I Have A Bad Attitude

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Well since we can't get Andy to post up any fecking photos, I Photoshopped this one up for your enjoyment and amusement! NOT REAL!

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Well since we can't get Andy to post up any fecking photos, I Photoshopped this one up for your enjoyment and amusement! NOT REAL!

 

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Nice try Don...I remember those two carrying on that night. You should've heard all the noise!?! :blink:

 

--G
Photoshopping *******S!

 

Geek, so far ...your report is a lot like your attitude.

It sucks.

If I wanted to look at icons on a ******* map, I'd follow that Iron Butt ****.
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You should put Soozie in charge. She's a LOT smarter than you.
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AND, .........she's a lot smarter than you.
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Great News Everybody, Mr. and Mrs. BikerGeek99 made it to the coast and they are having a fun time. Here is a photograph Soozie sent me of Andy relaxing at the pool!

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I knew I could count on you guys for some wacky **** while some of us were out RIDING.

:ph34r:

Gonna get some pictures organized and uploaded. Should get more actual ride report stuff posted in a while.

So take THAT, OM!

 
April 19, 2012.

Sooze and I have been trying to get some time away for a while, but my job has been going nuts – and not in a good way, really – for months. Lots of late nights, early mornings, weekends, blah blah blah yaddah yaddah yaddah. You get the picture. Hell – we had to cancel Valentine’s Day dinner because I had to work.

That’s just how things have been going.

So now, finally, we scheduled a long weekend to take a ride.

We had hoped to get on the road before rush hour on Thursday, 4/19, but, of course, that did not work out. Oh, well.

Better late than never, it’s time to get on the road and try to administer some therapy to my crap-tastic attitude.

All loaded up, getting ready to roll, trying to figure out what we may have forgotten.

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If you like ice cream, this place is right across the road from where we live. They make ice cream there. Good ice cream. On a sweltering summer weekend afternoon you can’t hardly get near the place.

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I was trying to just get us out of town and, of course, I completely forgot about some damn road construction between where we were and where we wanted to go, so time for a quick jaunt through downtown Columbus.

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Not the start I wanted, but oh, well.

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‘Nuther dude on a scoot.

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Some government building or other.

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And another.

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Believe it or not, but this was just built about 5 years ago, but was made to look old.

No, really.

It was.

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And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Oklahoma to sell you.

Anyway.

At least the skies were clear.

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Finally getting outta downtown.

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We hopped on Route 33 heading south-east outta Columbus. Lots of this along the way.

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And this.

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And those.

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The farther into SE Ohio you go, the more interesting things get. Hocking Hills, in the Hocking Valley, is pretty damn nice, especially for Ohio.

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Anyone ever ride here?

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As we continued on, the sun was slowly setting over our right shoulders, casting late-day shadows along our way.

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If you have never been to Ohio, yes, there is lots of agriculture here. And rednecks. We got some of the reddest of ‘em.

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Crossing the Ohio River, the bridge on our route was under construction (of course). 1 lane, metered.

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The Ohio River as the sun sets.

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And ….. no ‘Welcome To West Virginia” sign. Damn it. Hopefully when they finish construction they will put one up.

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Looking back at the bridge.

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And again.

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By now, the sun had set. And we would be riding I-77 into southern West Virginia. At night. As a rule, if at all possible, I do not ride at night. Well, time to bend that rule a little bit. This would be interesting because we’re gonna have to ride through some twists and turns, on an un-lit interstate, at night. Hoooo-boy.

Plus, this stretch of Interstate has tolls booths. Me, being S-M-R-T as ever, had purchased an EZ-Pass for not only this trip but also for another trip later this year. If you are not familiar with it, the EZ-Pass is one of those garage-door opener looking thingamabobs that let you breeze through toll booths without stopping – ideal for the bike.

I learned something at our first toll booth: the sensors will not pick it up if you have it in one of the side pockets on the bag strapped to the Tour Pack.

Oops.

So, at the first rest stop, I rectumfied the situation and used some Dual-Lock and attached it to the windshield, as was intended.

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A while later, we made it to our hotel a bit late in the evening, to the point where everything food-wise was closed nearby except for the gas station. So, we had a road trip dinner of beef jerky, snack chips, and Yeungling Lager.

Miles ridden this evening: 267, getting us to Princeton, WV.

 
Friday, 4/20/2012.

By the time we got to our hotel last night, we were pooped. After being all amped up to get on the road, the near-no-go due to my job, and making sure we made it through the hills of West Virginia at night, it took a while to calm down and get to sleep, but when sleep came…

So we got a later start than we had hoped this morning.

