Day 4 Deerfield to Milwaukee to Sparta

Left the hotel about 8 am and it took just over an hour to ride to Milwaukee to go to the Harley Museum shown in the pic. We found a small coffee shop to have breakfast at and got to the museum just after 10 when they open. This was Mark & I's second trip and everyone else's first time. This allowed me to focus in on some of the things I didn't get to spend extra time on last time. Here's a pic of what is believed to be Bike serial #1.

Very little has changed since I was there 4 years ago. They've added an area that has a revolving exhibit which currently is on leather jackets. All of us got the $4 add on option for the audio tour that now are IPOD's that work real slick. The next pic is one of my favorites at the museum of a 1936 V-Twin that was the first bike to set the land speed record of 136.183 mph on Daytona Beach rode by Joe Petrali. It was the average of 2 runs back & forth on the beach.

We ended up eating lunch at the museum and heading out about 3:30ish. Our destination now is West to Rapid City, but as I mentioned yesterday Steve was having GPS issues which contnued as it got him & only him heading east on 90/94. I radioed him that your going the wrong way and to turn around and meet the rest of us. We got on an entrance that merges from the left and as I'm trying to radio Steve to see where he is, he happens to be coming up right behind us!!! From that point on I lead us to Sparta, Wisconsin about 30 miles from the Mississipi River on the border with Minnesota. Tommorrow will be strictly a travel day. Recap on today was good weather, GPS issues for Steve and about 250 miles traveled.

Day 3 Columbia, Ohio to Deerfield, Illinois

Got up to a beautiful day. Had the included breakfast before our long 1.1 mile ride to the AMA Hall of Fame Museum in Pickerington, Ohio for the 9 AM opening. They provide covered parking for motorcycles!

They have an interesting collection of bikes & motorcycle paraphernalia on 2 floors. You can go through the place in about 2-2-1/2 hours. Here's a pic of what is believed to be one of the earliest prototype bikes, a Daimler from 1885.Considering they didn't have smooth paved roads back then, this wouldn't of been very useful but you have to start somewhere.

We left about 11:30 headed west on 70 to the 485 around Indianapolis to the 65 north to Gary, Indiana. It was a HOT day with the temps a little over 100!! I guess we better get used to it. Then onto 94 into Chicago where we went into downtown to have dinner at Buddy Guy's Legends Club! Unfortunately being a long hot day we didn't stay to watch the show which starts at 9:30 and Buddy was overseas anyway. We headed up 94 about 20 miles to get on the north side of Chicago so we didn't have to fight traffic in the morning and grabbed a room in Deerfield, Illinois. Have I failed to mention our nightly ritual of happy hour before dinner. Tonight we had already had dinner so we watched the Olympics during happy hour. I didn't blog last nite because the WiFi was not cooperating so this post is being done during day 4's happy hour! If I don't have too much happy I'll get today's done as well. The recap for the day was HOT weather, good roads, Steve D only having a couple GPS issues (inside joke!, just shy of 400 miles. Tomorrow is the Harley museum then we head west!

Day 2 Youngstown to Cleveland to Columbia

Got up today to a beautiful sunny day. Had to dry off the bikes as there was a lot of dew. Had breakfast at the hotel as it was included. Left about 8:30 for about a 70 mile, 1 hour ride to Cleveland. Arrived about 9:30 and expected to park where Mark & I parked 4 years ago but found out they had that lot and most of the other lots around reserved for the Kenny Chesney concert next door at Browns stadium even though that wasn't happening until this evening. We lucked out and one of the few on street spots opened up and we squeezed all our bikes in. We met up with Rich Woodhall from our motorcycle club who recently relocated to Ohio and came to meet us. We had to wait about 10 minutes before they opened the doors to the Hall at 10. We went through the Hall working from the top to the bottom. They have a new exhibit on the top 2 floors on The Grateful Dead. I was never a "Dead Head" but I enjoyed the exhibit. One item that intrigued me was they had several of the actual early year contracts between the group & various venues. They got a deposit and a guaranteed minimum along with a split of the overall gate. What caught my eye was that the contract required that they be paid their split during the shows intermission. My presumption is that if they didn't get paid they wouldn't perform the second set. Good way not to get stuck by the promoter!!! Also got to watch "Dusty Street" broadcasting live on Sirius/XM's classic rock station channel 26 as this is their home.  We left around 2 and went across town to have lunch away from the crowds at both the Hall and for the Chesney concert.

After lunch we headed south to Columbus, Ohio and our next stop tomorrow at the AMA Hall of Fame.  http://motorcyclemuseum.org/     Today was an easy riding day as we only did about 230 miles and 1 gas stop. May not get to post tomorrow as we hope to get to Chicago which is about 6 - 7 hour ride after the museum but we'll see.

Day 1 Norwich to Youngstown, Ohio

Sorry about the delay in posting but I was having IPAD issues trying to use it to blog with. I'm using Smurph's laptop now. So anyway on to the post.

