2023 Brown County, Indiana GS Rally - June 8-11

[Redman]

Pics of riders heading out.


THurday departing from Danville.
Larry Alkie, Greg Wazz, Tim twr1776 .... and not sure after that

Friday morning, departing from motel

Ron



Tim


CB1000somethingorother (black) Neal
Ducati (red) Rich Desmond.

If we did stuff like that, Rich Desmond would get award for riding from furthest. He came from Virginia (600 miles).
Norm second (near 400 miles), and me third (330 miles).

I didnt manage to get any other rider-departing pics. Either I didnt get out of bed soon enough, or was still eating breakfast or just didnt move fast enough.

[Redman]

Saturday night dinner.
Jays Indian Fest.

Was great. I quit asking what it was years ago. Just take some of all of it, its great!
As Jay says "Its not spicy hot, it is well flavored. Try some of everything there."


Jay grilling chicken.
That is not breading, is some sort of flavorful dip. Chicken cooked nicely, tender, juicey - Great!



Mrs Bonitia Steve, Jay, Alex, Stephan VGPlay. At the appatizers, before the main stuff came out.


Mrs Bonita Steve, Ron 1978GS750, Stephan VGPlay, Alex, Casey Spyder.
THe main dishes.
Is great stuff. I went back for 2nds and 3rds,


And then Jay comes around dishing out "desert", oh, yum, great stuff too !

[Redman]

My Friday ride.
Norm asked to ride along, I said well, you know what you are in for from past years, I dont have much of a plan, dont have a specific route, other than go towards Medora, then Salem to get Becks Mill Road, Fredereicksburg Road, then 62 so can get to OhioRiver, maybe lunch at Overlook or general store in Levenworth, then decide if to go further west or not. Maybe get lost a couple times.

So we headed out.

Here on Tunnelton Road, stopped at abridge over a creek. Just to look around, maybe change gloves or something, and chat about route etcetera.
First thing we both said was "Indy Bob should be here."

Then could hear bikes comming, Inline fours, downshifting, high rpms, accelerating thru the curve, then come into view,
accelerating and going across the bridge swuum swuum swuum swuuummm zuummm
One of our groups, we wave,
each one disappears around next curve accelerating and shifting all the way

Norm and I look at each other, and both say something like "thats why am not riding with that group"
we laugh
then we have fun thinking what they are thinking, and doing imitations:
"look at those guys, aint 20 miles out of town, and stopping to look at something, cant imagine what they are doing"
"ha, wonder how many pictures Dave took"
Norm and I standing there, laughing and laughing.

Headed further on Tunnelton Rd, then diverted off, on purpose, for no reason than it looked intersting. Got lost, but was fun road.
Hit up the Brick Kiln on GPS and made to there.




Did make it to Salem, found Becks Mills Rd, had a road side stop there too, and found Fredericksburg road, and 62 and did stopp for lunch at Overlook.

Was only 10minute wait to get a table. Was good stuff. THe meatloaf was a big loaf. I ate way too much. It took a lot of time, and after eating that much actaully felt like taking it easy for a while.
So headed down to Lower Leavenworth down closer to the river. Hung out there for a while with closer view of the river. Noticed that the resteraunt down there is open now.


Then decided to head back to Bedford on 37, which isnt bad there that far south. But made mistake of just following GPS. Came upon some detour, and following GPS Ended up on some cowpath roads (but they were paved)... and then came to, you guessed it, some gravel roads (well, crushed limestone). And at one place the gravel road was kinda steep downhill, i kept thinking "dont hit brakes, dont hit brakes". Then was a steep uphill. Norm later said was wondering what traction mode he should be in. Eventually made it to some paved county road and then 37.
37 kinda nice that far south, and middle of afternoon on a Friday wasnt anybody in front of us. Had some traffic after Paoli.

Got back about 330-4pm. Had a little rest, and little trip to store for some stuff.
And then was pizza time. Thanks Bonitia for arranging that.

Had lot of good chatting in groups standing around the parking lot.
But I quickly found that this ol' man should sit down.

[Redman]

Attendance.

