Get your kicks on Route 66

Returning home from Oklahoma City for the National HOG rally, I wanted to take in a bit of Route 66, since I was so close. I have been on a couple of other sections, Amarillo in TX, and Kingman, AZ. So, head north in Oklahoma to go to Texas....

Most of the landmarks are long since gone but there are a few sights still to see. I hit the route in Edmond OK and headed East to Stroud before heading south on 377. I will have to watch the movie Cars again to catch up on my Route 66 lore.

HOG OKC

This weekend is the 26th annual National HOG rally. Last year we rode up to Milwaukee for the 25th, which coincided with the 105th anniversary of Harley-Davidson. Massive Party. This year the rally is much closer to home, in Oklahoma City. It will be a much smaller scale but is still shaping up to be a fairly significant rally. Lots of folks from the chapter appear to be going but for the most part everyone has made their own arrangements for lodging so I'm sure we will be running into everyone at the rally site and in Bricktown.

I'm heading up this afternoon, in the heat of the day, with temps in or near triple digits, oh joy.... But on that note I will be taking interstate to get there quickly. Theres a couple of dealerships in the area that are having some activities related to the rally so I may check them out on the way.

Oklahoma City is directly on the map with regards to Route 66 History. On my trip home on Sunday I hope to partake in some of this history with an extended route home.

Got my camera ready, hope to get some good and fun shots this weekend!

Wrap up

So after riding the Dragon we stopped back in the Deal's Gap for a store and to check out all the t-shirts and writings on the ceiling. Almost ready to go, and the sky's opened up again, hard, for about 45 minutes, so we wait that out until it slows down enough to head back out. This time we are going to take a bit of a detour as we are in a dry county and the nearest beer for purchase is about 15-20 miles away, on Highway 28 in Fontana Village. The ride to the beer store was awesome as it was along the river and there was a thick fog rolling along the river, we kept riding in and out of this fog and stopped at a pull off just before the road crossed the river.




Back on the road and more rain starts up and finally lets up just before we get back to the room and the others. We hang out with the group, exchanging lies and eating pizza for the rest of the night.



The next morning Darlene and I head out on the southern path and do the Cherohala Skyway, some of the others get their first opportunity to to the Dragon and take the northern route headed home. Carla and Tee stick around for another day riding with Family.



Long day this one, we want to make Memphis and decide to go further. Our route turned out to be a wise choice after a leisurely start as we had a couple of light sprinkles along the way that barely got our windshields wet. We run into Michael and Loyce in Arkansas where we stopped for gas and possible hotel, we decide to go another hour or so, but Michael and Loyce stay put. After 590 miles and 13.5 hours on the road we stop for the night, the rest of the crew are about 30 miles further in Little Rock.

A few more ABC points along the way and we arrive home mid afternoon on Saturday, just in time to rest up for the return to work on Monday.

Finally!

About time I get back to finishing my posting!!! If only I can remember the details...

So we left Charleston, and continued along the coast, stopping in Myrtle Beach. Carla had spent time here in her past. So we stopped for lunch and checked out the scene. Interestingly the recent rally has had some controversy so the locals were quite happy to see us.






After leaving Myrtle beach we continued onto Anderson SC. A bit of rain along the way, yet another rainsuit decision (good call....). We hooked up with Carla's famil and called it an early night as we were anxious to ride the tail of the Dragon the next day.

Darlene and I were on a mission so we headed off on our own while the rest of the crew checked out Terry's shop and hit the dealership. We had some great roads on the way into Robbinsville, NC,



and picked up some State markers for our ABCs and arrived dry at the Two Wheel Inn about 11:15 am. Got settled in, checked our bearings and fired up the bikes and pointed them to Deal's Gap. Whats this? Rain? Sure enough so we stop and suit up and ride through torrential rain into Deal's Gap. By the time we ride the 11 miles or so the rain eventually stops. We pick up our souvenirs and decide to have a shorter route, and do the Dragon twice since there rain forecast for the remainder of the day. Darlene of course makes yet another new friend.



and we get a shot of the "Tree of Shame"



So we do the Dragon, but have to do it very cautiously as the roads are wet, and yes it starts raining again as we are riding. Lots of Photographers, and the trick is to remember your training, look into where you are going, not at the photographers or that is where your bike will go...

more to come...

Road trip update part 2

Pending..... haven't had time to summarize and select the right pictures, will hopefully do over the next couple of days...

Road Trip Memories

So many pictures, so many memories, how does one summarize.... Haven't a clue.

Lets see, day 1 and 2, basically get to destination. Hmmm what happened, oh yeah, rain! But the best thing of course was our riding friends.

Day 2 - down for the night - Perry, GA

Day 3 - Hilton Head Island, rest stop and luggage repair.

