Mel's Diner Dinner Ride

Sometimes everything comes together and what starts out as a short local ride becomes a ride you want to last forever.

That's what happened to my wife Debbie and I on Wednesday night.

I got home from work around 5:45 and Debbie informed me that she wanted to go on a motorcycle ride for dinner. So after having one of those where do you want to go? I don't know where do you want to go? I don't know where do you want to go conversations, I changed clothes and we decided to just jump on the bike and see where we ended up.

What a perfect night.

When we left the house the temperature was around 85 degrees, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We headed west out North Landing road to Centerville, down Centerville on our way to Moyock. When we were almost to Moyock I turned to my wife and hollered how about Mel's Diner for dinner? There was an immediate reply of "sounds good". Now that we had a destination we both sat back to enjoy the ride.

Because it was the middle of the week and it was now after 6:00 there was no traffic to speak of. We had the open road on a crystal clear night. We road south on 168 and then 158 to Grandy NC. We arrived at Mel's around 7:00 pm.

For those who may not know, Mel's is a diner with atmosphere. It's decorated in a 50's theme with Elvis pictures and advertisements for cars, appliances, and movies from the 50's. There is music from the 50's and 60's playing continuously and all-in-all it is just a cool place. Mel's gets pretty crowded over the weekends in the summer with all of the folks heading to and from the Outer Banks, but since we were there in the middle of the week it was pretty empty. Burgers, fries, and milk shakes are what Mel's does best and they didn't let us down. Good food, good service.

It was still light out when we left but it was getting late and the sun was starting to set. Debbie pulled a sweatshirt out of her saddle bag but I didn't have one and besides, it was still around 80 degrees. It was around 7:45 when we headed home. A nice easy ride north. As we got closer to Moyock the sunset on our left was awesome. Once again, I didn't want this ride to end.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end at around 9:00 we pulled into the garage. 105 miles round trip, not the longest ride we have ever taken but one that will be remembered for some time.

Note to self 1: Put the camera in the saddle bags and leave it there
Note to self 2: Wrap the camera in a sweatshirt and leave them both in the saddle bags.

Hagerstown Bike Week and a Birthday Party

Our son lives in Hagerstown Maryland with his wife and two children Alyssa and Sydney. The plan was for my wife and I and our daughter, her husband and their daughter Casey to travel to Hagerstown Maryland for Sydney’s first birthday party. Checking the dates for this trip I noticed that Hagerstown bike week would be going on at the same time. Seeing this as an opportunity, I called my son who rides a Harley and had him start checking out the event. I called my son-in-law who also rides a Harley and we started making plans to head north to checkout Hagerstown’s first ever bike week, and to celebrate Sydney’s 1st birthday. Turned out our son-in-law couldn’t make the trip due to work commitments. So mother, daughter, and grand daughter packed up our daughter’s jeep and I jumped on the bike and we all headed to Hagerstown.

We left VB at 7:00 am. It was a beautiful day, cool, dry and not a cloud in the sky. The traffic was light on 64 and on 95. Just north of Fredericksburg we picked up route 17. This is where the fun begins. This is where you can slowdown and begin to enjoy the ride without having to worry too much about traffic. We stayed on 17 all the way to Winchester where we picked up 81 to Hagerstown. We arrived in Hagerstown at our son’s house at about 1:00 pm.



My son and I rode to the bike week event and looked around. The event was held at Cancun Cantina on Dual Highway. They were still setting up but things looked promising. We went the long way home where we parked the bikes and we all went to the mall for dinner and I was in the hotel and sound asleep early. All in all a good day. We stayed at a Super 8 motel which is not a four start hotel but not to bad.

Got up and got moving on Friday morning. Our son had a pretty full day planned. First, we rode to Cunningham Falls State Park

and hiked ½ mile to the waterfall. We Checked out the lake and the facilities. This is a beautiful park with camping if your into that sort of thing. There are plenty of other things to do like hiking, canoeing, and swimming.





We left the park and went back to bike week. This was more like it. For the first year this was a well attended event with plenty of vendors and things to do. They had all of the traditional events, tattoo show, bike show, bikini contest and plenty of food and music along with several rides to local attractions. We ate lunch at the event and got back on the road.

We then rode to Antietam battlefield and checked out the visitor center and walked around some of the displays. We left there and headed over to Williamsport HD. This is a full service Harley dealership but it is located in a corporate center. It’s small, but it is loaded with everything you could ever need.

We headed home and had a good home cooked dinner and visited with family.

Saturday was the birthday party. Plenty of people and plenty of kids, and plenty of food. Sydney made out like a bandit. She got a ton of toys and clothes. Good job to Glorianne and her mom Brenda.

