Pictured here is my BMW R1200 RT in front of the Hune Covered Bridge from an earlier trip down Ohio's Covered Bridge Scenic Byway

Several weeks ago, I had some relatives come to visit from out of state.  We had a motorcycle ride planned that would take us to Maryland for lunch, but due to time constraints, we had to alter our ride plans.  Lately, I have been riding my motorcycle in Southeast Ohio in the Appalachian foothills and I thought I would like to ride Ohio Route 26 again.  I had ridden my motorcycle on this route once before and it was very enjoyable, and this was a route that we could take and still be home in time for the other riders to keep their evening plans.

We rode a route that took us down OH 800 to OH 26.  OH 26 is known as the “Covered Bridge Scenic Byway.”  It also is one of the curvier roads in the area making it a great motorcycle road.  OH 26 takes a course alongside the Little Muskingum River as it winds through the Wayne National Forest.  There are reported to be four covered bridges along OH 26, but I have only seen three on the times that I have ridden the route.  One of the covered bridges that is along OH 26 has been nearly destroyed in 1913, 1938, and again in 2004.  The Rinard Covered Bridge was most recently a victim to the remnants of several hurricanes that washed the bridge downstream in 2004 after dumping 8 feet of rain in the region.  The bridge was painstakingly restored using the original timbers to keep the historic designation.

One of the bridges that still stands is the Hune Covered Bridge.  Motorists can still cross this bridge, which is not common these days.  Most covered bridges that are still standing have been close to automobile traffic for many years, although Ashtabula County has been building new covered bridges, as the former County Engineer said that they were far more cost effective than a steel or concrete bridge that would only last 50 to 75 years.  

In the fall of 2007, Ohio had 141 remaining covered bridges, second only to Pennsylvania which has about 200 remaining covered bridges.  OH 26 is a great motorcycle road and has the added benefit of having the covered bridges.  I will be riding OH 26 again soon, and I plan on riding many of the other area roads while in the area. OH 26 from Woodsfield, OH to Marietta, OH is a very scenic ride that is easily accessible from Interstate 77.  The Covered Bridges Scenic Byway is 44 miles long.  The Marietta end of the route is very curvy and has some nice hills.  

If you decide to ride the Covered Bridges Scenic Byway, stop off in Woodsfield, OH at the Hometown Restaurant and treat yourself to a roast beef sandwich.  I had an excellent sandwich there.  My uncle at a meatloaf sandwich that he said was excellent.  Woodsfield is several hours from my house, but I may make the ride there again for the sandwich, it was that good.  We found this place after my GPS led me to a diner that was no longer in town, having been replaced with a Subway.  I asked a farmer that was outside the hardware where the “best food in town” was.  He pointed us to the Hometown Restaurant.

When you decide to ride OH 26, it is only 44 miles long, but plan on riding for a good part of the day, you will want to allow time to stop and enjoy some of the scenery.  We did not have time to do that this last time, but I will have more time the next time that I ride the Covered Bridges Scenic Byway.

See Also: Preserving Ohio’s Covered Bridges

                Ohio Covered Bridge Locations

This photo was not taken by me, there are no storm clouds in sight.

Two weeks ago, Amy’s charger quit working on her Macbook.  After attaching my charger to her Macbook, her battery charged fine.  Her charger would not work on my Macbook.  This troubleshooting confirmed that the problem was indeed the charger.  I decided to pay the Apple Store in Legacy Village a visit.  

Legacy Village is in Lyndhurst, Ohio, about 70 mile from home.  I left work, riding my BMW R1200 RT in light rain.  I rode about 20 mile to get home, grab the offending Magsafe charger, and head north.  It was raining considerably harder when I left on the motorcycle.  I was planning on taking the motorcycle, rain or shine, and that is what I did.  It had been raining for almost 24 hours and showed no signs of stopping.  This trip was as much to test the “waterproof” claims that Olympia places on their liners in the gear that I wear as it was a chance to see the Apple Store. I had my trusty Frogg Toggs in case my Olympia gear left me wet.

