Leisurely Sunday Ride

A few of us decided since there wasn't any Chapter rides planned and we all had the urge to go riding, it was to nice outside and I didn't want to sit at home, we sit inside all winter long and the last thing I want to do is sit at home inside the house with nothing to do.  Although, there were things to do like laundry, cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, carpets, cutting the grass, pulling weeds etc.  I didn't want to do the things around the house!  That is boring stuff!

So we all decided to meet at a southside McDonalds on Sunday July 31st.  Well we headed out from home to meet a couple that had just joined the group in McCordsville, IN.  Once they showed up we headed out to our meeting destination.  It was a beautiful morning to ride and I was excited, man I live for the weekendsI was able to ride much at all in the summer of 2010 due to a March 2010 surgery.  So I vowed this year was going to be an every weekend plan, which was to Ride my butt off!

Once at the McDonalds we waiting on a few people to show up, then we all headed off for an enjoyable day!  We headed south again because that were all the great roads seem to be!  This would turn out to be a LONG Day.  People often ask me what do I think about while riding on the bike and my response is usually the same, I think about my surroundings and how great all the beauty is that God has allowed me to see with my eyes and opening my heart to all this beauty.  I also think about the people that have come and go in my life, I think about my childhood, I look at the clouds and see if I can find something that they resemble in life.  I come up with some pretty crazy things like fish, trucks, buildings, animals, people and so on.  Here are a few pictures on the way south:

Now I am starting to get hungry, and as you know we need to eat, so we headed south to the Ohio River to a little restaurant named "Betty Rays - Landing On The Ohio River".  This was a little hole in the wall place and most of the time these places have awesome food, well the food wasn't that great but it was food.  So we ate and had some laughs with everyone and yes I did take some pictures of course:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We learned a little on this trip about the town that we were in, we found out that this town has been in existence since the gold rush and we got a little history lesson from on of our riders.  This is one of the reason why I love to ride, always able to learn something new!  Some things are surprising.

We finished up lunch and headed back out on the open roads that were calling our names.  We headed across and our next destination was a cool and a place again I didn't even know existed in Indiana.  It was the  "Saint Meinrad Archabbey" located in Meinrad, IN.  By this time of the day, we were all HOT, I believe it was in the upper 90's with a heat index of +100 and being on a motorcycle it is even hotter due to the heat from the engine.  Love riding but hate stopping in this kind of heat.  As you will see from the pictures this was an awesome place to see, my husband and I want to go back to spend a little more time down there to explore the grounds and the magnificent buildings that are there.

 

 

 

Now that we are a little rested we decided it was time to head out and head north to get home.  But we had one more stop to make and it was in French Lick, Indiana.  This was a neat place to visitI didn't know this was going to be such a long ride on such a HOT day, but it turned out to be quite an experience.  On our way we in-countered lots of curves and winding roads, this is so great because we went under a lot of canopy covered country roads, and this provided a cool down period while riding.  Another great ride to put down in the books.  Here are some more pictures that I took on the way home!  We actually pulled into our driveway about 10pm and I believe this ride was close to 400 miles.  WOW was I tired, and it took me all week to recoupe and get ready for the next weekend!

LIVE TO RIDE AND RIDE TO LIVE!

"The Raptor Ride"

After our monthly HOG Chapter meeting a ride was scheduled to go to the Raptor Center in Southern Indiana.  Our group was so big it was decided that we would split up into two groups for safer ride.

We headed out in the second group, it was a HOT day.  I am just sitting back enjoying the ride looking at all the natural beauty around me, people in cars waving as we passed by and I indeed wave back, I get a kick out of it and it makes me smile.  While riding I enjoy taking lots of pictures of various things and to a lot of people it may not mean a thing but to me when I look back through my pictures I can remember each ride and the enjoyment that i felt at that particular point in time.

Here we are at our first rest stop about 1/4 of the way to our destination:

After we got something cold to drink we all mounted up and took off towards our lunch destination which was to be at the "Log Cabin Inn" Restaurant.  Here we had and awesome lunch and had a great time getting to know some other people in the Chapter that we had not met before.  Of course every ride would not be complete without some great food and great friends who hit the awesome roads together! Below are some pictures I took along the way:

Now that lunch was done and it was time to get back on the road, some of the chapter members headed out in different directions because they had other plans.  The rest of us continued on towards the Raptor Center to see the presentation of "Birds of Prey".  This was at an Indiana State Park that I had never heard of, and that isn't any surprise because I only know of the ones that I have been to which are the bigger ones.  We pulled into the park and found the shelter house that the Birds of Prey were at.  What an awesome day this had been so far.  I learned so much about the birds and things I never knew about.  This was a very educational day to say the least.   Below are some pictures of the "Birds of Prey" that were presented to us.  Once the presentation was over it was back home to relax, but we took some awesome roads in southern Indiana and landed in Nashville, IN for dinner.  After dinner, we headed to the interstate to head home as it was getting late and we needed to get back to our dogs.  This was another great day to put done in the books.

