Daytona Trip - Last 2 days (for awhile!!!) Part 2 - THE CRASH

It was a cold Sunday morning in Wilmington, NC. Around 37 degrees, so I decided to wait for mid morning for the temps to warm up. It was another sunny clear sky day so that was nice. My wife would be following me in her car as she had been visiting our daughter and helping her out due to the cat bite she had from the week before. The cat bite had got badly infected and the Dr. thought he was going to have to perform surgery at one time. After he put her on three antibiotics the infection started to go away. A cat bite can be very nasty. That was why my wife was there and heading back with me.

We planned to just head up I-40 and I-95 to get home. We were both anxious to get home after being away for almost a week. We took a break and gassed up along I-40. I knew I would need to stop one more time to gas up and planned on Emporia, VA for the final break/gas stop.

As is common on the interstate, especially I95, we were in and out of traffic. Sometimes it would be a string of 4-5 tractor trailers and we would be in the left lane. Other times things would thin out and would be cruising along in the right lane. My normal cruising speed on the interstates are normally 0 to +5mph of the speed limit. When my wife is following me I keep it right on the speed limit, so I had my cruise control set on 70 and so was the speed.

We were in one of those lull traffic periods just south of Roanoke Rapids, NC in the right lane when immediately my bike began a violent wobble and what I had heard described in rare cases as handlebar "tank slapping". There was no perceived warning prior to the violent wobble, My first thought was that I had a tire blow out and had to maintain control of the bike. The first thing I did was very lightly tap the front brake lever to disconnect cruise control. That was good as it sent a signal immediately to my wife that something was wrong and for her to slow down too which she did see and immediately do (she told me later she saw the brake light flash and saw the violent wobble). The wobble and tank slapping did nothing but get more violent and intensify (being an engineer it reminded me of an uncontrollable feedback, it was like it was feeding on itself and getting worse and worse). My last thought was I am going down! From the first indication of a wobble it was only approximately 2-3 seconds until I & and my Ultra were on the pavement on our left side. I do not remember ever going down. This is what my wife behind me told me later that she saw.

When I first "woke up" I was laying on the pavement and saw my wife and lots of other people and cars parked. My wife said I tried to get up then and everybody held me down. I blacked back out and didn't remember anything else until I "woke up" in the emergency room bed with the nurse talking to me. He was a motorcycle rider and I remember he asked me about cutting my clothes off and I asked him not to until we tried to get them off! I didn't want my jacket and heated gear cut!! At that point I was still numb to the pain and we did get my clothes off without cutting anything! That was nice of him!

When through the battery of Xrays and CT scans and they told me I would need to go to a trauma center due to bleeding and contusions around both of my lungs. I was then flown by helicopter to the MCV trauma center in Richmond. I spent only 3 nights there and they let me come home on Wednesday!


The bike is totaled with over $11,000 of damage. All the damage was on the left side as I and the bike stayed on and slid on the left side only. A lot of internal damage to the "front end" such as the front shocks and triple tree. Looks like me and the bike came close to flipping, but we didn't!!

All damage on left side

The tire separating from the rim is what caused the intense wobble/tank slapping at 70 mph. Local dealer that my bike was towed to inspected the tire and did find what appeared to be a puncture in the tread but no sign of what caused it. I am "anal" with my tire inspections. I had 40 psi in the tire that morning and it had between 4/32 and 5/32 of tread depth. I check my tires like this EVERY morning on a trip! I had around 13,000 miles on the tire. The real problem was that the tire immediately detached from the rim throwing the bike into a sever wobble.

I am being repaired and luckly not totaled!! I have 8 broken ribs, 1 broken collar bone, 1 separated shoulder and a bone chipped on my leg tibia. Luckily it was a cold morning (in 30's when I left that morning) so I had insulated underwear, jeans and chaps on my legs. I had a t shirt, long sleeve shirt, Gerbings heated jacket, nylon inner jacket and my HD mesh riding jacket on. Also had my Gerbings heated gloves on. I had NO road rash! HD 3/4 Helmet was ruined with cuts/scratches/gashes all the way around it. The protective gear really did a GREAT job!

That me in the reflection with my arm in sling!

