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My First Group Ride
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September 14, 2009 at 3:03 am #3424JtownJJAParticipant
I survived my first group ride yesterday, and it was wonderful!! It was soooo much fun. I took a few pictures to share. No money for a video camera as of yet. (Maybe some day) I finally made use of my tank bag that I got with the bike. I was ready, with 2 planned routes, highlighted maps, camera, and bottled water. Here is a picture in my driveway before I left home. (My youngest boy was happy to help his dad get things ready.)
Anyway, the group left Johnstown at 10:00 am. It was me with my GS500F, two choppers, and 1 Suzuki Bergman scooter (an unlikely combination). Guess who got to lead the gang…. me. No one else had planned a route, so they wanted me to lead out. I don’t know what they were thinking putting a newbie in the lead, but it seemed to work out great because I didn’t have to worry about falling behind, and my friend riding one of the choppers wanted a slow leasurly ride anyway, so he could enjoy the scenery. (I didn’t get any pictures before we left.)We went past Newark and down Rt. 146 to Zanesville. I messed up a bit in Zanesville, but eventually we got back on track heading south toward New Lexington. As we started getting toward New Lex, WOW! The road started getting real interesting. But then, after that town, it got even better. Lots of twisties all the way to Nelsonville. What? I wasn’t supposed to go to Nelsonville. Oh well, a quick ride up 33 to Logan, where we had planned to have lunch.
You can’t have a good ride without a good meal. Here are some quick shots before we headed back onto the road.
Mmmmmm…. BBQ!
Here’s the Bikes….
And the riders. I’m the young guy (at least in this group) with the bright yellow.
From Logan, we headed north on route 664. Oh My!!! what a road that was. On the map, it is just a straight line running north. Not the case in real life. Perfect if you like the twisties. I had two close calls, though. One happened when I headed into a sharp right curve a litte too quick, and suddenly a pickup truck was coming the other way. I tried slowing down a bit, leaned more, and added more throttle once into the curve and somehow got around without crossing the yellow lines. My other close call was a similar curve, but I felt my front tire hit a large rock or something while I was in the middle of the curve leaned over pretty far. I was lucky the bike didn’t slide out from under me.By the time we got up to route 256, the other guys wanted to take another route, so the guy on the Bergman took over leading the group. Eventually, we lost the Bergman, and the other chopper as they headed home. My friend and I rode on up through Newark to Utica where we stopped for ice cream at Ye Olde Mill.
From there it was back to Johnstown and home. I had to take just a few more shots after getting back home to the “stable”.
Sorry this is so long, but it was an awesome experience I will not forget, and I just had to share it! I don’t know when the next big ride will be, but I’m sure looking forward to it!! While in my first tackle of the twisties, I kept thinking, this is what I want to spend my free time doing when I retire!!! (Unfortunately, that is a lonnnnggggg way away.)
September 14, 2009 at 3:52 am #22335owlieParticipantGlad to hear that you had a great time and were able to keep it together when things got rough. That is a beautiful part of the country that you are in.
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