Well I had to take advantage of nice long holiday weekend last week, so I took an extra day off work and made a little trip north to central Illinois. Had to visit my sister and her twins, and my mom drove down from Chicago, and my dad just moved up there to the same town as my sister about 3 weeks ago from south Florida. Kinda cool we all finally got to get together in one spot... that almost never happens anymore

Anyways... on with the pics [8D]


6:55 am Saturday morning.... bike is all packed, doggie is fed and hugged before I go (she gave me the whole guilt trip thing), and I'm ready to roll out for 700 miles of superslab fun


Always an odometer shot at the beginning of every roadtrip


Made my first gas stop up near Ringold, Georgia... finally starting to wake up a little


Hey don't hate, it's the breakfast of champions!


Stopped again for gas and some lunch at BK in Antioch, Tennessee... about 15 miles south of Nashville


Finally made it to the Illinois state line around 3:00 CST


Had to pull over once I got off the highway to get directions to my dads house... Looks like the same place I remember :funny0jl:








Made it to my dads house around 6:30 or so. He just moved here about 3 weeks ago


He had a little parking spot already cleared out for me in the garage


731.2 miles according to my trip odo.... it reads a little high though with my gear change, so it's probably closer to 700 actual


After grabbing a quick shower, it was over to my sisters house..... finally got to see her twin boys Garrett and Clinton (which one is which, I have no clue). They just turned 5 months old on the 4th. VERY well behaved little guys... they're cool!


Yours truly with one of them


And the other....


Next night.... nothing beats a good old fashioned BBQ on the grill


Bath time.... she was filthy with bugs!


Now Illinois roads suck huge *****, but I must say the part of Decatur that still has the original brick streets.... it takes the cake! It'll damn near bounce you right off the bike


I had to snap a few nature shots while I was sitting on the front porch, lol (hey I was kinda bored)




Then I tamed a ferocious guard dog






Make that 2 ferocious guard dogs




Future stunnas for sure!! I can't wait to get them a fiddy!




Then my dad and I drove up to Bloomington, IL to his sisters house to visit with her for awhile. I had to take a picture of this on the way up, as I think Illinois is worse than Florida as far as squids. Pretty sad out of all the bikes I saw out and about the entire time I was in Illinois, both cruisers and sportbikes, I could almost count the number of helmets I saw on one hand (not counting any other gear... jackets, hell even jeans, or gloves.... JUST helmets). Had to take a pic of these 2 cuz they actually had both helmets and jackets on (I'm a bit of a gear ****, if you can't tell, lol)


Crappy pic but.... ever wonder just how big those propellers are on those big windmills they use for generating electricity?? This place along Rt. 51 has all the parts they use to make those, and a place farther down the road makes the big towers they sit on. This pic shows 1 blade (goes from the left to the 'do not enter' sign.... sorry for bad pic!).... there's 3 of them total. Freakin HUGE!!


Got to my dads sisters house.... really cool sunset right as we got there


Got back home later that night.... time to lube up the chain before I head back the next morning


Uh oh!


Really didn't want to, but didn't have much of a choice. It was leaking a small bit around the nail


Good to go


6:15 am Tuesday morning.... dad had to leave for work at 6:30 (first day at his new job), so I got up and moved the bike out at the same time. Looks like it'll be a beautiful day for more superslab fun!


Checked the oil and coolant levels, and both were A-OK.... so I got her all packed up and ready to go


Got myself all geared up and ready to roll. Forecast said 90+ degrees that day... figured I'd go ahead and make a rotisserie out of myself [&:]




Yup, definitely not much has changed here, lol








I was looking for a Bob Evans to stop at for breakfast since their breakfast kicks ***, but couldn't find one along the highway. So I stopped here in Effingham, IL instead


I must say they have a damn good french toast breakfast!


Now here was the weird part... right after I got up to Illinois I get a PM here on cbrforum from forum member "isolated1523".... he says "dude I think I saw you on I-24 in Clarksville, TN yesterday". We get to chatting, and turns out it was me. Really weird how the timing worked out, but he was on the on ramp getting on I-24 right as I was going past... weird! So I made a stop in Clarksville, TN on the way back and met up with Adam and his wife. We hung out for a bit in his haunted house, then went and got something to eat. Nice guy!




What's even weirder.... we got to talking, and it turns out one of my buddies from Orlando, had moved to Richmond, KY for a little bit a few months ago. Turns out my buddy sold his '03 600RR to this guys roomate in Richmond. Small world!

Almost home... made my last gas stop just north of Atlanta, Georgia


Made it home safe n' sound about 11:30 pm


1,507.6 miles according to the trip odo, but as I mentioned before it reads a little high. Probably closer to 1400-ish



And that's all I've got. Trip went very well.... had a great time! Bike ran absolutely flawless, as always. Kinda sucked I was on time constrains so I had to superslab the whole way.... I could have taken a kick *** route if i had the time! Oh well... next time! Nice being able to spend some time with the family though... it was long overdue. I hadn't even seen the twins yet except for in a few pics!

 

great pix Jared. Glad ya had a fun n safe trip.

 

Glad you could stop by. Any CBRforum member is welcome anytime they're near clarksville, TN.

-Adam

 

Definitely glad I was able to stop and meet up.... it was nice meeting you and your wife! Hopefully we'll meet up again before too long

 

Awesome pics Jared!



is that a car-jack I see?



With all that highway driving, i thought for sure you'd have some ginormous chicken strips... but man, how fast are you taking those corners!?? Bubbly tires!!?

 

Thanks!! That is indeed a car jack... 2 of them actually, one on the other side that you can't see in the pic. I didn't have a rear stand with me, so had to find another way to get her off the ground. Good thing my dad had 2 sitting around!

The tires.... well you've gotta remember where I live, right at the foothills of the north Georgia mountains. I'm up there on a regular basis, plus NC and TN too (I was just up at Deals Gap a couple weeks ago), so no chicken strips here Though I can't take entire credit for the bubbles, as I usually always run track take offs. But even when I get new tires, still not much of any chicken strips even with all the commuting and roadtrips I do

 

You already have 135,000 miles on it????? HOLY CRAP. I thought you said you were going to take it easy on us. I just hit 6,000 and thought I was doing good.

 

nice pics and write up, definitely an inspiration for me to do a lengthy road trip....you have to go up into NW IL for any twisty type roads, that's where i go to ride

 

looks like a great trip jared!! wish i could join you one of these times

 

Actually at 136k now, heheh. I am actually putting on less than usual.... I've only done 21k since the beginning of the year and it's September now, whereas usually I would be at 21k by June. At the end of the month I'm moving 30 miles closer to work, so I won't have much of a commute at all anymore and it'll probably slow even more [&:]