The Long Way Home. Huntsville to Cleveland on a 250.

As the day got later I started thinking about where to spend the night. It was hot and I was tired so I decided to wimp out and get a motel room. Great idea........if there were any motels around. None of the small towns I passed through had any motels. At least I didn't see any. I don't think this area gets much tourism. Looking at my map I saw that there was a State Park not far off of 16 so I went there. The road to North Bend park was a great twisty road but like all the State parks I have ben to in WVA, it was swarming with deer so I kept my speed down.

I stopped at the lodge. No rooms were available and i wasn't about to spend the big bucks on a cabin. The restaurant at the lodge would soon close so I ate a quick dinner and then headed to the campground. There were plenty of spots left. primitive campsites were $20 and spots with electricity and near the bath house were $23. I splurged and spent the extra three bucks.

This park did not come close to matching the beauty of Hungry Mother Park where I spent the previous night but it was OK. There's a small river behind my tent.



Most of the other campers here were large groups with kids and some sort of travel trailers or pop up campers.



It was pretty hot but cooled off enough to be reasonably comfortable at night.

Total miles for the day: 305

Great ride report, I'll keep watching for more

The next morning I had my last two granola bars for breakfast, packed my gear and got on the road. I headed back to 16 because I intended on taking it to the end at the Ohio river.

Did I mention that there were deer everywhere in WVA state parks?



They don't seem afraid of people either....or my mighty scooter



I rode north on 16. It was still a fun twist road but not nearly as twisty as it had been further south.

I came to a small town that actually had a McDonalds so I stopped for breakfast. Then I continued on 16 until I got to the town of St Marys on the Ohio River. I decided to see if there was anything interesting in St Marys I nfound this street with rialroad tracks down the middle,



and this this interesting bridge which started across the river then made a sharp 90 degree turn and ended on a small island. I rode across it and found that the island was a wildlife refuge. I didn't find anything interesting on the ssland but the bridge was cool.



my guess is that at one time this bridge went across the river but was replaced by a larger, newer bridge. They kept part of the bridge to get to the little island.



Then I crossed the Ohio River.



it was my first time back to Ohio in 7 or 8 years.

You are an inspiration for sure. I had a few people kinda chuckle at me for riding a Triumph America 850 from Texas up through the Talimena Scenic Byway in Oklahoma and the Pig Trail in Arkansas saying they would never do such a thing on that "small" of a bike. I am amazed at the journey you are doing on a 250! Very much enjoying the ride report and pictures.

Thank you!

Jill

Klaviator I live 5 miles from Hungry Mother State Park. Next time you in the area give me a pm and can show you a few rds in the area or ride a few miles with you. I have a big back yard that would be great for a tent if you need to camp.
Nice report that I have been enjoying.

I can't believe that people chuckle at you for taking trips on "only an 850" Some people just don't have a clue. Too many people get too obsessed with having just the right bike for the trip. A fun trip can be made on almost any bike and in some cases smaller is better and more fun.

Thanks for following along.

BTW, I like your sig line

Great area you live in. I'm jealous. I'll try to remember to let you know if I make it back that way. It's such a nice area around there I'm sure I'll make it back some time. I'm always happy to meet fellow inmates. Thanks for following along.

After crossing into Ohio i headed east to Marietta. I have been to this area before. Back in 99 I spent a few days here for an HSTA rally in Marietta. Back then I was mostly interested in riding as many curvy roads as I could and as fast as possible. I was riding a new SV650 back then. I still enjoy riding as many curvy roads as possible but I have slowed down a little and also I wanted to take the time see some of the sights in the area. In this case I was interested in checking out old historic downtown Marietta. As I entered Marietta I saw a visitor information center and stopped and talked to the people there. They gave me some info on downtown Marietta and off I went. I found a place to park, put my helmet and jacket into my tail trunk, and walked down to the Ohio River.



One of the places they had recommended seeing was the Lafayette Hotel.