 I was very happy with the HD mesh riding jacket as it had several small tears in the front in my neck upper chest area and in the back around the collar (odd that I have no injuries on my body in those area, not a scratch!)

What was interesting was no tears/cuts where I made the first impact with the road on my shoulder.

Leather on chaps only roughed up. Interesting that Gerbings heated jacket had a 2 inch hole tore in it but did not cut through any of the wires. Tore a hole all the way through the leather of my Cruiserworks boots (don't guess they are waterproof anymore!). Also had the left lens of my Rayban riding glasses scratch up pretty bad. My wife said I was laying face down at the end. I had no scratches on my face though.

Here is a pic 4 days later of the road contact point with my shoulder. This is what did most of the damage to me!

4 days later, road contact point

Now that it is over with, my wife took this picture as she knew I always posted pictures of meals I had on my motorcycle trips. It was appropriate for the first hospital meal in ICU. It was really good since I had not eaten for almost 36 hours at this point (they wouldn't feed me anything until they were sure no immediate surgery would be needed (seemed that it took them a long time to determine that!!)

My first meal in the hospital!!

Anyway, I am doing pretty good and hope to make a full recovery in a "few" weeks. Looking at getting a new 2012 Ultra Limited! For all you fellow riders, just make sure you check those tires. I just don't know what else I could have done to have prevented this accident from happening. It has gone through my mind many times over the past 12 days!

Just want to say how helpful all the people involved have been. My wife said folks stopping at the scene on the interstate were great. They helped her get some of the important stuff off my motorcycle and into her car as well as getting my motorcycle off the travel lane until the towing service got there. The emergency room, hospital staff and copter crew were all great too!

Daytona Trip - Last 2 days (for awhile!!!) Part 1

Well, it has taken me some time to get this written for the last two days of my trip to Daytona. The first of those two days was great, the second one was not so great as you will see, if you don't know why already!!

I got up on Saturday in Yemassee, SC and it was just a beautiful sunny, cool morning. All the rain was gone just as the forecast said. Had a great FREE breakfast at the next door Denny's complements of the Best Western motel I was staying at.

There was a second bike parked securely at the motel lobby as I came out.

This was a beautiful custom blue "Ultra" owned by Kevin from Maryland heading for Daytona. He was lucky that he missed the rain but saw it up ahead and pulled into the motel for the night. His bike even had the blue Dakota digital gauges in the dash and of course in the inner fairing was painted blue too! Kevin and I talked. He does a lot of long distance riding too. He had ridden straight from Maryland last fall to Biketoberfest, stayed there for 12 hours and rode straight back to Maryland as an example. I told him about the four corners tour and he had not heard of it and was excited to learn more and maybe do the ride also this summer. I gave him the web site and we parted ways.

It was only in the 40s so the heated gear was on and up I95 I went. Stopped at the Harley shop in Florence. Nice little shop out in the middle of nowhere. Nice folks. Took a break and headed on over to Wilmington to spend the night with my daughter and wife. It was a nice leisurely bike trip on some nice roads. Now on to tomorrow Sunday, March 11!!

Daytona

Great two days of riding around Daytona! Headed first to Daytona Destination on Thursday morning.

 Quite a place anchored by Dayton Harley Davidson shop and J&P Cycles. Lots of vendors there. Could have spent a couple of days there and probably not covered all the vendors! Did pick up my souvenir 2012 Daytona Beach Bike Week Tshirt!!

I was surprised at how big Mobil 1 was there with their motorcycle oil truck and displays!

Even had the Budweiser Clydesdales!

The only real ride is a route named "The Loop". It is about 22 miles long and is a good ride, although pretty straight but very scenic and diverse. Wasn't too crowded. Maybe passed 20 other motorcycles on the route. I made one stop at the ocean and they even have dedicated motorcycle only parking for the beach!!

 I took a walk on the beach and had lunch (an apple!). Met a couple from Niagara Falls, NY. They were riding a Kawasaki Vulcan. They had trailered down with their motor home on Feb 1 and were heading back on April 1.

 Had to take one self portrait!

And one closeup of the pelicans!

