2018 Ride to the Prairies of the Midwest (Iowa & Illinois)

Stafford to Gatlinburg. Have you ever been on a motorcycle trip wishing it would rain? The ambient temperature gauge on my 2006 Street Glide reads 100 degrees. It is hot and sunny. I could see the dark rain clouds ahead. I can see heavy rain falling in the distance. The cold rain showers me for a few short minutes. I immediately took shelter by stopping under a gas station pump canopy. I check my handy dandy weather radar phone app. The app shows more rain ahead. I put on my rain suit with the idea that the rain is not going to interrupt my ride. I am back on the road. The ambient temperature gauge fell to just below the 90 degree mark. The cold rain feels pretty good cooling my skin as it pelts against my rain suit. In less than ten minutes the sun appears. The clouds are gone. The sky is clear ahead. That ambient temperature gauge on my dash shoots back up to 100 degrees. I still have my rain suit on. I begin to think, that radar app has been accurate in the past. Where is the rest of the rain? I start to feel like a turkey baking in a plastic oven bag. All I see is blue skies ahead. Where is that rain? I’ve only been in the rain suit a short distance. I feel that it took longer to put on the rain suit than the time I spent wearing it in the rain. Should I take it off? Will it rain again as the weather radar app indicated? What if I took off the turkey oven bag...the rain suit? How long will it take me to dry off if it does rain again? I was suited up and ready for more rain. Baking in the rain suit I wanted a downpour so badly. I eventually stopped to get out of the rai suit. 

Great Smoky Mountains. 

My first stop was Gatlinburg Tennessee. During breakfast I did a map study plotting the day's ride. I was to navigate west making my way from Virginia to Iowa. I jotted down a few notes with a numbers direction indicators such as LT (left), RT (right), EAST, WEST in large enough writing for me to reference while navigating the mountains. I began the days ride enjoying the cool morning air as I rode thru the tunnel of trees in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I had the direction notes wedged to my gas tank for quick reference. I found the road leading to Clingman’s Dome. It is the highest point in Tennessee and the Appalachian Trail crosses it - so I had to go. I enjoy backpacking while not on the motorcycle and could not resist a short hike. So as usual, I deviated from the loosely planned route. I changed out my riding boots for my hiking shoes and walked up to the lookout known as Clingman’s Dome. Awesome site above the trees. 

 

I felt satisfied after the hike. I am back on the bike enjoying the twisty road thru the National Forest. I enjoyed the coolness of the shade and curves so much that I must have missed a turn. I was surprised to read a road sign that stated, “Asheville 10 miles.” I think to myself, how did I end up east of Gatlinburg and almost into North Carolina? Easy fix, I’ll avoid a U-turn and navigate west again. The minor detour was worth it when I recognized that the revised route took me to the “Tail of the Dragon.” It had been a few years since I rode this route. I’ve also taken a motorcycle safety course or two since then. I was stoked to be able use some of the new leaning skills from a sports bike course taken last year. So in my brain I was flying around the turns. Lifting my body off the seat pushing the bike upright more so I could take the curves faster and with more tire traction. I was getting the hang of it, moving off the seat to the left, then immediately to the right and so forth. The curves were coming faster and faster. I was feeling like a pro sports bike racer on my old Harley. Well, that was until I downshifted while leaning in a turn. The rear tire squealed sliding slightly to one side. It felt like I was sliding on a banana peel. Reality set in and now in my mind I was a weekend rider who was riding the curves much to fast on an old Harley. So I counted my blessings for keeping the motorcycle upright. I slowed down the rest of the way into Maryville, Tennessee. 

Brad will tell you that my bike needs service or breaks down during our annual rides. Well....It did. I arrived in the Tennessee town of Franklin. It is near Nashville. I stopped on a not so busy street to check the map. I needed to find a place to sleep. I searched for parks and hotels. Yes, I sleep in parks at times. I got back on the bike and it would not start. The battery was dead. I am in a no parking zone. It is dark. I pushed the bike around the corner to a better parking spot along the street. I am in downtown Franklin. No hotels near. I think that I should have learned to use that Uber App! Instead of calling a taxi to help me find a hotel, I contacted a new friend who I met running the Marine Corps Marathon the year prior. Surprisingly the new friend arrived in minutes. We decided that I’d go to a hotel and tackle the problem together the next morning. The next morning we went to my bike. Removed the battery and took it to the Harley dealership to get a new one. By the time we got back to my motorcycle the temperature was pretty hot. I put the new battery in the bike and it started immediately. Sounds simple - not. In order to access the battery I had to remove my seat. In order to remove the seat I had to take off my chopped tour pack. Lucky I had a tool kit with everything I needed. I need to add a short screw driver so I might not need to take off the tour pack next time. 

