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 *** 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)




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 of our very own Chicagoland area CBRF members! From left to right: Ceasar (catamayo85), Mike (hondajunkie), 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 yet another CBRF'er, Vinny (FLYOU). 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 *** breakfast at Bob Evans. There's Vinny and his beastly cage with some kick *** 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 ***!! 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!)

 

lol master brake bleeder. 2.5 seconds after this picture was taken, i started sucking air into my brake lines. someone was supposed to be watching the fluid level, but found it a better idea to snap a picture of my pasty *** instead lmao [sm=smiley27.gif]

Awesome pics Jared! Stop by anytime and make me some more burgers!



nom nom nom. here's a couple more for ya...

Getting ready to leave my place. i can't tell if you're trying to choke yourself or if you're trying to dress for the occasion.



prior to departure



those HID's really got my attention as you were following me friday night. def a very good idea to have those IMO



testing out your heated grips when you wern't looking. only had them on for like a minute because i didn't wanna drain the batt. Also I was amazed at how brand new your gas tank looked. perfectly shiny.



couple more i snapped on your way out...





last but not least...

 

^^^ [sm=icon_rofl.gif][sm=icon_rofl.gif][sm=icon_rofl.gif]

Man it does kinda look like I'm chokin myself.... oops! Ahhh well it was most definitely worth it [8D] Nice pics, Vin! Are we putting heated grips on your bike next? Come on, you know you want to I'll definitely cook something again next time though... I have no idea what, but I'll think of something between now and then. Hell I might even make some brownies!

 

Holy smokes, a Yamaha GTS1000...there must be only a handful of those left in the world...well, I don't know, but I have only seen one in my lifetime since they came out in 1993...one or two years of production if I remember...

Great pics, as usual, you are a true motorcyclist!

 

Yea that Yamaha was a pretty slick bike! 1993-1994 were the only years they were available in the US. I'd never seen one before, then he pulled up and I see a single sided FRONT swingarm!! WTF?!?! Nice bike though.... between that cool front swingarm, fuel injection, ABS brakes, and a few other goodies. Pretty high end machine for a 1993! He bought this bike new, and it's got some miles on it but still looks and runs like new.... smooth as glass and extremely quiet. This guy also has a Goldwing, a TL1000R, and a couple of choppers

 

as usual, awesome pics and story, Jared. i really wish i could go out on a trip w/ my bike.....dying to.

well looks like you had a good time, glad you made it home safe. if you are ever in Southern MD, let me know.

 

Best thread of a very long time award!!!! Awesome pics. Great story.

 

Holy freaking crap man! Ice inside your visor? 4 inches of snow????

You continue to make the rest of us look like total noobs...hahaha

 

You're crazy! The only snow riding for me is on a snowmobile. Glad your trip was a safe one.

 

sick trip jared...that one pic of you leavin in the snow is hilarious...lol