Thanksgiving roadtrip 2008... lots of pics (3/6)

[thirdgenlxi]

Well as many know I recently went on a nice 2 week long roadtrip, from north Georgia to central Illinois, then to northern Illinois (Chicago), back to central Illinois, then to Columbus, Ohio, and then back to north Georgia. All in all covered roughly 2,500 miles with barely a temp over 40 degrees the entire trip, until the last day.... it was up around 50 once I got down into Kentucky. Got to ride through all kinds of fun stuff.... snow, slush, roadsalt, freezing rain, and heavy winds. Overall though trip went very very well... no problems whatsoever, got to spend time with family, see some old friends, and even meet some new ones too!

This was the overall route... pretty much made a big circle, with a couple little tails on each end, lol

I don't have too many pics of the ride up there... lack of my own digicam limited some of the pics, plus that digicam broke halfway through so I ended up having to use 2 disposable cameras (sucked!!), and then my dad gave me his digicam to use the rest of the trip. You should be able to tell which are which... sorry for all the ones that are kinda blurry (disposable)

Anyways, I left on Tuesday Nov. 25th at about 7:15 am. Had a nice uneventful ride up to Decatur, Illinois where my dad lives. Got there around 7pm. When I got there I thought this was cold.... little did I know 2 weeks later, this temp would end up feeling like summer, lol. Got in my dads Envoy to go and get something to eat, turned the heated leather seats on high... ohhhh man did that feel good!

First thing on the agenda for wednesday.... new boots! My feet were freezing on the way up, mainly because I was wearing steel toe boots with not the greatest insulation. Once you got going down the road for about 30 miles or so, those steel plates turn into ice cubes on your toes. No more!! These boots solved that problem... nice and toasty

New boots... beautiful day.... ready to roll

Headed up to my moms house in Wheaton (Chicago suburb) on Wednesday afternoon. My sister Jodi joined us thursday night with her 2 boys, Garrett and Clinton (and that's my mom on the right)

Yours truly.... I really have no idea which one is which. They both look the same to me

MmmMmm turkey dinner... good stuff!!

Saturday was an absolutly BEAUTIFUL day to be out riding!! The temp wasn't that bad at all (probably close to 50). A big snowstorm was in the forecast for the next day, so I had to get out and ride today. I met up with a guy named Vern from the chicagolandsportbikes/chicagoriders forums. Super nice guy.... we met up in downtown Chicago, and he took for through downtown (which I've never ridden through before) which was pretty cool. We tried to go over by the Adler Planetarium to get a kick ass picture with the Chicago skyline in the background (awesome photo op spot), but the PoPo were there chasing everybody away, so we couldn't stop and take any pics

As we made our way north on Lake Shore Drive, we made a stop in Wilmette, IL. We stopped at this place... it's called the Baha i Temple (I can't do all the little funky characters. It's a multi denominational temple of sorts. I'm not too much of a religious person, I just thought it was a really cool building. There are only 7 of these in the world, one on each continent if I remember correctly, so this is the only one for the north american continent. The construction of this building, which was finished in 1953, took more than 30 years to complete. They didn't have the fountains going, but still cool. We went inside and it's absolutely beautiful inside!

There's me

Vern... that blue suit he's wearing is fully heated, so he just plugs himself in and stays toasty warm. I'll tell ya that brick street left ALOT to be desired in the road quality dept! haha

It's a good thing I got a nice long ride in on saturday, because sunday was a different story!

We ended up getting about 4-5 inches on the ground when all was said and done

Had to use one of these little doo-hickies on my moms car. It was about this time I remembered exactly why I had moved south, away from the great white north, lol

Come on now I'm not THAT mean!

Monday afternoon.... ahhh f**k it, good enough for a ride

Gotta let her warm up for a bit though... she was cold!

Ohhhh man... SLIDERS!!! That's just bad news right there

It wasn't that bad out.... just had to be careful

O-M-G!!!! Pulled the cover off tuesday morning and almost started to cry. I don't think she's ever been this dirty! Well maybe except that one time back in 2005 when I rode in the pouring rain for 13 hours straight (yea that sucked, btw)

[thirdgenlxi]

Spent about an hour or so outside in 30* temp with wet cleaning wipes and buffing rags getting her all spiffy again. Got her looking clean again though, for the most part at least

Tuesday night... went and met up with 2 members from cbrforum.com. From left to right: Ceasar, Mike, and myself. Super nice guys.... had a great time!

