Blowin' in the Wind!

The lovely wife and I decided to take advantage of unseasonably warm weather today (highs in the low 80's in mid-April). Again, we didn't really have a specific destination in mind, but we kinda did at the same time.

We both love going to casinos, even though my previous posts prove we don't gamble a whole lot. We do enjoy the exciting noises, and the whirl of activity. I think we have a touch of the ADD anyway so this helps -SQUIRREL!- feed that need.

But since this is about rides and not slot machines, let's get to that.

We headed out of Fort Wayne down IN-1 and made our way to Bluffton and then down to Redkey before turning west and heading for Anderson. Yes, Anderson. Home of Hoosier Park Raceway and Casino.

The big story today was the wind. Boy Howdy! There was some serious wind out there today. It had us leaning quite a bit as we passed the open farm fields that had nothing in the way of natural boundaries blocking some of the constant strong wind.

In case you haven't ridden a lot in strong winds, you should know it's a lot harder than it seems. The wind will buffet you all over your lane so you end up riding dead center, instead of the usual left or right tire lane. This keeps you from blowing across the center line and into the path of the 18-wheeler headed in the direction you just left. It also keeps you from blowing off to the side of the road and into whatever culvert or ditch happens to be calling your name.

We pulled in to the casino for an excitement break and a break from the wind. After a little while (and a lot of fun, including my winning something on the 5-cent slots that took me at least 4 minutes to try and figure out what I won while the machine kept making noise and adding more money to my total), we basically shot through the winnings and walked out 28 cents ahead of where we came in.

The ride home was north and slightly east, and that put the wind at our back. We opted for a quicker route home, so we took I-69 to IN-26 and Hartford City. Then east back to IN-1 and north to Bluffton.

A rather quick stop at Coco China Buffet satisfied our stomachs and gave us another quick breather between wind gusts.

We pulled into the driveway (hitting the button on my newly installed garage door opener on Cheeto's fairing dash), and put the kickstand down at exactly 190 miles total for the day.

No rain, just a few bugs, and some cloud cover made for a rather pleasant day, despite the wind.

And when you return safe and sound, with your lovely bride smiling from ear to ear as she dismounts, it's always a good day!

Today's Ride: 190 miles

Goal for 2012: 7,500 miles

Previous rides: 943 miles

Miles ridden so far in 2012: 1,133

No gamble on the weather on this trip, it was excellent!

On the Saturday before Easter this year, Jannette and I decided to take a quick trip down to southern Indiana. Originally, we planned to take Indiana 135 from Gnaw Bone (no, I'm not making that up, it's really the name). Anyway, that's west of Columbus, Indiana, and taking that down to Mauckport, Indiana on the Ohio River. Just that portion is about 100 miles and I'm told it's excellent for motorcycles.

The problem for us was one of timing. We really couldn't do an 'overnight' trip because of Easter Sunday, and just one way on this is 5.5 hours and 270 miles. That makes going down and coming back all the same day about an 11 hours riding day (with only short breaks) and while that's probably still doable by me, it's certainly not how you'd describe a great day of riding to Jannette.

Then my buddies Matt & Lorraine suggested that we meet up with them for a ride on Saturday, since the weather would be nice. One thing led to another and we couldn't get our schedules worked out. Plus, it was still quite cold here at 8am, which would have been prime time to leave and give ourselves plenty of daylight.

Instead we ended up leaving here at about 11:30 and heading for Rising Sun, Indiana to visit a casino there. Should have been about 162 miles and about 3.5 hours each way. We knew that leaving at 11:30 would mean a very short visit to the actual casino, but this was a scouting expedition and more about the ride than the destination. So we figured we'd be down there by 3pm, leave around 4pm and be back home by 7:30p. Not so much.

The ride itself was pretty decent. A bit chilly of a start, with both of us wearing winter riding gloves, and multiple layers. We wore chaps too, for warmth and added 'just in case' protection. The sun was out for nearly the entire day, which made for a beautiful ride. Took 27 down through Decatur, Berne, Geneva, Portland, Winchester, Richmond and that's where things got hairy. There was a detour set up because 27 was closed in Liberty, Indiana. We should have plowed on through and found a local way around it, but instead followed the Detour 27 signs, instead of our better sense and Garmina - who kept blabbering about with urgent proddings to 'turn right', 'turn right', and 'turn right'.

We ended up outside Cincinnati, in a town called "Northgate" which is about 20 miles east of the Indiana border. Other than the fact it was rather packed with traffic, it was a nice place to see, and certainly far different from the manured-aroma of the farm fields we had been traveling past all day. We quickly jumped on 275, then US 50, and found ourselves approaching Lawrenceberg, Indiana. As we got within a half mile of the entrance to Hollywood Casino, I asked Jannette if she'd rather try this one instead of Rising Sun (about 12 miles more down the road), she said "Sure!" and we swerved off to the left hand turn lanes to make it happen.

As this isn't a casino review site, I won't go into a lot of detail, but Hollywood Casino is pretty nice, as far as Indiana casinos go. We were impressed with the cleanliness and the hospitality of the folks working there. All very nice. Not a great place to win money, but we never risk very much either.

The trip back got started about 5:00pm and this time we listened to Garmina completely. We took IN-1 from Lawrenceberg to Brookville, then 101 to US-27 and that caused us to backtrack from earlier in the day, which is something I hate to do, but in the interest of time and weather (and darkness) we decided on a more familiar route, with more traffic (to scare off Bambi) to get home. We had a brief dinner break in Portland at a place called Margarita's Grill (formerly Bandidos) then headed home and pulled in about 9:00pm.

Total this ride: 313 miles.

Goal for 2012: 7,500 miles

Previous rides: 650 miles.

Miles ridden total so far: 943.

Spring Warm ups for a great 2012 summer!

Today and yesterday, I took advantage of some nice sunny weather and the fact that I had a 4 day weekend with no pressing events that needed my time.

Let's start with yesterday...

Jannette and I decided to take advantage of the weather and did a little 5.5 hour and 206 mile journey around northeastern Indiana. About midway through the trip, we decided to hit Pioneer, Ohio and see if there was anything on the shelf calling our name at Hudson Leather Company.

Aside from a bit of a chill, and about 7 million bugs, it was a great ride. Intermittent clouds and sunshine and temps around 72 kept us attentive. We made a huge circle around Fort Wayne, by way of Huntington, Albion, Kendallville, Hudson, and Pioneer, Ohio. Only one bit of Interstate, and that was just to get us home a little more quickly. After all, she had purchased a new riding jacket (and of course we had to see how it held up at high speed), and I had purchased some new luggage for shorter trips. (Let's see how canvas holds up to the elements).

No sooner did I get all the bugs cleaned off, than I decided to take a solo jaunt today. Like some of the best rides you'll ever take, this one didn't have a destination in mind as I left the driveway. It was literally a last minute decision as I approached the end of the driveway. Left, and I go east-ish. Right, and I go west-ish. I went right.

This was a lot of fun because I didn't really know until my first stop where I was going to end up. I started at the south side of Huntington and took IN-9 down to Marion. Then to Kokomo, Logansport, Peru, Wabash and then back home. Just 191 miles today over about 5.5 hours.

Clearly, I'm not hitting superslab and high speeds. I'll leave that for some of the longer trips this summer.

Goal for 2012 is about 7,500 miles, and with these two trips, along with a few short earlier trips, I'm now at about 650 miles. That means 6,850 to go.

C'mon summer, bring on the riding weather!