While riding to Legacy Village, the weather and my gear did not let me down.  I kept plenty warm with my Tour Master Synergy heated liners in my Olympia Patton Mesh Tech Field Jacket and Olympia Ranger 2 pants.  I kept as dry as I do wearing my rain suit.  I did not get the least bit wet while riding my motorcycle, even though there were times I had to slow considerably due to poor visibility because of the heavy rain.  When I arrived at my destination, the looks of disbelief were priceless.  People could not believe that some bonehead was riding his BMW motorcycle in the rain.

My experience at the Apple Store Genius Bar was terrific.  The Apple Genius checked my charger, which had somehow started working again prior to arriving at the Apple Store.  The Genius told me that he knew that I did not ride 70 miles in the pouring rain to make up a charger not working.  The magsafe charger was replaced free of charge under warranty.  

My ride home was in the same rain, but the wind was about 25 MPH sustained with 45-50 MPH gusts.  These winds were straight out of the west and I was riding due south.  On my Honda CB900 Custom, these winds would have been terrible to ride in, but on the BMW R1200 RT it was very manageable.    

I have always ridden my motorcycles in the rain or shine, hot or cold.  This was the first time that I tried out the “waterproof” claims of Olympia, and I was VERY pleased.  Before this ride, I always donned my Frogg Toggs rain gear if setting off in the rain.  I have since not worried about taking my Frogg Toggs out of my bike if I need to carry a few more things, as long as I am wearing my liners in my Olympia gear.

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.

I know that it is winter in Northeast Ohio, but we have had some terrible weather for riding a motorcycle.  We have had one “clipper” after another for much of the fall and now the winter too.  A couple of weeks ago, we did get a short two day break from this weather pattern.  I woke up in the morning, got ready to go to work, got my daily weather briefing and found that it was almost 60 degrees at 7:00 AM.  We had had a few days of rain prior to this, so all of the salt was washed from the roads.  I went outside and fired up the BMW R1200 RT and rode it to work.  It ended up being 68 degrees that day.  The next day on my ride home from work, it was 47 degrees, not quite as warm, but a heat wave compared to what we have had for over a month.  I managed to put 300 miles on the motorcycle in two days of riding.  Normally, 300 miles in two days is not worth mentioning, but in the last week of December, it deserves and honorable mention.  I do not care how cold it is, I can ride at 0 degrees with the excellent gear that I now own, but ice and snow and salt on the roads will make me drive my cage.


Since the weather has been pretty bad, I have not had much new material to post on this site.  I promise that I will try to go through some old photos and post a few ride reports of past rides I have done.  I have been updating some other sites, and this one has taken a back seat if you will, due in part to the weather.  A friend of mine “The Beach Bum” introduced me to blogging and I have enjoyed it.  Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas are past, I hope to have a little more time for updating my sites.  I have recently updated my blog for those who have switched to Mac computers from Windows based PCs.  I have also been updating the site for my union Jackson Professional Firefighters.

 I have started a new blog to provide information about the new red light cameras that Canton, Ohio has decided to install.  This blog is brand new and will probably end up with heated comments on both sides of the issue.  I have not made up my mind about these red light cameras yet.  Visit the site if this topic interests you.  I know that I am willing to listen to both sides.  I have seen dirty tricks played when Cleveland installed the red light cameras, will Canton do the same?

I am sorry for the rambling nature of this post.  Hopefully I will get to ride the motorcycle more soon, however January and February are not usually great months to take too many rides around the frozen tundra of Northeast Ohio.  I think I will go read about the beach at my friend’s blog.

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.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my new website.  I hope to keep you entertained with updates regularly, as I take more trips on my motorcycle.  Currently, I have three bikes that I use.  My first bike was a 1982 CB900 Custom which I purchased in April, 2006.  In October of the same year, I bought a 1982 CB650SC Nighthawk for my wife.  She slowly got used to riding on her own, and she loves it now.  On long trips though, we now ride our BMW R1200RT which I bought on March 20, 2008.  Here is a photo.

Our BMW R1200RT on Mt Washington Auto Road

Here is a photo from the most recent trip that we did.  We have a great time traveling together, and we would like to share our experiences with you.  Thank you again for taking your time to visit our site.