Turned 40 hit the road with not much of a plan!

[Yetiman]

I usually mostly lurk but since I have really enjoyed reading many of your trips I thought I might share one of my own!
The idea for this trip started many years ago, but did not come into fruition until last year. My brother in law and I were hanging out talking scooters, which is something we do frequently. During our discussion the topic came up about making "the trip" happen. For years we have been talking about taking off for a couple weeks on scooters, with no plan to see what we could see! I brought up the fact that the next summer (2012) was my 40th B-day. Now this is when things started to pic up speed, my lovely wife got in on the conversation and said we should do it, that it would be a great 40th birthday present:loll:

WOW! what an amazing wife, you see at this time is was between scooters and pretty short on gear! So this is Sept 2011 and the plan was to leave in may 2012.

Time to see who's in for the adventure.
I reached out to my lil brother and tossed the idea to him. He has never even ridden a motorcycle at this time, he calls me a couple days later and says I signed up for the MSF course and got the last spot in the last course of the season, Yeah!
Next I reached out to one of my buddy's in Tennessee, in a matter of days he was all in also, only problem was he also had to buy another bike Doh!

So at this time we have the four of us, myself, Chewy(brother in law), my brother "the Tim", and Mond-O

time to think about me I decided I was going to do the Adventure bike route, and having mostly owned Moto Guzzi's I decided the Quota was what I wanted………..Well after a couple of weeks without even finding one for sale anywhere in the US, so plan B it is……Look for the the deal!
So after about a month of searching I finally came across something that stirred my soul a bit. 2006 Triumph Tiger caspian blue not bad! Made a few phone calls did some negotiating, finally made the deal!

So throughout the next few we got bikes dialed them in and set a date for departure. The plan was to depart on May 27, I would head to arkansas to meet up with my brother in law. Mond-O would come over form Tennessee and meet us there. "the Tim" would be meeting us outside of chicago on thursday the 31st, my birthday!
Then we would head north or maybe west, we really had no plan, and thats it thats the entire plan!

 

[Gravel Guy]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

 

[Yetiman]

Day one arrived, it was going to be warm so I decided to try and get an early start.
Bikes all loaded with camping gear, repair kit, and most likely a whole bunch of junk I don't need!

Im all ready to go, wifey shoots a pic and Im off!

I am heading to the northwest corner of Arkansas up to the silom springs area, and we had decided this trip was going to have one mission, and only one….To avoid the super slab as much as possible and see more small towns to get a bit of a taste of the small towns.
so after I got past the metroplex it was time to get off the slab. I exited 35 south of Denton and hit 377 into Denton, made my way over to 428 to go up by Ray Roberts lake.
Stopped to let loose of my morning coffee and grab a snack!

I took 377 up to 82 and headed east towards 69/75. Stayed on 69 up to Muskogee and grabbed 62 east. Stopped to cool off and get something cold to drink.

Hopped back on "Babe" and made my way over to Arkansas 59 into Silom Springs………right at 400miles for the day averaged upper 40's out of "Babe" very nice!

 

[The Bruce]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Is that a big Band-Aid on the left side of the tank?

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Well day 1 was far from over!
I arrived to this sight

I roll in and see Chewy's SP still in pieces, only one thing to do now…..get dirty!

List of things to do before we split in the am:
-fix brake master cylinder dial in brakes
-get wheels back on
-dial in the fork
-put the front fairing and screen back on
-Balance carbs
-fix broken side case
better get started!

Hole in side bag!

"Pappy"(Father in law) making a patch for the side case

Getting the brakes dialed in!

Balancing the carbs on "Tank" then a test ride! Finally got in bed about 1am it was a very long first day for my I pulled out of Cleburne about 6:30am.

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Is that a big Band-Aid on the left side of the tank?

Yes it is the PO nocked it over and put about a 1.5"X1/5" scratch on the tank……..Cost to much to have it re-painted, so I had a friend who ownes a vinyl wrap shop make me a band-aid adds character

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Day 2 Arrives, And Pappy is going with us……Now Pappy is the hardcore rider of our group. He's got loads of motorcycles and none are trailer queens and most of them are Guzzi's, and ones always loaded and ready to go!
For this trip it was going to be the california!

Chewy got "tank" all ready to go and he's waiting on us!

