Topic: 24 Rides in 2024, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Kevin D]

Ride #8     93 miles

We are on a hot streak of nicer weather, 81f and sunshine most of the week. I have been tied up on chores so today was my target day for a ride. I nearly got tied up on cleaning the car. I must have followed a leaker. Something has splattered on the grill, hood, windshield. Repeated assaults with wd40 budged it, but didn’t entirely remove it. After the clock passed 11, I gave up on the car and cleaned the CB for a bit. Then dressed for the ride.
 I usually wear ATGATT, but today I strapped the JoeJacket to the rack and was comfortable all day in my long sleeve orange tshirt. My first stop was at the track. The horse barns are coming down and the river that was buried beneath them is going to be opened. The log cabin was not yet demolished. There is earthmoving going on but the grandstands won’t be coming down until they are stripped. I didn’t climb any fences or pass through any open gates to take these photos. I have an urge to get on a half miler and take a lap at speed, but I will not indulge my desire. Just to hear a flock of XR’s, Triumphs, Yamahas zooming would be awesome.
 I went on through town, the carved horse is coming along, but no picture, no parking today. But I did find this nice lilac in full bloom and I circled back and posed the CB.
Last photo at the marina, all boats in the water and ready for this weekend. A few boats out in the lake enjoying the day.
 In Dexter, at the A&W, I met a bicyclist on a recumbent electric bike, he asked what year was my CB, but he wanted to talk about his own CB, CB77 305 Super Hawk. He couldn’t remember the year, but he got it before he entered the service and afterward there was the epic trip Michigan to California. There was a holed piston in Louisiana which he was able to repair before continuing on. Later on there was a progression of Hondas through Gold Wing, and now the recumbent.
 I had to hustle home, the 206kmile Impala was in for service today and ready to come home.

[lash]

90 km for #44 today. Rode to the registration office on my gold 69 and met the new owner of the 71 green bike for the ownership transfer. All went great and he will be riding tomorrow. His first 750 !

[PeWe]

#12   305 km
Good sunny weather. It started rather cool at noon, 20*C. An hour later a few degrees more. 25*C at most.

A longer ride more to the north west and not that flat landscape. Skinnskatteberg, Malingsbo-Kloten area with fantastic trout fishing lakes, Söderbärke, Smedjebacken for a burger outdoor, Säter, Norberg and finally a  refill of  V-Power in Avesta after 220 km. Back home the usual old favourite roads.

The gravel road just a stop for a leak. 100m into the wilderness from main road










I forgot to mention the heavy smell of lilac flowers everywhere.
My garden, almost all gardens, small villages and where houses have been located and removed decades ago.
Those bushes almost like trees can grow wild despite our long dark and cold winters.

We have crazy nightingales around here, singing 24-7, very loud. Forget an open bedroom window at night. Ear plugs needed for sleep.

[RAFster122s]

Must be mating season for the nightingales and they are singing to impress a mate???

Interesting peek into the burger stand... Pretty crazy advertising to my eyes...
Very colorful. Definitely different from your usual loaded burger with veggies to compliment the meat...

[willbird]

5-25-2024 105 miles #19.
Took a ride out to a Church where I have drank a lot of coffee in the basement on Saturdays since 11-12-1991. Friends of Bill W meet there. Raab Road near Swanton, OH. Came through Assumption first.





I do not read German :-).


This Parish is way out in the middle of nowhere. The 12 step meeting was formed to allegedly help a parishoner that the church leaders felt needed help, that man never got sober but many others have gotten the benefits of the meeting at that location.

Bill

[budman]

Ride #16, 152 miles.

I had two things in mind when I planned my ride this morning.  1.  Ride over a specific river crossing and get some photos.  2.  Mexican food for lunch.

Number 1 was easy.  I had ridden over this river crossing a couple of times.  Last year they were working on the new bridge and it looked mostly complete, but still a lot of cleanup going on.  I was checking out the satellite view on Google Maps last night and it looked finished.  Seemed like a good place to ride, so that's what I did, riding through Mason to get there.  From there a headed to Junction for a fill up and then I stopped at a park for a cold can of fizzy water I brought with me.

The next stop was a Mexican restaurant in Harper.  I've passed this place dozens of times.  There are only two restaurants in Harper and I've eaten at the other one.  They were closed!  I mean "shut the doors, we're finished", closed...adios.  No cars, no lights on...  Same thing happened a few times last year.  I always check out these places before I head out for hours and look at their menus, etc.  But when I pull up to their doors they're no longer in business.  So many of these small businesses come and go.

At that point there was only one restaurant between me and home.  I had been there before too, but figured I was so close to home I decided I might as well just head back.  Still a great ride.  I got out into some areas where there isn't much of anything except the road.

