Memorial Day 2012

[BikerGeek99]

Sooze and I had been kicking around some idears for places to go over Memorial Day weekend. Watching the weather, we came to a decision and after nearly being delayed due to my job (go figure), we headed out after work on Friday, May 25, 2012.

Sooze didn’t take any pictures for this jaunt because it’s pretty boring and we’ve been up and down that stretch of road to her folks’ place too many times to count and you’ve seen those pictures in quite a few other ride reports so we’ll spare you.

One thing, though – as we were heading north outta Columbus, the skies were getting darker and it was looking like we could hit some rain. Not too far from her folks place we pulled off to don our rain liners. This, of course, meant that we would not actually hit any rain. The last part of the ride, after the sun had gone down, and there was a pretty big storm cell moving in… There aren’t many more motivating things in life than the possibility of riding at night in a nasty lightning storm. The skies were continually being lit up by fingers of lightning and the winds had kicked up a bit. We pulled into Sooze’s folks place about 10 minutes before the clouds let loose. Whew! We did NOT want to be stuck out in that kind of weather at night.

For this trip I decided to take the Harley. The FJR is more-or-less relegated to commuting duties for now – the rear tire kinda evaporated during the SE Ohio Ramble a coupla weeks prior. Gotta get new rear rubber on that thing before NERDS for sure.

We eased into the day the morning of Saturday, May 26. The weather had moved through and the forecast was for sunny skies and near-record high temperatures. After some map consultation, I picked a route to get us to our destination up on the shores of Lake Erie.

And we’re off…

Sooze’s high school just down the road from her folks place.

An old factory in the Akron area – we think it’s an old Goodyear tire plant.

We headed east a ways then turned the front tire north.

We haven’t really spent a whole lot of time in the NE area of Ohio, so we were looking forward to this ride.

We love these older buildings in small towns.

Respect.

Water crossing.

 

[BikerGeek99]

One of the cooler things about this part of the state is the covered bridges. We had a paper map of locations for a bunch of ‘em in Ashtabula county and did our best to find as many as we could.

Our first one.

Our second one.

Lemme say that finding these things can be a PITA. After spending several miles riding down a gravel road, I said screw it and we headed north towards the lake. I need to spend some time putting together a GPS route to see all the bridges.

Our destination was in the small town of Conneaut, which is right on Lake Erie and is pretty much as far northeast as you can go and still be in Ohio.

They have a lighthouse, which we went to see first.

Boats were coming in and out of the harbor this holiday weekend.

Artsy-fartsy shot of green stuff on a rock. Nice, eh?

And another – I was kinda trying to capture the water as the waves were rolling over the rock and green stuff.

The boat docks were on the other side of us.

 

[BikerGeek99]

We screwed around here for a few more minutes…

There are a lot of pretty big rocks where we stopped.

I put our destination address into the GPS and we were off. Notice the flag in the distance pretty much right in the middle of this picture – there was a pretty good wind coming in off the lake. While the weather prediction for home was for near-record-high temperatures, up on the lake it was cool and pleasant.

A few short minutes later we arrived.

A friend of ours who I will call ‘Rich’ in this ride report because, well, that’s his name, was staying at a cabin that has been in his family since the 50’s. He had been nagging us to come up for quite a while and, since it was free and we’re trying to save a buck here and there, our decision was made. You may remember him from our trip to Hilton Head after EOM last September.

Cool framed thingamdoodle in the cabin depicting shipwrecks in Lake Erie.

Being Memorial Day weekend, I felt obliged to take a couple of pics of the bike with the flag.

Sooze and Rich shooting the breeze.

Just down the way from the cabin is a set of stairs going down to the shore. The steps need some TLC and were closed while we were there, but the folks all chip in to also keep a couple of benches with a view of the lake.

I briefly considered being “that guy” and going down the steps anyway, but decided not to.

During our stay, we were protected by Charlotte the Wonder Pug.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Another shot of the benches.

After chilling for a bit we headed out to dinner, but first a stop for some supplies so Rich could do some maintenance at the cabin. This was in the parking lot – a 1940-something Hudson taxi, complete with a pink stuffed teddy bear in the back seat. Too cool…

Rich had been telling us about this place and their killer Stromboli for f’n EVER so this is where we came.

Heading in… WOO-HOO STROMBOLI!!

Some friends of me and Sooze live nearby and we haven’t seen them since our return from New England after Sooze and I got married a few years ago. I traded texts with Stan and he and his wife Margie came out to meet us for dinner. Left-to-right: me, Sooze, Stan, Margie, and Rich.

FOOD ****! I will say this is some pretty damn tasty Stromboli! Mmm…

After dinner, we all went back to the cabin for a few drinks and a lot of laughs. Stan and Margie headed back to their home, and we all eventually turned in for the night.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Sunday, May 27, 2012.