Well day 1 is in the book. Today's goal was just to put some miles on and get to Youngstown near Cleveland for tomorrow's trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.Left my house at 5:30 am to meet the rest of the crew at 6:30 at exit 9 on route 9 in Higginum, CT. I was early so I grabbed a coffee at the DD by the bridge over the CT river near the Goodspeed Opera house. I stll got to the meeting spot first as I was 15 minuteearly. About 2 minutes later Mike & Annie showed up. Steve/Sue/Smurph showed promptly at 6:30. We headed out to meet Mark (Mark did the Alaska trip with me) in Prospect off of exit 26 on route 84and arrived at 7 am. Today's pic is were we met Mark and shows everyone except Smurph who took the pic. After a few minutes of BSing we took off. Our planed route was 84 west to Scranton then 81 south to 80 west to Youngstown. Steve was our leader, setting a brisk pace, and I rode sweep. We have decided to burn a tank of fuel before we eat breakfast most days so we ended up at the NY/PA border for our stop a little before 9. Things were pretty uneventful through lunch with the exception of the split coming into Scranton PA where 380/84 merge. A van with a bunch of ladders on top pulling an enclosed trailer started drifting into our lane where Sue was riding. She alertly moved left as the driver realized what he was doing and fortunately he got back to his lane but provided for a tense moment. We chose our lunch stop so that we could make Youngstown without having to gas again and left ourselves about 190 miles to get there. We had stayed dry through lunch. The weather radar had been showing that we had been fortunate to have been just south of the rain all day and we left after lunch in the bright sun. Well we got about 60 more miles in and it started lightly raining so at the next exit we got off and put our rain gear on. For about the last 100 plus miles we had some pretty good rain making it tough to see. Basically we were following the tail lights of the bike in front of you and Steve was trying to see the pavement markings and hopefully any vehicles. All of a sudden Steve comes over the CB and yells accident! Fortunately we had spaced ourselves out more due to the conditions. As best we could figure was that a pickup truck in front of us lost a bicycle from his truck and the car behind him, in attempting to miss the bike spun out and went off the left side of the highway throwing mud back on the road. What was left of the bicycle was in our lane and we had to maneuver around it. Fortunately we all reacted quick enough to get through with no issues other than a little elevated heart rate!!! We arrived at the hotel about 4:30. After unloading and getting dried off we had our own little happy hour to celebrate a successful first day and unwind before going to dinner. Today was a 540 mile day with about 130 in the rain, 3 gas stops enroute. At lunch Smurph had a concern that his rear brake pedal had a lot of travel but could get a pedal if he pumped it. When we got to the hotel and checked in he asked if there was a Harley dealer nearby. Turns out it was just down the street in site of the hotel. He shot over there just before 5 pm as they were closing and explained his issue that he was from CT on his way to Sturgis. They took him in and a couple of mechanics jumped right on it. They found a pinhole in the brake line, replaced and bled the system and had him all set in about 45 minutes. Turns out they didn't have a new line and gave him a take off from another bike. When he asked how much he owed them they told him no charge! When he offered the mechanic a tip he said no thanks but told Smurph it was the junior mechanic's birthday and he'd be happy to get something. Nice to know they helped him out instead of telling to come back on Monday. Had dinner next door to the hotel at a place called Quaker Steak & Lube. It's owned by Quaker State motor oil and was pretty good. A lube is a 4' tall x 4" round dispenser that they fill with your favorite beverage! Time to get some rest!

About to depart

6-1/2 hours to departure. A quick post so I can get some sleep. Just finished up packing. Couple more things in the AM. Compared to my Alaska trip I'm traveling light. No tent or sleeping bag so I had enough room in the saddlebags/tourpak so I only need one instead of twoT-Bags this trip so that will make things a bit easier at night. Weather is looking like we might have some showers that will be riding at but with some luck we could miss them.Thinking positive! Tomorrows goal is Youngstown, Ohio a bit over 600 miles. Goodnight all!

Prelude to departure

Three more days until my departure for my ride to Sturgis 2012. I decided I'd give it another shot at a blog similar to when I rode to Alaska in 2008. You can get the link to that here. http://evertalaska.blogspot.com/      For those of you that don't know, Sturgis is a small town in South Dakota with a population of about 7000 and has become the home of one of the worlds largest motorcycle rally with over 750,000 attendees in 2000. Some info I gathered on it's history. The first rally was in 1938 started by the Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club. The focus of the rally was originally racing and stunts. In 1961, the rally was expanded to include the Hillclimb and Motocross races. Current rally attendance numbers reach well over a half million people, with 800 temporary licensed vendors descending on the small town during the gathering. Events include half-mile races, hill climbs, short-track races, area attraction tours, music and live entertainment and much more. Enough of the background stuff!

We're leaving on Saturday morning 7/28/12. We have 7 of us (5 guys/2 ladies) riding out on 6 bikes. They all happen to be Harleys. (1 screaming eagle ultra, 4 ultras and I think a street glide) Our plan is to go out & back in 15 or 16 days returning 8/11 or 12. Were going to be 5-6 days heading out with planned visits in Clevland at the RocknRoll hall of fame, the AMA motorcycle hall of fame in Pickerington, Ohio and the Harley museum in Milwaukee and whatever else may strike our fancy. Our home base will be a hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota which is about 30 miles to Sturgis. For all but 1 of us, myself included, it is our first trip to Sturgis so in addition to the actual rally we're planning on doing/seeing the main attractions in the area such as Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse/Custers Park/Devils Tower/Needles Highway/Black Hills Forest/Badlands National Park/etc/etc. We also have tickets to see The Zac Brown band one night, I'm thinking we'll probably be around a 5000 mile trip. Stay tuned for more!!!!