First off, let me give you an update on the Scrambler: Powder coating done, spokes on (not aligned right), wrong handlebars, pipes on, seat painted … almost there.

Second, some Four Wheelin’: Over the Fourth of July, I got some four-wheeling in out at my grandmother’s place. Check out a few of these clips, it gets muddy! (Editor’s note: Links to the video clips are located in the introductory “The Ride” blurb on the front pages of www.redbullindianapolisgp.com and www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.)

And now, Part 2 of Moto-Adventure:

Phil and I woke up early so that we could get a full day of riding and plenty of cushion for our projected 9 p.m. Indy arrival. We set off from Richmond International Raceway on Interstate 64 for about 2.5 hours before we decided to take an alternate route home.  We ducked off the superhighway onto a two-lane highway that would take us all the way to Charleston.  This was a great choice because the road was fast moving, semi-windy and took us through the best roads ever through West Virginia.

The only problem was, RAIN! That’s right, on this trip we hit rain in four different states and in West Virginia it just happened to be in the Mountains on the curviest roads on the trip. Thankfully I made a quick stop to Dreyer and picked up the “First Gear” rain suit and gloves that were perfect.

(Check out the picture of Phil in his Rain Gear, Still waiting for the picture of me from him … PHIL, SEND ME PICTURES!!!)

Thankfully the rain stopped once we got through the mountains and neither Phil nor I had any issues. 

Fast Forward to our favorite place in Gauley Valley, which was dry … We made a few detours there and decided to make two trips up and down the valley at a more aggressive pace. If I ever get the video working I will have several clips to share. Once we were done “playing,” we got back on the highway and were slated to take the quickest route home according to Google maps, which would venture us through Ohio to Dayton and back to Indy. Once we started in that direction we noticed the massive thunder heads above us. We braved it anyway and decided to turn around when we saw soaked cars coming our way. This detour added about 1 hour to our trip! So it was back to I-64 where we dodged several rain storms traveling at 90 mph. The feeling when you escape a big storm is exhilarating! I felt victorious every time I sped through a section and popped out clear of a rain cloud!

It wasn’t until we got 40 miles south of Cincy where it got nasty. It was about 9 p.m. and the clouds were gloomy and we knew that it was going to rain. We also knew that it was getting dark. We pulled over, filled up with gas, put the rain gear back on and decided that we were going to roll with it until it got “too” dangerous. About 3 miles down the road for the next 30 it was dark and rainy! Really rainy and scary. Luckily for us the roads were pretty dry by the time we got into the city interchanges so it wasn’t that bad.  Once we went through the interchange and got on I-74 to Indy we were hit with minor little sprinkles all the way until Indy. But it was in Indy were it started to rain again. I only got droplets but Phil got soaked. Phil lives on the west side and got pounded!

First Moto-Adventure! Part 1.

I missed a week of blogging because I was on my Tiger and didn’t get the time to type up an e-mail, label my pictures and send them off.

So here I am armed with Microsoft Word and pictures of my ride to Virginia with my best bud, Phil. I’m going to describe this adventure in a few stages, starting with getting ready …

When we looked at the IndyCar schedule, we figured that if any of the trips were going to be the “Long One,” it was going to be Richmond. About 11 hours on Google Maps, a solid mix of highway, mountains and a great destination — an IndyCar Series race — we figured that this would be the one.

In preparation, we needed to pick up a few items. Phil purchased his saddle-box set, and we both picked up rain gear and air pants for the ride. We knew that there was a chance of rain and wanted to be prepared. After all, half of riding the motorcycle is being prepared!

We met at Starbucks located on Monument Circle, downtown Indianapolis. I was running a few minutes late because I wanted to pick up some ear plugs at CVS. That was a terrible idea because the plugs that I got were enormous and caused serious ear pain the entire ride there. We finally rolled out at 8:30ish after a quick stop at CITGO, an IndyCar team sponsor, and hit the road.

The ride wasn’t that bad. When you know that you have a long day ahead of you, you really don’t get anxious to get there. We made our first stop between Cincinnati and Lexington. Our plan was to stop at every state line and take a picture in front of the big “Welcome to this state” sign, but we missed a few on the way down. First off, when traveling around Cinci, you hit three different states in 30 minutes. When we saw the Ohio sign, we were already underneath it and surrounded by semis. When we got to the Kentucky state line, we were on a bridge, so we skipped that one too!

Fast forward to West Virginia, not a lot happened in Kentucky. Once we got into Charleston, we had made the decision that we were going to dip off the highway and travel along the river. We were very excited about this. While we were filling up, a men’s soccer team called The Crash, or something, pulled up. First off, we are in West Virginia, and second, these guys were playing hardcore girly techno! Not the combination we expected.

Off through the country, we anxiously waited for the twisties that everyone talks about in West Virginia. Well, apparently they weren’t on Highway 61. Just small town after small town instead! Then we changed plans and dumped off to Highway 60. After about 10 miles of this, we thought, “We got this all wrong!” So we stopped at the Kawika Falls. Phil then said, “Watch, in a mile, the roads are going to get really good.”

He was not serious, but he was lucky. In 2 miles, we hit a stretch of road that took us about three hours to complete. It was awesome!! So awesome that we went through one section and turned around and did it again! Along the way, we stopped and took a picture of this VW Bug that was crashed into the side of an airplane hangar-looking thing and a green hippo on the top of a building!

Let’s just say that this stretch of road made our trip. Once we got to I-64, we stopped for gas and had a BBQ roast beef sandwich. Then we hopped back on the highway and headed out. Not too much to say about this stretch, only that it was fun on the highway, and we were able to stop and take a picture at the Virginia sign. We stopped at BP for one last fill-up and were in Virginia in about 1.5 hours. Once we got to the track, we dismounted, took off our gear, grabbed some beers and walked off the stiffness!

Part two coming soon …

Jarrod