Hello all,
This years CSBA national rally will be held in Wheeling, WV. We will meet up on the evening of July 24th at the Super 8 hotel in Wheeling on 2400 National road. We will ride on the 25th and 26th in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. We then ride home on the 27th. Don't miss out on this tri-state awesome ride! Plus, you'll get to meet chapter members from other states, enjoy good food, hear some solid biblical teaching, and have big fun. Pray for sunny weather,

Mark Hamm wrote:

Here's my ride report, hopefully the others can fill in any gaps.

Day 1 Thursday. Vino hog met me @ my house around 6am for our departure out west. I helped him unload his bike off his truck then gathered my stuff to load on my bike. We discussed the day's route and then headed off to meet up with andyr. We stopped and fueled up before getting on the PA turnpike. Once on the 'pike we made good time, meeting up with andyr near Harrisburg. We then went to the Blue Mountain exit and prepared to attack some twisty roads. We stopped just outside the exit to get a drink and stretch from that 100 mile slab out. As we were walking around and talking we noticed some oil under andyr's bike. He just had it serviced so we thought the oil filter or drain plug might not have been tightened. So, we checked them both and went a few miles down the street and checked it again. It was still leaking, so we pulled off into a stone, wide pull off shoulder. We took off the side fairing and drained of an ounce or two of oil, thinking perhaps it was overfull and was pushing out the crankcase breather or something of the sort. We started it again and it still leaked, . We all thought the best idea was to go back to a Ducati dealer in Harrisburg and see if it can be repaired. Andyr said he could go alone and told us to continue. After a prayer for safety we sent him on his way and off we went on ours.
It took me a while to get my groove while riding, after parting ways with andyr. It was frustrating and discouraging to lose a rider so early in the rally. But after a while, I was cutting through the corners with vino and we had discovered a lot of really cool roads that I might use for a possible Fall Rally. We were on a short stretch of highway and saw our route coming up, east or west was the choice, west we chose, and we chose wrong. I kept looking for this route and it took me over 20 miles to stop and look at the map. I should have gone east for about 5 miles and then I would have caught this road. Well, we did have a nice trip through Johnstown and saw the world's steepest incline. We then backtracked and went down another highway, but missed a turn and ended up in Pittsburgh. Yeah, we weren't doing well...so I ditched my route and went down to ride part of the Saturday route back to the hotel. Well, that Saturday route was a mess, too much traffic and congestion. I guess I'll be changing it soon. We eventually gave up after going through the town of Washington, great town, but a lot of traffic lights. Seeing it was 4:30 pm by now and afraid they might give away our rooms by 6:00 pm, we got on I-70 and slabbed it to Wheeling. We stopped at the 2nd exit, and boom (!) there was our hotel. Vino went in to check in and just then jcmathis and his wife showed up, our cool Ohio chapter leaders. It was 450 miles of riding today and I was ready to get off the bike. We checked in, got cleaned up, and VA SV came from Virginia. We all then went out to dinner, passed andyr who finally made it after his bike got repaired. We returned to the hotel room, 20 minutes late for the Conference call. I was a good call, I was glad for the most part to see the organization growing I was looking forward to Friday's ride.
Day 2 Friday. The day dawned bright, clear and cool; a perfect day to ride. The occasional clouds only seemed to add to the beauty of the day. We got breakfast at our hotel and met up in the parking lot by 8:00 am. Jcmathis went over his rules for the ride and off we went. The first 45 miles were a good indicator of how this ride would go, spectacular roads and the occasional obstacle, like a pickup truck. The first one was your typical F-150 kind, no big deal. The second one had orange flags on the roof and a big sign underneath it that read "oversize load". This time it was a bulldozer on a low boy trailer going up and down these steep, windy roads. They eventually pulled over and waved us on, but we would see more big trucks that day. The roads here in NW WV seem to rise and fall on the ridge line with beautiful scenery and lovely vistas to behold as you go. In this part of the country you are in the thick of the Marcellus shale and you can tell with all the machinery you see at work. Within the first 40 miles I passed an oil derrick and in the next 100, a working coal mine. The other thing I discovered is in WV and OH, once you leave town the speed limit goes right up to 55 mph, regardless of how the road looks like. Very often we had to work to pass dump trucks that were motoring through the twisty roads at a good clip, even for a dump truck. With almost 100 miles in we stop for a drink, a snack, gas, and the bathroom. Once we get moving we come upon this God forsaken wreck of a road. The highway dept. selectively milled certain sections of the road 3-4" deep and let other sections stay at the regular height, we had to attempt to swerve and avoid these as much as we could. It was a jarring experience! Our next over sized load was three tractor trailers long and going in the opposite direction, thankfully. The roads were curvy and twisty and went on and on. It was great.
We met up with PhilS, one of the Ohio chapter members at the historic Bealsville diner. What a magnificent lunch stop, great food, great service and the a neat place in and of itself. I even saw a wood carving that was the song Amazing Grace on sheet music. After lunch I shared the Word, Matthew 5:13-16 and Luke 14:33-35. I started talking about how pharmaceutical medicine comes with an active ingredient that does what the medicine claims to do, such as relieve pain. If you don't have the active ingredient in the tablet, you just have an empty tablet that will do nothing. We have been called to be salt as believers, an ingredient that when it is added to something makes a difference. Are we as believers making a difference in the lives of people around us or are they changing us? Are we a potent spice that makes a change whenever we are added or do we only thrive around other spices? The Bible admonishes us that salt that has lost it's savor is not even good for fertilizer, it must be thrown out. May that never be said of us... After fueling up we hit the road once more, carving up some beautiful roads and enjoying some great scenery. On one occasion we came across a work site on a steep slope, at least 30-45 degrees steep. On it were two tracked excavators and a bulldozer, although I only saw it for a few seconds I marveled at how they could operate on a such a steep slope. We passed a public high school that had the sign "God Bless America" on the top of it. Obviously, the ACLU doesn't get down here often At the final fuel stop before we headed back to the hotel, an old guy with a long white beard pulled up on an older silver Yamaha FJR 1300 with 379,000 miles on it. I would believe it except that I saw the odometer. He typically does 400-1000 mile rides each weekend. Quite amazing and that guy was quite the character. After eating a good dinner we settled in for a good nights rest.
Day 3 Saturday. The day started well, sunny and a bit warmer than yesterday. We got breakfast at the hotel, then met up for the rider's meeting. I was going to lead today with a route I put together the night before, because some of it was ridden on Thursday and it stank, so we cut it out. I hoped a friend could recon this for me, but he could not. I know this from experience, but had to go through it again. An un-reconned route will be full of surprises, and most of them not good. We started on the same two routes from yesterday that took us through WV. It was frustrating though, no sooner did we get on pace then we came upon a car or truck. The road we were on is turn after turn, so it takes a while to find a safe place to get around a car. Once we could get everyone around, we would go a mile or two and go through it all over again. It was tough for me to get my bearings and get started at pace over and over. By the time I got to Pennsylvania, we did get a few miles of open road which was good. We got to our first turn in PA which was at a traffic light, and we had a rider miss the turn and keep going. While one rider went off to find the lost rider, I dispatched another to find us a fuel stop. In a few short minutes we were all reunited and went down to the fuel stop. It turns out that this stop didn't have a bathroom, thankfully enough a fast food place was right around the corner. I didn't recon ride this route and it showed with all the things that happened that day.

