We have had lots of snow and ice this winter.  Winter in Northeast Ohio usually comes with cold and snow, but this year, at least according to the local weather guessers on TV, has been quite a bit worse than “normal.”  Even after the snow and ice melted from the streets, we had ice six inches thick in parts of our driveway.  Finally, after a week of almost 60 degree high temperatures, the ice in the driveway melted and I was able to take the BMW R1200 RT to work.  It was 17 degrees when I rode to work, and it was 25 degrees on my way home.  I rode home at 8:00 AM and more snow hit at 10:00 AM.  I had to go to my other job and pick up some items, so I rode there too.  It is amazing how much more I enjoy commuting on the motorcycle than driving the truck.

Hopefully I will have a chance to ride more.  Most of the roads I ride do not have salt on them right now, as we had a few storms last week that washed the roads.  I don’t like the thoughts of salt corroding my R1200 RT, so I try to ride it when the salt is gone.  

 It looks like I may get to ride to Martinsville, VA for the NASCAR race in March, I will post photos and a ride report.  I have a trip to Colorado planned for October.  Amy has plans for me to have camera mounts on my bike before I go, sounds good to me.

Last week, I left on a trip to Maryville, TN on the BMW R1200RT.  I had to go there for traffic court, as a Tennessee State Trooper was pretty impressed by the performance of my bike the last time I was there.  As another blogger, Gail puts it, I was given a performance award (ticket).  More on the ticket and court in another post.  

When I left Northeast Ohio after my overnight shift at my part-time job, it was 6:00AM and 22 degrees.  I had been meaning to buy heated clothing for months, but I kept putting it off “for one more week” after not finding any decent heated gear at local dealers.  I donned my jeans, chaps, a t-shirt, fleece sweatshirt, and my Olympia Patton Tech Mesh Field Jacket (they named it, not me).  I rode for about one hour and stopped for breakfast.  With the heated grips and the heated seat on the R1200RT, this ride was tolerable.  

I exited I-70 in Cambridge, OH.  The light at the end of the ramp was red so I had to stop.  To my alarm, my legs did not want to move.  I was having trouble moving all of my muscles.  It was hard to shift my motorcycle because of this.  I had lost all fine control.  I pulled into Bob Evans and had trouble climbing off of the motorcycle.  When I did dismount the bike, I had to look drunk walking into the restaurant, as I was stumbling a little bit.  The hostess seated me and when the waitress came, I realized what was happening.  The waitress took my order.  I ordered the “Rise and Shine” which is eggs, home fries, toast, and your choice of meat.  I always get this when dining at Bob Evans.  When the waitress asked me “Bacon, sausage, or ham?” I replied with “Bacon” (I never get bacon at restaurants, I always get sausage or ham).  I then follow with “I prefer links.”  The waitress countered with “Sir, you ordered bacon.”  ”Yes, I prefer links,” was my reply.  It was at that moment that I knew I was a victim of hypothermia.  After I was at the restaurant for about 20 minutes, I  warmed up enough to start shivering.

When I finished eating at Bob Evans, I crossed the street to the TSC (Tractor Supply Company), a farm store that I know sells long johns.  I bought a pair of long johns and added them to my layers of clothing.  The long johns helped tremendously, but I still suffered from hypothermia for the rest of the ride.  

In Florence, KY it started snowing.  I was halfway to my destination at this point.  It snowed on me for about 1 1/2 hours.  The snow only stopped when the rain started.  The looks I got from people while riding in the snow at 33 degrees were looks of disbelief.  

I pulled in at my Uncle’s house in Maryville, TN at about 3:45PM.  I was glad the ride was over.  This is the first time in my life that I have not thoroughly enjoyed riding a motorcycle.  I was rethinking my decision to take the motorcycle for the last half of my ride.  Again, after I was off of the bike for about 30 minutes, I started shivering.  I shivered for about two hours off and on.  It was about three hours after arriving that we found out the heat had been switched off in the house.  I was still very cold when I went to bed at about midnight.