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY BOUND

Jeff and I were invited to go along with a group to Southern Kentucky, we agreed and being the newbie’s in the group we had no idea it would be such an adventure.  So let the journeys begin:

            July 1^st 2011 Jeff and I headed out of the driveway on our Ultra Classic, both of us excited to be going and this would be my first vacation in almost 3 years and my first long road trip on the motorcycle.  Yes I have done an overnighter but nothing like a four day trip so I was more excited than Jeff.  We pulled out of our subdivision only to discover we had electrical issues, so Jeff pulled into the gas station and proceeded to pull off the fuel pack that he thought was giving us the problems.

            We headed back out on the road to meet up with the group at the meeting point.  Everyone showed up and we headed out on the road to Kentucky.  Met some new people, that would turn out to be new additions to our new extended family.  It turned out to be a beautiful morning.  On the agenda was stopping at the Vietnam Memorial.  I had never seen such a place, there was this huge sundial with dates of service men and women that served, died and are missing.  Then we were off to the “Daniel Boone” grave in Frankfort, KY.  This was a beautiful place and it had amazing views.    We rode through the beautiful Bluegrass Horse Farm Country, I was so relaxed and enjoyed every view, all the sights, and sounds and just thinking what beauty god has bestowed upon us and thankful that I am able to see it all. 

Next agenda for lunch was a little restaurant that has been featured on Dinner’s and Dives called “Wallace Station” located in Versailles, KY.  This was a cute little diner with lots of charm.  We ate lunch, took some group pictures, laughed and had some fun and then it was time to get back on the road, well we got on the bike and it wouldn’t start, so Jeff and the guys did some biker intervention and we got going again! Man I was starting to get worried that we would have to cut this trip short and not be able to complete the journey.

Next on the agenda was a visit to Man O War Harley Dealership in Lexington, KY.  We should have had someone look at the bike then but didn’t because we thought we had it fixed.  Then it was on to the our hotel located in Lexington, KY.  The bike issues still not fixed Bill decided a trip to the local Auto-zone was in order.   Jeff stayed behind with all the others to tend to the bike.  Bill picked out what was needed we headed back to the hotel to finish fixing the bike.  What a day it had been and a relaxing dinner was in order for this evening, everyone cleaned up and refreshed we all headed out for dinner to Hall’s on the River Restaurant, what a place, this was a very relaxing and enjoyable place, beautiful country side riding as well.  We got back to the hotel, met up with the group and played a great game, socialized, had some drinks and the company was awesome, I had never had such a great time with wonderful new friends.  All in all it had been a great day.

July 2^nd- This would end up being a day that would test me to the limits in more ways than one.  We got up, ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel and the group headed out to the next destination.  On the agenda was Benham, KY and a surprise was in store at the next checkpoint in Richmond, KY.  Needless to say Jeff, myself, Bill and Janet would not be with the group for this.  As we got a little ways into the morning ride our bike decided she didn’t want to go any further and we were out in the country about 20 miles south of Lexington, KY.  Bill and Janet agreed to stay with us for this day as their moto and now ours is “We Will Never Leave a Rider Behind”.  Bill and Jeff got the bike running enough to get us back to the Harley Dealership in Lexington to have the electrical issue fixed.  We were there for a while, with the bike fixed and a promise from the HD Dealership we would never have this issue again we headed out to try to catch up with the group who was about 2 ½ hours ahead of us by now.

Bill and Jeff decided which way would be best, around 1 or 2 we were getting hungry so as we entered Hazard, KY we found a local Mickey D’s where Bill had a few words to say to a local who thought we were cutting in line for food.  I thought to myself, dude you really don’t want to mess with Bill, if you didn’t know him he could be intimidating just on size alone.  I chuckled to myself as I stood by watching, well the local backed down and we ate lunch and proceed on our way, we stopped at a local gas station where Bill and Jeff decided to ask the locals for some much needed directions in trying to get caught up with the group so we could meet them at the “Portal 31” Coal Mine or the Loretta Lynn Museum.  One of the local ‘s told us to get back on the road and go to Highway 80 and turn right when we pass the new Wal-Mart take the next left.  Well we did what he suggested and headed out, even though Janet and I looked at my phone and I told her he was sending us in the wrong direction we needed to go east and he sent us west, as we were headed up 80 it was a beautiful ride and started getting twisty and we were heading up this mountain but at the time it didn’t seem like a mountain, but we all know what goes up must come down! 

Well looking at my GPS on my Iphone 4 I proceeded to tell Jeff that if he gets to 421 Pine Mountain Road he needed to turn left or we would be way off course more so than we already were. I had no idea how bad the road would get, we had already been through some rough terrain with switchbacks and cork screws, parts of the roads were eroded away and dropped off the side of the mountain terrain.  All I could do was to hang on for dear life and the roads started to scare the crap out of me, remember I had never been on a long road trip let alone riding on the terrain we were currently on, I prayed a lot and hung on to the tour pack speakers for dear life.  We reached 421 Pine Mountain Road and turned left, and OH MY goodness it went from bad to worse!  Well 421 Pine Mountain Road was going down the mountain and Bill & Janet were towing a trailer so as you can imagine it got really hairy and scary.  There were a couple of times Jeff and I got worried because Bill and Janet were so far behind us we crawled until we saw them come around the horrible switchbacks and twisters.