I shot Mond-O a message and he was over in a flash, his mom live about 5 miles away so that worked out well!
Mond-O is sporting his leathers(he's sport bike guy) and his 09' F800GS

Wait we still have no plan, just to ride! first order of business get gas then I guess we will head towards Hot Springs. Lots of Twisty roads up that way

 

[Yetiman]

We stopped for a quick pic before head out on day one.

We grabbed arkansas 59 out of gentry up to decatur and jumped on 102 into Bentonville. From there we took 62 into Eureka Springs.
It was a hot and twisty ride but with a bit to much traffic for us, so we pulled over in Eureka for a snack and to check out the map and see where to go from there.
We found a spot of shade!

Went in to get some ice!

Mond-O said he new of a great little Soda fountain shop in Mountain home ark. We were not to far down the road, I think it was Harrison when at a stop I pulled away and noticed no one was with me……..Huh better turn around!
I find the guys in a parking lot, in the shade of course putting the bimmer on the center stand.

Dang bimmer won't shift out of first and is in limp mode:arch:

Chewy's SP is leaking a we bit of oil also and he is convinced everyone else's is:loll:

Any how once the bimmer cools down it seems to be doing OK, back on the road
Mond-O takes the lead and we are off once again, and having a blast! We roll in to Mountain Home and Im following Mond-O and am ready to hit the head, and have my mind set on a nice big COLD root beer float or something like it. we exit and blow right through Mountain Home, so Im like whats going on and just keep following!
He hops on 117 to Rt 5 and we ride another thirty miles and I see Montain View pop up on my GPS, that sorry turkey got his Arkansas "Mountain" towns confused……..We found the diner.

It was a very neat little diner and had the typical soda shop fair…..and DP at the fountain.

After dinner we looked at the map and decided to head towards Mammoth Springs to crash for the night.
So we took Rt.5 north to 56 to 59 north, what a great ride in to Mammoth Springs!

 

[Tourmeister]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Great report!

It looks like you are getting multiple IMG tags for every image. I think you may be cutting the forum embed code from Photobucket, which usually takes the form:

(img)link to image(/img)

and then you are pasting that into the IMG tag in the post editor here, which adds another set of the (img) tags.

If you are cutting the code straight from Photobucket, you can just paste it directly into the body of your post and you don't have to hit the "insert image" icon in your post. So in your post, you should see:

(img)link to image(/img)

The ( ) will be [ ] though. Just have to use the ( ) so you can see it here and the forum software doesn't try to process the tag.

 

[Tourmeister]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Cleaned up your posts to remove all the extra tags.

 

[Gravel Guy]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Thanks Scott.

 

[Yetiman]

Thanks I appreciate the input and help.....noobs are such a pain

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

It was a pretty warm day, and we were in unison that tonight would be a good night to grab some AC so we found a little family owned mom and pop motel. They let us park under the carport and all crash in one room, It was CHEAP!
we darted down to the springs before finding some dinner.

From left to right, Mond-O, Me, Chewy!

We had a chat and decided to head up towards the Mark Twain Nat. Forrest in Missouri and check it out.
We stopped in Alton Missouri for a nice home town breakfast!

These two gents saw us roll in and made a quick U-turn to have a visit. they are retired. The guy on the newer Tiger is riding the country visiting every courthouse in every county, yes every! He said Texas took him six weeks to get them all and close to 10k miles…….Whew thats a whole lot of riding in Texas!

Two of the neatest old guys I have ever met, we all visited in the parking lot for 30-40min talking bikes, camping, back roads and neat people we met.
I wish I could remember there names to give some props, but the Tiger rider shared this book with us to help find cheap camping.

We finally got in to eat and it was a family that ran the place, we were the only ones in there by this time. The rest of the town had all wandered off to work, poor people!

During breakfast we discovered that yours truly had apparently forgot to wear his gloves yesterday afternoon, and I had the proof, oops!

After we finished another great small town meal, we decided to jump on MO-19 and head north. there a true treat to ride, the Peck Ranch Conservation Area and the Mark Twain National Forrest areas were just simply amazing sweeping corners, some elevation change and pretty much deserted. Chewy and Mond-O decided it was time for some spirited riding and they got after it. As evening was arriving we found ourselves rolling in to Mark Twain State Park to camp for the evening. After locating the camp host and paying up for our campsites we pitched our tents. Then headed a few miles back to a little town for some groceries for dinner.

Chewy's very proud of his tent assembly skills!

Campground was pretty nice and we were the only ones in our area.