My new friend and I went to lunch in Nashville. We both ended up with parking tickets! 

Iowa. The next day, I met Brad near Burlington, Iowa. He was at Conesvilles, Iowa at the RedNeck Revival and Rally. Brad had already parked his camper and was making new friends. I rode the camp grounds observing the temporary residents. There was a paved drag strip with bleacher seating. Tent camping was on one side of the strip and RV type camping was on the other side. This was a motorcycle type rally and it had four wheeled vehicles to race down the track. The race participants are some awesome fearless people! I saw professional cars with nitro, professional motorcycle race bikes, every day riders racing their bikes, golf cart racing, ATVs racing and there was a picnic table that raced down the track. Yes, a picnic table. I got to ride it around the camp ground. It was pretty neat. There is a pole on it for entertainment too. I hear it is pretty popular at Conesville. 

Conesville Drag Strip - you can race your bike against yourself if you like. There is plenty of open track time before the competition begins. 

In addition to the drag strip I witnessed:

· That motorized picnic table was an automatic party where ever it went. 

· Mud bog. I saw a big tired truck get stuck and pulled out. There was a daily driver Ford Explorer that had the doors removed and it was first in the mud. I think the four rednecks inside had removed their clothes too. 

· There was a male and female dash or gash for cash event. It was a foot race thru the mud. The contestants were slipping and sliding to the finish. The prize was a bucket of money that was passed around the crowd for donations. Part of the donations went to a local charity. The runners were pretty smart. They avoided dirty laundry by taking off all their clothes before the mud run. Ha! 

· Zip Line at the main stage area. There was a large ten foot cylinder thingy laying near the end of the zip line. People were falling off the zip line bouncing on the soft cylindrical thingy. I heard a story that some broke their legs the year before so the height of the zip line was lowered. 

· Did I mention there was a drag strip? It was the main attraction! 

Next stop was Savanna, Illinois. 

The ride from Burlington, Iowa to Savanna, Illinois wasn’t far. We had a slight delay to fix the tire on the trailer Brad was using for his bike. We were at one shop to repair the tire but I ended up riding to another shop to get the new tire to be mounted on the rim that was at the other shop. I am scratching my head trying to remember how this happened. Regardless have a cool picture of the spare tire tied to my rear seat. 

In Savanna, we set up camp down the road from a well known place called Poopies Pub. We spend a few days exploring the small town along the Mississippi River. We frequented Poopies and the Iron Horse Saloon. The Iron Horse has a really neat museum in the back of the building. It also has a horse statue up front near the bar. That horse gets rode often with people dancing and having fun around it. Poopies Pub had a live band nearly every night we were there. We ate our meals there since it was close to camp. It rained there every day during our stay. Despite the rain we rode north to Dubuque, Iowa for lunch at Catfish Charlie’s. It rained the whole ride. So from Dubuque we rode west to the J&P Cycle mega store. Well it used to be a mega store. You can still order from the catalog but the brick and mortar (warehouse really) store has down sized. Brad and I both were soaking wet because our rain suits failed. I know my rain suit is about 12 years old with literally hundreds of miles of use. The set has hundreds of hours baking in my saddle bags too. So we were going to get new rain suits from J&P Cycles but there were none on display or in stock. A group of riders coming from Milwaukee had just wiped out their store inventory. So Brad had the idea to go to Walmart and get some water repellent spray - we did and it worked. 

Dutch Windmills at Fulton, Illinois. This Dutch Wind Mill is near the bank of the Mississippi River directly across from Clinton, Iowa. There is a museum to learn about the story of the wind mills and the town. It is worth the short detour if you are riding thru. There are some neat downtown small town shops too. We got some home made pie around the corner. 