Rode by and through Daytona Racetrack and "downtown Daytona". Most of the vendors/displays there were not set up yet. Even though there was a lot of traffic and congestion. It was also getting "hot". Around 85 degrees and it really felt hot in the stop and go traffic.

Clouds started to move in and the chance of rain was picking up. Headed back to the hotel around 4 pm and had a few sprinkles along the way. Seemed that most of the other riders staying at the hotel had the same idea as we pulled in mostly together.

Talked to a couple of guys from Morgantown, WV. They had trailered down. One of them had dated a girl from my hometown in WV. The one had over 30,000 miles on his 08 Fat Boy, so he has done some riding!

Got up on Friday morning and rain was to move into the area by early afternoon. I decided to just start heading north instead of going back to Daytona. Stopped by the Jacksonville and Brunswick Harley shops. Talked to a guy from New Jersey at Brunswick. I took his picture for him with his bike in front of the shop sign. He was actually heading to the Panama City area of Florida to camp for a few days. He had "been there and done that" for Daytona. He was a retired fireman and had the fireman Harley Davidson Ultra Classic (that is a pretty red!!). He and I shared our riding philosophies which were very common. We both liked to ride for the sake of riding as opposed to destinations and bike rallies. He was a really nice guy and we shook hands as we departed.

Had a nice ride up US 17 through Georgia. This is a place I stopped for a "break" (nice big tree!).

Did encounter all kinds of weather coming back north. It hit 90 degrees just north of Jacksonville near the Georgia border with lots of sunshine. That really felt like summer time! Had a lot of smoke from wild fires near the South Carolina border. Pretty intense and hard to breathe! The clouds were coming and going and I thought I had it made for a rainless trip (except for a few sprinkles!). I had zeroed in on a Best Western in South Carolina so that I would only have about another 4 hours to Wilmington on Saturday. About 10 miles from that hotel the bottom dropped out of the sky. Winds blew and a hard rain. I didn't have time or a place to stop for the rainsuit so I just road on. Made it to the hotel pretty wet and hard time seeing! The good news was that they had a room! The bad new is this place is really far out in the country! I am having to update this blog from the lobby due to the wireless internet being so weak. I only have one bar on the cell phone signal strength. The cable TV is so blurry you can hardly see anything and the only restaurant anywhere around is a Denny's!! The name of this place is Yemassee, SC. I don't even know how to say it let along know where it is!!

Hey, they did give me a GREAT place to park for the night. Can't beat this for security and out of the weather.

They did have a "local" brew from Charleston, SC at the gas station next door, so that made for a great evening!

The weather forecast for the next two days is SUNNY. That is the good news. The bad news is a return of COLD temps! The low is forecast here for 44 degrees tonight!! Geez, I will have to put my heated gear back on in the morning!! That is a real change from just this morning.

Florida!!

The 2012 riding season really felt like it started today with the warm temps, full day on the road and talking with other bikers.

Left Wilmington around 8 am and it was only 42 degrees, so all the heated gear was back on and turned all the way up! Decided to ride all the way down US 17 to the Georgia line.

Really felt like summer is a coming when a convertible pulled next to me at a stop north of Charleston and put their top down! That told me maybe it was time to think about shedding the heated gear!!

The temps really came up heading into Charleston, SC. Got into the mid 70's and had some road construction and traffic, so it was a little slow going. Had to pull off and gas up anyway, so took the opportunity to take all the heated gear off. Now that really feels good!! Just a beautiful day with partly cloudy skies and lots of sunshine. Didn't hit any other traffic other than in Charleston (and that wasn't that bad).

Passed a lot of bike trailers coming down from the north to bike week on I95. Make it to St. Augustine, FL for the night at a local Best Western. I got a nice parking space under the hotel canopy next to the palm trees!

Tried Sonny's BBQ for dinner. It is really good BBQ. I had the pulled pork platter.

If you are ever in Florida and like BBQ, you ought to try it. The place was crowded with a lot of locals, so it must be good! I might have to try it again while I am down here and have the BBQ with the famous Sonny's Red Ale this time (you can read about it on their website)!!

I just got back in my room from talking with a "neighbor" here are the hotel. A couple from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He is a retired State Trooper and they have been coming down to Daytona for 10 years. He has his 2008 Ultra in the back of his pickup truck and only have a little over 4,000 miles on it. We spent a little time talking about my travels and my 75,000 miles I now have on my 2007.