The morning came bright and sunny.

We eased into the day and noticed this: I had put my gloves and helmet on the mantle. It looked like the figurines were trying to figure out what my helmet was – we all swear that they were all facing forward yesterday. Can you say, haunted?!?

We headed into town for some breakfast and wound up at a classic diner for some diner grub.

Breakfast of champions.

The State Street Diner in Conneaut, OH. Pretty good stuff.

We farted around a bit back by the docks and whatnot.

Back at the cabin, it looked like there may be some weather rolling in off the lake. The clouds were really cool looking.

There are quite a few wineries in the area. Rich’s dad is kind of a connoisseur of wine and is friends with one of the local wine makers. We headed out there – and the rain had definitely moved in; it was DUMPING rain for a bit – to check it out.

Turns out they are closed on Sundays. D’OH!!

This is a cool spot, in a rustic sense.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Undaunted, we moseyed on for another winery that we were pretty sure was open on Sundays. But first, we took a small detour to visit the shortest covered bridge in America, the West Liberty Covered Bridge in Geneva, OH, which has a span of a whopping 18 feet!

Down the road a little ways we also stopped at the Harpersfield Covered Bridge, which is a tad longer than the West Liberty bridge.

We took a stroll across it.

Me and Sooze.

It’s been around a while.

I’m not much of a history buff, but I think this is pretty cool.

Somehow I just KNEW that Sooze was gonna take this picture. I know I would have as well. What could possibly be down there….

 

[beemerdons]

A nicely pleasant and relaxing Ride Report Andy and Sooze, I sure did notice the strong family resemblance between Charlotte and BG99!

 

[BikerGeek99]

Rich and I were peering over the edge because there were a couple of chains secured to the shore than ran over the edge. This is what was at the other end:

Note the cross just left-of-center. It looked like it had lights that could be illuminated.

Zoomed-in picture.

There is a little park there along with a bait shop. The bait shop has a painting of the bridge on it.

We headed out and arrived at the Ferrante Winery. It was definitely open. We got a bottle of chardonnay and picked a place outside to sit, sample the wine, and – most importantly – people watch.

All I have to say is … wow. There was a band playing and quite a few middle-ish-aged people, mostly women, “dancing.” I say “dancing” because, quite frankly, they were hammered and had lost any sense of rhythm they may have had.

We wound up sitting next to a pleasant couple who were on their third bottle of wine – that super-duper sweet wine that people who know wine sneer at since it’s considered wine for people that don’t like wine. Kinda like white zinfandel. I could care less, but we wound up chit-chatting with them – turns out they are from Youngstown, which is Rich’s hometown. So they talked about all things Youngstown. Sooze and I drank the wine.

The rain had moved out and it was a pretty pleasant afternoon.

After a bit we moseyed on.

We drove back across the Harpersfield Bridge.

Dunno what the hell Rich was doing here.

We had heard of a cool winery that’s in an old church. We hunted it down and checked it out.

 

[user 28803]

Nice RR! The wife and I need to visit more of the covered bridges here in AL.

 

[BikerGeek99]

The South River Vineyard has got to be one of the coolest places I never knew was in Ohio.

The history of the church and the winery.

Heading in…

You have the option to sit inside on pews that are facing each other.

We grabbed a bottle of … uh …. Something and headed outside instead. This is their patio.

It is a really cool area.

Only an artist could dream up something like this.

There is quite a view through the pillars out into the vineyard.

Me and Rich.

Oh, yeah – we had chardonnay!

 

[BikerGeek99]

My attempt at another artsy-fartsy shot looking through the whatever-they’re-called into the vineyard.

We were getting the munchies so we got a bread, cheese and fruit platter. It was tasty!

Me and Sooze.

I thought it’d be kind of funny to get a picture where it looks like we’re about to fall off the edge of the patio. It’s only about an 18-inch drop, but we did what we could.

I got a good laugh out of it anyway. If’n you don’t like it…

We walked around the grounds for a few minutes.

It’s just a really neat area they have there. We can’t wait to go back.

Don’t remember what ‘look’ we were going for here.

This really made me laugh, so I bought us some glasses.

 

[Intech]

Where are the pictures of you drinking wine? Hmmm?

you posted while i was responding!

 

[BikerGeek99]

We headed back to the cabin for a bit.

Then headed out for dinner at another local joint.

Back In The Day, I was pretty good at Galaga so I decided to give ‘er a whirl.

Galaga takes some SERIOUS concentration.

Read it. Learn it. Live it.

I was ready for some food.

I got their ravioli.

Sooze and Rich split a pizza.

After downing our yummy dinners, we headed back to the cabin and called it a night.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Monday, May 28.

We once again eased into the day and headed to the Park Street Diner once again for a bite to eat before heading for home.