Unlike most businesses which discourage non customers from using their restrooms, the Lafayette has a sign saying public restrooms available in the hotel. So i went in and checked the place out.



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Then i walked around taking more pics.



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What's this?



Well, since you asked



More interesting machinery. Don't ask what it is.



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The Marietta Post Office.



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For those of you who don't read German:



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Lots of familiar sights from my travels in western NC, and you've shown me some new places I'd love to explore. Thanks for bringing us along with you. I'll probably re-read this a few times and get some ideas for plotting a route.

Very much enjoying your report.

My youngest daughter graduated from Marietta College and we stayed at the Lafayette. Hard to believe that was 22 years ago.

Does the Lafayette still have their "Gun Room"?

Ned

There are so many great places to ride in this region but WNC is still my favorite. If you're looking for route selections, I've done a number of ride reports in the area, many of them where done on dual sport bikes and include dirt/gravel roads.

I think it was a year or more ago but I remember reading a ride report of yours that included 16 through southern WVA and then down to Marion, VA. That report planted the seed for riding through the area again. I'll get back to writing in a bit but like you, I find it easier to respond to others posts than write my own ride report.

Now it's time for you to get back to writing too.

I do remember seeing a sign for the "Gun Room". How did you like staying at the Lafayette and does it look like old downtown Marietta has changed much in 22 years?

Thanks for following along.

It was getting to be time for lunch so I thought I'd try out a place recommended by the folks at the visitor center. the name of the resaurant was the Levee House and it was right by the Ohio River and not far from the Lafayette Hotel. They had some table outside overlooking the River but it was getting really hot so I opted for the comfort of air conditioning inside. I had the soup and salad which was perfect for lunch, it tasted good but wasn't too much for a reasonably light lunch. While I was there I took the opportunity to soak my cooling vest in water. I had not yet used it on the trip but it was hot enough that I figured I'd need it today. I stored it in a large ziplock bag so that it would be ready to go when I needed it.

Here's my scooter with the Ohio river in the background. The Levee House is just behind my scooter and across the street.



After lunch I worked my way out of town on route 26 north. What a great road. As soon as I got out of town, there were a bunch of great curves. I was having a great time, enjoying leaning the bike in the curves and the scenery as well when I happened to glance down and...........Oops!, I had plane on getting gas in Marietta but forgot

I was probably only about 5 miles out of town. My gas gauge, which is very inaccurate, showed less than 1/4 tank but the low fuel warning light had not come on yet. A smart man would have turned around then or at least stopped and looked at a map. Well, sometimes I am just not very smart (OK, sometimes I'm downright dumb).

So I just rode along.........mile after mile.....................after mile. Did I mention that this was a great road?



I was hoping to see someone so I could stop and ask how far to the next gas Station.



But I saw no one except a few vehicles coming the other way.

I saw a cool covered bridge so I turned off and rode across (through?) it and took a pic.



A few more miles went by.



I knew I had enough gas to get back to Marietta but I also knew that the further I rode, the less I would be willing to turn back. Besides, this was Ohio, not Nevada. How far could it be between gas stations.

Finally I saw a man outside a van working on some tanks beside the road so I stopped and asked him haw far it was to a gas station.
What did he do? Of course he pulled out a map.

The map showed a number of small towns ahead but he didn't think their would be any gas stations until I got to route 800. He figured that would be 25-30 miles. So I thanked him and continued on. The low fuel light came on as I pulled out. I thought I could go around 30 miles with the light on but had never actually gone that far. My tank is Advertized to have a capacity of 2.37 gallons. I had filled up before when the low fuel light came on and it took around 2 gallons. So I had around a third of a gallon and had been getting between 65 and 80 MPGs. I should be able to make it. I decided to take it easy on the throttle.

I came by another covered bridge so I stopped to take a pic.



If I was smart, I would have turned around to get gas miles back. Now I was committed and would be sweating it every mile until I got to a gas station.
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Did I make it?

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Do Batman and Robin escape the diabolical trap?