I am looking forward to cruising around Daytona tomorrow. The local Harley dealer here in St Augustine has closed the shop. They are still open for a clearance sale with 35% off everything. They are only open from 10 am to 4 pm. I might have to wait around a while in the morning to go by the shop and see what they have left for 35% off! I am sure the rest of the stuff will go fast next week with bike week. They seemed to still have a lot of stuff in the shop (I had to peer through the windows, aka "window shopping"). At least I may pick up a souvenir "St. Augustine Harley" Tshirt!

2012 Riding Season has started!!

The 2012 riding season has "officially" started with my trip to Daytona! (going down to spend a couple days at the start of Daytona and hopefully avoid all the crowds of actual bike week!)

Left this morning around 10 am heading for Wilmington, NC to spend the first night with my daughter. It was a cold morning but beautiful sunshine and clear blue skies! It was in the 40's leaving so the heated gloves and jacket felt good. As a matter of fact, the heated gear felt good all day as I never saw temps above the mid 50's!!

Only ran upon one other motorcyclists today at a rest stop in North Carolina. He was heading to Southern Alabama from Chesapeake, VA. He was planning to get home today to Alabama. He had a pretty good ride ahead of him since that was around noon! Kinda funny, my hearing is not too good anyway and it is even worse after riding for a few hours and I had a hard time understanding his southern Alabama accent. I picked up a few words but it was mainly a one sided conversations with me saying "yelp",   "that's right", "I bet" hope you have a safe trip"!!

Also, had to pay over $4 a gallon for premium gas for the first time in many years today coming down I95! My real hope is that we don't see $5 a gallon by this summer!!!

Got to Wilmington around 5pm and got "checked in" at my daughter's house! We were planning to go out to dinner, but I got a call from my daughter around 5:15 that she had just got bitten by a cat at the office (she is a veterinarian), so we ended up at a urgent care facility since it bit all the way to the joint on her knuckle!! She had to get it cleaned, bandaged and on antibiotics. So we made it to dinner a little later. Had a Fat Tire on draft with a shrimp Po Boy sandwich & sweet potato fries!

Planning the route to head on south for tomorrow toward Florida. Think I will just head down US 17 and pick up I95 near the Georgia border.

Ride to Appomattox & a plane "crash"

Had a great ride out to Appomattox today with Johnny, Willie and Joe from the Steel Horse HOG chapter. We met at US 60 & 522 at 10:30 am. That was good as the time was needed today to burn the fog off as it was a VERY foggy morning. Another "warm" day in February in Virginia. Got up to around 60 today so it was very nice riding. I really has been a nice winter for motorcycle riding in Virginia this year!

Rode up Rt 522 to Rt 6 and down Rt 15 to Dillwyn. There we had lunch at the Depot Bar & Grille. It was good. Had my first "One eyed" cheeseburger, which is a cheeseburger with a fried egg on it. They do have good burgers and seems to be their specialty.

Depot Bar & Grille in Dillwyn, VA

Johnny actually had to catch up with us at Dillwyn. He was late due to having to work this morning. He caught up with us around 1:30 pm. Part of the reason he was late too was having to help rescue a dump truck driver from his overturned truck in downtown Richmond that happened right in front of Johnny as he was leaving work! Glad he made it!

We headed on west on US 60 to 45 and down to Appomattax. We all took a break at a Wendy's before starting back.

We came back on US 460 to Rt 153 to US 360. At 360 we split up and I headed back home to Powhatan after gassing up. As I turned on Rt 13 off of Rt 609 I saw a few cars along side the road and something strange. Took me a little while to see that it was a small plane sitting in the ditch blocking part of the highway! It appeared the plane had made an emergency landing in a farmer's field across the road. He had steered the plane around several poles and under a 3 phase electric distribution line and skidded across Rt 13 before coming to a "landing" in the ditch! A lot of debris was in the road (dirt/grass/scratches from the plane dragging) to ride around. The police were just arriving as I passed and several people were already there so I knew I did not need to stop. (Geez, I think I passed at least 20 police cars and emergency vehicles arriving as I headed on home.). You just never know what you are going to see and experience on a motorcycle ride!! (BTW, heard on the local news later that there were no injuries. The pilot had engine trouble and had to make an emergency landing and ended up on the highway!)

