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.

Ride to Warsaw - By Way Of Rochester

I arrived at the mall parking lot early (forgot we left at 11:30AM, not 11:00AM) so I sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes waiting for someone to show up.  Memory is going, going, gone!  I wasn't as bad as a couple guys, who shall remain nameless, that came to the 11:30AM ride at 8:00AM, thinking it was Saturday, not Wednesday!  After saddling-up, we rode down south on the by-pass to meet Charlie, but for some reason, never got together.  Five of us rode north to lunch at Wabash Gardens in Wabash, Indiana:

We rode up to North Manchester from Wabash and turned west on Indiana 114 to ride up to Rochester.  We turned north in Rochester, on Indiana 25, and went north to Warsaw.  On the way to Warsaw we went through Mentone, Indiana.  "The Egg Breadbasket of the Midwest".  They have a large egg downtown to prove it:

Merle was back riding with us.  He can only see out of one eye and he thought I stopped to take a picture of the Dollar General Store, not seeing the egg:

We rode over to Warsaw and around the south edge of town, as I didn't want to try to ride through all the stoplights.  We rode east over to Indiana 13 and then south to North Manchester.  At North Manchester we stopped at "our home away from home", McDonald's, for ice cream:

After ice cream, it was on home.

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

I rode 152 miles.  The temperature was in the high 80s and humid.

Ride to Bridgeton, Indiana

Six of us rode down to Richard's restaurant, at Elwood, Indiana, this morning.  We ate breakfast before starting out on our ride to Bridgeton, Indiana.  Larry Miller had places to go so he went home from Richard's.

At Richard's in Elwood, Indiana.

 David Payne joined us today on his Honda Shadow


The five of us headed south to Bridgeton.

When we started riding I noticed that my GPS wasn't on and it is suppose to boot-up when the bike starts.  I had to do a reset as we rode along (push the "Plus" button and the "Power" button at the same time).  After the unit reset, all seemed well until we got to Lebanon where the "lady in the GPS" told me "when possible, make a U turn".  That's always a bad sign and it means "she's" lost.  I got it straightened out, but not before losing Billy and David.  I rode back and found them in the middle of Lebanon and we resumed our ride.

All was well until we got down near Raccoon Lake State Recreational Area.  When my GPS unit reset, it went to "factory settings", which is "Shortest Distance" on calculations.  We needed "Fastest Time", on calculations.  So, the next thing I knew, we were on gravel roads!  It may have been shortest distance, but in southern Indiana, that means going down roads that humans haven't traveled in a long time.  In all, we rode about 12 miles on loose gravel, but we eventually made it to Bridgeton.

I heard about the gravel roads, as I knew I would!  My theory is, motorcycles are meant to be ridden almost anywhere, gravel roads included.  In the early days all roads were dirt and gravel.  So there! :)

We ate lunch at The General Store before walking over to the covered bridge.

 We walked through the bridge and it's a beauty.

Here's the dam and water flowing below the bridge.

Here's a link to the Bridgeton website:

http://www.bridgetonindiana.com/

Be sure to click on "History" at the top of the web page.

Here's from the Wikipedia article on Bridgeton:
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The first Bridgeton Covered Bridge was a 245-foot (75 m) long double span Burr Arch bridge built in 1868 by a crew led by J.J. Daniels. The bridge was closed to traffic in 1968. The first Bridgeton Covered Bridge was burned by an arsonist on April 28, 2005.

The second Bridgeton Covered Bridge was built in 2006 by local citizens and the state of Indiana.
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We left Bridgeton and rode to Rockville where we bought gas.  Then on to Frankfort for ice cream, and home.

Before we left Bridgetown I gave my "we have to stay close together to get through all the stoplights" speech.  I was so happy, and gave a fist pump, when we rode all the way through Crawfordsville, with all of us making it through town, without losing anyone.  Crawfordsville is a hard town to ride through, together, as there's so many stoplights and turns.  We always get separated there, but not today!  To be honest, there were only five of us and with any more riders, it would have probably been a different story.

Rode today:

Billy Niverson
Larry Miller
John Nave
Art Adrianson
David Payne
Larry Davis

I rode 292 miles and had a nice time.  It was a little warm, 84 degrees, but nice weather.

Gravel roads ridden.

Total trip ridden.

Greenville, Ohio

Five of us rode over to Greenville, Ohio, today.  We ate lunch at The Mill Street Restaurant, in Gaston, and then I led the group east, out of Gaston.  We rode over to US 35 and IN 28 and went east to Albany, Ridgeville, and Union City, Indiana.  We picked up Ohio 571 at Union City, Ohio and went east to Greenville, Ohio.

Half of Union City is in Indiana and half is in Ohio.  Just before we arrived in Union City, I stopped and took this picture of a wind turbine:

I had never seen a two-bladed wind turbine before, only three-bladed.  It looked odd to me, like a big airplane propeller.


I read here: http://www.winchesternewsgazette.com/articles/2010/02/13/news/doc4b7576cf3ede8484137533.txt that there will be two of them.

Jerry Cole bought gas in Union City, Ohio and a man at the station said the wind turbines have not worked, so far.

When we arrived at Greenville, Ohio we were greeted with a "round-about" in the center of the city.  I wasn't sure how they worked but caught on quickly that everyone yields to go in, and then you get out where you want.  I've read that "round-abouts" are very common in Europe, especially England, but I've not ran into very many here in the U.S.  The "Circle", in Indianapolis, is one of the few I've seen.  Of course, we all got separated going through the "round-about", but we got back together at the stop lights.

Greenville is another pretty Ohio town.  Ohio seems blessed with pretty towns.

We then headed north on US 127 to Celina, where we stopped at our favorite restaurant for pie and coffee.  They are still working on Ohio 29/IN67 so we detoured down south on Ohio 49 to Fort Recovery, Ohio and then went west on Ohio 119 to IN 26 back to Portland, and then on home.  I got home around six PM.  A very nice ride and a beautiful day to ride.  I told one of the guys that today is a "blessing".  Temperatures in the high 70s, clear skies,  and little wind.

Rode today: Larry Miller, John Nave, Jerry Cole, Bill Niverson, and myself.

202 miles rode in about seven hours.