Day three complete!

 

[Tourmeister]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

I sure hope you worked your way West in Southern Missouri through the Mark Twain NF. There are some absolutely fantastic roads in the area around Ava (76, 14,95, 181, 125, N, T, H, and DD) and then on the other side of Branson heading over to Cassville (76) and Noel (90 -- this one ROCKS!). Running down 125 into Ark 125 and then across Bull Shoals Lake on the ferry is always fun too.

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

I sure hope you worked your way West in Southern Missouri through the Mark Twain NF. There are some absolutely fantastic roads in the area around Ava (76, 14,95, 181, 125, N, T, H, and DD) and then on the other side of Branson heading over to Cassville (76) and Noel (90 -- this one ROCKS!). Running down 125 into Ark 125 and then across Bull Shoals Lake on the ferry is always fun too.

Tourmeister- We did not have occasion to cruise west but there is always next time

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Seeing as how we were so close to Florida Missouri we decided we should check out the birthplace of Mark Twain…………………….Well it is what it is, I not a super huge Twain fan, I can take 'em or leave him but I do like history!

A remake of his childhood home!

The Monument was pretty neat!

From here we decided to point the scooters towards Hannibal, MO and the Mississippi River. We took the morning to get there and hit as many back roads and small towns as possible.
We took MO 107 north out of Florida and headed towards 24/36 into Hannibal.

The downtown area in Hannibal was pretty neat we found a coffee shop to get some breakfast and WiFi.

We walked along the mississippi and took some pics, visited with people and for the most part continued the trend of the trip, See smaller towns and meet the people there.

Cool old bimmer parked down by the river.

After grabbing grub and hanging out for a while we pointed the scooters north the thought process was that we would camp a bit south of Peoria, in the Rice Lake Conservation Area, but when we got there it just seemed early to stop, so we located Jubilee College State Park and targeted that for the night.


We set up camp and rode into Brimfield for groceries. Pappy and Chewy worked up some chicken, potatoes, and broccoli. Jimbo and I rocked out the Progresso soup and crackers.

This was our grocery store in Brimfield, Pappy and I both being Jim's felt this was appropriate!

Day four was pretty chill. Tomorrow looks like rain.

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

OK where was I……..Oh yeah day 5 the big 40 for me! We had been warned as we checked in to the campground that there was a front moving through to expect rain late into the night. So knowing that we all slept a little on the light side and woke very early.
It was windy when I woke up so I unzipped the tent and stuck a leg out, it was starting to spit a bit. The rest of the group woke up about the same time. We decided to forgo nourishment and caffeine for the moment, and instead packed up and hit the road. 7 miles, 7 whole miles was as far as we got before the heavens opened with a fury! We passed a diner on the way out of town and opted for that nourishment and caffeine we were lacking. Back to Brimfield and Good Time Chally’s who provided us with a dry spot to spend an hour and eat some excellent breakfast!
At this time we learned Chewy had no rain suit. so the ladies at Good Time Chally's told us to follow US 150 back to East Peoria, and we would find a dick's sporting goods there.
We loaded back up and headed that away in the torrential down pour, it had dropped to the upper 40's by this time and when we got there Chewy was soaked and I was not terribly thrilled about the prospect of leaving perfectly good shelter to head into this.

The weather channel was saying it would clear up in a couple of hours so we located the nearest starbucks and made it home base for a while.
The bikes seemed perfectly willing to continue I on the other hand was enjoying the hot beverage and comfy seat, plus hey it was my birthday right

After sitting for a couple hours the weather has changed the storm is back building and the rain is going to continue all day, but lighten up! Time to ride

We headed north towards Rockford illinois, where we were supposed to meet up with my brother "the Tim" that evening.

Made it to Rock Falls Il. by this time the temp had dropped to 45 and the rain was still steady, we opted for a warm up break…….Burger king it was!

I ordered a Hot Chocolate and the guy behind the counter gave me a funny look, so I was like "bet you don't get a lot of requests for that in may" He said no thats cool, you guys are just plain nuts for riding in this! He proceeded to ask where we were from, I told him,his only response "thats crazy"

Back on the road, really excited to see my little brother…….The plan was to meet on Il-2 in Byron and head to rockford for the night. We somehow got 10min in front of him and had to pull over at a mobil and wait for him…

"The Tim" arrives

We jet up to rockford secure some lodging and focus on dinner. My call was for some Chi-town Pie, I settled for a local chain, But better then anything I have found in Texas so far!