Ah, well. No big deal. Got all day to get there, and the weather is cooperating.

So, continue south we did.

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I love the way the clouds were rolling up off of the hills in the distance.

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Nothing like riding through a tunnel. Wearing sunglasses.

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Through the other side of the tunnel, well, at least Virginia welcomed us!

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Before sending us through another…

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Gotta love this.

“Keep Right”

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“Right Lane Ends”

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While traffic was all gnarled up trying to get in single-file, I decided screw it and headed on up the road until the lane ended (due to construction), I was able to safely tuck into traffic without causing any others on the road any undue delay.

Wasn’t long before we gained some altitude, though….

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Andy & Sooze, if'n you've got a "few" extra hours, come on down and pay me a visit and I'll buy you the best fish sandwich you ever put in your mouth!

(My manatee buddies know where the tastiest ones live!)

 
Andy & Sooze, if'n you've got a "few" extra hours, come on down and pay me a visit and I'll buy you the best fish sandwich you ever put in your mouth!

(My manatee buddies know where the tastiest ones live!)
Check the SPOTwalla link in the first page, 'Howie.

We're kinda back home now.

Thanks for the "too lake to make good on it" offer, though. :blink: ;)

:)

 
Winding our way up through Virginia….

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And back down – note the runaway truck ramp off to the right. That ramp was so steep, I was thinking that the Duke boys woulda found a way to launch a semi – painted orange with “01” on the doors and a Confederate flag on the roof, or course – into one helluva photo op. But that’s just how my mind works sometimes.

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Wasn’t long before North Carolina welcomed us. Take THAT, West Virginia.

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Having been in and out of some mountains, the weather had been cool so as we dropped some altitude, we stopped for something warm to drink. Mmm… Dunkin Donuts coffee hits the spot.

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The cockpit. Yes, I still have the parking thingamajig on the handlebar from Mount Rushmore back in 2010. Any more, I’m curious to see how long that thing’s gonna hang on.

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All in all, this is a fairly boring stretch.

Lake Norman a bit north of Charlotte.

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Downtown Charlotte off in the distance.

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We completely missed the North Carolina border. Oops. I was focused on the road and traffic and Sooze was checking out other stuff going by us. Oh, well. Trust us – we crossed into South Carolina.

And this was a very boring, nothing to take pictures of stretch of road. For a while.

So not much to see.

The weather had warmed up a bit and Sooze was getting sleepy. Time to pull off, grab something to drink, top off the bike with gas, and … you know.

So as we are coming up to an exit, I tap the brakes to disengage the cruise control and … what the hell?!?!

It’s not an adventure until you’re not sure if you’re gonna make it home or not. Or, even worse in this case, if I have tools broken out in a gas station parking lot.

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Jeez BG, what's up with this?!?

We were doin jus fine here without ya, and you go posting pics to make it a bonafide RR... :lol:

Looking good so far and standing by! :drinks:

--G

 
After dicking around in the parking lot for a while, I realized I was not gonna fix whatever was going on with the bike. It ran fine, don’t get me wrong, it was just that … well, take a look and tell me what’s wrong with this picture.

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Hmm?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Anyone??

When I kicked on the brakes to disengage the cruise, the gauges all died. They all swept to the left as if the bike was off. All I had was turn signals, stereo, and hi-beam indicators. No neutral, speedo (glad I had the Zumo for that!), tach, temp, oil pressure, volts, cruise, OD indicator … nothing.

In the parking lot at the gas station, I pulled the fuse for the gauges and that fuse was blown, but even after replacing it, no joy. So, off to a dealer around Columbia, SC, we go.

We wound up at Thunder Tower HD.

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I went in and talked with the fellas at the service desk. After initially being told that they don’t service bikes from Ohio (gotta love a service guy from Michigan with a sense of humor!), they immediately wheeled the bike in. Now check this out – this dude just pushed the bike – fully loaded, so we’re talking 1000+ pounds – right up the little ramp into the service bay. I’m still impressed – no way this scrawny geek coulda done that.

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The service department here was great. The got the bike RIGHT in, diagnosed it (a wire inside the faring had rubbed raw and grounded against the stereo – no WAY I would have ever got THAT one diagnosed), got ‘er fixed (along with doing a recall) and on our way in 2 ½ hours.

