Well it looks as if the September 1st ride was my last one for awhile. The following weekend we took the grandkids up to visit with us the inlaws. Then I had some work training with two of my men in Richmond, Virginia. The following week brought the end of my riding for the year.
On September 19th I was sitting in me office working on the typical Friday and took a phone call from a customer. The call was to remove some storm damaged metal roofing from a building near the Monroe High School football stadium. Until the hanging metal was removed the schol could not have it's football game due to the possibility of it falling on someone.
I called some of my guys but they were all really busy so I decided to take the call myself and just go do it. I did!
I cut the metal from top to bottom and went to push it off the side to the ground. As I pushed I noticed that the metal was hung up on an abandoned phone wire. The school maintenence guy said to go ahead and let it break because it didn't work and needed to come down anyway.
I pushed aforward on the metal and as I did I felt a snap n my right arm. It was extremely painful and also had a lot of constant burning. I knew I had hurt or tore something in my arm but had no idea how bad it was.
The school maintenence guy asked if I needed help getting down and I told him not until I was finished with the job.
I got the metal off the roof and screwed down the edges. After that I removed my safety equipment and he helped me take down my ladder and put it on my truck.
I then drove myself to the hospitol while calling Vicki and my ofice on the way.
The ER Doctor said it was a torn bicep and told me to go to and Orthopedic Doctor.
I called Dr. Kremcheck on Monday and he got me in on Wednesday. He set up an MRI for Thursday with an appointment with him right after. He confirmed what was a torn becep muscle. The bicep muscle forks out into two branches. The long head and the short head. I tore the long one that attaches to the back of the forearm.

He scheduled surgery for Tuesday.

Tuesday morning Vicki and I got up and headed for the surgery center. When we got there Doc Kremcheck asked if she wanted to observe the surgery and she said yes. COOL! I would have if it weren't me.
A 45 minute procedure, he opened up my upper arm just above the right albow. Reached in and pulled out the bicep muscle. He sewed down both sides in very tight stitches and left two long strings hang off of the end.
He then made an incision on the back of my forearm and pulled the muscle strings through it. He made a grove in the bone and two small holes. The strings were put through the wholes and the muscle was tucked into the grove. He then closed it up and put me in an arm brace which would soon become my new best friend.
I woke up in recovery and the pain was at a 8-9 on a 1-10 scale. Let's just say it hurt like hell.
After a while were could go home and we did. Vicki has done a great job of helping me out wih everything since i'm kind of temporarily handicaped.
Physical therepy started the day after and oh I wasn't ready for that. They told me to take a pain pill before I went. Know I know why. Actually that was the last time I took a pain pill and my pain was at zero within three days after surgery. The only things I really felt for a while were muscle spasms which they gave me meds for. Those have even stopped now.

It's been a week and a half and things are going well and I am learning to do things left handed some of which are very challenging I might add.

I have to wear this brace on my arm 24/7 for about a month or two. I even sleep in it. I'm not really allowed to drive or go to work for awhile the Doc says. He said I could start to drive in about 2 weeks to a month and go back to work on light duty in about 4-6 months.
Well after being off of work for one day after surgery I went stir crazy and drove myself to work the next day.
I have to be extremely careful in everything I do since this surgery could be messed up with a single fall or incedent and we get no second chance to fix it.
It's a long recovery pricess that wil take about 9 months to ayear to get back to strength and forthe muscle to attach to the bone enough to do anything.

Yesterday Vicki and I went on a bike trip with the rideohio.org gang. It was her first motorcycle trip to drive....... HER CAR that is. So I guess you could say I rode in the bitch seat for the first time.
The group met at the Big Muskee in Reinersville, Ohio for a group picture then to the River Queen Tavern for lunch and some social time.
She drove the routes we would have ridden had we been on the bike and while it was beautiful out and the curves would have been awsome it was kind of depressing for me. I wanted to be on the bike so bad. This really sucks!
We did have an awsome time with everyone and met a few new faces as well. What an awsome group of people we have found.

Doctor Kremcheck said it would probably be about the first of May before i could get back on the bike and ride however i would probably have to wear the brace for a while when I do.
What a wierd tan that's going to be next summer!

That's all I have for now but I will post up a group picture from the Big Muskie trip.