We were tired, cold and hungry we did some damage that night!
All in all a pretty good 40th b-day for sure!

Off to Wisconsin tomorrow

 

[BeemerlessBob]

What a great trip so far. Just to ride for the sake of riding. With brother and good friends, seems like a great way to celebrate your entry into old age.

 

[Yetiman]

What a great trip so far. Just to ride for the sake of riding. With brother and good friends, seems like a great way to celebrate your entry into old age.

Thanks Beemer Bob. My entire reason for owning anything with two wheels is to "ride for the sake of riding" and to meet great people of course

I will continue the saga later today.

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

We woke up to a beautiful day 6, high in the mid 70's light breeze…..Grabbed some Java looked at the map and decided to head towards the kettle moraine forrest……We hopped on Il-20 and took it to Il-23 through Harvard Wi to Wi-14 still heading north. We worked our way over to Hwy 67 and swung by "Old World Wisconsin" Really amazing living history of wisconsin.

Chewy, The Tim, Myself, and Pappy!

The Scooters looking lonely!

Buildings were really well done!

Mond-O and chewy looking at the map of the place.

Well where should we go next?

Sweet roads around here!

Have to hoof it to the next section!

Mond-O getting owned at checkers by the nice little lady!

There were a bunch of school kids around and not long after walking around some kids came up to us and asked about our "uniforms". Then proceeded to ask Mond-O if he was Jeff Gordon, man that gave us all a good laugh!

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

From "Old world wisconsin" we continued north. Worked our way over to Wi-83 and turned our attention towards food and lodging for the evening. We opted for camping and a piggly wiggly, we found ourselves in Kewaskum Wi. And that is where we found the Piggly Wiggly and FOOD We had not eaten anything all day and I was very hungry!
We looked at campgrounds in the area and as luck would have it a really nice lady in the store told us of a "great" camping area just 15min away. We made haste and headed that way.
Mauthe Lake Recreation area it where we ended up. It was a wonderfully clean and well cared for are. BUT, there's always a but. Wisconsin has a whole lot to learn about encouraging tourism to there parks. So we had a park entrance fee, per person and per bike, a camping fee person also, plus only two bikes per campsite. Yeah it cost me more then my share of the last two motel rooms, then charged for fire wood. So I have my little backing packing stove fired up and the ranger comes by about 9pm and says to turn the radio down, Ummmm there's no radio on! Oh must it must be your stove thats pretty loud! All in all they went away and left us alone. The campsite was very pretty though, and hey we were not at work.

Once we settled in over the fee's it really was very pleasant, time for food, Fire, and sleep!

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Hey I totally forgot to finish this, Doh sorry! Sorry if everyone has lost interest, but I will continue on if for no other reason but for my own practice at it!

Well Day 7 was another very pretty day we ended up hanging out around the camp fire drinking coffee and enjoying the morning. We finally decided to pack up and just spend some time cruising around the area and see what we could see!

We ended up heading over through Fond Du Lac and around the east side of lake OshKosh Towards Appleton.
As we were zipping along on some beautiful secondary roads Chewy pulls over and says

"Hey I would really like to see one of these up close" follow me!

So we turned and followed him back to a lil dirt/gravel road and cruised up a hill right to the base of this beast!

All lined up down the gravel road!

Started to get a few sprinkles, we debated on rain gear and decided against it, lets just ride

 

[Yetiman]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

We decided to cruise along back work our way over to WI 41 and continue north, we had to stop and see the big lake.
Parked!

Chewy checking out the big body of water, it was his first time to the great lakes area!

We had burned enough daylight that we decided to Motel it for the evening and chose the little town of Peshtigo as our target. We fired up the scooter and were off!
Arrived a fair bit later at this really great little motel that was family owned/operated very clean and super reasonable!
It was to dark for any other shots!

There is only one place to eat in town and it was right next door to the motel and was closing in 30. We got in there and they were great told us to take our time and enjoy our meal. We are in the cheese state so it was time to order up some cheese curds, YUM! I grew up in the area so I was ready for the goodness, if you have never had any, well I am so sorry!

Time for some sports center and Bed!

 

[Jimmy_Pop]

Re: Turned 40 hit the with not much of a plan!

Digging the story so far, keep it going, and be careful out there.

 

[1TallTXn]

Pst, Jim, finish the story!