Bike Repairs at Rock Falls, Illinois. After sampling all the homemade pies in Fulton, we decided to visit Workman Harley Davidson in Rock Falls Illinois. I lived near the area and the team at Workman’s has done much of the maintenance on my motorcycle. I continue to visit Workman’s during my rides for tires, brakes, and maintenance. This dealership is special because it is family operated and as a result has outstanding customer service - why else would I ride fourteen hours to get maintenance done? So I thought my clutch was failing. I wanted to get a mechanic to take a look at it. On the way, we stopped for gas and Brad’s bike would not start. His battery was dead! I think this was the first breakdown for Brad during our rides together. Brad had the idea that we could connect the pigtails for our battery tenders together to jump the batteries. We connected the wires with no success in starting his bike. We asked a gentleman in a pick up truck for a battery jump. Sounds easy but that seat had to be removed and we were wearing rain suits. Whew what an experience. Check out the pic of Brad. He had fun with the jumper cables! 

We arrived at Workman’s. Brad got a new battery. The mechanic came to talk to me - my clutch was in great condition. When the inspection cover was removed oil exploded out of the clutch side! There is normally four ounces of fluid on that side. The engine seals had blown. The excess fluid had made it difficult to shift into neutral. Luckily the bike warranty was still active. The bike stayed the night at the shop. I have been renewing my warranty since I purchased the motorcycle in 2005. I discovered that I could not renew the warranty for another term. The motor company stated the bike was over 12 years old and they would not issue another warranty for it. Perhaps it was my warranty history. I’ve used it as needed which was frequent. 

Once my bike was repaired Brad and I visited a place called Psycho Silo Saloon. It is located just south of I-80 near Langley, Illinois. It is a grain silo turned into a saloon. This is a unique place to see too if you find yourself traveling I-80 across Illinois. It continued to rain until we arrived in the parking lot at Psycho Silo. We noticed some tents set up for an event. Tables with center pieces and motorcycles on display under the large tents. We saw no people. In the parking lot, Brad was getting out of his rain suit and putting on a dry pair of jeans. He is standing beside his motorcycle in his underwear when two dozen cars pull in one after the other just as if they all convoyed together. The cars were loaded with people. It turns out the tents were set up for a wedding reception. There is Brad getting dressed beside his motorcycle! 

We stayed one more night in Illinois and headed home. I know it rained 100% of the time during the two days it took me to get back to Virginia. 

More photos to view are at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tKFeaVb5bgUPtbqZ9

2015 Ride: Tail of The Dragon, Shenandoah, Flight 93 Memorial, Que Creek Memorial, York Factory Tour

2015 Ride to the Tail of the Dragon, Smokey Mountains, Shenandoah Mountains, Flight 93 Memorial, Que Creek Mine Memorial, and York Factory Tour.

Our plan was to meet in Kentucky.  It was May 2015.  

This trip started on Memorial Day, the day after Rolling Thunder in Washington DC. I got about five miles from my house and started to see groups of bikes and their patriotic riders on the highway. I found myself riding up behind the groups and staying behind them for miles before they exited or I exited. For me it was a neat feeling to see all the men and women riding bikes and sharing the interest of riding. It was Memorial Day Weekend and I imagine most of us rode to show respect for the fallen servicemen and women. Memorial Day Weekend is truly a good day to ride and meet new people and share stories.

I rode route 3 to route 20 through the civil war battlefields in Virginia. It was early in the morning; the sun had just rose showing light rays through the trees. The battlefields were quiet and peaceful.  As I rode through Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, the HQ, a serene filled the air.  Along the ride I could see the freshly cut edges of the battlefield. I could smell the fresh cut grass from along the edges of the battlefields. I passed a few farm trucks pulling wagons of hay. Further south on route 15 I could see hayfields with the large round bails of hay scattered about the fields. The morning sun was shining through the trees. I could feel the temperature cool when I was riding under the shade of the many trees that lined the road. Along stretches of the road without trees, the sun shined down and gave noticeable warmth. I rode by many horse farms. These horse ranches were identified with the large white horse fences. One farm had a yellow fence. It was a relaxing sight and renewed my faith that people continue traditions to live with animals and work with the green space instead of develop it.

I crossed the West Virginia state line and followed the winding road along the New River. The trees were green and the sky clear and blue. Most of the towns along the river were in valleys. As I followed the river westward, I could see Charleston, the capital nestled in the valley. Those roads in West Virginia were fun to ride due to the pleasant landscape and twisty curves.

Once I crossed the Kentucky state line I noticed much of the road was carved or blasted through rock. Much of the roads had rock walls that were smooth and tall. It must have taken many years and lots of hard work to create the first roads through the area. There were many horse ranches in Kentucky too.

