CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015

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8 years 5 months ago - 8 years 5 months ago #125 by RkTec
jcmathis wrote:

This is going to be a great weekend of riding and fellowship. Please do everything possible to make it to this event. I will post the routes up once we get closer to the date. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to shot me a message.

I’ve booked a block of rooms at the Quality Inn, Marietta, OH. Please note rooms need to be booked by the cutoff date of Thursday, Jul 2, 2015 or they’ll be released to the general public. Reserve your room online or call the hotel directly.

Quality Inn
700 Pike St.,
Marietta, OH, US, 45750
1 (740) 374-8190

Below is the information you need to make your reservation.

Group Name: Christian Sport Bike Association
Group Code: CE8QM6
Check In: Thursday, Jul 23, 2015 (3:00 PM)
Check Out: Sunday, Jul 26, 2015 (11:00 AM)
Cutoff Date: Thursday, Jul 2, 2015
Last edit: 8 years 5 months ago by RkTec.

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8 years 5 months ago #126 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
Day 1 Ride report

I woke up bright and early, before the sun was up to finish packing up my stuff for the trip out to VA where I would meet up with VA SV and go west to Marietta, OH. I got some food and water, put my gear on, shoved everything into the saddlebags (why did I bring so much stuff?!) and mounted up on the bike. I left 22 minutes late, taking care of loose ends before leaving my house. I took some main roads out toward Reading, PA and saw I guy I know driving a bus headed out for a trip, small world. I took the scenic route out to VA not hitting much traffic. I took a bit of highway to get over the Susquehanna river and go south. I soon discovered the road I had chosen through a state forest was recently tarred and chipped. Well, that took 20 minutes longer than I had planned, but I got through it safely. I soon was on I-81 going south into VA where I met VA SV where he had been waiting for me about 45 minutes, sorry about that. :oops: He was cool about it, he had done some work online and fueled up while he was waiting. I quick scarfed down some lunch and he fueled up my bike for me, what a good guy! :) We then headed west with some boring 4 lane road for about 30 minutes. But as the ridges went up and state lines changed, the roads got twisty, and the ride got fun again. 8-) We climbed up and over ridges that were over a thousand feet high and passed logging trucks when necessary. Yep, we were back in pipeline country again, seeing workers in reflective coveralls at the mini markets and heavy equipment operating on crazy steep slopes. As the day wore on, we started to get tired, about 4:00 pm we got on a highway for a spell then took a scenic route that dropped us off near the hotel. 450 miles I rode that day. We fueled up, then went over and checked in at the hotel and began unpacking the bikes. We soon met up with jcmathis and his wife, plus Phil S. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant and met our waitress Sam, who was very kind. We finished eating then went upstairs for the conference call with the Board and the chapter leaders. It was really good to hear from everyone and make some progress with the By-Laws. After the call everyone went to their room for some shut-eye.

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8 years 5 months ago #127 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
Day 2 ride report

The morning began foggy and over cast with clouds hanging low over the hills. We ate our complimentary breakfast, gather up our stuff, geared up and met by the bikes. jcmathis prayed for our safety and off we went, a Triumph Sprint, two Concours 14s, and a V-strom. The clouds soon burned off to cloudless sky and pleasant temperatures. It was hot but not too humid. We soon were among bucolic farms and weaving sweeping turns, great roads indeed. A turn onto our next road brought more turns and roller coaster like bump-hills, reminding me of how wooden coasters are like once you get off the big hills, up and down. On our next road, the hills got higher with 60 degree turns going up and then back down the hills, yeah, this is fun! :) At the next turn, the fun went to a whole new level, we were now up on top of the ridges, making long sweeping 270 degree turns sometimes with elevation changes following the contours of the ridges. Another great thing was that we had the roads practically to ourselves, before lunch we passed 4 cars and 2 trucks. It was so few I kept count. At the next turn we came into the area where the gas companies were working, the land gashed by the excavation of the pipelines. We soon had large 6 axle dump trucks and tractor trailers with "oversized load" placards on them. Most of them moved pretty quick and a few even pulled over for us. The other thing we encountered was the dreaded one lane bridge where you had to wait for the automatic traffic signal to change. Thankfully we didn't have too many and the flag persons were cool too. Just before lunch we came to the Ohio River near the ferry site where we rode across last year. We hit some more wonderfully twisty roads with good to great surface and found ourselves soon enough at the Bealsville Diner. The food and service were great, as always. The pie there is a thing of beauty, and really good.