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Who shot JR?

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Stay tuned

No post since noon, guess he didn't make it........nah it's a scooter .37gal will get him to Cleveland.

Perfect timing. I was just about to post an update.

So, did I have enough gas to go 25-30 miles? We'll never know because a few miles down the road I came to an intersection with a sign saying "Matamoris 10 miles". I turned right and stopped at the side of the road to check my map. Matamoris was a town on the Ohio River and it looked like a town that would have a gas station but there was no way to know from the map. Luckily there was a guy in the yard of the house across the street so I asked him. He said there was a gas station there. So I headed down 260 to Matamoris. 260 turned out to be one of those "roller coaster" roads that are often found in SE Ohio. It not only had plenty of curves but was also going up and down at the same time.



It was a great ride so I didn't mind the detour.

I found a gas station in Matamoris and filled up - 2.2 Gallons. Going straight on 26 would have been AT LEAST 10 extra miles. Then I took a break and sat on a park bench and made a phone calls to my wife and my buddy Steve who was getting ready to take a three day ride on some of the roads I had done earlier on this trip.

It was getting hot so before getting back on my bike I put on my cooling vest. Then I headed back up 260. I was now nice and cool and didn't have to worry about running out of gas. Life was good.



A few miles after getting back on 26, there was a sign advertising a campground, general store and gas, a short ways down a road to the left. Oh well, it was a fun detour down 260.

I followed 26 to 800 then right on 145 where I took this pic:



Now I can check that famous town off my list

Why do people feel the need to tell everyone that their children are slow?? Won't it hurt their self esteem??


Then I followed 145 to 26 to 148 to 9. When 9 crossed under I-70 I stopped for gas again and asked someone if there were any hotels around. He said there were a bunch of hotels at the next exit off of I-70 but they were most likely full due to all the oil company people in town and if they weren't full they would likely be expensive. Apparently they were about to start drilling for gas or oil somewhere nearby.

I really didn't feel like staying somewhere really congested. I wanted to stay away from all that as much as possible on this trip. Besides, there were several towns up ahead. Surely there must be some hotels or motels in some of them, right? I really prefer small mom and pop motels over big chain hotels anyway.

So I continued North on 9 passing through several small towns. No sign of any motels. Finally, in the town of Carrollton, I found a large hotel, I think it was a Days Inn. It was all booked up

Well of course it was, it's the only hotel within a bazillion miles! Well, not exactly. I did ask if there were any other hotels nearby but basically I would have to head to one of the nearby cities to find one and my plan was to avoid cities. I stopped at a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat and figure out a plan.

After eating I decided to continue north. As I progressed north, the landscape changed and the roads became less curvy and flatter. Here's a few pics I took. I'm not sure where I took them but i think they were all north of I-70.

A bare hilltop:



Due to some sort of mining.



there were still some curves.



and plenty of tar snakes.



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Then a tornado suddenly appeared, picked me up and deposited me in the middle of kansas:eek1

Well OK, maybe not, but it sure looked that way.



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I went through Amish country and saw a few horse and buggies. After passing one I decided to pull over and take a break since I was stuck behind a slow moving fire truck. This buggy came by and the driver who appeared to be a fairly young man, slowed way down so he could check out my scooter.



I continued north until I came to Alliance. I asked if there were any hotels nearby and was told to go east about 10 to 15 minutes. At this point the riding was getting pretty boring and I wasn't that far from my parents house so I call my Mom too make sure getting there that night wouldn't be a problem. She said no problem so that's what I did. the rest of the ride was boring, first some stop and go traffic followed by what I had planned on avoiding; some miles on the interstate.

Total miles for the day: 298

It was nice being "home" after all these years. Technically Marietta Ga. is my home but this will always be home too.

I spent a nice evening with my parents and has a great ice cream sunday to make up for the dessert I didn't have at the Chinese place.

After a good nights sleep, I got up had breakfast and washed my scooter. It needed it after 5 days on the road and 1360 miles. Then I decided to go for a little ride and get out of my mom's hair since she had a lot to do.

I decided to ride out to Chagrin Falls, Oh. Back in around 1979 I worked out there for about six months and it was a very enjoyable drive. It was scenic and even had some nice curves which I enjoyed back then even though I was driving a cage. This time I would be on two wheels

It was a nice ride but unfortunately I have been spoiled by years of riding some of the best roads in the country. The curves and scenery here just don't compare. On top of that, I had to miss on of my favorite parts of the ride due to a bridge being out. The detour took me down County Line road which was probably the roughest road I had ridden on the entire trip and that included the dirt roads. I took a pic but it doesn't show what poor condion the road was in.



A dual sport or adventure bike would be a good choice around here since many of the roads were in bad condition.

When I got to Chagrin falls, I went and checked out the Paper Mill I used to work at.



It's been closed for many years but the building is still there.



Normally there is more water but it's been an extremely dry couple of months.

There used to be a part of the mill on the right side of the river here but it was removed many years ago and there is no sign that there ever was a building there.



I barely recognize this place now but I used to work 5-7 days a week, sometimes 16 hours a day here. It was one of the most miserable places I ever worked, but it was also one of the best places I could have worked since it motivated me to go back to school and actually pass all my classes.



Still it's sad to see so much of our industry shut down and result in old abandoned buildings like this.

Perhaps this place still has a future.



I have seen old places like this successfully converted in other places.

It's a good thing I don't write for a living because it's taking me longer to write this ride report than it took to do the trip

After the old mill I rode to nearby downtown Chagrin Falls and parked my scooter right on the bridge over the Chagrin River. As you can see the town was brightly decorated.



The view from the bridge.



I took off my helmet, mesh jacket and pants and stashed them on the bike so I could walk around town looking like a normal tourist. Besides, it was hot and it felt better to just be wearing shorts & T shirt.

Like many older towns, Chagrin Falls has town square,......well in this case it's more of a town triangle. Like the bridge, they put a lot of effort into decorating it and making it look festive.



So I walked around a bit.



There was a restaurant with some tables on the sidewalk so I stopped there and had a burger. It was interesting sitting outside and just watching people go by. This is a pretty up scale town. People were generally well dressed and driving expensive cars.

And then there was me

After my burger it was time to check out the town's main tourist attraction.



That would be the ice cream shop.

After getting some ice cream I went down to the town's number two tourist attraction.



That would be Chagrin Falls.



There is usually more water coming over the falls.

Then I went back to my bike and grabbed my mesh pants and went to a small park right by where I was parked so I could sit down at one of the picnic tables and put my pants back on. of course I picked to only table that was in the shade. A young guy sat down at the table and said "I hope you don't mind. It's the only table in the shade."
of course I didn't mind. So we ended up talking for about 20 minutes. He had just started working in town there and had a lust for travel and seeing new places. He had recently spent some time seeing italy. He thought it would be interesting to see the country by bicycle. I told him about my trip and this forum. He was very interested and I think he saw the advantages of traveling on a bike with a motor. I wouldn't be surprised to see him posting on this forum some day.

Anyway, unlike the previous interesting people I met on this trip, I actually got his picture. This is Justin:



Then got back on my scooter and rode a little further before heading back home. Total for the day was 56 miles.

Still riding with you.

Klaviator, this is really neat.

I just got back from Ohio (by plane), as I met my brother and sister in Painesville to visit the cemetary where our parents are buried.

We took a couple side trips and went to the little town of Sebring where my dad grew up, and headed back north to to Geneva on the Lake for a nice afternoon of wine tasting and looking out over Lake Erie. My brother and sister were born near Cleveland, so they had a lot of fond memories as kids growning up in Ohio. It sounds like you do as well.

Great ride report!

Nice job on the report...thanks for taking the time! As I get older I am beginning to see the attraction of a smaller bike...starting to think I may need something I can actually pick up