Plane "crash" on RT 13

A great day of motorcycle riding and fellowship with some good friends!! Did around 200 miles today.

Another nice day in February!

With the temps getting up to 60 degrees today and SUNNY, I could not resist getting out on the open road on my Ultra one more time in February. Did 156 miles today over to Appomattox Court House and across the Holiday Lake Scenic Byway. Very nice ride. Didn't take any pictures today. Just enjoyed the ride. This was the first time out with my new "Nostalgic Collection" shifter pegs and brake pedal. I like the shifter pegs. I always use my heel shifter and the "flat" new rear shifter peg seems to be more natural as a heel shifter than the old stock round rubber peg. I don't remember a February being this nice in Virginia before. There has been NO snow or ice so there is no salt/sand on the highways. That really makes it nice for a motorcycle ride in the winter months!

Looks like the last 60 degree forecast day for at least the next 10 days so I gassed up, put the ethanol treatment in the tank and parked the Ultra in the garage for awhile!

First Day of February!

WOW, what a start to February 2012. Another 70 degree day, a few clouds, but otherwise a nice sunny day and another great day for a motorcycle ride! First on the agenda was the need to fix my broken footboard!

There is almost nothing that can't be fixed on a motorcycle with duct tape and/or wire ties!!! This time I went with the more classy look and used some of my valuable black wire ties from my tool bag. Worked like a champ! I did take the opportunity today to call my local Harley shop and put on hold a new set of Nostalgic Collection Rider Foorboard Inserts (50187-96). I plan to pick them up this Saturday during our HOG chapter meeting time as we get 10% off at the dealer!!

Did 70 miles today from Flat Rock to Robious Road to Cosby Road to Cartersville and back on SR 13. The footboard did great!

So far it has been easy to get several nice rides in for the winter months in Richmond. Hope that will continue for the rest of February. There are always some nice days in March. It this weather continues I might have to look at a ride down to Daytona for the spring bike week in March!!

Last day of January

WOW, did January ever go out as a beautiful day and great day to ride a motorcycle. Two of the best days of the month were Jan 1 and Jan 31!! My friend Johnny took a day of vacation today and he and I went around 290 miles across Southside Virginia. Started off by meeting at 10 am in Amelia.

Had to take a picture of a US flag - bungee corded to a power pole near the parking lot. Something about this just seemed so down to earth patriotic!!

Just beautiful clear blue skies all days and warm temps! Saw a high temperature of 72 degrees on the bike thermometer.

Johnny had heard about a place in South Boston called Windmill Farm Bake Shop. Reported to be a great place for lunch. This was a solid recommendation, as it was great. I had chicken salad on home made whole wheat bread with a piece of home made chocolate pie for dessert. (Hey, I don't need to say "home made" anymore as everything in the bake shop was "home made" right there at the shop!!). Johnny had chicken salad in addition to a bologna sandwich and the chocolate pie too. It was so rich and so much to eat that Johnny couldn't finish his bologna sandwich! Now if anyone knows Johnny and how he can eat, you know that was a lot! Oh yes, forgot about the potato salad we had too. Delicious!! We both brought home a container of potato salad and a few other goodies to enjoy later with our wives!

We took country roads out of South Boston through Volens and Cody over to Altavista. Took SR 43 from Altavista to Bedford. A GREAT motorcycle road. Very little traffic and lots of nice twists and turns. Headed back on US 460/360. Had one stop for gas and a rest in Appomattox.

Another great day of riding with a great friend. It does seem that every time I go out on my motorcycle now, something happens to my bike!! This time the rubber insert in my footboard broke loose! The rubber mounts just were wore out. (Isn't that hard to imagine on my bike!!)

I guess this can be expected with a motorcycle with 72,000 miles on it and has been to Cape Spear, Newfoundland; Arctic Circle, Alaska; Mt. St. Helens, Washington; Grand Canyon, Arizona and Key West, Florida!! No big deal, I just had to keep my foot on it so it wouldn't blow away on the road. Now I have an excuse to get a nice chrome footboard insert!!!