On we went for more outstanding roads, occasionally passing another pipeline construction site. One we passed had a tracked vehicle spraying mysterious teal blue liquid onto the bare earth. We found out that this was a slurry of grass seed and fertilizer that they put over the completed pipelines. Soon we were back at the Ohio River again where we saw a huge 150 foot tall plume burning, we figured it was a natural gas processing facility. It was quite a site to behold. We also passed a hedge that spelled J-E-S-U-S and Amish that were gathering their hay into small tuft like piles to dry. Actually all the farmers had cut, were cutting, flipping, or baling hay. It was the first four days of dry weather in two months for this area, thank you God for the nice weather. We returned to our hotel, ate dinner in the restaurant at the hotel then walked up to Dairy Queen for ice cream. We had a member of our party that had zeal for ice cream. All together, we rode 259 miles that day.

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8 years 5 months ago #128 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
Day 3 ride report

The day began overcast but soon cleared up to reveal a bright blue sky punctuated by big puffy clouds. We also had some changes in our roster today as Phil S had to get home and we were joined by zeronetgain from VA riding a Blackbird and Ebon from Ohio riding a ZX-6. We started the day with a short section of highway, then crossing the Ohio into WV. The roads weren't as nice as yesterday, these having more holes and patches on them. After the first two roads were gone, the road surface improved. Mid way through the morning I was buzzed by a red tail hawk in search of breakfast. Thankfully, it wasn't me. ;) We were soon encountering people riding ATVs on the road, without helmets. Not a wise choice, I might say. We first stopped at an empty gas station that promised it would open in August. Once we got a drink of water from our bottles and a snack, we moved onward with our journey. We also would see every now and then an old small rusted oil derrick in the field. I guess this wasn't the first time an "oil boom" came to this area. Around mid day we got some gas and asked some locals where we might get some lunch. It turns out we were in the county seat, and there was a nice diner next to the court house. This diner was also next to a bar called the crabby patty, but I didn't see Sponge Bob Square Pants anywhere. :roll: The food was really good and we had a delightful waitress named Liz. "Don't call me Ma'am that's like putting curtains in an outhouse", :lol: ya can't make this stuff up. We continued on our way with jcmathis' wife changing mounts due to pillion comfort on the Sprint. Just before the last of these changes we bid Ebon good bye since he could only ride for the day. Our next road was one of my favorites, 6 alternating up hill 60 degree turns; haha, what fun!! :twisted: Today was warmer than yesterday and more humid. We finally made it back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went to the local Chinese buffet. The food was good and the gymnast video they had on was incredible. After that I stopped at Kmart to get my kids some gifts and went back to the hotel to chill. 270 miles ridden today.

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8 years 5 months ago #129 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
Day 4 ride report

All of the crazy riding we did had taken a toll on my right upper back, the pain got me up around 4pm and wouldn't let go. I rolled over and woke up again around 5:40 am. Realizing I couldn't get back to sleep, I gathered my gear, and got dressed and left the room. I went down and the kind man at the desk had some Extra Strength Tylenol to help take the edge off the pain. I am not as young as I used to be! Next, I checked out and packed my bike. Inside breakfast was delayed but I did get to hang out with zeronetgain while we ate, which was neat. Once I had gotten done breakfast I got out on the bike and got on the road. The clouds were low that morning and traffic was light on the interstate. My first stop inside PA was about 150 miles into the trip where I got a snack and some soda, yep, I was feeling tired. I had to stop two more times until my next stop near Harrisburg for lunch, I was dragging. I saw a couple guys at the rest stop and told them about the Eastern PA chapter, we'll see if they show up next week. But getting lunch was just what I needed, I felt 100% better for the rest of the trip. Except for a few distracted folk driving, the trip home went well. I read later that all else made it home safe too, even with an ice cream stop. 460 miles ridden today, with 1400 miles total for the rally. Next year, we go south, stay tuned for more details. We plan to have next year's rally more epic than this year's rally. I would really want to encourage you all to plan to attend next years rally. We hope to post up dates in the next couple of months. This year cost me about $87 a day average with lodging, food, and gas; just to give you a number to budget for next summer. The rally will probably be 5-7 days long. Peace to you all until then,

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8 years 5 months ago #130 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
Beginning mileage

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taking a break at a gas station

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8 years 5 months ago #131 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
a selfie with Big Muskie, a mammoth Dragline bucket used in coal mining

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the links of the chain that was used for this bucket. There were bigger than a laundry basket and so heavy you couldn't even move them

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My 10.5 boot sitting on one of the teeth of this monster bucket, each tooth weighed 1000 lbs.

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8 years 5 months ago #132 by RkTec
Replied by RkTec on topic CSBA National Rally - July 23-26, 2015
A bar next to the diner where we had lunch, tell you kids, Mr Crab is living in West Virginia ;)

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a cool bridge we crossed going back into Ohio

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There were a lot of big trucks like this down in West Virginia

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