Ham And Beans And Bugs
Saturday, October 7th, 2006
I will briefly mention Friday as a regular ride to work, just a warm up for today. A warm up would be a nice thing, also, as it started with the temps in the upper 30's.
8:00 am rolled around, and I headed out for the south side of town, and a Honda Motorcycle Dealership. This was the meeting place for today's ride. I had several RSVP's but I think that was before the reality of sub 40 degrees had hit. It took me a while to move through town to get to southside as the people in front of me wanted to stop at every light, and the other were so missed timed, there was no way to get through them. I think Beech Grove is working on a tourism campaign with there poorly timed lights on Emerson Avenue.
As I was cruising down US 31, I could see my father up ahead. I was trying to catch him, as I knew he would make the wrong turn on Tracy Road up ahead. Apparently, they decided to change the numbering, but hadn't got it filtered through all the maps yet, so instead of turning right, you need to turn left. Thanks to the heavy traffic, I was not able to catch him, and he made the wrong turn. I waited at the gas station, and filled up, hoping he might return. I figured it must be in Martinsville by now, I wanted to get to the meeting point. Al was already there, and we would only wait a few minutes before I could wave my father down.
We waited for other to show up, but all I got was a phone call from Carl, who was waiting at the wrong Dreyer Honda Dealership. I called him back, and we arranged to meet in Nashville, Indiana.
The three of us took off, and headed for Nashville. We weren't in any hurry, as we knew it would take Carl longer than the rest of us. The ride through this more rural area was quite nice, and the temps rose the entire time. By the time we got to Nashville the mercury had pushed through the 40's, and was halfway through the 50's.
A group of Goldwing riders from Cincinnati pulled in, and there conversation kept us busy while waiting for Carl. Once the four of us were together, we headed west on SR 46 for Bloomington, and then Owensburg.
I was able to Van's, our Ham and Bean Host, House this year, as I knew what to look for. There was already a line of bikes along the driveway, so I started a new line with our group. We would be here for while, and soak up some cornbread, ham and beans, and some other fine treats.
After a lot of eating, and some conversation, we hopped back in the saddles for an afternoon ride. We were each given little dot stickers to put on the front of our bikes, to see if we could get a bug to splat on it. Whoever had the most coverage wins! We started out on SR 58, and headed east to Bedford, Indiana. After a gas stop, we went south on SR 37, and picked up SR 450. This was a great road I don't recall ever being on. We stopped in the town of Williams to check out the Damn Site, and then headed out of town. At a place called Dover's Hill, we rounded nine, yes nine, turns in less than half a mile. Nice piece of road work there.
450 lead us to 150, and then to SR 231, which returned us north to SR 58. After about 90 miles, we were back at Van's House, and a few of the rides got another bowl of soup. Dad and I needed to head home, as Al and Carl already had. It was going to get dark soon, and cool off again.
We started out the back way out of Owensburg, the route we came in on, until we approached Bloomington, and the headed north on SR 37. I thought we might take a break in Martinsville, but we pushed through the 90 mile trek back home in one shot.
I will briefly mention Friday as a regular ride to work, just a warm up for today. A warm up would be a nice thing, also, as it started with the temps in the upper 30's.
8:00 am rolled around, and I headed out for the south side of town, and a Honda Motorcycle Dealership. This was the meeting place for today's ride. I had several RSVP's but I think that was before the reality of sub 40 degrees had hit. It took me a while to move through town to get to southside as the people in front of me wanted to stop at every light, and the other were so missed timed, there was no way to get through them. I think Beech Grove is working on a tourism campaign with there poorly timed lights on Emerson Avenue.
As I was cruising down US 31, I could see my father up ahead. I was trying to catch him, as I knew he would make the wrong turn on Tracy Road up ahead. Apparently, they decided to change the numbering, but hadn't got it filtered through all the maps yet, so instead of turning right, you need to turn left. Thanks to the heavy traffic, I was not able to catch him, and he made the wrong turn. I waited at the gas station, and filled up, hoping he might return. I figured it must be in Martinsville by now, I wanted to get to the meeting point. Al was already there, and we would only wait a few minutes before I could wave my father down.
We waited for other to show up, but all I got was a phone call from Carl, who was waiting at the wrong Dreyer Honda Dealership. I called him back, and we arranged to meet in Nashville, Indiana.
The three of us took off, and headed for Nashville. We weren't in any hurry, as we knew it would take Carl longer than the rest of us. The ride through this more rural area was quite nice, and the temps rose the entire time. By the time we got to Nashville the mercury had pushed through the 40's, and was halfway through the 50's.
A group of Goldwing riders from Cincinnati pulled in, and there conversation kept us busy while waiting for Carl. Once the four of us were together, we headed west on SR 46 for Bloomington, and then Owensburg.
I was able to Van's, our Ham and Bean Host, House this year, as I knew what to look for. There was already a line of bikes along the driveway, so I started a new line with our group. We would be here for while, and soak up some cornbread, ham and beans, and some other fine treats.
After a lot of eating, and some conversation, we hopped back in the saddles for an afternoon ride. We were each given little dot stickers to put on the front of our bikes, to see if we could get a bug to splat on it. Whoever had the most coverage wins! We started out on SR 58, and headed east to Bedford, Indiana. After a gas stop, we went south on SR 37, and picked up SR 450. This was a great road I don't recall ever being on. We stopped in the town of Williams to check out the Damn Site, and then headed out of town. At a place called Dover's Hill, we rounded nine, yes nine, turns in less than half a mile. Nice piece of road work there.
450 lead us to 150, and then to SR 231, which returned us north to SR 58. After about 90 miles, we were back at Van's House, and a few of the rides got another bowl of soup. Dad and I needed to head home, as Al and Carl already had. It was going to get dark soon, and cool off again.
We started out the back way out of Owensburg, the route we came in on, until we approached Bloomington, and the headed north on SR 37. I thought we might take a break in Martinsville, but we pushed through the 90 mile trek back home in one shot.
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