Monday, 8-12-12. Woke up early to the sound of a pissed off 1-year-old, but slept well. Got a lil taste of what it's like to be a father of 3, that's enough of that. Left West St. Louis around 7am and headed toward Indianapolis. This ended up being my longest riding day, around 700 miles total. When you're on a bike trip, you need to get the long stretches outta the way early, so you can roll shorter pulls later when the saddle ass gets more tender.
Hit a lil light rain around Indianapolis. This would be a theme. Ran into stand still traffic in Columbus, OH due to an overturned semi. Had to reset my fancy gps and find another way, which tacked on a few miles to an already long day.
I think it was in a suburb of Columbus, I passed a Jeep that said "PAWN SHOP" on the spare tire cover. Thought it was kinda odd that it didn't designate any particular pawn shop. Almost like the dude just enjoyed pawn shops in general? Right about then, I passed an exit sign that said "SHOPPING MALL". No mall in particular, just "shopping mall". I've entered the twilight zone! It's funny how your thoughts wander and you find little ways to entertain yourself when all you have to do is keep the bike upright and look for the next exit.
Ended up setting up camp, in the rain, at a KOA just south of Canton. Cost me $30 for a primitive site! Fuck! Thought I was gettin bent over, but on this trip, learned that this was an average price and better than paying $60 for a room. Ballin on a budget. Tomorrow........ Canton.
Ok, so, 8 years ago, give or take, my buddy, Argo, bought an '01 Heritage, stock. We tore it apart, bolted on some pretty, changed some gaskets and added an S&S E. Soon after, he went away for a while and his bike ended up in Viginia with his bud, Shawn.
Fast forward to 2012. Argo is back and his bike is still in Virginia with only 500 miles tacked on in 8 years. His plan is to buy a one-way plane ticket and ride his motorcycle home. Sounds like fun to me! I decided to ride my motorcycle to Virginia and ride back with him.
Argo was scheduled to land in Baltimore on Friday, 8-17-12. I left my place on Sunday, 8-12-12. The bike I rode belonged to a good friend of mine, PC. I payed for it, tagged and insured it the week before I left. The poor thing had sat in my Dad's garage for a couple of years with, maybe, a couple of tanks of running time, total. Sounds like the perfect bike to ride half way across the country! I didn't have time to make a proper sissy bar before leaving, so I fashioned one out of some all-thread and cable clamps from the farm store. Argo topped it off with some twine and duct tape.... classy!
Sunday afternoon, rode to west St Louis to stay the night with my cousin, Al, and his family. His little boy was super stoked to have a motorcycle in the house! We talked for hours about motorcycles, panda hunting, jumping his bicycle, and whatever else came to his 5-year-old mind. It was great, really. Got to catch up with Al too. Before we crashed for the night, had him flip a coin to determine where I was riding from there. Heads = northeast, tails = southeast. It was heads! I kinda hoped it would be, though I would have honored fate.
Tomorrow's mission: ride through Indy and get as close to Canton as possible......
$12, 10 minute sissy bar. Function over fashion.
My new "touring" bike. 1999 Dyna, carbureted and pretty much stock.
My high-tech gps!
Argo's '01 Heritage