Monday September 1, 2008 (Labor Day)

Vicki and I had planned a ride to Grand Lake, St Marys for the day. We pulled out of the garage about 12:30 and headed north on SR 503. We passed through Gratis, West Alexandria, and Lewisburg. Then continued north until we got to highway 121 and followed it. We reached Versailes and picked up Route 47 over to Newport, Ohio and we then turned onto 66 north through Fort Laramie and eventually into St Marys, Ohio.
We traveled over to Grand Lake and the state park on the north side where we stopped for a cold drink and to rest for a bit. We took pictures by the lake and a guy even offered to take a pic of both of us and we gladly said yes.
After a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes were off again heading west into Indiana.
We dropped down into Celina and picked up highway 29 west that became 67 and when we crossed into Indiana it became Highway 18. We were detoured a few times including a gravel road where my old dirt bike instincts came back to me. We eventually routed ourselves south on Highway 1 and headed towards dinner in Richmond.
We then took 28 into Union City to 227 to Middleboro and a left onto Cook Road to Porterfield Road to 121 and then a right onto Gravel Pit Road. Gravel Pit Road led us to Highway 40 and a right turn onto it took us to Hacienda for dinner.
We met up with Lymon and Wanda there had chips & salsa along with some wonderful wet burritos.
We mounted up and headed for home on 40 East then eventually to Ohio SR 35 where we picked up 503 again south toward home. When we pulled into the garage Vicki and I had logged exactly 267 miles for the day. It was a warm day in the lower 90's but moving it felt great.
One of these days Vicki will right the details and it won't be so boring. But then who cares as long as she is riding with me because I love having her on the back 2-up.

Saturday August 31. 2008

Vicki and I decided on Friday that we would take a short ride on Saturday to Millersport, Ohio since they were hosting the Sweet Corn Festival. We headed out toward the festival about 10:45, a little later then planned but we had a great ride there. We were going to meet a couple from Cleveland that are on the RideOhio.org website. He and I had met before.
We took the super slab as in I-71 and I-70 to get there a little quicker so that part of the ride was kind of boring.
As we pulled in Kerry and his better 1/2 were walking back towards their bike. We joined up with a couple introductions of the ladies and walked into the festival. After spending some time walking & talking we stopped and each of us got an ear of sweet corn which was wonderful. We did some more walikng & talking stopped for chicken & drinks. We ran into some friends of Vicki and I from home talked to them for a few minutes then went back towards our bikes after stopping by the sweet corn again where the girls each got a dozen ears of corn to take home. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. Vicki and I had a great time visiting with Kerry & Bonnie.
We pulled out and headed toward home using all back roads. We passed through Beautiful Fairfield County along the way and we worked way down to Route 22 which was our main road home.
Once we got into Wilmington we were getting hungry and everyone knows where I like to eat in Wilmington? Beaugards Oh Yeah baby, a half slab for me, and pulled BBQ chicken for Vicki.

Funny thing though and I do have pics & video to prove it. There were some guys who had a "rastlin" ring set up in the parking lot. I kid you not. A van that read on the side of it, "UIW - Ultimate Impact Wrestling" I think that Lymon & Wanda are stopping there tonight on their way back in.
While we left before the rastlin started they should get to see it. We finished up our last 1 hour leg home dropping down onto Route 350 through Fort Ancient then onto 123 toward home. We logged 260 mile today and had a great dat with some wonderful people.
Vicki and I made it home with an hour to spare before we needed to leave for bowling tonight.

Wednesday August 20, 2008

Wednesday evening Vicki and I took a nice but short ride to Dayton, Ohio to a place called Jackass Flats. It's a motorcycle store that also has a restaurant. Every Wednesday there is a bike night and let me tell you it does fill up with motorcycles and riders. I can't imagine how many hundreds of bikes were there. They also had a live band playing.
We met up with some friends there that were all at Tanked 08. Vicki got to meet them for the first time. We had dinner, talked, and took a few pictures. It was fun although we decided to cut it short on purpose to get home before dark. We shot the highway home as we do quite frequently.

Tanked 08 August 15,16,17

With some planning and some good freinds from the website rideohio.org a campout & ride event was planned. Motorcycle enthusiasts from all over the state of Ohio gathered for the three day event. Vicki did not go but i'm sure she would have loved it if she had.



I took the day off on Friday and packed my Goldwing with everything but the kitchen sink. Setting out toward Mohican State Park at 8:30 AM.



I took the highway up to my destination in a very uneventful ride. We camped at the Mohican Reservation in tents. This is why my lovely wife did not go because she does not camp.



I was she third bike in behind Tank and Skidplate. I immediatly started unpacking the Wing as Skid laughed saying that it looked like I was unpacking a clown car with all of the stuff I had in there.



After unpacking I set up my tent and started making dinner. I had made two gallons of my moms spaghetti sauce and had frozen it for this event.

As I cooked more and more bikes and riders poured in. That night we had nearly 30 people there around our campfire. Most stayed the night and some went home if they lived close then came back the next day.

After a night of drinking and BS'ing around the campfire retired to our tents about 1:30 AM.

As always I was up by 6:00. I tried to go back to sleep
then at 6:30 I crawled out of the tent. I grabbed my towel, bathroom things, and a clean set of clothes and off to the shower house I went.
I will say they are not the nicest showers I have ever seen but not the worst either. I showered shaved and headed back to camp. As I returned I saw that several more had got up and were sitting around the picnic table looking like hell froze over. I guess the night of drinking and wild stories had the best of them.
Mickey and I set out for town on our scoots and searched for breakfast. We found a family diner that had a brakfast buffet. We decided against the buffet and ordered. I trid to watch what I orderd because of my diet. I did very well and settled for sausage & eggs with lots of coffee.
With breakfast over we took some pictures then rode back to camp.
I started packing up the tent and the rst of my things because after the ride Mickey and I were heading home.
With the bike packed and time to spare we sat down and had time to talk to everyone a little more before we headed out on our Saturday ride.

The saturday ride started out with about 28 bikes of all kinds and I believe Jim was Tom was leading on his Goldwing. I had tailgunner and the rst of the Goldwings were spread into the mix to keep us on track in case we got seperated. (Most of us have GPS and CB communications on the Goldwings). as made the second right turn we hit a gravel road about a mile down. Most elected to turn around which now had me leading the ride. I detoured my GPS and it took us another route. After several miles and many, many turns we came upon gravel again and I kept going. The rest did follow which suprised me about some of them. We arrived at Heinies Cheese Factory about 11:15 real close to being on schedule.
After touring the Cheese house and sampling some of the best Amish made cheese I have ever had we were on our way again.
As we arrived and left Heinies we had picked up some more of our group who had joined us there. We were now numbered in the 30's or so.
We left out in three groups with Bob leading the first who is one of the owners of Heinies.
He led us alaong one of the best routes I have ever been on. Every road was as scenic as the last and each one was full of these long sweeping curves that you could really lay the bike over and feel the "G" forces. Eventually we landed at Spitlers Family Restaurant where they had been expecting us and had a buffet ready. We all sat down together and had a wonderful meal. This is where we all seemed to bond. Wing riders, crotch rocket ridrs, Harley riders, bikers of all types all sat down together and talked and really got to know each other. It was great. We decided right then and there that we were all basically the same. We just have a different preference of bikes. But it is fun to bash each other when we can.
After lunch our route continued as it had began. Twisting roads one after another. Bob had picked the perfect ride and it seemed we had the perfect day too. The tmp was about 79 and the skies were clear and a perfect blue. He led us next to a restaurand called The Old Mill Restaurand which is the home of Velvet Ice Cream. What a beautiful place it turned out to be. I loved it. Most had ice cream of coures and a lot more pictures were taken. I passed on the ice cream and just enjoyed talking to everyone.
This was the southern most point of our ride so it is where Mickey and I said our goodbyes the the group. We had a wonderful time and met a lot of new friends. It was nice to be able to put a face to a name on our website.
We headed out and led by the one and only Jnor and his wife Mnor. We stopped to fill up on fuel then we were off. They led us out to the Interstate and we were off headed for home.
We rode the highway back to make time only stopping once for a short 5 minute break.
I peeled off on my exit toward home onto Route 123 and he continued toward New Richmond.
I rolled into the house about 6:45 that evening unpacked and, showered and got ready for bowling. What a great experience it was with some new face I can now call my friends. I loged 484 miles in two days but they were awsome. I can't wait to do it all again next year and I think Vicki is going. She will totally enjoy it.

Saturday August 9, 2008

All it took was a mention of riding a motorcycle for RIBS and I was ready.

Mickey invited Vicki and I to join his ride to Ribbers in Portsmouth, Ohio. We graciously accepted and were on our way.
The trip was going to take about 2 hours and 20 minutes if we cut off some of the back road riding so we did and set out on I-75 for I 275 east.
We had decided to take Route 125 toward Portsmouth where it ends at Route 52 on the river. Route 125 was a beautiful ride with some long sweeping curves and several small towns along the way. Not a rough road but it was narrow in some places. When it ended we were at Route 52 on the Ohio River which is a familiar site to us both. We had plenty of time and decided to see the murals painted along the flood walls along the river in Portsmouth.
The mural walls run for nearly 1/3 of a mile and face the town. If you have never seen them it is worth the trip.
The artist did a fantastic job in his creations there. The murals portray the history of the town and surrounding area. From it's heritage, education, war battles, sports, industry, famous people of the town and nearly anything you can think of that made that town back in it's hay day and today.
They are just spectacular and a definate must see.