Had some new attendees.
Rich Desmond (name & user name) from Virginia (previously Oklahoma) a prominent/active member of the forum.
James, Casey Spyder's BrotherInLaw.
And Dave Daniels wife Laura attended.

Buffalo Bill, from SouthWest Michigan, was traveling down to attend (I think first time) but had a mishap in Lafayette Indiana that required bike to be rescued with a trailer to return home. I understand he is bruised but okay (I'll let him tell the story if he wants.)
(Sorry, Bill, A group of Three of us came thru there maybe an hour or so later. But, Sorry, I didnt see the message untill we were way past, and you had rescue plan in action. And, about the only guy we know in that part of the state that might have parts was gone that week.)

And Gtem from Indy area came Saturday for the day.

Four or so of the regulars didnt signup, and 3 or 4 had to back out in the week or so prior.
Brian managed to cover all the rooms, except one, by having some of us spread out, only one per room.
I dont know the specific count, but maybe low 20s.
Less than usuall, but still a good number of folks, and a good time.

For what states were represented:
Didnt have the Wisconson regular.
Didnt have the Florida simi regular.
Indiana and Ohio well represented.
Missing a couple Tennessee regulars but Greg gbw is also from TN now. (actaully all three of them used to be from Chicago land.)
Missing a KY regular, but Ron is also from KY.
No PA, No MO, No MN that have had before on occasion.
I am usally only Michigander, but not this year, even with Buffalo Bill absence, Alex is from Detroit area now. I need to pester Mr 93Bandit and a couple others.
Did have a Virginia license plate, dont recall having one before.

[bwringer]

If we did stuff like that, Rich Desmond would get award for riding from furthest. He came from Virginia (600 miles).
Norm second (near 400 miles), and me third (330 miles)

One year we did manage to bestir ourselves long enough to put together a very high-class long-distance award, consisting of a lovely gift basket (that looked a lot like a Walmart bag) containing Tuck's medicated hemorrhoid pads, a container of Anti Monkey Butt powder, a tube of Preparation H, and a few similar remedies for wear and tear in that bodily region.

Don Pepe was the lucky winner that year, having ridden to Indiana from the wilds of Florida. He gave a touching short speech, if I recall correctly.

[Spyder]

"7&8) Casey Spyder & James Honda Shadows 750&1100"

How dare you call my Suzuki a "Shadow"...

[Redman]

..............

......

3929EE5A-BD5F-4594-AC7B-7AD381153AE5.jpg

Norm Storm push starting Uncle Larry Alkie 79 1100E.

I'll let Larry tell the full story, if he wants to.
But the story includes him going out on a group ride .... ,...... and coming back later in the day on BMW R1100R.

[Redman]

BC549C05-A5CA-4EBE-91EA-CCBDE3A584A3.jpgDifferent bike, different story,……Discussing the progress…….

I'll let Brenden Foxyblankworthy tell the full story, but it in involves bike dying out on a ride, being rescued by trailer, and successfully diagnosing and fixing the major problem there in parking lot, with several spectators sitting around watching.

[Redman]

"7&8) Casey Spyder & James Honda Shadows 750&1100"

How dare you call my Suzuki a "Shadow"...

Opps.
Sorry.
Yep, Suzuki Boulevard.

Man !
I have to apologize again for AGAIN miss-identifying your bike.

Story behind that:
After lunch in Danvile on Thursday, I headed out on my own, and ventured around on some roads south-east of Danville till I bumped into i-70. THen set course for Bedford.
Cruising along on 4 lane divided highway 37, a few miles before Bedford, I got a quick glimpse of two bikes way off on side of road, all I noticed was ape-hangers, and didnt divert my attention from the traffic any more to take another look. And as such, I didn't notice it was the two guys, that hour and a half prior, I just had lunch with across a small table. But they noticed it was me.
James Shadow had flat tire (rear). Got roadside service tow to Honda dealer, (and new tire installed the next morning).
And Spyder got to harass me that evening (I deserved it).

[Redman]

Saturday ride.

Some views of roads, Tunnelton and others out toward Medora.




Most of these roads down there, is so little traffic that I wonder why the road is paved.


