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: