The first day of my reboot of my ride

Finally the day is here to get my ride started, heading out this morning from Cincinnati as expected was mostly a rainy ride.  So living with the rain gear and the sauna it creates on a 80 plus rainy day, but it was still better than sitting at my desk that's for sure.  Once I got out of Indiana the clouds stayed but the rain seemed to stop and I was able to shed the gear and see some sun.  Once I got into Missouri the sun started to shine and things started to dry up. 

Last year my ride ended on day two at the Ozark Harley Davidson with the news I had a engine knock.

So today I thought it would be good to stop by and see them guys and let them know they called it, while I was there I broke down and bought a cup holder, yea a cup holder it comes in handy. if your ever on the road in Lancaster MO its a good place to stop, good bunch of guys. 
So from here this is where I picked my ride back up off Kearney st in Springfield MO

Even with mostly clouds it was a great ride along an older alignment of  concrete slab 66.

My ghetto pro does an ok job of snapping these  from the handle bars LOL.  One big surprise once I got to Carthage MO I came up on a huge line of cars all pulled over on the side of the road, not just a few it was more than a hundred.  I was starting to think I was coming up on a parade.  However it was just the line to get into the famous Route 66 Drive In.  Its great to see how folks support their local Drive IN I wish we had one.

 

 

Once I was past the big line of cars I met back up with a newer alignment of 66 from 1954 it was two lane that led into the last small town before getting to my stop for the night in Joplin MO.  The small town of Centerville MO.  There we many quant little shops and old Desoto dealership that still had its signage (sorry couldn't get a pic).  So enjoy these pictures of Centerville.

Well gang that's it for tonight its late and I have to be in Tucumcari NM by 9pm to make my reservation at the Famous Blue Swallow Motel.  So ill have more tomorrow.

Route 66 part Deux

Well last year I planned this ride t no avail made it is far as day two and my trusty Harley Evel One developed a rod knock and I had to turn around and head home.  Very disappointing but none the less I made it home safe and sound.  Safe but not Dry that's for sure as to add insult to injury it rained on me for the two day ride home.  Now fast forward to July 10th we start again with a fresh 103 power plant and I will picking up the mother road from the same place I left off in Springfield MO.

This time I have more days and its happening during Evel Knievel  Days in Butte Montana, so im looking forward to posting lots of pictures and some great riding might even see a few folks I know along the way.  So stay tuned as we pick up this journey again.

Day two start off with the main event... due to the fact I have very limited wifi here at my hotel and have to use my phone ill keep this brief.... the started with a bang in the form of thunderstorms and pretty much made up the majority of my day I was either in them or avoiding them.  But I made it to St Louis as planed so far so good.  well I have a lot more pictures and story but I will pick that up tomorrow when I have better wifi, maybe ill go to Starbucks LOL and be like look at me I'm Blogging

 

So that's all for tonight but ill catch back up tomorrow.......

Were a little over a week away from the start or my road trip of Route 66, so far its been calm just gathering all my maps, did break down and purchased a Ghetto Pro camera LOL.  Ok its not really called that but I just couldn't part with the $200 plus bucks for a go pro, so with a little looking I found the Emerson Action Cam. 

Now Emerson claims this camera can do everything the Go Pro does for 1/3 the price, yes that's right one third the cost.  So I said what the heck so with a few mods to fit my Harley we'll see how she works, for right now I'm mounting on my R/C truck and I see how this cam works.  If it does that's great it will store over 18 hours of video on the 32GB card I bought seperatly or 10,000 pictures.  So I'm hoping this is an ideal tool for my trip, of course I have my camera on my phone and another camera so I should have tons of pictures to bore you to tears. 

The last task this week is to replace a fork shaft on Evel 1 to get rid of a nuisance fork oil leak.  Then its just pack and hit the road.  So its crunch time and I'm pretty excited and looking forward to this trip but at the same time I will miss my family.  But my wife has been awesome and very supportive, every time something happens to derail this trip she steps in to make sure it happens.  

So that all for now,  next time I may post some vide from the Ghetto pro and see if it meets with your approval.