THis road approaching the Brick Klins, I stopped, No traffic, untill I walked some distance away , then along comes a pickup truck pulling a trailer, . . . . .and the other way comes a simi truck pulling wide load, . . . . . . and about where they are going to intercect is about where my bike is . . . . . I wave a polite wave to each.





THese pics show a large reason for why go there.

[Redman]

Another visit to the Brick Klins





P1390142 by Dave Redman, on Flickr

[Redman]

Quick visit at Medora Covered Bridge




And that is only one of the three arches, is three times longer than that

[Redman]

Picked up gas station sandwich to take back to motel for 2 oclock lunch.
Had a little rest.

THen headed out for another ride, this time to Tulip Trestle.
(Had not seen Stephans VGPlays warnings.)
More road closed, found a way there from the south that is only 1.8 miles of gravel road.
After going what I thought was most of the way, I look at GPS and it still says 1.2 miles..... Oh !
But manage to get there


THis view from maybe half mile away.


View from climbing part way up


Vertical panographic view from ground level, includes looking straight up overhead


More misc pics of misc stuff (Flickr Album)

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAHDUo

[Redman]

Sunday morning,

Sad to see some of the bikes gone, other folks packing up and heading out.

Weather radar showed big red blob comming thru, with more behind it, and more in every direction, didnt much matter which way anybody was going, every body was gonna get it.
I considered staying the day and heading out Monday morning, but wife had appointment that I should be with her for, (not because I had to be at work.)

Got out rain gear, and put on the pants (cuz that is what is most difficult to do on side of road), and headed out for the 330 mile return home. Last one to leave.
.
Didnt get 10 miles and skys darkening and started sprinkling.
Stopped to put on rest of rain gear . . . . opened up the pouch of rain overboots, and opened up the other pouch and its rain over boots... doahhh, dont have my glove rain overmitts.
So proceed on.
And in another 10 minutes its raining. Raining hard on occasion.
Before get to Indy, even with being behind the fairing, most of the rain going around me, is enough water flying around that my gloves are wett. Not Good.
Temperatures holding in 62 to 66 range, which isnt bad, but 6 1/2 - 7 hours of wett gloves at 62-66 aint good.
Stopped at 3 gas stations having diesel before I found one (Yeah! Meijer's!) that had the thin plastic gloves at the diesel pumps (an old trick I developed decades ago). Had to wring out the gloves, and work my gloves into the plastic gloves. THen could get hands in the gloves with the plastic diesel gloves over my gloves.
At least now, not gonna get any more 62 degree water in my gloves, other than what is already there.
I'll skip the part of the story about all the construction zones, and road closures, and such.
And found way to US31
More heavy rain, stopped a couple times to hang out under as station station awning. Other trick of mine I developed years ago is to look for church parking lot, maybe they have a awning over an entrance, or a bank that has drive up lanes will have awning, and not be in anybodys way.
Somewhere near Rochester(?) found a bank awning to stopp under. Had the other half of sub-sandwich from Thursday evening. Hung out there for about 15 minutes.
And I will skip the part of the story about when I thought that maybe start using the grip heaters would be a good idea. Duhh.

Was making short 5 -10 minute stops every 45 minutes or hour or so, or maybe after half hour if heavy rain.

Here is last stop, about 40 miles from home.
Can see that the diesel gloves holding out fairly well.

Also laid out on picknic table bench for a few minutes. THat was interesting, full rain gear, getting rained on. After a while I noticed a couple buzzards going around. Layed there watching rain drops fall on my visor, watching buzzards go back and forth. When I went to sit up, it felt like my helmet weighed 75pounds, I could not sit up. Too tired. Had to roll over to the side. (Tired - this ol’ man needs more exercise.)

Made it home about 5:30, so 8 hours to make 330 miles with several 5-10 minute stops and 15 minute lunch stop.

Tired - but still happy and excited about the weekend.

>>later note: ew, this story lot longer than I intended.

[bwringer]

Thanks for sharing all the photos and your story, Dave. The one thing I never seem to find the time and energy to do is take pictures.

That also highlights one of the coolest things about this gathering -- it's "choose your own adventure". Riders scatter across the map, alone or in small groups, to ride interesting roads and see interesting sights. You can ride any direction from Bedford and find great roads, scenery, and things to see.