After our little fiasco up in Minnesota back in 2010 when we had to go to Fargo to get the thing fixed, all in all, I’m VERY happy with how we were treated. Thunder Tower HD has a VERY nice facility, a HUGE service bay, competent technicians (who were quite interested in the SPOT tracker), and treated us as you would expect a dealer – ANY dealer – to treat someone on the road with an issue with their bike.

Kudos to those guys. If nothing else, the service writers could take their show on the road. Pretty damn entertaining.

So, after the first use of the extended warranty I’m now very glad I bought, we were on our way, making our way out of Columbia, SC, in rush hour.

Thunder Tower HD. Stop in and say hi. Tell the service guys you’re from Ohio just to mess with ‘em.

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Maybe that’s what I needed. A little adversity out on the road to get my head outta my ***, put it back on my shoulders, and get that umpteen-gazillion-pound gaggle of gorillas off my back.

Maybe.

Traffic sucked getting out of Columbia, but we were eventually on our way once more.

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Last fall, after FJR EOM in Kentucky, we rode the FJR down to Hilton Head to stay a weekend with a friend. Not gonna beat dead horses about bringing a motorcycle onto a certain plantation in HH, or what a ******* the guard shack dude was, but at least we had some awesome food.

One of the places we went during that trip was our Prime Destination For Food this day.

Hudson’s Seafood House On The Docks.

Let me just say that – Garmin? WTF are you guys DOING?!?!? We kinda knew where it was, so I punched it into the Zumo and … it was trying to take us to another island

?!?

After a minute in a parking lot consulting with our smart<?> phones, we had the right address and were on our way.

Stupid Zumo.

Once we got there, though, we were primed for some awesome food.

The view.

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Our view from our table inside. Woulda been nice to sit outside, but after the day we’d had, we were there and that was all that mattered.

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Modeling the menu.

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Hush puppies and Fat Tire. (Sooze had the Sierra Nevada.) Great googly-moogly those hush puppies… Guys – these are NOT your run-of-the-mill hush puppies. These hush puppies will … uh … “put a stir in a man’s loins,” if you grasp my meaning. And, no, I did NOT put any damn catsup – ketchup? – whatever – on those hush puppies. If you are ever, EVER, within 100 miles and have the time – go, just for the pups. I’m telling ya … they were worth it for us!

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When we were here back in September, we had some shrimp dishes that were just amazing. I don’t just mean good – I mean AMAZING. Keep in mind that we’re from Ohio, so “fresh shrimp” is a relative term. The stuff here is – literally – just off the boat. There are shrimp’n boats docked right by the restaurant. Literally. So, we are officially spoiled by this place. I guess anytime we really want GOOD shrimp, it’s gonna take a several-hundred-mile road trip for this…

My crab-stuffed-shrimp (and we’re talking local-caught, FRESH lowcounty blue crab that is amazing) with rice and broccoli (and more hush puppies… mmm….).

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Sooze had the broiled shrimp with baked ‘tater and broccoli. Mmm…

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Interesting thing about people. Sometimes people just seem to **** words. Talking just for the sake of talking. No point to their conversation, really, just making noise. Sometimes we call these people, “bullshitters.” Othertimes, “chatty.” The really annoying ones, “used car salesmen.”

There was a group of four or so sitting behind me. One of ‘em – the Ring Leader – couldn’t shut up if she had a mouth full of … well, you know. You name it – there was a diatribe about it. It was amazing to listen to at first but then, well, I am a married man so I was able to tune her out. A couple of things caught my attention, though. The first had to do with something about motorcycles. Not sure what (I’d tuned her out), but something about motorcycles. The other was an insistence from her dining companions to come up with a bucket list on the spot. If I were her husband at that table, I woulda said, “For you to shut the hell up” but that’s just me. Must be southern hospitality to put up with that.

About the time we stood up – in full gear – to head out, I heard the <inhale breath noise here> followed by a not-quiet-enough, “ohmygodididn’trealizetheyweretheBIKERS.”

To make up for it, I almost ran her *** over (NOT on purpose) as we were headed outta the parking lot to the hotel. It made me smile and laugh.

If you’re ever in the Hilton Head area, go to Hudson’s. Please. Just keep ‘em in business.

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Our hotel for the evening was over in Beaufort. Many scenes from the movie, “Forrest Gump,” were filmed there. By the time we got to our hotel, got checked in and settled, we decided to stop in the Applebee’s which was adjacent to our hotel parking lot. That was interesting in and of itself, but not really worthy of this ride report.

More to come, folks.

 
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