Now fueled up we headed out on a two lane road that though it wasn't congested, there were plenty of cars and trucks around us. We made it down to a bypass around a small city and began climbing the hills. As we ascended the hill I saw a sign for a scenic overlook, and ducked in. Two riders couldn't make the turn and had to come back in through the exit. That got me a shaking of the head by one of our riders, sorry about that. I remember one rider with us said we could get a group shot if we got to a scenic location, so we did! Once we got our pictures taken, we got a drink and headed out. I was eager to get to some twisty roads and get some lean into my turns. We soon turned onto a road going through a state park and I was psyched, but it wasn't to be. We kept getting behind lines of cars, 3-5 at a time. Some would turn off or we would go around them when we could and we would hit another line of cars. We got through the main section of the park rather quickly despite the large number of people there, it seemed like a resort. However, once we cleared this main section, it was car after car after car all over again. By now, I was done; frustrated and exasperated. And it was a good thing and I thank God for it. Why? Because we would miss our turn and come upon a slower group of motorcycles. This group was by itself and moving kinda slow, so I thought maybe we could go around them and be on our way. We ride our ride, they ride theirs, everybody does their own thing. Well, they came up to a lone car and did something nasty. I was so frustrated by then I didn't see it. They were riding in a nice tight staggered MSF formation but as they saw us and got behind the car, the spread out and went single file right on the yellow line. They deliberately went out of their way to ruin our ride and make us follow them and their speed. I think if I had not been so disgusted with how the ride was going, I would have done something rude. The other good thing about my frustration was that we missed our turn. This took us out to a US route and a fuel station, while we took turns using the bathroom, we discussed lunch options. Here is when PhilS asked if we were near Latrobe, and we looked on the map and lo and behold we were! So, off we went to a neat lunch spot with enormous sandwiches that only one of us could finish. The waitresses was funny and an adventurer, she had already drove across the U.S. three times and she was only 26. Lunch really recharged my spirits and we all laughed at how we had to go up a one-way street to get to lunch.

