extrememarine
Well-known member
SE Ohio Ramble May 2012.
There's a short recap of Wheaton's Spring SE Ohio Ramble 2012 through my windshield.
The escape plan was to depart Friday directly from the office, using a few hours of sick leave **cough, cough** to beat Friday traffic. UselessPickles was to be my radar decoy riding partner this trip. I headed to the rally point at 1pm, a few minutes early. I filled the tank and downed a bottle of water while I waited for Pickles. It was not long before I heard the distinct burple of an FJR going down through the gears. Time to Ride.
I hit "tracking" on the Spot tracker and we were off. We made good time getting out of the Detroit area and through Toledo. At some point, jealous of our early departure, Bikergeek chimed in with a text telling us to get a move on or Captain U-Turn would beat us to Caldwell. Originally, I planned to let Jeff lead. He kindly bowed out with a plethora of justified reasoning – I don't have a radar, I'm not good at spotting LEO's, and I think there was an old man joke in there somewhere as well. Regardless, we made tracks south, and arrived at Ironpony in Columbus around 5pm. There was not much time to poke around (good thing, too) before the Geeks showed up along with Buell Dude (sorry, I'm horrible with names).
We headed out of town, four bikes strong, Bikergeek in the lead – it was his back yard after all. We had planned to run south on OH-33, then pick up OH-78 and run it into Caldwell. Traffic at the interchange made that a bad idea, so the Geek trekked on; I figured he had a local-yolcal shortcut to get us around the traffic. About an hour later, as were standing in a carwash parking lot (somewhere near the Ohio – Indiana border, I think), we realized there was not a local insider by-pass. I thought the Geek was checking him email or starwar.com, but his frantic swipes on his iPhone must have been on Googlemaps. We got it sorted out and headed east, sun setting, and the roads beginning to coil up in front of us. We stopped for gas and facility use some time later (Buell dude has a small gas tank). Andy started with the "why don't you lead, Wayne" stuff; "no, I'm ok" and he retorted with, "I'm going to be slow…" I was enjoying the ride behind the Geeks with their neon green / yellow helmets being great road direction indicators as they dropped over a hill crest in front of you. Then Mr. Geek slid right and motioned me to get the heck off his tail. I backed off, then he out braked me on a corner exit and suddenly I was out front, with the open road taunting and the Z8's screaming "bring it". We made short work of OH-78 into Caldwell. One lesson learned is that if you're traveling with the Geek, make sure you eat a full lunch – cause chances are you'll be late for dinner!
Mr. Wheaton was there, adult beverage in hand, and made quick work of handing out maps, directions, group assignments and launch times as well as a few words to get the "don't be a jackass please" point across.
Saturday cracked with clear skies and moderate temperatures. Breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel hit the spot. We got suited up. I was to tag along with Wheaton and Dennis for the day. We were slotted for the number 2 launch position, but I think someone was still doing their hair, holding up group 1's launch. Mr. Wheaton issued the order – group 2, "GO, GO, GO". We made it a tenth of a mile and a road gremlin struck. Wheaton's rear tire looked odd, and he felt it as well. A quick u-turn put us safely at a gas station to investigate. A couple of spins of the rear tire revealed a small sliver of metal lodged in his tire. Now, for some reason, Wheatie thought it appropriate to apologize and tell us to go on without him. Silly man, did you actually think we'd pass up an opportunity to capture some forum fodder? I think not.
Tire kits were broken out and Mark went to work. Mark didn't say much during the episode, other then repeating the same line over and over, "Man, that's a big reamer". Not much experience with big reamers, eh?
We were on the road shortly. The roads were straight and flat. Nothing to get excited about. You definitely do not want to go ride there. Stay home. So there be less traffic for us… And there was hardly any traffic. And the roads were outstanding SUCKED.
We had lunch at the "Historic Beallsville Diner". Good chow and great service so long as you were sitting at our table…
Everyone made it back to the hotel safely Saturday, and it was a truly great day. After being perfectly content with riding sweep all day, Wheaton saw fit to make me torture the Z8's on the final leg of the day.
Robert – SLK50 had a conversation about last fall's fall and how appreciative he was of me riding back to the hotel with him that day. I didn't do anything special that day in my mind – but it's what we should all expect from our fellow riders in my opinion. Marines take care of their own, and as riders we should apply the same philosophy to everyone we ride with.
There were games played Saturday night. "Slow Racing" is something I had a hard time wrapping my head around. Must be a Harley thing. Anyways – UselessPickles represented the Michigan boys well bringing home the championship title.
There was even a "newbie" award for Carl's brother - a FJR owner for less than a couple of weeks.
Sunday brought unfavorable conditions. Rain was setting in for the day, which forced Jeff and I to head north, breaking free of the liquid sunshine with Designflaw06 and Naskie18 in about 90 minutes or so. Even though we had to head out early and skip Sunday's loop, it was a great weekend and an eye opener for Pickles as well. I think he likes these "curves" as we call them… I was headed south in 3 days to NC, so this was the perfect way to prep a set of tires for that trip…
A special thanks to Mark for being the ringleader and actually showing up for one of his rides. And to Denny for his local intel on the roads and routing – we are all certainly jealous of you my friend, and to Griff who also had a hand in putting together the routes.
There's a short recap of Wheaton's Spring SE Ohio Ramble 2012 through my windshield.
The escape plan was to depart Friday directly from the office, using a few hours of sick leave **cough, cough** to beat Friday traffic. UselessPickles was to be my radar decoy riding partner this trip. I headed to the rally point at 1pm, a few minutes early. I filled the tank and downed a bottle of water while I waited for Pickles. It was not long before I heard the distinct burple of an FJR going down through the gears. Time to Ride.
I hit "tracking" on the Spot tracker and we were off. We made good time getting out of the Detroit area and through Toledo. At some point, jealous of our early departure, Bikergeek chimed in with a text telling us to get a move on or Captain U-Turn would beat us to Caldwell. Originally, I planned to let Jeff lead. He kindly bowed out with a plethora of justified reasoning – I don't have a radar, I'm not good at spotting LEO's, and I think there was an old man joke in there somewhere as well. Regardless, we made tracks south, and arrived at Ironpony in Columbus around 5pm. There was not much time to poke around (good thing, too) before the Geeks showed up along with Buell Dude (sorry, I'm horrible with names).
We headed out of town, four bikes strong, Bikergeek in the lead – it was his back yard after all. We had planned to run south on OH-33, then pick up OH-78 and run it into Caldwell. Traffic at the interchange made that a bad idea, so the Geek trekked on; I figured he had a local-yolcal shortcut to get us around the traffic. About an hour later, as were standing in a carwash parking lot (somewhere near the Ohio – Indiana border, I think), we realized there was not a local insider by-pass. I thought the Geek was checking him email or starwar.com, but his frantic swipes on his iPhone must have been on Googlemaps. We got it sorted out and headed east, sun setting, and the roads beginning to coil up in front of us. We stopped for gas and facility use some time later (Buell dude has a small gas tank). Andy started with the "why don't you lead, Wayne" stuff; "no, I'm ok" and he retorted with, "I'm going to be slow…" I was enjoying the ride behind the Geeks with their neon green / yellow helmets being great road direction indicators as they dropped over a hill crest in front of you. Then Mr. Geek slid right and motioned me to get the heck off his tail. I backed off, then he out braked me on a corner exit and suddenly I was out front, with the open road taunting and the Z8's screaming "bring it". We made short work of OH-78 into Caldwell. One lesson learned is that if you're traveling with the Geek, make sure you eat a full lunch – cause chances are you'll be late for dinner!
Mr. Wheaton was there, adult beverage in hand, and made quick work of handing out maps, directions, group assignments and launch times as well as a few words to get the "don't be a jackass please" point across.
Saturday cracked with clear skies and moderate temperatures. Breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel hit the spot. We got suited up. I was to tag along with Wheaton and Dennis for the day. We were slotted for the number 2 launch position, but I think someone was still doing their hair, holding up group 1's launch. Mr. Wheaton issued the order – group 2, "GO, GO, GO". We made it a tenth of a mile and a road gremlin struck. Wheaton's rear tire looked odd, and he felt it as well. A quick u-turn put us safely at a gas station to investigate. A couple of spins of the rear tire revealed a small sliver of metal lodged in his tire. Now, for some reason, Wheatie thought it appropriate to apologize and tell us to go on without him. Silly man, did you actually think we'd pass up an opportunity to capture some forum fodder? I think not.
Tire kits were broken out and Mark went to work. Mark didn't say much during the episode, other then repeating the same line over and over, "Man, that's a big reamer". Not much experience with big reamers, eh?
We were on the road shortly. The roads were straight and flat. Nothing to get excited about. You definitely do not want to go ride there. Stay home. So there be less traffic for us… And there was hardly any traffic. And the roads were outstanding SUCKED.
We had lunch at the "Historic Beallsville Diner". Good chow and great service so long as you were sitting at our table…
Everyone made it back to the hotel safely Saturday, and it was a truly great day. After being perfectly content with riding sweep all day, Wheaton saw fit to make me torture the Z8's on the final leg of the day.
Robert – SLK50 had a conversation about last fall's fall and how appreciative he was of me riding back to the hotel with him that day. I didn't do anything special that day in my mind – but it's what we should all expect from our fellow riders in my opinion. Marines take care of their own, and as riders we should apply the same philosophy to everyone we ride with.
There were games played Saturday night. "Slow Racing" is something I had a hard time wrapping my head around. Must be a Harley thing. Anyways – UselessPickles represented the Michigan boys well bringing home the championship title.
There was even a "newbie" award for Carl's brother - a FJR owner for less than a couple of weeks.
Sunday brought unfavorable conditions. Rain was setting in for the day, which forced Jeff and I to head north, breaking free of the liquid sunshine with Designflaw06 and Naskie18 in about 90 minutes or so. Even though we had to head out early and skip Sunday's loop, it was a great weekend and an eye opener for Pickles as well. I think he likes these "curves" as we call them… I was headed south in 3 days to NC, so this was the perfect way to prep a set of tires for that trip…
A special thanks to Mark for being the ringleader and actually showing up for one of his rides. And to Denny for his local intel on the roads and routing – we are all certainly jealous of you my friend, and to Griff who also had a hand in putting together the routes.
