October 2nd, 2024 - More Choppa’s or “Where the hell did the summer go??”
The summer has evaporated and September has been a disaster - work travel and other commitments forced the forfeit of our annual EOM gathering trip. These things do not make for a tolerable Wayne (well, according to Annette at least)... Bikergeek posted and is hosting the fall techday the first weekend in October. “You should go” was the mandate from the home front, and when I suggested adding a few days to the front end, “You definitely should do that.” was the response I had no intention of questioning.
AND what better way to spend a sunny day on two wheels working south and east than folding in a few Tour Of Honor rally stops? None. There is nothing better - especially when you haven’t ridden locally but a few times all summer.
Reservations made, routes drafted and adult supervision coordinated - I hit the road around 11am Wednesday, October 2nd. I sliced through Detroit and hung a left in Toledo.
File this under “things you see in Detroit”
Carrying on the helicopter theme, I headed along the Lake Erie shore towards Camp Perry - home of the CMP - Civilian Marksmanship Program and the famous Camp Perry national match ranges. There were 2 TOH memorials on display at Camp Perry - H833 (a UH1 Huey) and H834 (a Cobra). Both of these aircraft were very well intact - something I’ve noticed isn’t the case with most public aircraft static displays. My guess is that most VFW’s, American Legion Posts, etc. would have the displays raped and pillaged if they were this complete; file that under, “ this is why we can’t have nice things.”. Camp Perry is an open campus, but I imagine the security that is present is a deterrent. The Cobra cockpit had most, if not all, of the flight controls in place, along with the 20mm gatling gun turrent in the nose and rocket / missile pods on the port and starboard sides.
Onward - southbound. The next stop was at H254 outside Holmesville, Ohio at the American Legion Post 551 This Huey display is more on par with what you see at these public displays - a fairly stripped down air frame - but it’s there and I’m sure a point of pride for members of the post.
Time to make tracks south - OH83 flowed well and dumped me out in Zanesville, Ohio. A difficult choice was in front of me; the “easy” option included I-70 East to I-77 South to Caldwell. OR the “fun” option that included the northern half of OH555 and a portion of OH78. If you know, you know. It all came rushing back - throttle induced lightness of the front end over crests, the uncertainty as to the direction of the road beyond a blind crest. This type of riding is a rush for me. It’s challenging, an element of unknown, and blind trust in your machine and self. The miles dissolved as quickly as the daylight.
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Tomorrow, we absorb some of Southeast Ohio’s Flat, Straight, and Boring roads… Along with a TOH stop or two…
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024.
FJRVFR met me in Caldwell, Ohio. The Days Inn there offers newer, well kept rooms with super friendly staff and absurdly affordable room rates. The plan for thursday was to explore a section of Southeast Ohio east of Caldwell and north of Woodsfield. This is an area that I don’t often reach into when staying in Marietta. Holy Smokes - what an exceptionally entertaining area to venture through on two wheels! We did notice an abundance of deer during the morning. No shorts staining encounters, but it was important to keep scanning keenly through the shadows for movement.
We stopped for lunch in Beallsville and then on towards the river and another TOH site near Sardis, Ohio. This was one of the 5 official state memorials for 2024 and was located just outside of Sardis, Ohio.
From there, we were treated to OH255, but in the opposite direction from what I’ve normally traversed it. I did stop for a moment to get a picture and text it to Mr. Wheaton to let him know one of his favorite roads was in tip-top shape.
We finished the 257-ish mile day with a quick walk to Lori’s Diner for dinner. The weather could not have been better - although Mark will likely remember to pack his heated gear next time.
Friday, October 4th, 2024.
Time to make tracks for Tech Day in Marysville. With the exception of one close encounter with a semi pulling a construction office (think single wide mobile home size of a trailer) down the middle of OH78, we had a tremendous morning. Temps were a tad nippy at the start - 46 degrees - yet another reminder of the value heated gear brings to the equation. We followed OH78 to Nelsonville, then onto OH56 towards Circleville. We split up just south of Columbus; I headed towards TOH stops in Groveport and Pickerington.
Motts Military Museum had 2 TOH helicopters on display. These were in a display area behind the museum building along with many other aircraft, vehicles and memorials. I snapped pictures of the Huey and Cobra along with touring the museum. It’s well worth the modest admission fee. I spent an hour there between walking through the display and getting the TOH pictures.
I arrived at casa de Geek around 2pm. I checked in and set up my accommodations for the evening. I had coordinated meeting Designflaw06 in Toledo before I added the SE Ohio portion of this outing, so I headed north around 4pm. The auxiliary lights I have reduce the potential for harvesting venison on the way to LZ Geek…
I did visit another helo on the way in Marion, Ohio as well as a few other TOH memorials nearby in the city.
Patiently awaiting the arrival…
The ride south from Toledo was uneventful. We were now “FJR(s), party of 3” - BBbrowles joined Designflaw on the way. We fueled up before leaving Toledo - We made good time and arrived at Tech Day central after dark, but without being able to fill Rayzerman’s request for some medium well venison. Sorry to disappoint (not).
Designflaw was directed into service bay 1, and his bike was stripped down faster than an Escalade parked in Detroit… This really was my fault - I failed to conduct the appropriate pre-tech day discussion. The blue 2006 was in fair need of tires. Next time, we’ll have a tech day before tech day…
One of the final actions of the Friday evening festivities was to summon D-Eagle. Bikergeek had that covered - this is kinda like shining the bat signal… Don showed up a little over 12 hours later.
Saturday morning, Designflaw and myself made the trip to IronPony to get his tires squared away while the crew worked through the valve check on his bike. There was a fork service with spring upgrade completed on bbbrowles 2007 as well, along with a few other projects.
I was slightly distracted by the orange peel version of a Scrambler 1200XE. Tim tackled me before I made it to the finance office with his credit card though, so back to Marysville we went, new-bike-less, but with that new tire smell filling the Jeep…
The Honey-Jack signal was answered - here we see Designflaw and D-Eagle keeping the spark alive, or negotiating for big spoon. The conversation must have been going well based on the smiles…
Why did it take so long to button up the Designflaw06 once the valve check was done??
It was a grand day overall - the sooze kept us all well fed. The conversation was exceptionally entertaining as always. Andy said this, and he was spot on - it was true for me as well - boy, it was good to see everyone and I really needed this.
Sunday, October 6th, 2024.
There were family commitments on all of our calendars for Sunday, so it was an early departure; I packed up my lodging and the 3 amigos rolled north just after 7am. The sunrise was spectacular, even though it was slightly over our shoulders.
I arrived home to a package on the workbench; my recognition for efforts exerted back in April at the beginning of the Tour of Honor Rally - 3rd place leaves some room for improvement next year, but I’m still pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish after the initial “false start”...
