Isn't she pretty? Here is Amy's Honda CB650SC Nighthawk at Atwood Lake.

Today’s update was written by Amy.

My first long solo ride Sep 28, 2008

So my parents decided to take our daughter camping with two of our horses for a few days at Harrison Sate Forest in Cadiz, OH.  It is located just off of State RT 9 between Cadiz and Scio.  I made plans to ride my bike down to go horse back riding for the day.  My day started out at 7 am after caring for the two horses left behind at home and jumping on my bike and heading to the gas station.  The morning was nice and cool, grey sky’s, but so wonderful.  I knew that this ride should take around 45 minutes to an hour on a normal day, BUT in my book there was nothing normal about this day or ride.  

Now for you folks that ride daily you may find my situations as no big deal but to me out by myself they WERE very big deals.  I started off heading down State RT 800 to State RT 212.  There was nothing too crazy on this part except the two traffic lights in a town that is no bigger than a blink of an eye.  Once I turned onto State RT 212 and headed toward Atwood Lake, I noticed that the roads were starting to get a little wet but it was not raining.  I thought, “Well I hope I missed the rain, because I can deal with a little wet road.”  It did this off and on drizzle till I turned onto State RT 151 at Bowerston, OH.  I had more ticked off people behind me because they think they need me to go flying around corners on wet pavement and when I would not do it they decided that maybe if they rode my rear tire I MIGHT go faster.  When I started to slow down more I swear I could hear them calling me everything in the book.  Oh well, they should have left 5 minutes before I did.  

After I turned onto State RT 151, if it could be in the road or happen by or on the road it did.  I counted four fat old ground hogs crossing the road in front of me, one BIG nasty vulture on a dead deer in the ditch right next to the road took flight that I have to say scared the pee out of me.  That was  the ugliest and massive bird I have ever cared to see that close up.  I counted 13 dead things in my lane that had birds snacking on them.  One large tree branch was crossing most of my lane.   As I came into Scio, it started to rain a little harder and to top it all off, I had three deer run out in front of me. I saw the deer before I made it to them, but two of them didn’t like the other side of the street so they ran back in front of me and down the side of the road until they decided they liked the grassy field and finally got off the road.  AHHHHH!  All of this and rain too!  Of course I didn’t stop to put my rain suit on because I thought it isn’t that bad, then I got to my destination and saw just how soaked I really was.  I guess that I was so intoned to what I was doing with the bike that I never paid any mind to how wet I was getting.  I got to enjoy the day with my daughter and my parents and had a wonderful horse ride.  The ride home was the best.  The sun was out and NO rain or weird things in the road.  I stopped by Atwood Lake and took a great picture of my bike and just had a great time.  If everything goes right I will be doing the same ride Monday night and coming home on Tuesday.

Yesterday, we spent the day cleaning up the downed trees from when Hurricane Ike blew through.  We had been without power from Sunday evening until Thursday night.  I know that there have been longer power outages in the world, but this has been the longest for us.  I have a small 1800 watt generator that worked for a few days, but the coil went out in it.  I have planned on ordering a whole house standby generator for backup power, but I have not been in a hurry to do it.  This incident just moved the generator up on the priority list, as this is the second time in 3 years that we have been without power for at least 4 days (there was a tornado 3 years ago that narrowly missed our house),  What I have planned to order is a 20Kw Guardian generator, as our house is all electric and I do not want Amy to have to worry about how to hook it up and start it if I am at work for 24 hours when the power goes out.  We had about 16 trees blown down and have been cutting them up.  All of our neighbors have had trees blown down too.  Every evening the smell of burning leaves fills the air.  

Amy and I got to take two short rides yesterday.  The first ride was to a neighboring town to buy some supplies for the chainsaw.  Amy has been getting fairly comfortable on her ‘82 Honda CB650SC Nighthawk.  She wanted to ride her bike with me. She did really well.  Later in the day, we needed to go south and take her bike to a friend.  Our friend rides a Honda 1100 Shadow Sabre and needs to take his test to get his license.  His bike is a little large and not really all that maneuverable.  He has taken the test once on it and we decided to let him use Amy’s bike, as it feels like riding a toy after getting used to a large bike. We gave him he bike a few days early so that he can have some time to get used to it.  He said he loves how agile the bike is.

On the way to our friend’s house, we turned onto Dover-Zoar road, which I ride all of the time.  The had just chipped and sealed the road!  The main road that I use to get to the town of Bolivar will not be the same for some time, as it is all loose stone right now.  On my BMW R1200RT, I don’t mind so much, as it handles on the stone fine, but Amy is nervous on stone.  I pulled over and asked if she wanted to continue on Dover-Zoar road, and she said keep going.  She rode this mess of a road and gained a ton of confidence!  I was proud of her.  There have been times when she doesn’t want to ride a road in the past because of a stone or two on our driveway, but she was a real trooper yesterday.  

After dropping the Honda Nighthawk off at our friend’s house, we drove to New Philadelphia for supper.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse.  After supper, we rode up to the Belden Village area (or Westfield Shopping Town if you are not stuck on old names).  We needed to stop by a store.  We arrived five minutes after closing time.  Oh well, we will have to ride back another day.  

I will have to write more another day.  I have some family coming over to help cut up these downed trees today.  We supply several family members with firewood every year, and in return, they come by and give a hand when we need it.  I have trees, they have a log splitter and muscles.

I was supposed to get off work yesterday at 8 AM and rush home to get our daughter from Grandma’s house so Grandma (Amy’s mother) could go to work.  As luck would have it, there was a semi-truck crash about 30 minutes before shift change, so I was unable to get Kaitlyn in time for Grandma to go to work.  A few phone calls were made and Kaitlyn was on the way to the Wayne County Fair with my Father and Stepmother.  I ended up leaving work about 3 hours later than expected, but this was not a problem.  Since I had nothing else to do now, I decided to ride through Ohio’s Amish Country and go eat at Der Dutchman Restaurant in Walnut Creek, OH.  

I had wanted to eat at Der Dutchman for several days.  I knew what I wanted for several days, so it was easy to order when I arrived.  I got there at 12:40 PM and feared that I would have to wait in a long line.  There was a tour bus in the parking lot, which has not been uncommon when I have been there before.  I walked in the front door, and was surprised that there was no line.  I was seated and the waitress was there in seconds to take my drink order.  I ordered my drink and food, as there was no reason to pretend that I needed to look the menu over.  I ordered sweet tea to drink, they have only had it for 3 weeks now.  For my entree, I had the noodles over mashed potatoes, the full order.  
My food arrived and as expected, there was a ton of it.  I have had many of the menu items at Der Dutchman, but the noodles over mashed potatoes is my favorite.  With the homemade rolls, it is a carb lover’s delight.  After eating, I was so full that I was almost in pain.  The waitress asked about dessert.  Unfortunately, I could not eat any dessert, I really wanted some chocolate cream pie.  Check out the Der Dutchman website.  This really is one of my favorite places to go to eat.

Leaving Walnut Creek, I traveled Rt 39 to Dover and then went to the BMW dealership in New Philadelphia (or New Pennsylvania if you are running for President of the US).  I wanted to pick up an o-ring for the oil cap on my R1200RT.  There is a slight leak right now, as can be seen in my photos from the Cherohala Skyway post.  While at the BMW dealership, I looked at a couple of motorcycles that may be a part of my collection one day.  First, I looked at the BMW G650 Cross Country.  This was a nice bike, and LIGHT.  The G650 Cross Country felt like a toy after riding the R1200RT all of the time!  According to the dealer, there are people getting 65 and 70 mpg on this bike.  This kind of mileage is normally reserved for scooters.  The other bike I looked at and really liked was the BMW F800GS.  Again, it is very light, and gets great mileage.  The dealer reported that there have been people getting 60-65 mpg on the F800GS.  Outside in the used bike area, there was a Kawasaki KLR 650 with only 500 miles on it.  All three of these motorcycles would be very nice to have.  I cannot have all three, and I am not ready to purchase any of them right now, but one day I would love to have a “dual sport” or “scrambler” to ride.  I would like to keep the bike as light as possible as I would probably ride it when the weather is less than ideal.  There are people on the year round riders forum  that put studded tires on their motorcycles and ride in the snow.

