I left from SC on Friday morning... I wonder what she cut up after I left?
Met up with Joe and Gordon and Wimp near Fontana Dam... We rode over
the Cherohala skyway, and a bunch of other good roads I'd never been on,
spent Friday night in Cleveland TN where we met up with Allan and Terry,
and hit the road for real on Saturday morning
We got to Gary and Rosie's house, in Shipman Illinois, Saturday. They
rolled out the red carpet at their awesome home.
Valkyrie riders continued to arrive, and we had a feast...
Off we went the next two days up The River Road... not really a particular
road, really, just roads that follow the river system. While we were
at this place, Joe surprised me with his infinite knowledge of the
Fugawi Indians local to the area...
We went over the Illinois River on this cool ferry... it was made of
two boats connected with a big hinge. One boat held the ferry traffic
and the other boat had the motor. The motor boat swung back and forth
on the hinge to go back and forth in the river...
We stopped at River overlooks, it is really cool to see the effects
of the river having been dug out over time...
Here's a full sized image, if you click on it you can see the train going
through the valley...
https://sites.google.com/site/hubcapsite2/d-inzane13/train.jpgWe got to Ground Zero in the afternoon on Monday and kinda split up. I
went straight to a pub on the marina and got a steak, salad and lots
of iced tea...
Tuesday I led a ride down highway 33, I picked it out of the Red Book,
it had a good curvy section... and lots of farms and places with
giant windmills... I flubbed the gopro, and only got one picture - me
stopping the "take a picture every 5 seconds" sequence... Steve took
a whole album of shots of the ride over at:
httpss://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105290715794032102545/albums/5903065767737587233The next day Me and Allan went on the Joe Boyd ride... in Motomama and
Willow's air conditioned car...
On Thursday, we followed Pete on a ride up 108 (a road I independently picked
out of the Red Book for its curves) that started with breakfast at
a local place Pete and his wife (JoJo?) knew about. Later in the
ride, after the curvy part was over, I did something I'm ashamed of...
another rider's hat flew off, and two bikes (including me) stopped
to get it. We took off from there on the short route to the motel,
and the others didn't know it and it messed up their ride...
Four of us rolled towards home on Friday morning, Allan split off first,
Joe split off at Effingham, and me and Terry kept on South... Joe
made it all the way home in one day, me and Terry took two days.
We stayed at this joint in Paduca Kentucky... we didn't
get there till about dark, but they left the light on for us...
Joe rode in one day and went through at least three big cities we missed.
We went through Nashville and it was pure hell. I've been through there
before but not from the North... its like the gnarly part where
all the Interstates come together lasts 20 miles... traffic was intense,
and it was hot. Right at the end of the hecticness, sunblock got in
Terry's eyes and blinded him, he was able to pull over five lanes
to the side and clear his eyes... it would not have done at all for
this to have happened earlier...
While we were all still together, we came upon a big truck
carrying a large John Deere tractor... running in the fast lane.
Allan and Joe whipped around him, and then traffic prevented me
and Terry from getting around him... he stayed in the fast lane for
miles... traffic started backing up behind us and me and Terry had
trouble with one car that passed each of us on the right to snipe a
place in front of us with inches to spare... I asserted my place,
but didn't give my life for it. Right before the log jamb cleared,
a giant dump truck spewing gravel became part of the mix... yehaw!
Me and Terry jumped off the Interstate not long after Nashville and rode
over the blessed green mountains toward Chattanooga on hiway 41, what
a relief! My rear brakes started making a noise right around then...
if we have a wear indicator squeak tab on our pads, I think that is
what it is... I always use the front brakes, but you have to be
extra aware when you're using just the front brakes...
After I split off from Terry, I took 64 to 76 and home. In the last
couple of hours I was in Tennessee and North Carolina and Georgia
and South Carolina.
Last year, my left fork seal blew and I rebuilt the fork in the parking lot. This
year my right fork seal blew and Troute Dude and Mitch took my fender off and
ran the Seal Mate fork tool on my seal... its not like a new seal with fresh
fluid, but it sure did stop leaking! Thanks guys!
https://sealmate.net/Thanks everyone for everything... what an adventure...
-Mike