Once we got pass a Harley parade, we turned onto a promising road. About three miles down is was just vino and I at the stop sign. I feared that we had a crash and we turned back. Thankfully it was "only" a flat tire. While jcmathis worked on the flat tire, VA SV got the "mother of all air compressors" out of the top trunk on his bike. After multiple tries we got the plug to hold air. We got on our way, went three more miles down the street and missed the turn, the sign was obscured by leaves. Well, this got us into a town to get our bearings and some fuel. We turned back to where we needed to be and road out this road to get us near I-70. By now it was almost 4pm, so we resolved to slab it about 30 minutes to get to a decent twisty road and bypass some of the congestion we kept running into. We did all that and started this nice road, but two miles into it, vino and I were alone again. We headed back and the tire wasn't holding air. By now, I was beyond done, so we headed back to the hotel via I-70. Once we got back to the hotel some folks went back inside to change, while others worked on that pesky tire to get a plug to finally work. Once that was done, we went to a local place to eat, only to find out it was a West Virginia sanctioned gambling parlor! Okay then! After that, we went to Wendy's and got some fast food. It was Vino's first time EVER in a Wendy's, so we all marveled at that. We discussed things great and small with no fuss over anything, it was a nice ending to a tough day.

Day 4 Sunday Rain was forecast to come mid morning, so vino and I got up @ 6am and eat breakfast early, bound and determined to beat the rain. We got on I-70 and headed west. Once we got on the turnpike we stopped at the first rest stop we came to and fueled up. After we got moving, a white BMW came by us at a high rate of speed. Aha, someone with a radar detector! We followed him and then a red Toyota for about an hour and a half and made GREAT time. The weather was cloudy and dreary, but once we started going through the tunnels, we kept finding more sunlight on the other side of each tunnel. We stopped once more for gas and snacks and made it home to my house before lunch. We rode 336 miles that day, over 1000 all weekend. It was a really good rally. I will try to post up my pics soon, anyone else that came please post up and pictures or recollections that you had. We may do a Fall Rally in September or October, depending on dates and the weather. Everyone stay safe out there!

Here is a picture from our lunch stop on Friday, what a great place to eat!

a wood carving that was hanging on the wall in the same diner

a really large steer we saw after lunch at the diner

Did I mention we rode on a ferry across the Ohio river from West Virginia to Ohio? Yep, we did and it was kind of fun.

Here is the look across the river waiting for the ferry to return

Here we are waiting on the ramp, and it was a steep ramp!

a quick pic of the bikes on the ferry

Here is a shot up river

and a shot down the river

The tug boat kind of pivoted on the ferry/barge that we rode on

Well, that's all I have, if anyone else has some pics or any other recollections, post them up, thanks!