We got back around 5 pm. Don't really know what the winter weather will be like for February, but December and January has been great here in Virginia for motorcycle riding.

New Year's Day 2012

Had to take a 2012 New Year's Day ride with the weather forecast temps to be in the mid 60's! Decided on a ride through southside Virginia of about 180 miles to South Hill and lunch at the Glass House Grill. Had never visited this grill before. It had some good reviews on the internet so it became the destination of the ride. 


Went with my friend, Johnny. He on his 2008 SE Ultra and me on my 2007 Ultra. We met at a parking lot in Amelia and headed out from there. Just a pleasant nice ride on country roads through towns such as Blackstone and Kenbridge. Beautiful old Victorian house along tree lined streets. Not much traffic, but did see several motorcycles. Don't think we had to pass a single vehicle on the entire trip on the two lane roads! Had my camera today, but didn't take any pictures, so you will just have to use your imagination!


Got to the Glass House Grill around 11:45 am. It was an interesting place actually attached to a 6 lane bowling alley! They had an all day New Year's bowling tournament going on. (I guess that is a big thing to do on New Year's Day in South Hill!). The food was pretty good and the waitress was friendly. The she crab soup was very good and they did have great homemade desserts!


We decided to take a different way back on some other country roads after we gassed up in South Hill. A few miles outside of South Hill heading up US 1 was where things got interesting on my bike!



I had a strange electrical problem that occurred. All of a sudden my cruise control tripped off. I tried to reset/resume and would not work. The red cruise symbol just stayed red. My throttle idle cable had gone bad about 6 months ago and was replaced. It had the same cruise control symptoms and my first thought was that it had gone bad again, but in a matter of seconds my radio cut off and turned back on by itself and then shut back off completely (all blank, no clock numbers even) in another couple of seconds. That's when I noticed my red cruise symbol light went off too. In addition, my horn wouldn't work, my signal lights and brake lights wouldn't work, and anything connected to the auxillary switch on the dash (my Air Zeppelin seat and saddle bag lid latch lights). The only indicator light that was now on for the dash rocker switches was the spot switch. 


Johnny and I had been talking on the CB radio, but that was out too, of course with the radio! I gave hand signals to Johnny and we stopped. I verified all of this stuff not working but did not turn the engine off for fear it would not start back! We decided to head straight back home to my garage with Johnny following me with brake lights and signal lights. I just knew I had a blown fuse, but the stuff affected seemed a little odd to me (I didn't think one fuse would feed the cruise control, horn, signal lights and the other stuff!).


When I arrived back home, the first thing I did was stop the engine & turn all power off, then back on and restarted the engine. No problems restarting the engine so that was good but, still no radio, horn, signal/brake lights, cruise and aux items. I turned everything back off. The next thing I did was remove the seat to look under to make sure I didn't see a wire broken. I decided to check here first before looking at the fuses. Everything looked good under the seat so I decided to turn the switch back on and presto, everything came back on! The radio came back on with the correct time on it even. I didn't do anything except take the seat off and look at the wires!!


I followed up with some more diagnostics. The check engine light never came on at anytime. I did check for trouble codes and I had two under the TSM/TSSM module: B1121-Turn signal will not flash and B1122-Right Turn Signal Open. Both of these were temporary codes as I cleared them and they never came back. Everything else was clear. I took the bike back out and rode for 40 miles without any problems. Everything seems to be fine now.


I suspect some loose/corroded connection in some connector, but I don't understand what could be common to the horn, signal lights, brake lights, cruise control and aux switch on the bike. This seems really odd. I plan to do some connector checking, cleaning and put dielectric grease on all the connectors I can get to


I really hate these kind of problems that seem to get fixed and you don't do anything (or know what you did) to fix it! Anyway, hopefully this wasn't a "sign of things to come" on my 2007 Ultra with over 71,000 miles for the rest of 2012!! In any case, it was a great ride on some great roads with a great friend for the first day of 2012!

