Again!
If memory serves me right, didn’t I just cover this a couple weeks ago? But now I’ve got good reason to revisit this topic since this week marks the first of three weeks of my annual summer VACATION! Yup, that’s right, three weeks away from the daily grind that almost nixed my blog last week!
You may have noticed I spend a fair amount of time traveling in my job, so the last thing I want to do during some time off is travel. My concept of an ideal vacation is to kick back with no specific plans, sleep in late, stay up late and spend a lot of time Wandering Indiana on a motorcycle. I might even try to knock off a couple items on my “need fixing” list that dates back almost 10 years now. Now, how’s that for procrastinating!
One of the local TV stations has been talking about one-tank getaways around Indiana for the past couple days. With the July 4th Independence Day holiday just a couple days away, there are all kinds of local activities to participate in without breaking the bank. Local ABC affiliate, WTHR Indianapolis weather personality Chuck Lofton has a great Web site that links you to many Indiana attractions: Chuck Lofton’s One Tank Getaways
If you’re in the Central Indiana area, one of my favorite destination recommendations is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You can easily spend the better part of a day visiting the Hall of Fame Museum. The photo archives room on the second floor has an amazing collection of photography that Dave Hillberry will guide you through. After perusing what’s considered one of the most comprehensive collections of racing memorabilia in the world, you can add to your own collection from a vast array of memorabilia in the Museum’s gift shop. They even have a sale going on this week at their online store: IMS Online Store
Probably the best option available during your visit is the behind-the-scenes Grounds Tours. IMS Grounds Tour guests will visit the timing-and-scoring suite in the Pagoda, the Media Center, Victory Podium, Gasoline Alley garage area and the world-famous “Yard of Bricks” at the start/finish line in addition to a guided tour of the Hall of Fame Museum. Here’s some more information from Eric Powell complete with a schedule: IMS Grounds Tours
Grounds Tour tickets and information are available by contacting Mary Geiss at the Hall of Fame Museum office at (317) 492-6747 or mgeiss@brickyard.com. Tickets also will be available for purchase at the Museum, but space is limited and tours often sold out.
Oh, I almost forgot! If you like wacking little white dimpled balls around big expanses of manicured green lawns, you can book a tee time at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course. Brickyard Crossing, designed by the legendary Pete Dye, is one of the top public courses in America. It also provides the unique experience of playing four holes inside the legendary oval of the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Book Tee Times Online
Well, I think I hear one of my two-wheeled friends calling me from the garage wanting some exercise on one of Indiana’s many twisty back roads, so I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com.
Greg
Two wheels is two wheels
OK, I’m a bit late this week, but work has been a zoo and I’m sneaking off a quick blog to you all during a short break during my week-long conference this morning. How’s that for dedication?
Last weekend produced two spectacular days of clear, sunny weather. This typically means I get very little done around the ole homestead with a garage full of sport bikes vying for my attention.
Saturday morning started off with a leisurely ride up to Ducati Indianapolis on the newest Italian steed in my stable; the Ducati 1098 R Bayliss LE. Wow, this amazing machine definitely tantalizes all the senses! Bill Carr always has the espresso machine warmed up and ready to greet the Saturday morning crew with steaming hot cups of espresso and tasty pastries.
After getting my caffeine and sugar levels up to snuff, I headed off to explore the far west-side of the Indianapolis metro area. As I wandered my way back to the south-side of town, I happened upon a friend’s place west of town. During this little break in my journey, a friend of Gary’s also dropped by with a very unique custom motorcycle.
One of the more interesting aspects of the motorcycle community is the vast array of machinery available to enthusiasts to satisfy every taste. The image of my Italian steed sitting next to this very special custom derivation of a Milwaukee classic presented the extremes of two-wheeled technology and design.
Sunday dawned bright and clear, but I successfully resisted the siren song coming from the garage. I ended up spending most of the day catching up on laundry, household chores and yard work. Darn, I wish all that green stuff growing in the yard would slow down a bit!
Well, the meeting is about ready to crank up again, so I’d better wrap this up and get back to the grind. I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Motorcyclists in the neighborhood
This past weekend proved to be a pretty busy one with loads of special events all over the City of Indianapolis, starting off with an annual Italian Street Festival Friday and Saturday evening.
The Italian Heritage Society of Indiana and the Holy Rosary Catholic Church celebrate everything Italian each year with a street festival on the near-south side of Indianapolis. What better place for the new Indy DESMO Owner’s Club to gather to show off some of the fine two-wheeled machinery from Bologna, Italy?
Friday evening saw almost two dozen iDESMO members arrive with a large variety of Ducati motorcycles to tingle the senses of 
thousands of visitors to the festival. My favorite senses were totally overwhelmed with the vast variety of Italian treats like manicotti, lasagna, Italian sausages, raviolis, biscotti, cannoli, tiramisu, tortoni, zeppole and zabaglione, to name just a few! Wow, sensory overload!
After two evenings of Italian culinary indulgences, Sunday dawned a bit overcast for a very special event out on West 16th Street. Back in April, I wrote 
about the Ride for Kids® program to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF). Several of us from the iDESMO group met up out the Brickyard Sunday morning to participate in the Indianapolis Ride for Kids® hosted by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Through the generosity of several hundred motorcycle enthusiasts, dealers and clubs, a very generous check was presented to Mark Muhlenfeld representing the PBTF along with four very special children; Hannah, Blake, Juliana and Connor, who each shared their survival stories with us. I’d like to recognize Bill Carr from Ducati Indianapolis and the members of the Indy DESMO Owners Club who came together, making the fourth-largest group donation for this event.