After leaving the BMW dealership, I rode my favorite road in the area.  This road is OH 416, on which the dealership is conveniently located.  I rode south to Rt 36 then  turned around and rode 416 back past the dealership and to the north end of it, where it terminates at Rt 800.  I then followed Rt 800 noth to get home.  With the exception of the stretch of 416 where it passes through downtown New Philadelphia, it is a very fun road.  I don’t even mind the part in town to much, as New Philadelphia is a great city.

The weather was a nice 75 degrees for most of my ride yesterday.  I saw many bikes out, mostly BMW motorcycles for some reason.  I did see two or three Harley Davidson motorcycles and one Gold Wing, but I saw at least 20 BMW motorcycles.  Of the 20 or so BMWs I saw, only 4 of them were near the dealership.  I never notice this many BMWs in our area, as they are not nearly as common as other brands.  I have no idea why there were so many on the road yesterday, but it was great to see others out enjoying their bikes too.  

Once again, I took a trip through one of the most beautiful areas in Ohio and did not take my camera.  I need to work on that.  Until recently, my focus has been on riding, and I didn’t really need too many photos of rides.  This has changed some now that I have started blogging.  I will try to remember my camera to take some photos

I have been talking quite a lot to my brother about saving money by riding a motorcycle lately.  It is a great way to beat high gas prices.  I started my motorcycle riding life in April of 2006.  I purchased my Honda CB900 Custom for $1500 to save money on gas, and gas was about $2.30 per gallon then.  Gas continued to rise since the day that I picked up my bike, and I have been saving gas by riding.  

It was easy to justify buying my motorcycle by looking at the numbers.  My truck, a Dodge Ram 2500 HD 4×4 with the V-10, gets roughly 10 mpg during my commute.  The Honda CB900 Custom averaged 45 mpg.  Because of my schedule, I do not drive as much as some others to work and back, as I work 24 hour shifts, so I drive roughly 80 miles per week to work.  If gas prices averaged $3 for a year, I would save about $970 in the first year alone, just in my commute.  That may not seem like much, but remember, I drive to work two or three times per week, and this does not take into account any other driving that I replace with the motorcycle.  In the first year of owning my motorcycle, I drove it 12,587 miles, meaning that I saved roughly $2600 in gas.  This is a significant amount.  Now that prices are higher, I am saving more everyday.  This sure beats sitting around and waiting for the lower gas prices that I was promised by the new Congress two years ago.  They promised to fix the situation, and the already high gas prices doubled!  I am glad that I took action to save gas myself.

Now, for my brother’s gas saving situation.  He lived in Atlanta, commuting in city gridlock 6 days per week.  He bought his motorcycle, a 1983 Honda CB1000 Custom to save gas.  He paid roughly $1,200 dollars for the motorcycle and gas was over $4.00 per gallon when he decided to buy it.  He has since moved back to Ohio, but still has a long commute and he drives to work 6 days per week.  His commute is 32 miles each way.  He rides his motorcycle averaging 45 mpg and his truck gets 15 mpg.  At $3.50 per gallon (the current price in our area, and the lowest it has been all summer) his motorcycle will save him $3,100 dollars in one year commuting to work alone.  My brother has it figured that with ALL of his driving, taking the motorcycle is like getting a raise of $90 per week.  He has been looking at extending how long he can ride so he can keep saving money at the gas pump.  If he buys a better jacket for $180 and he rides for three weeks longer, he has saved money versus driving his truck.  He could throw the jacket away at the end of three weeks and still be ahead, but that same jacket will allow him to begin riding earlier in the spring, thereby saving more gas money!  He has tried to explain this to some of his friends, and they have a hard time grasping this concept.

If anybody reading this blog is interested in saving gas and saving money by riding a motorcycle, I would encourage you to do it soon.  The sooner you start riding, the sooner you have more money in your pocket.  I can tell a huge difference in my disposable income when I am riding all of the time versus taking my truck.  There are a handful of weeks that I cannot ride in the winter, but if the roads are clear of snow and ice, I ride.  Amy and I even took the bike to the Christmas party for my shift at work in January, we had to scrape the frost off of the windshield to ride home from that one.  The reason I started riding a motorcycle was purely financial.  I ride now because of the enjoyment I get from riding a motorcycle AND the financial benefit of burning 1/4 the gas!

How much gas money do you save by riding in a year?  Leave a comment and let us know.