Made my way back down to Decatur, IL back to my dads house on Wednesday afternoon. I called another one of the guys from cbrforum to try and meet up with him on the way back down, but he was busy with school work and we weren't able to meet. Got down to my dads house and it had just started snowing again. Stayed at my dads for a couple of days, then headed out friday morning, Dec 5th to head to Columbus, Ohio. Got up about 8:30 or so, looked out the kitchen window.... ahhh yes, this will most definitely be a rather frigid 350 mile ride. I didn't head out until about 11am, so it had warmed up a little bit to about 18*

Stopped to take a break in Montezuma, Indiana, about 75 miles west of Indianapolis. This was at 1:45pm, which should be around the time the temp should be highest for the day. Yea.... that's it. Though it did change from 16 to 17 right when I got off to take a pic! It was snowing off and on here, and very windy too

As I approached the Ohio state line, the sun had gone down and it was now dark. As I went on down the highway, one problem started to arise (beside my feet being frozen and numb!!). That's not fog... that's ICE buildup, on the inside of the visor. I had to pop it open every now and then, and try and break up the ice with my thumb. Then when I stopped for a break I'd just take it inside with me and wipe it down with a warm damp cloth, then dry real good

Made it to Columbus, Ohio at 9pm on the nose. Met up with Vinny, another one of the guys from cbrforum. After dropping my bike off at his house and changing clothes, we went over and got some din-din at Longhorn. Good stuff! It's a good thing I got to Columbus when I did, cuz it snowed like crazy all night friday. Saturday morning (or afternoon rather, I think I slept until 1:30pm) we went over and got some kick ass breakfast at Bob Evans. There's Vinny and his beastly cage with some kick ass new tires

We then went to this place called Iron Pony Motorsports, which is like a huge wal-mart sized store, but ONLY for bike stuff... kick ass!! We roamed around there for quite awhile, then headed back to the house. We flushed the front and rear brake fluid and put new stuff in on Vinnys bike.... it was due

After a few minutes, Vinny was a master brake bleeder

Stayed with Vinny for one more day, waiting for the snow to clear a little more so I don't end up slip n' slides on the way home. Monday morning Dec 8th.... got up about 8:30, had some breakfast and got all my stuff packed up and ready to go. Had to get a few more pics before heading out

Awwww they're almost twins!

Time to head out... it was a nice brisk 24*

I thanked Vinny for his generous hospitality, said goodbye and off I went on my 668 mile journey back towards Atlanta, GA. He snapped my pic on my way out, lol

Had a nice little band of freezing rain to go through along the way between Columbus and Cincinatti. It was almost like riding through a mini hail storm... little ice pellets bouncing off my visor, hahah. Didn't last all too long though, no biggie

Once I got about 30 miles into Kentucky, the clouds gave way to a bright blue sky with plenty of sunshine, and the temps rose to around 50 degrees. I stopped for gas and some lunch, and it felt like summertime! I could walk around outside in just my sweatshirt, and my fingers didn't feel like they were gonna fall off, it was so nice! I even saw another sportbike (Yamaha R6) headed the other way on the highway.... he gave me a nice big full arm wave, which of course I returned. Making my way through Tennessee, I was so happy to see my beloved mountains again. This isn't a good pic... there was no place to safely stop to snap a pic during the good stuff

Finally made it back home to north Georgia safe n' sound right at 10pm on the nose. It was 1 day shy of two weeks... I was tired, and needed a hot shower

So I tucked my trusty beasty away in the garage next to her younger sister for the night

Oops I completely forgot to take a beginning odo shot. But it was right around 2,500 miles total

And last but not least.... I walk in the door, and the welcoming committee was....uhhhh.... passed the f**k out! LOL I really missed Piglet though... I was happy to see her again, and gave her a big hug anyways (sometimes she gives me one back). Funny thing... she knows the sound of my bike! There's a guy that lives in our neighborhood that rides a sportbike (600RR I think) and goes flying past our hosue each and every day like clockwork. My roomate said that the entire 2 weeks I was gone, every time that guy would ride by (every day), Piglet would run to the front door and sit there and wait for me to come in. I felt kinda bad..... she's such a sweet pup

And that's all I've got. Had a great time on this trip, despite the snow and cold temps. I think my next trip will be somewhere warm though, and with a little less roadsalt (my leather jacket and pants are still filthy!)