It’s events like this where people from all walks of life can come together as a group to make a significant difference in the lives of o
thers through our combined generosity.
With a great weekend of community events behind me, Monday morning offered another motorcycling opportunity with the 18th Annual International Motorcycle & Scooter Ride to Work Day. Our friends over at Red Bull opened up their downtown warehouse early Monday morning welcoming commuters on their two-wheeled vehicles with a little morning jolt of Red Bull.
To wrap up this celebration of two-wheeled transportation, a group of motorcycle enthusiasts, including a contingent from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, descended on the Indy 500 Grill at the new Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal at the Indianapolis International Airport for lunch. Talk about some nervous airport security folks seeing a herd of 20 motorcyclists with helmets, jackets and riding suits walking through the terminal. That was definitely an experience for them to remember!
I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Great roads, great curves, interesting license plates
Hoosier Hospitality, Amber Waves of Grain, The Crossroads of America, Back Home Again and Wander Indiana are but a few of the more memorable Indiana license plate mottos that have shown up over the years from the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles.
From 1905 to 1912, the Indiana General Assembly charged $1 to register a vehicle and gave each automobile owner a 2-inch diameter brass or aluminum circular seal with a number printed on it. This was hung from the vehicle’s dashboard. The owner was allowed to make an identifying placard out of leather, tin, wood or other materials to be displayed on the rear of the vehicle.
Ray Harroun drove the bright yellow Marmon “Wasp” to victory and into racing immortality in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. This first automotive racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway predated the first issuance of automotive license plates in Indiana by two years.
In 1913, Indiana issued its first license plate. The plate measured a generous 4.5″ x 14.5″ and is the only Indiana plate to have a porcelain finish on a heavy metal base. Now that’s an interesting fact to remember!
Over the decades, license plates have generally served a rather mundane identification role on automobiles, offering little to no style to their owners. The 1980s saw the beginnings of a bit of design with interesting mottos starting to show up on what had been a dull utilitarian piece of tin on the back of our four-wheeled pride and joys.
If a little style is good, then more has got to be better! In recent years, the Indiana Bureau of Vehicles has discovered just how much we motorists enjoy personalizing not just our four-wheeled vehicles but also our motorcycles. Checking out the Indiana BMV’s Web site, I counted over 70 
different specialty license plates, many of which are available for both cars and motorcycles. There are plates to tout 32 different universities, eight military specialties, 32 various organizations in addition to the two standard-issue plates. This would have definitely complicated the old vacation travel game of identifying state license plates many years ago.
If you checked out my garage lately, you’d find a whole lineup of sport motorcycles, each proudly displaying the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum license plate that benefits the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation. The foundation was incorporated as a not-for-profit Indiana corporation in 1957 and is operated for educational initiatives, charitable purposes and the preservation of the most diversified auto and racing memorabilia collection in the world.
If you’d like to help support the ongoing preservation of automotive history like Ray Harroun’s Marmon “Wasp” and many others like it, contact Greta Allen at the Museum at (317) 492-6779 to reserve your Hall of Fame Museum license plate, or check out this link for more information: IMS Hall of Fame Museum License Plate
Blessed with another glorious weekend of perfect weather, I once again spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday wandering the many twisting state highways and back roads of southern Indiana on one of my sport bikes, proudly displaying my support of the Hall of Fame Museum.
I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
INDY DESMO road trip
Last weekend, INDY DESMO Owners Club members ventured to the Ropkey Armor Museum in Crawfordsville, Ind., for their first event of the 2009 year. The group included 15 members of INDY DESMO who made the trip and got to see an array of tanks and armory from several time periods and were given a personal tour of the museum by none other than Fred Ropkey himself. The tanks have been featured in movies, historical biographies and numerous cameos on film throughout the world. Mr. Ropkey even had on hand the very rare X-14-B hover plane that NASA astronauts piloted, including Neil Armstrong.
Mr. Ropkey stated that he just loved all the Ducati bikes and was quite thrilled to see them all and had not had the chance to experience the brand for himself. Being an avid rider of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, he was very impressed by the technology and couldn’t resist stating how beautiful the bikes appeared right before his eyes. Thanks go out to all those involved with the ride, and we look forward to many more in the coming months for the club. More information about the Ropkey Armor Museum can be found at www.ropkeyarmormuseum.com
OK, let’s play Where’s Waldo! Can you find me in the photo above?
Nope, I’m not there!
I started off Sunday morning meeting up with a couple MSTA (Motorcycle Sport Touring Association) members at Don & Donna’s for breakfast on the square in Franklin, Ind. The plan was to ride a little bit of the Brown County twisty road routes then head north to meet up with the INDY 
DESMO group for the Ropkey Armor Museum tour. Well, the “short” Brown County jaunt turned into a 200-mile ride, complete with several stops for lunch and ice cream. Yup, it’s all about the tasty treats. But best of all, the new Ducati in my stable has reached that magic 600-mile point. After my friends at Ducati Indianapolis complete the 600-mile initial service and inspections, I’ll be able to really experience the power of the new 1098 R Bayliss LE.
With another weekend of motorcycle adventures under the belt, it’s time to get back to the grind, and I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg