| | Southeast Motorcycle Touring | ||||
Travel BlogsThese are re-posted blogs from past tours. Some where originally posted to the Poverty Riders International email list. the PRI is a loosely organized group of riders here in the Southeastern United States. I have called myself a poverty rider for many years and have even spread the PRI gospel to other continents. Our motto "Food & Gas" pretty much explains the Poverty Riders. The ride comes first before flash motorcycles or lux accommodations. others are reposted from friends emails and other postings.1) Ohio 2009 2) Isle of Man 2010 3) My son Aidan's first tour 4) Barber Vintage Races 2011 5) George and Andrew's TT 2012 Ohio TripJune 2009 Day 2: we decided ride on but I kinda wish we had stayed. Last time I was in kentucky I was unimpressed and so far as i can tell not a lot has changed. We are in a hotel after not finding a campground with tent sites. Does anyone one know of place to camp in this state? Day 5: Well kentucky gets it's props back. Riding through Danial Boon national forest and then on US 27 through rolling hills and farmland was a lot of fun. The occasional hay wagon was easy enough to pass and the rythym on the sweapers was easy. The food in Lexington made up for the crap at the state park "resort." we stayed at thursday nite. visiting friends in Cincinnati but the Hofbrauhaus, Cindy's new favorite bar, is across the river in KT. And that's where we've been hangin. Headed to Columbus, on Monday to see Slow hand and Steve Winwood Day 7: Get up in the morning to the sound of rain outside oh well roll over, check-out's not for hours. Yea that's right stayed in a hotel last night, sever thunder storm warnings on the TV don't ya know. And a good choice it was too. Wait for a slack in the down pour, put on a steal face and head out the door, oh yea and frogg toggs too. Riding in the rain on this 4 lane but still winding road brings a whole new stratagy. Stay away from other trafic especialy big rigs and their huge spray. Ride fast past a group of cars then ride slow to stay between the clusters untill you are forced to make another pass. It's funny how the spirits rise and fall with the change in weather as we ride first in rain then sunshine and then rain again. But in the end it's all fun. The north carolina border brings the end of rain and the stoney knob cafe at exit 21 on i26 north of ashville. it's outstanding, sun shining, great view outside in the shade and amazing Food. the day turned quick. Headed for chimney rock and then who knows. last post: Well we've been home a couple days now so I guess i should wrap this up. we spent the last 3 days in North Carolina camping at Blue ridge motorcycle camp for 2 and the last night at a cabin in Haysville. all the riding we did in and around the area was great, typical NC. and it sucked to leave. Just as we got south of Atlanta on the ride home the heat wave hit us and it was hell from that point on when we staggered into Tally in the afternoon the bank sigh said 102 deg. Ugh. someone said they where calling this stationary system the ring of fire and it's an apt name. You gus on the road should think about staying there for a while:)
   3 shots from our Ohio tourIsle of Man TT 2010TT #1 June-8 Sitting in the beer garden of the railway pub in Union Mills for 2 hours withing nothing going on is not that engaging. Calling it a garden is a stretch to begin with and the low conversations are in twos and and threes. Then I catch the sound of a race engine in the distance. It's here and gone so fast I bareley have time to clock the red and yellow sidecar outfit but it's sound effects the whole place. there are gigles, smiles, knowing glances, and out right laughter. Everybody is talking to everybody else all bariers gone in one fell swoop. It's 6:00 and the happyness lingers long after pratice is over at 9:00. It's a short walk back to Glenlough campsite and the end to two long days on the road. I started in a rent-a-car in Cwmbran drove 130 mi to Bournmouth to drop the car and pick up a Vstrom 1000. Then back Wales to load the bike and ride 200 mi to Liverpool to catch a 3:00 am ferry to Douglas. Cindy and I got the tent up about half 6 but it was too hot inside so after I inflated the bed we put it on the ground took a nap in the morning sun. Then a little snack and off to the pub. Now it's home to bed and sleep like a log till morning:). John & Cindy TT #2 June-10 Well we've had two days of racing and a day of sight seeing and a wide varity of weather. I have been in shorts and T-shirt and then bundled up in a frezzing rain sometimes in the same day. We ran into Shaun at the pub on day two and along with George and Andrew our mates from Wales we drank many pints of OKells with race bikes at 120mph about 8 feet away. The guys arrived early in morning and our camp is now well established with a large tarp between our tents and the flags of all our nations flying. Shaun is camping with Bill's bike tours UK group. We started out to ride the 130 year old steam train on our day off raceing. But we missed it by a few minutes so we wet to the museum instead. The spitfires were grounded by weather:( so we had a look at lady Isabella the world's largest waterwheel. Then back to camp via Tesco to cook a deluous pasta dinner and a hear good little band in the beer tent before going to bed. I could be happy now but we still have days to go. Anyway there's a handfull of poverty riders having a blast at the TT. TT #3 June-11 Wednesday we got all set at Braddan bridge to watch the second sidecar race and the 600's but the weather went from bad to worse and after a handful of postpondments they finaly cancled the whole days raceing. We ended up eating our lunch in an old church to get out of the rain. When I say "old" I mean most of the head stones where unreadable but I did see one from 1600's. You could watch the racing from the graveyard, if there had been any that is. The storm got even worse in the eveaning. I'm sure the gusts where reaching 45 mph. We battened down all the hatches and prepaired to ride it out. but then got an invite from a mate of George's to watch all the previous races on "telly" at his home just around the corner from the pub. Chris has a large screen high def and recorded all of it and his wife Sue orders a mean take out:) After we got all the tv coverage of the racing we had seen live we walked down to the pub for a few pints and then home to bed. The rain has stopped but the wind is as strong as ever. Worm in bed with the tent flaping like hell I'm going to sleep now.    Ian Hutchenson, Racing Sidecar, Our CampTwo responses from the PRI at largeHey John;
John;
TT #4 June-13
TT #5 June-13  John, Andrew, George, and Cindy in Castletown on the Isle of ManAfter dinner we went down to the prom for the White helmets vs the purple helmets motorcycle stunt show and fireworks, and Bushy's beer tent:) Senior race race day is a national holiday on IOM and the whole island shows up on the waterfront in Douglas for carnaval rides, bands, beer, fireworks and general mayhem. And I must say we where proud to help them celebrate.
TT #6 June-13 July 2011 All right here's a few pics from our vintage races. It's a fuzzy pic of Mitch I hope there are some better ones out there. The others are from the parade lap, the attack on Charlotte, and the ride home. Here is my impresion of the Motus MST we saw in the desplay area. On the way back to Tally from "Cheeahaw" we stopped in La Fayette Al. to let the rain pass while Don, Mark, and Ken rode on. After that We didn't have any more rain until Bainbridge. We did make a stop that I have been meaning to do for a few months now at the Civil War Navel Museum In Columbus Ga. They have a couple of ironclad hulls there that have been salvaged from the river. All the displays where well put together and the stop was well worth it. I learned the fascinating story of the CSS Alabama which is well worth the read. Thanks all for another great Rally. Friday June 1st |