I finally met Brad at a small diner in Kentucky.  It began to rain just as we found a hotel. We put our bags away and sat in the lobby looking maps. The rain stopped long enough for us to walk down the street and get dinner.

The next morning we woke and was pleased that the rain had passed and our bikes were dry. We rode sound thru Kentucky and crossed into Tennessee on route 27.  It was a two lane rode with twisty rolling turns taking us through Somerset, Burnside, thru Daniel Boone National Forest.  After crossing the Tennessee state line we continued on route 27 toward Kingston then we went east.  I recall riding along Fort Louden Lake and Lake Chilhowee along route 129.  I have some faded memories swimming at Fort Louden and Lake Chilhowee while I was a child.  I lived near the area for a few years. 

Our ride through Tennessee was fortunate considering the weather.  We followed just behind the heavy rain. The road was wet and we were dry. We confirmed this as we stopped for gas and the gas station attendant stated it poured rain just minutes before we arrived. We were lucky to be behind the rain.  We did get wet from a brief downpour while heading south. It was our lucky day for staying dry despite the rain along the route.

We stopped in Maryville and then headed for the Tail of the Dragon.  This was my first time across the Tail of the Dragon.  It was a rush!  Awesome ride for both motorcycles and cars! 

 

Tail of the Dragon 2015

We stopped in Waynesville, North Carolina for the night. The Oak Park Inn was a nice quite motel whose staff welcomed us.  They even had extra towels labeled to wash off the bikes.  We were within walking distance to the small towns pubs and restaurants.  To our surprise the motel owner, who recommended the restaurant we chose, showed up and paid our dinner bill.  Brad and I are Veterans, as is the owner, so it was a neat experience.  After diner we walked to the other side of Main Street to a sports pub.  It was a good atmosphere.  I recall the Ranges were playing the Lightning and it was karaoke night which was a hit for the locals.  There is photo of the Oak Park Inn sign in Waynesville, North Carolina.  We highly recommend staying at the motel. 

Oak Park Inn Waynesville, NC

The next morning we got a foggy and damp start as we went up the Smokey Mountains.  There were spots and rays of sunlight shining thru the fog in the before noon part of the ride. I imagine the views from the mountains would have been breath taking without the fog.  It was pretty cool with the fog.

Some memories from the ride from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. 

- Stopped at a diner called “Mac and Bob’s” in Salem, Virginia for lunch.  It was hot outside and their ice tea was refreshing.  I recall the waitress fell and broke her thumb the evening before.  She was telling us about it.

- On route 77 we stopped for water at a gas station general store.  It was a ma and pa type store that was usually like to visit.  The clerk had a side arm properly displayed and was very friendly. We stood inside the entrance of the store and joked with the clerks and some customers. The entrance had a rocking chair and television adjacent to a cage full of cigarettes. The clerk would watch television in between customers.  The clerk pulled out a AR-15 to show us how they talk people out of trying to rob them.  Neat experience.

- We rode north through the Shenandoah Mountains. We stopped at the end of skyline drive and stayed in New Market. We ate at an old 50s style diner which had some tasty food. The diner was very quiet despite being full of customers. The special was all you can eat chicken wings. Brad ordered the wings. The waitress delivered a plate of full size chicken wings to our table. It was just as advertised, all you can eat chicken wings- the full size wings. I could not hold back my laughter when I saw the plate of large wings. Brad says the wings were good, although he expected the small wings.

- We stopped in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania to see a collection of old motorcycles and novelty items.  The collection was in Bill’s Old Bike Barn.  There are some photos of the collection here.

- We stopped in Punxsutawney to see Punxsutawney Phil and have some breakfast.  Photos shown. 

- We stopped to visit the Flight 93 Memorial.  The visitors center was being constructed.  Photos shown of the Memorial.

 

Flight 93 Memorial

Flight 93 Memorial

- Not far from the Flight 93 Memorial, there was a memorial for the Que Creek Mine and Rescue, July 28, 2002.  Photos shown.

Que Creek Mine Memorial

Brad's Bike at Que Creek Memorial

- We had to leave the area due to a string of bad luck we’ve witnessed.  Brad’s bike fell over in the gravel; we stopped at a Harley shop for a replacement mirror when a custom bike fell off the shop lift.  A car accident in the parking lot, we didn’t know what was going to happen next so we rode far far away from the area.  Brad headed west and I went east to visit the factory in York before heading home.

Bill and Brad Flight 93 Memorial

York Factory Tour

Many many miles in the rain!