Come day 4, we had 2 nights in Mount Pleasant, just east of Charleston, SC. Time to relax. We did a variety of things, some as groups and some as smaller groups. Activities included Boone Hall Plantation, carriage tour of Historic Charleston, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean at the Isle of Palms Beach, as well as the typical eating and drinking and other touring, in the appropriate orders of course.

Day 4 - Riding around Charleston.

Day 4 - Historic Charleston area sights.

Day 4 - Isle of Palms Beach

Halfway point, more to follow.....

States visited update

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com




Updated with the three states traveled to last week, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Starting to develop a couple of holes, notably Florida and Minnesota.

While on the road last week, I turned 50,000 on my odometer. Also picked up a Thunder Press magazine at one of the dealerships. There was an article in it on Dave Zien. Dave is a former senator from Wisconsin who helped our chapter ride over 2 million miles last year. He just officially retired his 1991 FXRT with 1,000,000 miles on it. Here is the article

Home Again!

We got home yesterday after a long week in the saddle. Some quick notes about our trip. From door to door, 2810 miles over 8 days. Longest day was Friday, which was 590 miles which included the Cherohala Skyway and took us 13.5 hours on the road. The shortest day, well there was no short days! Something in the 300's I guess. Although, Thursday, when we did the Tail of the Dragon may have been under 300.



Including Texas, we rode through 9 states, and we rode in 3 we have not ridden before, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Our furthest point east was Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. We swam in the Atlantic Ocean at Isle of Palms beach, just east of Charleston, SC. The water was incredibly warm. I was very pleasantly surprised.



It rained 7 of the first 8 days.... We rode in some torrential rains, and for extended periods of time, I'm guessing 4 hours in a row day 1 and 5 hours in a row day 2. We ended cutting day 2 short. One day we had a brief 4 minute downpour, it was one of the few days we didn't wear rain gear. We even rode the Dragon in wet conditions, which is much less than favorable. On Friday coming home Darlene and I took a more southerly route and had a couple of light sprinkles, which we didn't even acknowledge, the northern group apparently had a lot more rain, and it couldn't be ignored.

Carla and Tee are still on the road as I write this, but they should have sun and heat today, and they have a long day planned.

No significant bike issues but a host of minor ones. Daryl - problem with lock which was rectified with some lubricant. Judy had a bad CB cord. Lois lost the rear shifter. My bike wouldn't start when we stopped for gas. We tried to bump start it, eventually determined it wasn't getting any gas, thanks to Daryl we disconnected the gas line, and in doing so must have dislodged a small piece of dirt, that did the trick as it started right up and worked fine after that. Carla needed a minor clutch cable adjustment. Darlene had the most significant problems, constantly blowing signal lights as we rode several times with flashers on in the rain. Some water seepage I guess. But the most significant issue was when Darlene snapped a post for one of her side bags. Fortunately we were touring Hilton Head and driving relatively slowly so we were able to stop before the bag fell completely off. Some creative sharing of luggage and we were back on the road, and ended up fedexing the bags home with some clothes the next day.



All in all a great trip with great friends.

More postings, trip details and pictures to follow.

Inspiration!

Preparing for our trip east. All the way to the ocean. Some time in the mountains and hopefully Deals Gap should we appease the weather gods.

Inspiration

Riding Season preperations

Technically its always riding season in Texas, except for those few days a year that there might be possibility of snow. But this year, once spring hit, the rains started and that has limited the riding a bit, we cancelled one long weekend trip and have only had a few short rides. I still ride regularly, usually taking my bike to work over my truck.

I have been doing my own basic maintenance for some time now and keep my service manual up to date with dates, but I generally take lousy records and the space to write notes is minimal. Besides if I write an extensive note, I'm likely not be be able to read it cause I have a tendency to write messy at times.

So since this is the spring, let me make a record of recent services so I can keep track and refer as needed.

Tires - both tires, front and rear - 44,800
Replaced leaking shock - approx 47,000
Battery - outlived its useful life - 47,500
Oil - all three holes - 48,130

This service also lubed steering head bearings and shifter shaft. A couple of weeks ago I lubed cables. What a difference that made, especially my clutch cable, like I put in a new easy pull clutch!

I still need to get it safety inspected this week. Also should probably check the cable routing, may have a disturbed something when I replaced the battery.

Targetting about 2700 miles week after next so good to have my bike ready to go and feeling comfortable about it.

Also did hurt to have my helpers working on my bike with me....

Bikes, Babes and Rods

This past weekend was our chapter meeting and the dealerships 7th anniversary. So in typical fashion they have a bit of a party and bike show. They expanded it this year to include a car show and there were some pretty amazing cars that showed up. Considering the weather, cool and cloudy with chance of rain or storms, there was a very good turnout. I even feel a bit for the Sun-Bru girls who were doing the bike wash in barely there bikinis in 70F weather.

So in honor of the event here is a bit of a picture dump of the festivities.

Bikes












Babes - Limited selection 8^)








Rods
















Miscellaneous