Holiday or not, the trains were still running.

A bike pulled in front of us and I was rather surprised what I saw riding pillion.

Yep – that’s Trooper. We sat next to the fella riding the ‘Wing – turns out Trooper was dumped and this guy adopted him. Or maybe Trooper adopted the guy. Hard to say for sure sometimes.

After grabbing a bite to eat, and waiting out a Memorial Day parade, we said so long to Rich and started the mosey home.

One thing about this part of the state – there are a lot of Amish around.

Complete with signs warning you to be prepared for their buggies.

Lots and lots of farms around here with lots and lots of barns.

A couple of things seem to be constant no matter what small town you’re in around here: an old church and a grain elevator.

We headed east across the Pymatuning Reservoir.

Looks like a lot of Amish were going to be having fish for dinner.

And we crossed into Pennsylvania!

 

[BikerGeek99]

It was a clear, warm, gorgeous day and lots of people were out taking advantage of the opportunity to be outdoors.

We rode along the reservoir for a bit.

Including going through a state park.

More Amish fishermen.

This was a cool dam site. “If you have any dam questions on the dam tour…”

The sign above the door says, “Treasures.” I take that to mean, “Junk.”

The objective today was to stay on back roads as much as possible. We have made the ride from the NE area of the state to home many times on the slab. We wanted to mix it up a bit and see “stuff” that you just don’t see on the slab. So this meant going through quite a few small towns.

I didn’t really have a route in mind – more like, “We’ll go south a ways and then look for a road the heads west-ish and turn there. Then we’ll look for another rode that goes south-ish and turn there.” Lather, rinse, repeat…

We found Ohio again, which was good.

We would up riding through Youngstown. It is painfully evident that the area has seen better days.

This was one VERY cool looking diner! Sooze and I want to go back and check it out.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Ohio’s rolling hills.

We eventually ran into US Route 30, which is a part of the Historic Lincoln Highway. I have crossed Route 30 too many times to count and had never heard of the Lincoln Highway until I saw a guy riding cross-country on it over on ADVRider, so I kinda wanted to ride at least a bit of it. It’s no Route 66, but I think it’s still cool.

I’ve ridden on Route 30 in western Ohio but never eastern Ohio. I prefer eastern Ohio, thank you very much.

The Purple Pumper. There are definitely people out there with senses of humor, you know?

Rolling hills and farmland that is Ohio.

Loudonville. This is where Sooze’s grandfather is from. We had a funny chat about this with Sooze’s folks on Friday, and now here we are!

A church in a small town. Go figure.

Sooze’s grandfather is up in that cemetery somewhere.

 

[BikerGeek99]

We were on Route 3 heading south through Loudonville. Looking at the skies south, they were getting darker and darker. At our previous stops, I checked the radar and noted that there were some strong storm cells developing in that general direction so I wasn’t really surprised. So I made the Command Decision to abandon going south for now and heading due west a bit to hopefully avoid any strong storms.

This old bus / RV was cool!

Note the clouds – we were heading west, so the dark clouds were to the south, our original direction.

Sooze’s cousins or something like that have a farm in this area.

From here, there aren’t any more pictures. Deal with it.

We continued west and decided to hell with the no-slab thing. It wasn’t getting any earlier in the day, we were still a ways from home, and there was weather popping up. So we hopped on I-71 south towards home.

Traffic sucked. LOTS of police were out – a word for the wise for anyone who has never driven / ridden in Ohio: Ohio has to be one of THE worst states as far as speeding tickets go. The State Highway Patrol is NOT known for giving warnings. So, take that for what it’s worth.

We did ride through a brief rain shower, but it had gotten pretty warm so it felt OK.

After about an hour of boring-*** slab, we made it home safe and sound right in between a couple of storm cells that were developing as we rode into town.

All things told we rode about 544 miles or so for the weekend and had a good time up at the lake. It was terrific seeing Stan and Margie again – 3 years is too long to not see friends who are truly terrific people. We’re glad we were able to explore an area of our home state that we are not very familiar with. We’re hoping to get back up to Rich’s cabin again, and next time I’ll have a GPS route so that we can see more of the covered bridges of Ashtabula County!

 

[Bungie]

"LOTS of police were out – a word for the wise for anyone who has never driven / ridden in Ohio: Ohio has to be one of THE worst states as far as speeding tickets go. The State Highway Patrol is NOT known for giving warnings. So, take that for what it’s worth."

I believe it, I was coming home from the Ramble up 271 and their was cop just past ever on ramp. It was like groundhog day. I was doing like 58 in a 55 and they were eyeballing me big time.

Great RR, I love these backroad ones, especially in areas where I'm usually on the slab making tracks.

 

[Panman]

Nice ride report, glade you shared it!