We got the bottom of 421 Pine Mountain Road to find out the when Bill and Janet pulled up beside us and he let us know he didn’t have any back brakes, I felt so bad because if it hadn’t been for our bike breaking down they wouldn’t be in this mess.  We pulled into the next gas station just feet away from where we were to let Bill’s rotors cool off, they were Blue and the water evaporated before it even hit the rotors.  Bill and Janet were great and we had an awesome day of riding and memories that will last a life time.  Well we decided that instead of trying to catch up to the group we would head to the Hotel on the list for this evening, it was only a mile and a half down the road.  We pulled into the hotel and checked in and about 10 minutes hear come the group! Wow couldn’t have timed that any better. 

It seems that the group had just a memorable day as we did with switchbacks, curves and twisters, we all decided to go to a local Mexican Restaurant for dinner and hit the local Wal-Mart for some needed supplies.  We got back to the hotel and gathered in a conference room to exchange the day’s stories and play games.  Bill and Jeff and the rest of the guys were gathered around a different table to decide what route to take out of Harlan, KY for the next day.  After Bill and Jeff told Aaron about our day he kept telling me we would be going back up 421 Pine Mountain Road and I said NO WAY buddy, Jeff and I would meet them at the next stop because there was no way in hell I was going to go back the way we just came, it was to scary and the roads were washed out.  Aaron got a kick out of teasing me the whole night about this.  All in all it was a great day full of surprises.

July 3^rd – On the agenda was going to Pine Mountain State Park, and we all headed out, we arrived at the State Park and here we go again with curves and I was none to thrilled but we reached the top of Pine Mountain and what a breath taking view we visited for a while then it was back down we go and all I could do was look up to the sky and hang on for dear life!  This wasn’t as scary as the day before.  We left the park and headed to the next destination “Cumberland Falls” what a beautiful place, we left there and went to London, KY to visit the “Wild Cat Harley Davidson” dealership.  We left there and headed to the hotel in Somerset, KY.  We arrived at the hotel, checked in, and went next door to the local Arby’s for dinner; we were joined by Greg & Sherry, Phil and Diane, Janet and her daughter Tina.  We went back to the hotel and we all changed into our bathing suits and went to the pool, where we swam a little and relaxed and chit chatted.  Everyone else went to other places for dinner.   This was the night I decided I needed to have some adult beverages and boy was it needed!

July 4^th – Time to head back to Indy, but it would be interesting to say the least.  We woke up, ate breakfast, and packed up the bike.  Stood around and chatted with everyone.  I had been getting the urge to want to learn to ride a bike of my own but fear had always held me back,  Tina (Bill & Janet’s daughter) was kind enough to let me sit on her Honda Shadow 750, and I was able to stand it up with the help of Janet and Tina and to my surprise I was able to hold it up and put it down all by myself, I was never so proud of myself and it gave me the confidence to learn to ride more than ever. 

I was stoked.  I insisted to Jeff that I was going to wear my helmet, so we all mounted up and headed out with Ted & Chris leading the way today.  We headed out and shortly into the ride Ted headed up this hill only to discover he missed a turn, so we all had to turn around.  This would be our MOMENT, we were the second to the last bike in the group and when we went to turn around disaster happened and I got thrown off the bike, the group thought we had made it through only to realize that Greg and us were the only ones not at the bottom, so they sent Tina up the hill to see what the problem was, as she arrived I was on the ground and Greg was helping Jeff to get the bike back upright, she went back down to get Bill & Janet.  Good thing I had my helmet, jacket, jeans and riding boots, because the first thing that hit the road was my head.  Bill & Janet again to the rescue!  Our saving graces!  Janet assisted me with some ice and an ace bandage.  Bill, Greg and Bruce helped me back onto the bike as I couldn’t walk, we made it down the hill and everyone was so wonderful and gave group hugs.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault and it is something that is going to happen.  It made me all the more determined to want to learn to ride, because as a passenger you have no control over anything.  My husband and I were shaken up and Jeff felt real bad that I got hurt, I told him I was OK and it would be alright.

The next rest stop came quickly as a storm was brewing, so we all pulled into a run down car wash with stalls, Janet and Tina helped me off the back and I hobbled over to the stalls where Janet played doctor again and put some Biofreeze on my knee and it made a world of difference.  Once we all got geared up in our rain gear we decided to take the chance and head back out on the open road, it poured and poured and then stopped so we stopped for lunch and the sun came out and it got hot again.  At each stop I did my best to move around to keep from getting stiff.

We continued on the way home and arrived in Greensburg at a local gas station, Jeff was the designated “Weather Man”, he showed everyone what we were heading into and some of us decided to get the rain gear on and some didn’t, for those that didn’t they got nailed and had to pull off as we all started going our separate way’s on I74 towards Indy.

This was an amazing trip and I can’t wait to do it again!  Here are some pictures that I took during our trip, believe me I have a lot more but couldn't put them all on here as there was over 200  :)