I think I'm going to try and ride to the taco joint in Fredericksburg tomorrow morning.  Hadn't been there this year.  Supposed to hot tomorrow.  High of 99.

Almost forgot, it was super hazy today.  Smoke rolling in from agricultural fires in Mexico.

[newday777]

Ride #7 for 74 miles.
I had ice cream on the brain @ 3pm so I wheeled the K5 back out of the shop to head off to where I haven't gotten an ice cream since last summer. It's only 25 miles away but I took the back roads going there, and then afterwards decided to take the roads northward as a different route on the way back and catch another covered bridge, then back past the trébuchet (an earlier stop a few weeks ago for pics), then off the numbered road to an old upper town center, at the old summer church before taking a dirt road of 10 miles to the old turnpike (horse and buggy days) that ends near my place. But upon getting to the end of the turnpike and had to stop at the stop sign, a goldwing was approaching, there was a Kady riding it so I followed her into the next town where we stopped at a stop sign and she said she was going to a local restaurant/bar for the live music. I invited her to go to bike night while we talked before the music started. We hung out for half an hour before headed home at 8:30 as it was getting dark. All in all a good day, and instead of 50 miles bumped it up to 74 miles. 80° start, 73° finish, 5.5 hrs with all the stops.
1st pictures are of an old hilltop dairy farm a few miles before the ice cream stand/restaurant. The covered bridge on the way back.

[Kevin D]

I went by the dedicated SOHC4 highway sign/award board and noticed a change. Two complete and more in store. Well Done!

[RAFster122s]

Congratulations for 24 in 24 before June!

[lash]

I’m shooting for 124! but who knows? Once I get to Newfoundland my pics will improve greatly. Thunderstorms and rain all day yesterday but today I’m riding down to the big city, Toronto north, and that will be good for about 300 km.

[budman]

Ride #17, 113 miles

Well, I made into town for some breakfast tacos this morning.  I left about 7:30.  Temp was 74F with overcast and hazy skies.  Tacos were as good as I remember.  Chatted with the manager a bit, explaining why I haven't been there in a while.  As the days get hotter, and morning rides become a thing again I'm sure I'll be going back for more tacos on a semi regular basis.

The weather guessers were a bit off.  I hit some large patches of misty fog starting a few miles outside of Fredericksburg after I left the taco joint.  The accumulating micro water droplets on my goggles made it hard to see.  But I carried on, making my way down to Kendalia, then over to Sisterdale and up to Lukenbach, where the sun was just beginning to show itself.  I figured I'd take a little break and see if some of the clouds and fog would break before heading home, which they did.

It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 100F this afternoon.  Pretty dramatic change from this morning.

[willbird]

5-26-2024, #20, 161 miles.

Home to Jackson,Mi…then to Manchester, down through Adrian to Delta, OH then back home :-).

Bill

[lash]

Made it down to the city today with my friend Brian for ride #45 at 278 km. When I’m not spending way too much money on motorcycles I spend it in hobby shops on RC airplanes and helicopters! which was the reason for the trip.

[jgger]

You guys are doing great, there are so many rides and pictures, it is hard to keep up with them all! So on that note I will add some more!

Saturday the 25th I was able to get my # 18 in, it was almost a bucket list ride too. And using my best Helen Keller navigation skills, I only got lost twice. Pretty good, huh? The thing that dawned on me was that to reach most of the "good" ride places is enough for a qualifying ride by itself! That being said, it was Angeles Crest Hwy (ACH or Hwy 2) for the target ride, which starts 54 miles or 87 kms of sucky freeway to get there, but it proved to be worth it. The plan was to go up the mountian and then cross over the back roads to Cajon Pass then home, which I sorta did. The weather all this month has not been very inspiring with what they are calling " May Gray", we have only had 3 days this entire month with nice sunshine. So every day it looks like it is about to rain until about 2 o'clock when it burns off.

Now getting lost twice was a good thing, I should do that more often, I think. So my first re-route was at the top and I missed a turn and ended up almost going to Palmdale at the bottom of the mountian. A quick u-turn and about 18 miles of sweet mountian roads and I was back to square one. On the way back up the hill I noticed a sign that said "Upper Big Tujuga Canyon Rd" and another one farther up that said "Big Tujuga canyon rd", and with my reading comprehension skills I thought it might be a connecting road. Now since I  had planned to go home that way, I made a mental note to go that way when going back down. More on that later..... Now back on track I found where I had missed the Hwy 2 sign and headed thatta way only to discover it was closed and I knew how Clark Griswald felt in Christmas Vacation. Oh well I could see the Mt Wilson Observatory across the valley and made a loop over there. Mt Wilson is the one they always show behind the Rose Parade on TV , and you can see down into the Rose Bowl from about 3,000 feet above. Too bad it was so gloomy down below so no Pic of that. Took a few pics of the broadcast towers, boy are those sucker's tall!  I even got a pic of Mt Baldy way across the valley, that is where I rode a few rides back. It's the one with the snow still on it.