We were to all meet up at Ribbers at 5:30 and as we loaded onto our bike and started toward the restaurant we ran into Mickey and his 5 bike group. We stopped and talked for a bit then Vicki and I headed over to Ribbers leaving the others there to see the murals.
As we were getting off of the bike a big guy on a V-Strom pulled in and it was Tank from RideOhio. We waited for Tank to get off of his bike and walk toward us where we made our formal introductions. Then the three of us walked in together. As we walked in we saw Mark, (Passinthru) on RideOhio sitting at the bar waiting for us.
We had no idea how many total there were going to be in our group and we guessed 16. It just so happens that the guess was right on. Vicki and I had a drink at the bar while we talked to Tank and Mark waiting for the others.
The rest of the gang got there about 1/2 hour later and we sat down together at some tables they set up for us. A few more introductons of those who had never met each other and it was all good.
After some pleasant conversation and studying of the menus we ordered.
Ribs are their specialty and it seems that most of us got them. These were country style pork ribs and I must say they were excellent. The sauce was bold but not spicey. (I want the recipe)
After dinner we talked some more then headed for the parking lot where pictures of the group were in order as always.
When that was all said and done it was saddle up time and we all peeled off in our own directions.
Vicki and I decided to take a different route home then what had brought us there.
We decided on Route 73 to Route 32 and we were off.
Route 73 was tight and somewhat rough in some areas. It is very twisty, which I didn't mind at all. As for speed, I was pushing it because as it was getting late and we wanted to not be on 73 or 32 after dark due the the amount of deer that roam that area.
Once on Route 32 I cranked up the Wings speed since it is a four lane and the posted speed is 60 mph. We made great time getting to I-275 and then on to I-75 toward home.
We totaled 257 miles round trip and on one tank of fuel I might add. (I had a half gallon to spare) We walked into our home right at 10:05. We made great time getting back and we're glad we chose the right route to get us here quick.
Tank posted on RideOhio of his and Mark's journey home which they thought would take about 4-1/2 hours. It seems they ran into rain a couple of time and after a wait out at a Wafle House they were on the road again. They got home after 3:00 AM this morning after dagnerously riding in thee rain at night.
Now keep in mind that they live north west of Youngstown. Tank's comment was, "We're lucky to be alive". See Tanks journey on his blog at http://www.ridewithtank.com/

I will say that Vicki and I both agreed that we had a great time. We met some very nice people and a few new friends and had a great time doing so.
This trip turned our Wing odometer over to 17,000 + miles.

Today is Vicki's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Vicki Dear!

I got to ride with two the boys yesterday.

Two of my sons invited me to go to Mid-Ohio Raceway to watch the Superbike Motorcycle races yesterday.
Myself, Rick Jr, Rob, and Rob's brother in law Andy left from my house as four bikes about 9:00 AM.
We took the highways up to make time and got there about 11:45 after a fuel stop and stopping at subway for a "to go" lunch which we took in with us.
I had the cooler packed on the back of the bike and we had it filled with drinks for the races and to get a refresher on the road.
We saw three races one of which had a wreck where the guy just got up and walked over picked up his bike. punched and kicked it a few times. Not because he was pissed at the bike but because it appeared that the throttle might be stuck and he was trying to free it so he could get back in the race. He ended up taking it into the pits and his race was over.
We walked the vendor area where a couple of us bought T-shirts and things. We really didn't spend much money except to get in and for fuel.
The trip out of the race track was slow for the first 4 miles or so with traffic backing up but we made it to the highway and were on our way home.
We fuel made a fuel stop at the junction of I-71 and State Route 42. After re-fuelling we decided to take 42 the rest of the way home and get off of the highway. This was a more enjoyable ride with the traffic and idiots in cages away from us.
As we got into Lebanon Andy peeeled off, then Rob, both on their way home. Then Rick and I headed the rest of the way toward our houses on mainly back roads until I peeled off to the right and he continued toward his house.
What a fun day with 337 miles logged and some mighty fine motorcycle races. I hope to do this again next year.