Heading north can be a pain

So made it to St. Louis on Thursday the 19th around 6 o'clock. Found out later that some parts of East St. Louis I went through were pretty dangerous. Didn't seem like it. So I had to waste some time, Tim was at work and wouldn't be off till 10:00 and we were going to meet around 10:30. So I rode around took some photos and had dinner. Had some really good General Tso chicken, maybe the best I ever had. Yeah it was that good. I decide to head over to where I'll meet Tim at and took off to find a coffee shop to hangout at. Well coming upon Grand St. I found lots of eatery and shop figure this would do. Parked the scoot and the patron eating suhsi on the sidewalk patio stared as I just came from another world. After walking for a couple blocks I couldn't find a coffee shop so I decided to look at the Google maps and 6 or so blocks from where I parked there was Mocabees. After two hours and two Italian sodas and countless smokes it was time to meet up with Tim. Parked the scoot at Tim's friends shop and we headed to his house. We then headed out to The Royale. Had a few drinks and went to another bar and drank Stag beer. Cheap and good beer makes any long trip well worth the ride. So three whole days and 4 hours of one day of riding and I finally got to one of the four rally cities. Next morning I woke up and me and Tim went to the shop. Tim welded a piece of metal to a bracket so it would hold my cdi box to the engine properly. Thanks, it is still holding up. So by Friday I started getting the sniffy and sneezes. Friday night Amy and Paul got in to town. Then it was off to more of The Royale and check in for the rally. Rain was on the menu that night with a interesting light show through out the evening. When we left the rain decided that we had enough and stop briefly for us to ride back to Tim's. Saturday got worse for me as that sniffling turn into a mild fever and felt like crap through out the day. By the time we got to the ride meet up the next morning, we held everyone up an hour. Hey it called scooter-time for a reason!!! The weather was sunny and a bit warm, but that's all the better for a 80 mile ride. Tim had the duty of leading the ride. Stopped at a wildlife area and walked to where the Missouri and Mississippi meet outlook. After that stop, the ride headed to Alton Il. where these hugh caves were. Sadly you couldn't enter them, for slabs of rocks were coming off the ceiling. The last leg of the ride was to a bbq in Carondelet park. It was good eatin and drinking, but I was still feeling the wrath of that bug. Had a go at the slow race, (which is to go as slow as possible on the scooter without a foot touching the ground). Sadly my form was off and failed to even come close. At the beginning I though just to go as fast as possible and lose, but at last second I tried to win. After the slow race the gymkhana was held. Now this involves some skills, not that every ride has. This one starts out weaving through 4 cones. Then grabbing a gun that shoot darts and hitting a sign, that pretty tricky there. Off to a door, which the rider had to balance them self on top of for 5 long seconds. Hitting the see saw, around a cone, and lastly ride onto a 10 ft by 4 inch wide block of wood. Which had a 45 degree cut in the beginning and then off to the finish line. Raffle raffle raffle time. The time when you hope to at least get something that you can use for you scoot. There were lots of that I could of used, but looking at the beer brewing set, I wondered, how am I going to transporting that not only to Tim's, but to Chicago and the rest of the trip? But it would of been great to brew 13% beer I thought. Paul had won three times, lucky bastards. So now it was on to the awards, up was best scooters. The time when if you been rebuilding that Lambretta, Paul won this one, or Veapa, you hope your hard work pays off. Or if you have that I don't really care if the scooter hits that rock there's a best pos bike, but none was awarded here. Then then there's the furthest traveled. It's a rare breed of scooterist to travel a couple of hundredth of miles or even thousands just to get to a rally. Be it for any reasons. They do it just because it just great to be on the road. Testing these machine to their limits. Sometime the machine test the riders to their limits. Seeing the side of the country not too many people ever get to see. This was my first furthest traveled award and don't you just know it, cue that song by Huey Piano Smith. That the award is a trophy that stand over 3 ft. Oh why couldn't I won that brew set as well? So a few rules were set in order. 1. I had to haul this back home, oh sure I'll throw it in the glove box!!! 2. At the next band camp it gets awarded to the furthest traveled. So we headed back to Tim's to try to get a bit of rest, but there wasn't much time. And a quick change of clothes and shower, ok a 5 minute rest and it was off to see Murder City Players and The Who Band at Blueberry Hill. Missed the MCP, but The Who Band were pretty good. Sunday I woke up feeling slightly better. Had a nice $17.00 brunch at the Three Monkeys. Yikes it was quite costly. But when there is prime rib and you had your share you say to yourself, well I only ate $10.56 worth, let me try some of it. Aw my belly was filling like a turkey on Thanksgiving. Well it was time when ever scooterist hate, the rally coming to an end and time to head home. But not me it was time for a lazy day at Tim's. So I stay an extra night at Tim's and had dinner with the family. Mighty nice of them, thanks. So Monday came around and it was time to leave, but not after catch the Liverpool match at The Royale. Crap result. Blah. So I left St. Louis at 5 p.m. and figuring i could get 100 miles at least before dark. Well i headed north on 267 to Jacksonville not quite 100 miles. It has to be one of the worst roads in all of Illinois. It was riding over bumps and cracks every 20 feet which one would be every second going 50 mph. Clump clump,clump clump is all i endured for what seemed like 30 miles. Got to Jacksonville and camped out in the community park. Now it's one thing to have a wake up call in a hotel or motel or whatever place you decide to stay at. But in a park your wake up call is the people that carry guns and handcuffs. So after what has become a routine line that I've gotten down. I tell the officer what I'm doing. Then the officers ask for the license. Got to be careful these days, there a lot of crazies out there causing trouble and getting away on them scooooters, I thought. So I have an early rise and pack up and on my way to Havana. More of that clump clump and this road has to go. I didn't really stop in Havana, but to fix that pesky ht coil wire. I decide to head to Liverpool for another photo then off to Cuba for a photo and then headed north for Peru. I don't know why but Illinois like those foreign countries for town names. Making it as the sun was setting. I pass a Chinese buffet. I stopped and turn around. Time to have dinner. At this point I'm feeling better, but still have this cough and it's a tough one to shake. So I camp out in a park called Sunset park. Nice bathroom and a took me awhile but did find an outlet for the phone. After a saying good night to the misses, it was time for sleep. But then I could here a noise from a car. I peek out and only see it's the police. Dammit, don't come over please. I've already taken the NyQuil. So I fall asleep and no bother. But the next morning, yep I get that early wake up call. Give the blah blah blah line of what I'm doing and he checks the id and off I am by 8 o'clock. Am I going to have one day that I can sleep in? Maybe when I camp in the middle of nowhere! So Chi-town only laid 90 miles away. Made it up in 3 hours with a few stops. The speedo stopped working outside Naperville. So I'm at about 1,200 miles so far. It weird to think you are doing 40 on the speedometer and it says 53 on the radar machine. Well I'm parked in Chicago for awhile. I'll do a bit of riding through out Chicagoland. And hopefully this cough will bugger off.

Turnout to be a Marriott, boo.

That arch thingy

St. Louis

I wonder what they take for headaches!

40 on 40

After a night in Wheeling I was back on route 40. Had to take a little detour and came across that house that was falling over. So yeah to detours. So as I was filling up for gas in Cambridge Ohio, a guy comes up asking about the Vespa. After a bit of chatting he tells me he seen a Vespa in a antique store in Norwich. Figuring it's on my way, I'll try to find it. Well it turn out it was a p200 and was already sold three weeks ago for $800. Back on route 40 and it miles and miles of corn corn corn zzzzzzzzzzzz. Stopped in Kirkersville for lunch at a place called Village Tavern. Don't go for the beer selection, cause there isn't one. As it was getting dark I got to South Vienna, so I had some pizza and look around for a spot to camp at. Wasn't seeing anything suitable I got back on to 40 and headed to Buck Creek State Park. Well not knowning the road I was on didn't have a entrance to the park I decided to camp along the road, which was part of the park. As soon as I gotten my tent out, howling noises came from a distance that made me stop and say oh crap. Looking down at my tent in the dark with a flash light there were grasshoppers and a big spider. And with that I was headed towards Springfield. Finding another ball field, I set the tent up around 10 at night. Now I hit gold as this had a bathroom, and an outlet for the phone. Ah day two was finally done. Heading out the next day, I had a burrito in New Paris for lunch. Small little town. Got to Indianapolis around 3 and decide to walk around for awhile. Back on route 40 getting closer to Brazil. Got into Brazil around 7 and drove pass the only park, filled with kids and teenagers. I decided that Brazil wasn't going to be a spot for the night so off to Terre Haute 15 miles away, which had lots of parks. Making it there with the sun setting, stopped and had dinner. Now it was on to Fairbanks park. I get to the park and notice a car with its lights off. As I stop they leave. Not thinking much of it I used the bathroom. Another outlet and I was happy to set up camp. Well after getting a red stripe and coming back. I come to find out this isn't your family kind of park at night. So I'm taking my bags off and out of the dark a guy riding a bicycle rides into the bathroom, um ok. I watched him leave, well my phone was over there. And then a guy in his 70's comes walking by. He started to talking. And I notice he got a lot of cologne on for being in a park at 10 at night. I said in my head, did I just stumble upon pickup park. Oh crap! So after I mentioned I was traveling and said I had a girlfriend he leaves towards the bathroom and comes back and ask if I want to join. Now at what point in the 10 seconds when he left and came back, did he think that maybe I'll ditch the girlfriend and maybe he could change my sexuality is baffling. So I got my stuff and made it to another park. Setup tent and chatting with misses. I was tireeeeed.

Sunset in Terre Haute, Indiana

A Mini that was in Brazil.

Brazil,Indiana

City centre of Indianapolis.

Roadside break on route 40.

Lot of miles I've put on since leaving Pittsburgh!

Outside the entrance of the Village Tavern. Not much has happened snice either!

Bar called Village Tavern. Sat down at the bar and look down. Funny thing is it was a biker bar.

Should of look twice before you cross.

Oh no, something is up!

At least the tree has a home!

Had to take a detour and stumbled upon this well built house on route 331 in Ohio.

Bridge in the background is the main one into Ohio.

Sunset in Wheeling WV. This was a metal grated bridge, bad for riding a scooter over.

One last goodbye Pittsburgh.

Little late but on the road

So the day has come and at one point I thought well I could leave tomorrow. It was 5 o'clock when I finally got everything packed and ready, just in time for rush hour traffic. I'm currently in Wheeling WV. Taking only 3 hours. Setup tent next to a ballfield and as I'm having a beer, a bright spotlight comes upon me. Oh no I say, what do the coppers want? So I got up and headed to them. Said I was from Pittsburgh traveling through and just going to stay the night. They were ok about it. "But if any neighbors call us for any nosie". I thought jeez what do they think I'm going to do, rev my engine up at 3 in the morning? Well the stars are out and I'm going to finish my beer.

So 8 days left to go before I head off. The trip has been cut down to two months. I'll only ride to St. Louis, Chicago,Columbus,and Gettysburg for their rallies. Stoping in between hopefully some smaller places on the way. Finally got to putting a shifting cross in,after two goes. Made a minor mistake. But as with tinker with the bike, I've came to another problem. The main bolt that holds half the engine to the fame is not coming out. Thinking that a little hammer hitting would knock it loose, I damage the threads on the end. So my task now is to fix the threads and try another time to get that bolt off. Cause as of now I'm riding without a nut on the end. One good thing is that bolt isn't moving anywhere off the bike, yeah to rust. Now on to figuring on what to take.