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

As I have written recently, Amy and I just got back from a great vacation. Tomorrow is my first day back to work in eleven days.  It seems like I haven’t been to work in a month.  I really had a great time.  I managed to add about 3200 miles to my motorcycle in the course of eight days.  We had a great time riding and spending time with family.  We got to ride some great roads, some that I have already written about, and many that I will write about.  One of my favorite rides was heading out of Knoxville and going west.  We ended up riding TN 30 for a long way.  That road has some great sweepers.  I will write more about that ride later.  I am fortunate enough to have a wife that loves to ride.  I have a few friends that would love to have a motorcycle, but their wives aren’t sure about the idea.

Here is Amy's new favorite photo of us together. This was taken at Bald River Falls just off of the Cherohala Skyway.

I took the bike to the store again today, and when I came out of the store, there was a BMW K100RS parked next to my bike.  I have seen this bike around town and I have been admiring it.  There is some missing tupperware, but the owner explained that the previous owner had laid the bike down and cracked the fairing.  He said he is going to attempt a repair of the fairing, as it is too expensive to buy a new one.  It turns out that we have secretly been admiring each other’s bikes.  I talked to the owner and his significant other (i think girlfriend, may have been wife, or maybe sister, sorry I do not want to make assumptions) and they were super nice people.  Hopefully Amy and I will have a few new people to go riding with.

I have been looking through some older photos on Amy’s computer.  It seems I will have enough material to keep me busy for years writing about some of the trips we have already taken.  With all of that plus future trips, this little project promises to have tons of content!  I am kind of a geek, so I love doing this website.  Look for much more in the future!

I went out to start the truck today, and the thing wouldn’t start.  I have been riding my motorcycle so much that I have ruined my truck battery from nonuse.  It has been 2 1/2 years since I bought my first bike, and in that time I have driven my truck only about 4000 miles.  This is the second battery that has been ruined now.  I will try to use the “Desulfate” feature of the Battery Minder I have.  It has worked on a few batteries in the past, including my boat battery.

Amy had me go pay some bills, deposit a few checks, and pick up some groceries.  The weather was PERFECT today.  It was 78 degrees today and NO humidity.  I could handle this all year, but I know that the cooler weather will be coming soon.  After riding in the south with my bike reporting 104 degrees, this was a welcome change, but the scenery is not quite as nice.   As nice as it was today, I still have some people respond with disbelief when I am riding a motorcycle to do my errands.  I ride all year when there is no ice.  The coldest I have ridden in is 8 degrees.  Why would I not ride when it is 78?  You should see the guys at work when I come in on the bike in January.  We even rode to the Christmas party (we held it after Christmas in the second week of January).  We needed and ice scraper for the windshield of the bike when it was time to leave.  I didn’t even have a bike with heated accessories or a charging system to power a heated suit then.

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.