A Flat, Straight & Boring Ride Report

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yamafitter

Reigning NERDS Granite Lane Gold Medalist
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After Mexico things have been getting crazy around the garage with bits and pieces of my WR450 laying all about adding to the clutter. When I put the WR450 up on the lift table I first had to move the FJR out of the garage and into my trailer for temporary storage. In the process of doing that I had caught the corner of the windscreen on some shelving and put a big crack in the windscreen.

I had a few weeks before heading out to the SE Ohio ramble so I put in an order with Cal Sci and ordered a new medium sized windscreen and had it shipped to Bust's place since I still had some other items to pick up. I finally had some time to get the oil changed the day before my scheduled departure and while I had the bike up on its centerstand and gave the rear wheel a spin. I then heard something rolling around inside the tire. I didn't remember putting any Dyna Beads in the tire so the only thing it could be was the tire pressure sensor had come loose and was rolling around.

Fortunately I have a No-Mar Tire Changer at my disposal so off came the rear tire....

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It didn't take long to crack the bead, dismount the one side and get the offending sensor removed. The remount went fine and then a quick setup on my balancer and all was now good to go. I got the bags packed and then headed to the pub to relax before heading out in the morning....

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There are two options when one wants to cross Toronto. You get up at some ungodly hour and get to Brock Rd in WHitby before 5:30AM or you wait until 9:30 and hope that the commuter traffic is gone. I opted for the 9:30 start which gave me time to stop in at the local Timmy's to fuel up with coffee.

Traffic in Toronto could only be described as brutal. They are building a new interchange between Whitby and Ajax and everything was backed up for many kilometers into Oshawa. I bailed on the 401 and took a back road I know that was not too bad and rejoined the 401 at Ajax where things were a little better. Traffic backed up again at the Don Valley Parkway (or as we locals call it, the Don Valley Parking Lot) ramp but at least the traffic was moving albeit slowly.

I really didn't leave the heavy traffic behind until I had gone all the way out to Kitchner which is about 100 km west of Toronto. A quick stop in London for coffee at Timmy's and fuel for the bike and we headed for Sarnia and a quick stop at the Duty Free for a bottle of Forty Creek.

The bridge crossing at the border went very smooth and with some time in hand I thought I would stop in at the Michigan Welcome Center. Welcome to the Land of the Northern Redneck...

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I never knew that a single wide trailer had a lobby...

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The Michigan Tourist Board pulled out all the stops to show the tourists all the interesting things to see in Michigan...

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Checking out the Welcome Center made me want to take a Beercation....

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We arrived at Bust's and procceded to change out the windscreen on the FJR....

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Some might consider this Tech Day 10.01.

After packing up a few other items I had shipped to Bust's it was time for some dinner and then watch Game 7 of the Red Wings / Tampa Bay series.

The next morning was much cooler than the previous day so I put on a few more layers before heading out. I said my goodbye to Bust and headed south and east. We ran into some drizzle south of Detroit and never really got out of it until I was southeast of Toledo. The ride down the 250 was good and then we headed south on I77. The plan was to jump off the interstate and ride some of the twisties but the weather turned as the temperature dropped and the rains came back. I stopped at a Micky D's for a coffee and made a decision just to slab it down to Mineral Wells and get dried out.

We arrived at Ramble Headquarters just before 5PM and got checked in a poured myself some Forty Creek before joining the Parking Lot Social. Plans for the next day were discussed but no final decisions were forthcoming. Some are leaving at 8AM but I think I'll wait and join in with some of the stragglers.

- to be continued -

 
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Good stuff so far Bill, and the weather is only gonna get better. I'll be heading down that way in a while. See you this evening.

 
By the time I stirred from my slumber most had already headed out. Some of the gang were headed deeper into West Virginia but there was rain to the southeast so I thought it would be prudent to head to the northwest. I saw Lisa at breakfast just as I was getting ready to head out on my own and was invited to join Allen and her as they were heading up to Beallsville to meet El Toro Joe for lunch.

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We headed back north into Ohio and after a short ride along the river in Marietta turned onto Hwy 676 and immediately got into the flat, straight and boring stuff. That got the rust out of the system and then we turned onto the triple nickel for more fun all the way up to Hwy 78. The run back over towards I77 was all high speed sweepers and then we turned onto Hwy 145 which was a little rougher with all the truck traffic tearing up the roads.

We pulled into Bainsville a little bit after 12:00 noon and Joe and a few of the others were waiting on us. My lunch was a little slow getting served as they had to plant the potatoes to make the fries. After lunch the big group headed down 565 to the river were some stopped for gas. Allen and Lisa had stopped at the previous corner waiting on another rider that got caught behind a truck and I went back to get them. When we returned to the gas station everyone had left so we were now three and made our own route back south. We ran a couple of very fun county roads that had some great pavement and then ran Hwy 26 all the back into Mareitta.