Well if you have found this blog you either know me or wished you didn't LOL.  I will say I'm a bit rusty at this whole writing deal, back in the 80's and 90's I wrote hundreds of magazine articles for Radio controlled Car magazines.  But then again that's not something you will win a Pulitzer for I'm sure, then again I did enjoy doing that even though in the beginning I wrote everything by pen and paper (my poor Editor Richard Dowdy)  and once again my ADD kicked in and I'm rambling about something completely unrelated to the purpose of this trip.  So let get down to it, first off I'm a child of 66 spent most of my early life either traveling the Southern California portion of 66 also known as Foothill Blvd or Living on it. 

I was born in San Berdo as we called it, San Bernardino as you know it as the jewel of the Inland Empire LOL.  So how did I get here to begin with well that's simple like other folks in the 1950’s west was a place of big dreams and both my Grandfathers made their way down the mother road.  First was my Grandfather Melvin Dallager he with his Wife and my Mom moved to Rialto in in 55' from Duluth MN to manage a paving company, then in 1958 my Grandfather Earnest "Jack" Wright brought my Dad, Uncle JD and my Aunt Carol and his Wife Pat from Flint MI to Fontana take a job at Kaiser Steel.   So we fast forward to 1966 and here I 'am as my parents met in 64' and were married in 65', growing up a poor kid in Fontana wasn't all that bad I will say my parents friends were colorful to say the least.  Ill never forget my Dad's friend Marshall Toole he loved his Caddy's and his booze as did most of the folks that came around the house but he did take good care of his Kid's. 

However he was still a great man in my book, he gave me my first bicycle in 73' ill never forget it was a red Schwinn stingray.  Yea it was rusty and beat up but it worked and that was a great bike from where I was sitting, now I had two wheels instead of the three wore out wheels on my Big Wheel I had.   Mind you I was happy little kid even though we moved around a lot at first and then finally settled down in an actually nice trailer park in Fontana near Rialto.  So once I got my first set of real two wheels I was out at sun up to sundown riding the neighborhood looking for anything to jump, oh yea that’s right jump.  Of course at that age my hero was none other than Evel Knievel.  So with that came many sprains cuts and bruises and none of them stopped me, of course Fontana was known for two things Semi’s and of course Bikers.   Fontana was the founding home of the Hells Angels so it was common during my childhood to see my Dad’s friend’s and their bikes.

So needless to say with such great influences I know what I wanted to ride a big bad chopper so my first new Bicycle came in 1977.  My dad with the help of Marshall’s wife got my dad some money that was owed to him legally for a change, and with all the years of him taking my birthday and Christmas money he wanted to pay me back and he did with a brand new Montgomery Ward’s Open Road chopper, yes a chopper, real springer front fake gas tank man this thing was a trip (still searching for one to this day) 

 

Now I was feeling like a king and then when my mom sewed a Harley One patch on the back of my Levi jacket, I never cared again what anyone thought me period LOL.  With that I changed I truly didn't take crap off no one, laugh at me for being poor no problem I just knocked ya dam teeth out oh yea I didn't necessarily turn for the better as I became a teen, all the years of folks picking on me due to status was no more.  Thankfully I reformed before it did any permanent damage, thanks to an old 1%er named Pappy he pulled me aside one day and told me to straighten up and not be like him.   So I did cut my hair ditched the earrings and cleaned up and the rest is boring LOL and moved east for work.  Today I live in North Carolina married to a great lady that is helping me to pull this trip off.  As she knows I miss my hometown, I know some of you who know me think I’m crazy to love Fontana but whatever it’s my home and it will always be home.  Everywhere else is just a place I live, so there you have it now that I’m nearing 50 (trust me there is a lot of folks that lost money on that bet) I want to do this take my Bike and make my way down the mother road and see old friends, friends and family that are no longer with me as well as some of Evel’s most famous places Las Vegas, Twin Falls ID, Butte MT and some of the sights that I miss so much. 

So stay tuned if you like as starting Aug 29^th 2014 I will be posting daily pictures and videos from the road.  As I used to say at the end of all my articles back in the day “keep it Shiny side Up”