Amy loves taking photos of fall foliage. Atwood Lake is not far from our house.

Last week, Amy suggested that we take a ride, as the leaves were at their peak color here in Northeast Ohio.  Amy wanted to ride her Honda CB650SC Nighthawk.  She has been riding it a lot lately and has not taken the truck to work in months.  She is finally getting comfortable being out on her own motorcycle, thanks in large part to the Motorcycle Ohio Motorcycle Safety Class that she took.  We did not really have any plans made on where to ride, we just started riding. 

We left East Sparta, OH traveling south on OH 800 to I-70 east in Hendrysburg.  We then took I-70 to the Belmont-Morristown exit (exit 208) and went north for about 500 feet to eat at Schlepp’s Family Restaurant.  We found this restaurant when returning from a skiing trip when I was young, and they have always had great food, so we make it a point to ride there a couple of times each year for lunch.  We had a great lunch.  I had their beer battered fish and Amy ate part of a huge chef’s salad.  This was one of the largest salads I have ever seen.  She had more left over than she ate.  I think the salad would have fed three people.  

After leaving Schlepp’s, we went north to US 40 and headed east on 40.  We were this close to West Virginia, and Amy has never ridden out of Ohio before on her motorcycle, se we decided to go 17 more miles to Wheeling.  We crossed the Ohio River into Wheeling, West Virginia and rode through town.  After riding around Wheeling, we turned around and headed home.  

Our route home took us to St. Clairsville, OH then north on OH 9 through New Athens and Cadiz.  We followed OH 9 to OH 151 to Bowerston, OH and OH 212 to Atwood Lake where we stopped and Amy took some photos.  We would have continued the ride, but I could hardly stay awake, as I had worked the night before.  Amy was disappointed that she could not ride more, but this was the longest ride that she had ever done on her own bike.  We left Atwood Lake and rode home, about 15 minutes away.  

We had a great ride, and the weather was PERFECT.  The high temperature was 85 degrees, unheard of for a fall day in Northeast Ohio.  There was not a cloud in the sky.  Amy was thrilled to have had the chance to ride in another state.  The day after this ride, the temperatures fell and have stayed low.  I have been riding to work in sub-freezing weather for over a week now.  There will be some more great riding days, but they will not be like our day last week.

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.

We are home!  While I enjoy taking trips, I am always relieved to be back home.  We arrived back home last night at about 6:20 PM.  I took the motorcycle to Amy’s grandparents house to pick up Kaitlyn, our 3 1/2 year old daughter.  She was surprised to see us, as we weren’t supposed to be home for another day.  She was thrilled that she got to ride the Nighthawk 650 home with me.  That is one of her favorite things to do. 

On the way home, we decided to take the interstates, as there was some bad weather moving in.  We were able to keep ahead of most of it, only getting caught in a few showers, nothing that I even felt I needed my rain suit for.  I did stop and let Amy put hers on though, as she doesn’t have the weather protection that i do on the R1200RT.  Storms or not, I set the GPS to stop in Lexington, KY at the Taco Tico on Boardwalk Ave.  Taco Tico is one of my favorite restaurants.  Taco Tico is no five star joint.  It is a mexican fast food place.  I used to go with my father to Taco Tico when we lived outside of Louisville, KY and I have always stopped when I pass through Kentucky or Kansas.  I wish somebody would open a franchise in Canton, OH so i could enjoy their food more often.  I always get the same thing when I go there, a couple of combo burritos.  Their hot sauce is probably the biggest reason I go there.  I used to buy hot sauce from them every time I stopped.  I don’t know what it is about the sauce, but it has the best flavor of ANY hot sauce I have ever eaten.  

After our stop in Lexington, our next real stop (other than to let amy don her rain suit) was in Zanesville, OH at A&W for a root beer float and to let Amy have a break from the backseat of the bike.  I think that the front seat of the R1200RT is comfortable, and I have ridden on the back one time with another person driving.  I cannot stand that rear seat.  I don’t know why, but after 3 miles, I’d had enough.   Amy doesn’t complain about it until we do about 300 miles, then she needs a break.  I guess it is not too bad if you can sit in the same position for 300 miles at a time.  On the Honda CB900 Custom that we used to travel on, we were both ready to stop at 100 miles.  

Today, I had to get my hair cut, so Kaitlyn and I took the R1200RT down to the barbershop.  She had a ball.  She was waving at everybody, sticking her hand out in the breeze and gawking at everything.  She loves wearing her helmet, and doesn’t want to take it off when we stop at places.  She has a Fulmer youth small full face street helmet.

We are looking at taking a small trip with Kaitlyn.  We will probably drive the car, as she is too young for any motorcycle trips of any length longer than running to the store.  

We were able to stay with family during the entire trip that we took.  It helps when you don’t have to pay for lodging.  The trip I took before, when I went to Mt. Washington was fun when I stayed in some motels.  There were a few that I was just glad that my motorcycle was still outside when I woke the next morning.  I have decided that I will probably use Hotels.com to check places out and book rooms.  I have used them before and found the reviews to be dependable.  Give them a try, I am sure you will be happy with their rates.

We are on a trip right now.  We are staying with family in the Knoxville, TN area and we traveled to Atlanta, GA to see my sister for a couple of days.  We have been riding an average of 300 miles per day.  Today we rode 344.4 miles and nearly ran out of gas.  Anyway, here are some photos we have taken along the way.  I will post more stories when I have some time.

Honda CB550SC Nighthawk running on the freeway. Not bad for a $300 bike!

Here is a shot of my sister's Honda CB550SC Nighthawk with my BMW Boxer motor in the foreground.

This photo of our BMW R1200RT taken on the Cherohala Skyway looks like a BMW advertisement

Here is another great photo that Amy took of my Uncle Greg's BMW R1150RT on the Cherohala Skyway.

These butterflies were EVERYWHERE on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Amy took many photos of the butterflies, and of the bees, but she got both in this photo.

I will post more photos when I have some more time.  Our days have been starting early and ending late, so I must call it a night.  We will be going back into the mountains tomorrow to ride some more great roads, and probably let Amy take many more photos.