The effects of hypothermia can vary from person to person, but they usually include the following list:

• pale, puffy face
• cold feet, hands, and face
• shivering (may not be present with the elderly)
• listlessness
• drowsiness
• mental confusion, irrational thinking
• apathetic, hostile, irritable attitude
• cold abdomen
• poor coordination and balance
• stilted, jerking movement
• slow, shallow breathing
• slowed or irregular heartbeat
• stiff muscles and some trembling on one side of the body
• loss of consciousness
• loss of heartbeat

This list actually follows the most common order for hypothermia symptoms.  I am not a doctor, but I am a paramedic.  I realized at the restaurant that I had a pretty significant case of hypothermia, as I had poor coordination and balance, confusion, and shivering had stopped.  As you can see in the list, it is probably a good thing that my hypothermia did not get much worse.

In 500 miles of riding, I saw three other motorcycles on the freeway.  Everybody I know said I was crazy for taking a 500 mile motorcycle ride in the middle of November, but I contend that the ride was not crazy.  My taking the ride with inappropriate gear was what was crazy.  After arriving in Tennessee and spending one night, I went to Destination Motorcycles and purchased my Tour Master Synergy heated liners and a pair of Olympia Ranger 2 Overpants.  The ride home was in toasty comfort.  There was no threat of hypothermia, as I rode with the heated gear on low in the morning, and by afternoon, I had to turn off the heat, as I was getting too warm.  I would encourage anybody who rides in the cold weather to buy heated clothing.  I never realized how nice it would be to have heated gear.  

After riding 500 miles in the cold (35 degrees and below), I realize that heated clothing is safety equipment.  I was not prepared for the ride I was taking, but that has changed.  I have learned from my mistakes.  I will not let that happen again.  I have ridden about 750 miles in my heated gear now and could not be happier.  It snowed on me on the way to work Saturday and the temperature was 28 degrees.  I never felt cold.  It snowed the next day on the way home and the temperature was 27 degrees.  I could ride all winter when the roads are clear.  Prior to getting my heated clothing, the coldest I have ridden has been 8 degrees, and I froze.  My commute is 20 miles each way and is safer now with my new gear.

I had a meeting with a friend yesterday to help her with a website for her business.  This lady writes grants for nonprofit organizations and for government agencies to fund various projects.  She doesn’t understand much about the internet, other than it is a great way to get information on the grants that she writes.  I agreed to help her out with setting up a Wordpress blog so that she can get information to others about grants that are available to them for their projects.  If you have a project that you want to have funded by grants, contact Didi or Vera of Gatchell Grant Resources, LLC.  Their site is www.ohiograntwriters.com .  

I used the meeting as an excuse to get to ride my motorcycle (as if I needed one).  It was 75 degrees and there was not a cloud to be seen.  This never happens in November in Northeast Ohio.  I left early for my meeting, stopped at McDonald’s and had “hotscakes” and then went to the meeting.  Anybody that ever watched “Green Acres” knows that Lisa Douglas called hotcakes “hotscakes.”  I always order them as “hotscakes” at McDonald’s to see the looks that I get from the employees.  

After eating my breakfast, I went to the meeting.  I think that I learned more than they did (not in a bad way).  I never realized how many different grants are available.  I also didn’t know about all of the application processes, and the administration of grants.  While we were in the meeting, there must have been ten phone calls from clients.  There were some that had just been awarded grants and had questions about what to do next, and some calls from people looking for applications for grants.  It was crazy how busy these two ladies are.  I hope that they are ready for more calls when their website gets discovered. 

After the meeting, I took the long way home.  There was nothing really special about the ride other than the beautiful day.  I haven’t seen as many motorcycles out riding as I did yesterday for weeks now.  I wished that I had more places that I could have taken the bike yesterday, but I wanted to spend time with my family.  

After I got home, Amy and I had to go vote.  Kaitlyn was funny at the polling place.  We told her that the rules were “Like on an airplane.”  She had flown with Amy to Atlanta one time and Amy told her that she had to be quiet or they would be thrown off of the airplane.  Kaitlyn, being a three year old, took “thrown off” literally.  She was a dream child at the polling place, making hand gestures to communicate because she did not want thrown out.

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.

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