The last day of our MAMMARY run ride was greeting with good news and bad news. The good news was that the weather forecast for today called for only the tiniest chance of rain. The bad news was that it called for near-record high temperatures. Karen and I would be riding through some nice two-lane roads in south-central Ohio before hitting the superslab for the last stretch home. There would be no cool mountain passes or sheltering forests to ride through today.
Continue reading It’s NOT a dry heat
Category Archives: Bikes
This category is shamelessly dedicated to my motorcycles. Neither bike is the fastest, biggest, most expensive, or prettiest motorcycle on the planet, but each has become extremely well-suited to me. If you gaze upon them and do not find yourself dazzled by their brilliance… so what. I didn’t buy them to please you.
Take the long way home
A review of my motorcycle touring history shows that I have a tendency to blast home from the MAMMARY run in a single long day. Only twice have I taken the time to wander home via a more interesting route. For this trip, the first-ever tour with Karen, I decided to take a leisurely route home and wander through the mountains a bit. Continue reading Take the long way home
Wandering out east
This was going to be a full day. For group activities, we knew we had a lunch ride and a steak dinner on the schedule. Between those appointments was going to be an impromptu meet with one of Karen’s friends up in Baltimore. Would the weather be too hot? Would the thunderstorms leave us alone? Only time would tell.
Continue reading Wandering out east
When to avoid the I495 Beltway
After a good night’s sleep at the Super 8 in Warrendale, PA, Karen and I packed up the Cruiser and headed back out on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on our way towards the 2011 MAMMARY Run.
Continue reading When to avoid the I495 Beltway
Wet, but not so wet
I was able to leave work around 4:30pm and headed north out of downtown Detroit to go pick up Karen, who had escaped her employer around 4pm. The rain in a huge system heading northeast had already arrived in the greater Detroit Metropolitan area so I donned the rainsuit for the trip out to Karen’s.
A quick check of traffic (I love the Google Maps app on my iPhone) revealed I75 north to be its usual parking-lot state so I rode up Woodward Avenue to Royal Oak. Karen was already changing into her Leathers and put on her rainsuit while her parents joked about there being “dryer modes of transportation”. Aren’t they hilarious? 🙂
The weather radar showed a steady line of rain down to Toledo, Ohio, but then a break between that and another long line of heavy rain near Cleveland. Lurking off to the southwest of Youngstown, Ohio was another string of nasty yellow and red on the radar image, denoting some heavier weather that was slowly marching towards our path to the Pittsburgh area. It looked like it was going to be a dicey ride.
Continue reading Wet, but not so wet
MAMMARY 2011 kickoff
Memorial Day weekend is approaching and that must mean that I’m packing up a Bike to head out east to Mitch and Kathy’s for the MAMMARY run.
Continue reading MAMMARY 2011 kickoff
MIAZ 2011 gallery
The following are photos and a photo map from the trip down to Red’s MIAZ run.
Continue reading MIAZ 2011 gallery
MIAZ 2011 wrapup
The final tally for the trip was 3866 miles in roughly 88 hours of travel time.
Continue reading MIAZ 2011 wrapup
And then it got cold…
After a good night’s sleep at the Super8 in Troy, Illinois, I checked weather and concluded that there was less chance of rain if I went home via Chicago instead of Indianapolis. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken the chance on the rain along the southern (and warmer) route.
Continue reading And then it got cold…
Just ride, baby
Truth be told, this was a fairly uneventful day.
I got a late start because I took the time to write up the previous day’s post during breakfast (Texas waffle out of the Super8 waffle maker). It was still a little chilly with temps in the upper 40s (F) and broken clouds in the sky. The wind was in my face but not oppressive like the winds I encountered during the ride down.
I knew there was some weather in front of me. There was rainy weather out in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Joplin, Missouri and that system would be moving east-north-east, or basically directly along my path of I44. The question wasn’t whether I would catch the system, but when.
So, the day passed, the Vector droned on, and the miles rolled.
Continue reading Just ride, baby