Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June CII Dinner Ride

These are some snap shots, from my go pro, on last nights dinner ride. Nothing spectacular just five guys taking a nice ride out to Lawrence Kansas. We ate at Bob's Smokehouse and it was very good. I had the pulled pork wheel sandwich and onion rings. I recommend both. I will say that All Slabbed Up in Leavenworth, KS is much better but Bob's was still good. It was a great day for riding even with the wind and the heat. Next month the plan is to go up to Atchison and eat up there.

 As you can see above, there are a variety of bikes in our little group. Although riding styles vary a bit between each of us we ride pretty well as a group, there is complaining about certain people's style but we seem to still ride pretty well. If you look close at my GSXR front tire you will notice ...some issues. This was the last ride for that particular piece of rubber. I plan on throwing a new one on when I return from my upcoming cross country trip. I am hoping that I can install it myself this time around and save some money.


                                                 
 






Monday, June 18, 2012

Las Vegas Bike Trip Stops and Goals

Getting there:
Awesome Roads in Colorado
Camp in Colorado
Four Corners
South Rim of the Grand Canyon
Mojave National Preserve
Hoover Dam
Picture with "Welcome to Las Vegas" Sign


View Las Vegas Trip OUT in a larger map


I will spend most of Monday through Friday morning doing work at the Institute of Food Technology show at the Las Vegas convention center. In the evenings, aside from various meetings, I plan on going out and exploring Vegas. I don't gamble so most of my time will be spent walking and geocaching along the strip and surrounding area.

Coming Home
Pass through Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park
Camp in Arches National Park
See the Rockies again and ride some great roads in Northern Colorado
Camp in Rocky Mountain National Park


View Las Vegas to Home via Zion, Arches, Rocky Mountain National Park in a larger map

Home after 3300 miles and 10 days!




Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Americade








    This was the first hotel of  the trip in Danbury Connecticut. 
 This was just a neat little mining town in PA that I stopped to fuel up in. Wish I had a better photo from the stop. It was a neat little place.


  



It rained. A ton. Every day but two. I was wet a lot of the time. It made parts of my trip less fun but didn't ruin the trip over all. I managed to have a good time, mostly because I got a hotel at the end of most of my very wet days and got to dry all my gear out.




 The only photo in Rhode Island





 This was a common occurrence after hitting Pennsylvania. I spent a ton in tolls throughout the trip. There were options to avoid the tolls but you end up spending a lot more time and miles to avoid the tolls. 



 This is what Maine looked like the whole time that I was their. It just refused to stop raining. It was cold and misty and very hard to see through. After riding through this type of precipitation for all of a day, I would say I would take a hard rain fall over this any day. Not to mention that it was pretty cold while I was there too.






The Log Jam Restaurant, where I ate my last meal in Lake George
This was a great meal!

The hotel in Lake George :)

  


This is the Comfort Suites that I stayed at in Lake George. It was a very nice hotel with a great staff. They really went out of their way to make me feel at home.

 

These are just some photos I took while bumming around Lake George and the surrounding area.





   



These are snap shots from the Rally and the area around the Rally. I didn't take many of the vendors but there were a ton of vendors there selling all sorts of stuff. 

 





This was one of my favorite bike I saw at the show.   This is the demo bike area. The photo doesn't do it justice. There were tons of dealers with tons of bikes that you could demo. I resisted the urge though and spent my time in other ways. In order to demo you have to invest a bit more time than I had at my disposal. There was just too much to see elsewhere.



  


Just look what they did to this poor vstrom (red bike above). It is just wrong. Ruined a perfectly good bike. The black one below is how it SHOULD be done! I love this bike. It is perfect! Set up for touring but prepared to take a beating!






 There were A LOT of bikes! It was really neat to see that many riders come together!


 This was a store that I kept passing in Lake George and I finally decided that I just had to stop and see what all was there. The building was the best part unfortunately. 






 The view out the door of the hotel in Lake George.




  I got a few geocaches throughout my trip....


After a hike up a nearby mountain I stopped and had lunch in this little diner called "The Loft". It was very tasty!


 







Fish Tacos!!! These were AWESOME!