Day 2 - Yorkville, IL - Cable, WI

I had told Kevin of Scrambler Cycles I would be at his place around lunch time on Friday.  Google had estimated 1170 miles from my house to Cameron but I hadn't realized I had gone further west than the route Google planned.  Google would have taken me through Chicago but I wanted to avoid it like the plague and had continued further west stopping in Yorkville the night before.  Since I had done 930 the day before I figured I only had another 240.  When I left Yorkville the GPS said I had 360 miles to Cameron, that's another 2 hours riding, crap I thought to myself, I better move fast and so I did.  I left Yorkville a little after 7am and hit the road at full speed stopping only for gas and to take a picture of the pink elephant.

On the way passed New Lisbon which I thought was interesting, I was Portuguese and Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, had to get a picture to show my mom and dad.

I made good time and arrived a little after 1pm, covering the 360 in record time, stopping only for gas and coffee, needed to stay awake, gets quite boring covering these long distances on the highway.

Kevin 's shop is out in the woods just outside of Cameron but the GPS took me to his door and when I saw this row of motorcycles outside I knew I was in the right place.

After meeting Kevin, a very pleasant young man, I quickly unloaded the bike and Keving got to work.  He had never worked or seen a Super Tenere but being the good mechanic he is, he quickly had things apart and started mounting the new Heidenaus.

While he worked on the tires I walked around admiring the old motorcycles he has, some he is working on , others are client motorcycles and others he just has them for parts for future projects.  The Honda 450 and the white Honda are customer motorcycles.

The others I'm not sure, there were some 750cc 3-cyclinders two-stroke of the 70's and lots of dirt bikes.  I had never heard of the BS motorcycle company (thought it was a joke at first, silly me) and was surprised when Kevin told me they were manufactured by Bridgestone.

Some of the other motorcycles laying around.

 Inside, the shop is full of motorcycles, I especially like this white Moto Guzzi with the soft bags.

Kevin's very friendly dog.

A Laverda with a weird custom paint job

The shed and the old Honda

I'm walking outside when I hear a motorcycle approaching and then coming up the driveway, a green Kawasaki 1400.  At first I thought he was another client but when the rider took the helmet off I immediately said Erik? and he replied, you must be George.  It was indeed Erik, you can read his blog here.

I wasn't expecting anyone, Erik rode the 80 miles to the shop to meet me and I was happily surprised and it was a pleasure to meet such a nice guy.  

Soon my bike was done and I was ready to depart, Erik asked what my planned route was, I hadn't thought about it other than north and west.  He offered a place to stay with a bed and his place was about 80 miles north in Cable, Wisconsin, how could I refuse? I said that would be great and offered a big thank you, I knew we had lots to talk about.  We took a few pictures in front of Kevin's shop and then headed north.

Kevin

Erik and his beautiful Green Kawasaki

Erik leading the way to Cable.

We arrive at his place and I meet his lovely wife Nancy and five of his cats, the sixth was nowhere to be seen.  We spend some time in the garage looking at his bikes, he has an FJR 1300 and a WR250 Yamaha, the bike I wish I had for the little off-road trips in south Jersey.  I hadn't had lunch and was starving, Kevin mentions he knows a good place to eat and we all head out to the Sawmill Saloon.  I had a wonderful cod fish platter.  

We return to the house and spend the rest of the night talking about motorcycles, rides and where I should be going next, Erik had brought out the big maps.  I decide to follow Erik's suggestion and ride out west on route 2 towards Duluth and eventually Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I retire to the beautiful bedroom after taking a shower and write a few lines on my blog but I had left the camera on the bike and needed to get the pictures from the card, I got up and while going through the kitchen on the way to the garage spot the 6th cat, a brown calico cat, he briefly looks at me and then takes off and disappears, never to be seen again.

I was tired, it had been a long day, about 440 miles, but a most enjoyable day too.  It was 2am when I switched the light off, in less than a minute I was asleep.

Map:

View Larger Map

To be continued...... 

New Tires

Today was another long day time wise but with much less riding.  It's now 1:45am and I am extremely tired, I will blog this day at another time.  A brief synopsis.

Left Yorkville, Illinois, a little after 7am after having breakfast at the motel and then rode north to Cameron, Wisconsin, about 360 miles.  Along the way saw a "pink" elephant with glasses, just had to take a picture with my bike in it, who would have believed me I had seen a pink elephant without proof?

Had Kevin from Scrambler Cycle in Cameron mount new Heidenau K60 Scouts tires on my bike.  Everything went smooth and the bike looks great with these tires.
Scrambler Cycle

To give you an idea of what a treasure Kevin has in his shop I took a picture outside his shop but you have to see the inside.

A fellow blogger arrived at the shop to meet me and then invited me to stay at his place for the night.  We rode another 80 miles north to Cable, yes, that's the name of the town.  He then took me out to dinner with his wife and didn't allow me to pay or help pay my part.   I had a very tasteful cod platter.

His wife prepared a room for me, they have a beautiful house in the woods.  I played with some of her cats, I only saw five but there's six in the house and then we stayed up looking at maps and discussing past rides.  We both have traveled many of the same roads.  I will just mention he rides a green mean machine.

To be continued........

Longest Day

First day is over, it was a long day with 930 miles ridden on a very hot and humid day.
Left the house a few minutes late.  After I opened the garage and pulled the bike out at 5am, I felt the air outside and it was already hot and humid.  Had to take the mesh pants out of the bike and change with the ones I thought I was going to need early in the morning.  My first Spot marker was at a Wawa about 10 miles north of my house for a nice cup of coffee.

I went west on I78 until I crossed into PA, then followed 33 north to I80 West.

Lots of farmland and forest in PA, not much to say about it.  I quickly dispatched of PA and entered Ohio.

Rode most of the afternoon with the temperature between 95 and 97,  the humidity was brutal.  Made various stops to hydrate.

Towards the end of Ohio the weather changed and I ran into a storm, had to stop and put my liner on.  Didn't bother putting rain pants, it was so hot I figured if they got wet they would dry fast.  It rained for about an hour.

Soon Ohio was behind me and Indiana was next.  The sky had cleared by the time I got to the border.

Indiana is mostly farmland, corn everywhere on both sides of the road.

Indiana was soon behind me but I didn't see the sign announcing Illinois.  I continued on I80 past the Chicago area, I was trying to avoid the afternoon traffic but still caught lots of traffic with lots of trucks.  Once I past Joliet I started heading north but it was getting dark fast and by the time I got to Yorkville the sun had gone down.

I found a motel and called it a day.  After 930 miles I was tired, no point in continuing at night, it's the most dangerous time to ride a motorcycle.

Tomorrow I will have new tires mounted in Cameron, Wisconsin, new Heidenau K60 Scouts.