.

Riding today were:  Billy Niverson, Larry Miller, Larry Burke, David Payne, John Nave, and Larry Davis.

We rode about 177 miles and it was very nice.