A few photos from the road....

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Once we got to Marietta we made the mistake of trying to take Hwy 14 back to Mineral Wells rather than take the slab.

We lost Lisa in the town traffic and finally bailed out of the town traffic and got back on the interstate to make it back to the hotel. Fortunately Lisa was able to find her own way back.

A few photos from the Parking Lot Social...

Some dumbass doofus

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There always has to be a trailer queen in the group....

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All the regular suspects....

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The mother to the FJR...

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The route we took today. Not recommended, it's flat, straight and boring, you wouldn't like it....

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- to be continued -

 
Nice "flat boring" report Bill, thanks for taking us to the ramble!

Great to see Petey out and causing trouble...y'all ride safely.
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--G

 
Most of the folks ended up at Hillbilly Hotdogs today. KJ ordered the Homewreaker Hotdog

It wasn't pretty...

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I'll post more later after I sober up some...

 
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Saturday Bungie and I headed out with Ray for Indiana to head down to Hillbilly Hotdogs. Hwy 14 and 119 in West Virginia were not as twisty as SE Ohio but there were still enough turns to keep things interesting. We then turned onto Harmony Rd near Gandeeville and as we got further into the woods the banjo music was getting louder. It was sort of paved in that there were a very narrow patch of rough pavement that if you worked hard you could find a line to get through the worst of it.

We think the reason KJ took us down this road is that he wanted us to see his new spot for a Starbucks franchise....

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I'm not sure that this intersection is a high traffic area...

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We finally got back to civilization and continued south and finally arrived at our main objective for the day, Hillbilly Hotdogs....

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The ambiance of the place could be described as hillbilly rustic....

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I ordered the Taco Dog with onion rings....

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I also picked up a pretty classy wine glass as a gift for a friend of mine....

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Just when you think things are low class look at what shows up....

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Of course KJ had to order the Homewreaker and then tried to ram it into his head....

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We spent a little time checking out the rest of the grounds....

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Being Canadian and not fluent in Hillbilly I'm going to need Rushes to translate for me....

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After being chased away of the sight of KJ inhaling a Homewreaker Hotdog we crossed over into SE Ohio and picked up some really flat, straight and boring roads like 217 & 218. About 300 miles after we left the hotel we returned with a little less rubber left on the tires and ready to partake in the Parking Lot Social.

Not too many photos though I do have one of Wheatie showing Wayne a new dance step...

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I took this screenshot of the download of the track from the Zumo...

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Most of the folks headed for home on Sunday but Bungie & I stayed an extra day to get in a little extra riding. We decided to do the Short Western loop in SE Ohio. Early in the morning we came across Odot's outpost and here I thought Odot was out West....

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We came across Gray Ray, his brother and Ray from Indiana up on the 555. We chatted for a while and we talked about joining them for part of the ride but in the end Bungie and me headed off on our own and worked our way over to Glouster and some more twisties before finally making it back to the river and heading back into West Virginia and straight back to the hotel.

Here is how the Zumo saw it...

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Bungie is going to be slabbing it back but I'm taking a more interesting route tomorrow morning and with that another flat, straight and boring weekend comes to an end.

 
Enjoyed reading this report but I'm kind of stumped - did you have a good time or not?

J/J - any time on the feej is good times.

I'm considering a s/e Ohio tour. From an unbiased perspective, would you recommend it? Would you go back if you weren't meeting others for a rally?

Bust has a yellow 'vette? Well done, says the sheeple...

 
Love the pic of the "vintage" FJ. Had one similar but it was the blue color.

Great report especially with the maps.

 
Good job Hill-Bill, and nice pics!!!!

I'll try to include another "adventurous" stretch (aka Goat Trail) in the next route. Technically is was all paved, and it did keep you awake finding "that single line". You missed the funniest part when Doug (the Harley guy) had parts fly off in the roughest stretch, he had to go back and collect his Harley parts. Oh we had some good laughs 4 sure! Hr was a good sport about it, and, just turned up his music that much louder (prob so not to hear us bust on him).

I did hear banjo's playing when we stopped for a pee break. I think that is a norm out in the nooks of WV.

 
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I'm considering a s/e Ohio tour. From an unbiased perspective, would you recommend it? Would you go back if you weren't meeting others for a rally?

Bust has a yellow 'vette? Well done, says the sheeple...
The Vette belongs to Bust's son that just finished his military service. Both of Bust's kids has better whips than the old man.

I'm under contract to say that SE Ohio is flat, straight and boring but I'm a habitual liar. If you can hook up with a local like Denny it would be worth your time or you can just steal some routes from the SE Ohio website. The Hillbilly run had some banjo music type roads.

 
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