Now continuing on I headed back down the warm and sunny side of the mountian again then up pops the Big Tujuga canyon sign again, I figured this would be a cool side trip, I stopped at one point to take a bridge pic, seems  many have peen posting bridges and I wanted to be one of the cool kids too! Big Tujuga canyon was a really nice ride but it seemed to not turning in the direction I wanted to go, this was "oh crap I'm lost" # 2. What tipped me off was the sign that said "Los Angeles City Limit" to which my thought was Hell No! A quick u- turn and things were right with the world again. Turns out these two roads are connected by nane only. Cruising  back down the road towards Palmdale again there a is a tunnel (I got a pic) and a picnic area that looked like a nice place to empty my coffee and plan my next move. I met a guy and his wife and I was telling him I planned to take Pear Blossom Hwy over to Cajon, but I wasn't happy about that. Turns out he was a local and knew the area we'll, he showed me an alternate way and it was awsome, plus it went right into Wrightwood where I wanted to go. The only down side was it was pretty desolate and I was running low on gas from my creative navigating.  I rolled into Wrightwood and hit the only gas station and Eeyore drank right at 5 gallons or 18.89 liters and I didn't even top it off! As I left Wrightwood it was getting dark and cold so I stopped and put on another layer and warmer gloves and headed home.

The whole ride was 267mi/431kms with the to and from and if I  deduct the freeway back and forth miles, it gave me a sweet 164 miles/264kms of beautiful mountian riding! So getting "lost" WAS a good thing!😄

Some stats and pics

Start temp.                    72°f/22°c
Angeles Crest.              55°f/13°c
Average temp.              Mid 60's/18f
Wrightwood.                 51°f/10°c
Home.                            63°f/17°c

Picture time.

[BallAquatics]

Jim, looks like a very cool ride, I love bridges!

Bud, that looks like a very tasty breakfast.  I also love Mexican food!

[willbird]

5-27-2024, 75 miles, #21.

No destination in mind, just wandered around a bit, point of semi local interest that I passed by. I have been by that spot far more than once and just never noticed this before today.

Bill

[budman]

Jim, looks like a very cool ride, I love bridges!

Bud, that looks like a very tasty breakfast.  I also love Mexican food!

It was great.  While I was enjoying my tacos an elderly couple came in and the gentleman ordered a "kuh-rizzo" & egg taco.  I had to chuckle inside.  Dead giveaway they weren't from around these parts.

I forgot to mention I saw my first Cybertruck out in the wild yesterday.  I think Elon should have named it the Tesla "Ugly".  Looks like a Delorian and a giant 6061 aluminum billet had a baby.

Yeah, Jim...really nice photos.  I wish I would have spent more time in the mountains when I lived out there.  We're having May Gray here too, but it's getting hot.  Lots more participants this year.  Hard to keep up with who's doing what.

[RAFster122s]

Chorizo is tasty stuff in a breakfast burrito with eggs and potatoes and maybe some chilies if ya want it warmer yet... Little salsa with each bite

[jgger]

When we go out for Mexican the way my wife pronounces things makes me think I'm out with Bob Uker! Pretty funny.

[BallAquatics]

I used to frequent this little one pump gas station that some nice folks turned into a taco shop.  They had these wonderful chorizo taco's that I'd smother with verde sauce.  Yum yum yum!!!

I think my all-time favorite though is the "Enchiladas Verde" at El Camino in Athens Ohio.  Stop for a plate every time I'm in the area.....

[jgger]

Dennis, that seems ti be missing the refried beans. Other than that it looks good.

[willbird]

5-28-2024, 54 miles, #22. Stopped at the local deli to grab a club sandwich for lunch :-).

Rained this morning  but cleared up nice for the few hours needed for a spin :-).

[jgger]

Nice samich,  Bill!

[Kevin D]

You guys put a hurt on me this morning with all of your fine food.
I’m fasting for a blood test, can’t eat anything at all, especially all those tasty plates pictured here, but,
I will survive this.

[Kelly E]

Ride #5. 256 miles from my house over the North Cascades Hwy to Wenatchee. It rained for the first 120 miles and was in the mid 50's except for up on the mountain where it was around 40°. It warmed up to the mid 60's once down out of the mountains.
The bike performed flawlessly. Tomorrow we'll go take a lap around Banks Lake and stop at Grand Coolee Dam. Here's the bike pointed at the door ready to go and a couple of shots of the mountains. Sorry no food pictures but we had awesome BLT's at 3 Finger Jack's in Winthrop.