Gloucester & Yorktown

Great New Year's Eve riding day in Virginia!! What a great day for a motorcycle ride. Great weather, ride, roads, friends and food. It was around 65 degrees today. Libby and I left this morning around 10:30am with friend Keith and Rae and Johnny and Pam heading to West Point, Gloucester and Yorktown. Made our first stop at Digg's Seafood in West Point for some great crab muffins and deviled crab. They were really good!!

Headed on down to Gloucester and checked out Johnny & Pam's place on the bay.

Keith and Rae had to head back home from this point and we headed on to Yorktown with Johnny and Pam. Stopped at the Yorktown Pub in the historic waterfront area of Yorktown. Had some great seafood. Only disappointment was that they we sold out of Fat Tire beer!!

Yorktown Pub. A nice very biker friendly place with great food.

Great view of the Coleman bridge.

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 Beautiful waterfront views of the York River

Got back home around 5 pm

Wilmington, NC

Had a great motorcycle trip over the past two days to and back from Wilmington, NC. Did a little over 600 miles. It was cold both morning with temps in the upper 20's to lower 30's with a heavy frost both in Powhatan, VA and Wilmington, NC!

I left on Thursday around 10am and it had "warmed up" to the mid 40's. The heated jacket and gloves kept me nice and toasty. It was a great ride. I took a lot of two land roads, but had to ride I95 for a few miles! The afternoon temps only warmed up to the low 50's so the heated gear stayed on for the entire trip. Only saw a total of 3 other motorcycles on the road. Arrived in Wilmington around 4pm. Had dinner with my daughter at the Copper Penny in downtown Wilmington. It was very good. They, of course, had Fat Tire beer on draft. We had wings for our appetizer and I had Fish and Chips. Nice place. They had a dessert I have to try sometime, called "Soon to be famous" bread pudding. Didn't have room this time, but the next!!

Left on Friday morning around 8:30am from Wilmington. Again, heavy frost and around 30 degrees. Heated gear is great for days like this! Took my time on two lane roads to head over to I95 for the trip home. Stopped at Sheltons Harley Davidson in Smithfield. First time I had visited that shop. Had a cup of coffee and just browsed around. I was surprised to see they had two 2011 Ultra Limited bikes on the floor with a discount of $1,000. I was there for about 30 minutes, had a cup of coffee and only one person in the entire store spoke to me. As friendly as they were, I then could understand how they still have 2011 motorcycles still for sale!! Temps were around 60 by noon so I disconnected all the heated gear. Temps stayed in the low 60's for the rest of the trip. Really felt good and is just about perfect riding weather. Was surprised that I only saw one other motorcycle on the entire trip back and for a Friday!! Got back home to Powhatan around 4pm

A great relaxing two day trip and got in a great visit with my daughter! Gotta do an oil change on the Ultra now and get a 10,000 mile maintenance done. Have almost 71,000 miles on the clock!

Hank's Smokehouse-Massanutten

The weather here in Virginia has been gorgeous this November! Another beautiful day for motorcycle riding. Libby and I rode up to Massanutten to eat at Hank's Smokehouse. We stopped at Cuppa Joe's coffee house for a break and a coffee going up.

I really don't remember the leaf color staying so nice in Virginia for so long as it has done this fall. Really pretty!

Hank's Smokehouse was just as good as the reviews!! I had the Texas smoked brisket with whiskey BBQ sauce and Libby had the roast beef.

What a meal. We were two happy campers!!

And we got a great place to park too!!

On the way back we stopped at Cuppa Joe's AGAIN, but this time for ice cream! We took advantage of the lounge chairs outside the restaurant and enjoyed the sunshine and warm air!!

Did "discover" a couple of interesting things on the way back about 10 miles from our home. One of the WORST highway construction events you can encounter is a highway road painting truck!! I also now know that these "things" go only 10 mph. It took us almost an hour to go the last 10 miles on US 522 coming home! You couldn't pass the paint truck and traffic was backed up as far as we could see. Not really a big deal on a day like today and after a great ride with my wife and meal!! We took our time, relaxed and watched the leaves go by as we were in 1st gear going 10 mph!!

Also went over 70,000 miles on the odometer of my 07 Ultra coming back. Gotta schedule a 10,000 mile maintenance soon!

Took a pic in our front yard after we got back as the leaf color in the setting sun was gorgeous here too!