Sunday morning I left Hagerstown at 6:15 and headed south on 81 to Winchester Va. Gassed up and headed south on 17 towards Fredericksburg and 95. Traffic on 95 was heavy but steady, but when I hit 64 things got a little hectic. I got off in Ocean view and enjoyed the rest of the ride home. I was home at 12:15. Once again the weather couldn’t have been better.

This was a fantastic weekend. 668 miles total. Great weather, I visited with family and friends, and I got to ride with my son.

Life is good.

ride safe.

You’ve got to be kidding me

So I was reading Easy Rider magazine the other day, the August 2011 edition. And I ran across an article about seatbelts for bikes. Yeah, you heard that right…seatbelts for motorcycles. It seems the geniuses at Honda have decided that motorcycle riders should be belted in (or is that on). Anyway, according to the article it seems this is a serious project.

So while all intelligent human beings know that you want to be as far away from the motorcycle as possible if you go down, and the best way to do that is to not be strapped to the bike, Honda feels you need to be strapped in/on but still be able to get away and they seem to have an answer. According to the article they (Honda) are working to incorporate (are you ready) ejector seat technology into this system. When the computer senses that the bike is tipping over and is beyond recovery, it releases the entire seat and inflates the airbag backrest. I can just see some poor schmuck in a parking lot whose bike falls over and the seat goes sailing into a parked cars windshield (there’s a law suit) and the air bag deploys leaving this guy/gal looking like a fool.

In another article in the same magazine, same issue and by the same author, Bill Bish from NCOM, More automotive safety devices are coming to motorcycles. According to Mr. Bish, within the next two years motorcycles might have technology such as collision detection, speed limit warning devices, information about the automobiles around you, and information about the tightness of road bends. All of this will be transmitted to the rider through different means, one method mentioned in the article is a vibrating seat or special gloves. Just what I need in southern Virginia in the summer…gloves.

Ok, maybe it’s just me but if you want all of that crap buy a car!!! If you need to design all of this technology to overcome the unique motorcycle problems I have an idea. Leave motorcycles alone!!! Whatever happened to people making their own decisions and being responsible for their own actions. Pretty soon vehicles will drive themselves and humans will never have to think again. And don’t tell me this stuff will never happen. You know that eventually some politician who has never ridden a motorcycle in his/her life will decide that we (riders) need all of this stuff and no one will argue, it will become law and that will be the end of our great sport of riding motorcycles. Not to mention what this will do to the cost of bikes.

Hopefully they will leave older bikes alone and I can enjoy riding the way it was meant to be. Ride safe, have fun.

4th of July ride

Happy 4th of July weekend!!! I hope yours is fun and safe. Speaking of safe, I thought it would be a pretty smart idea and much safer to ride before the 4th when maybe the traffic isn't so bad and there won't be as many nuts on the road after a party where they have had a little too much celebrating and now they are texting and watching the GPS instead of where they are going.

I decided to ride on Saturday the 2nd. Debbie was watching our Granddaughter and couldn't go. I left around 9:00. The weather was nice and cool. I rode to Bayside HD just to see if anything was going on. They were having a Corvette show and the place was jumping. I checked out some of the cars and talked to a couple of friends I hadn't seen in a while and then I headed out for Outerbanks HD in Kitty Hawk. Bad move.

So I left Bayside and headed south on 17. The weather was starting to warm up, but once I was clear of Portsmouth and Great Bridge the road opened up and it was clear sailing. I cruised south until just past the North Carolina rest stop where I picked up 343 to South Mills. I turned left on 258 and followed that for a very short distance and then kept right onto 34. This takes you to 158 south. so far so good, not much traffic and what traffic there was moved pretty well.

As I got near 158 I began to worry about traffic. 158 is the main road into Nags Head. well, imagine my surprise when I merged onto 158 and had no trouble getting into traffic. Traffic was heavy but it moved pretty well and I didn't see anyone doing anything stupid. Again, I began commending myself for wise decision.

Okay, ready? You knew this was coming. About 5 1/2 to 6 miles north of Grandy traffic came to all stop.Traffic heading North was moving well, but south was going nowhere. After about 10 minutes of baking in the heat, I was able to make a U-turn and head home. I don't know if there was an accident, or if everyone just hit the brakes when they entered Grandy, but whatever the reason it was a mess.

So, I left at 9 and was home by 12:30. Not much of a ride but I did managed to get in 140 miles. I think I'll enjoy the rest of the 4th of July weekend on the couch.

Ride safe.

VA State Hog Rally - 2011

We left the house at 9:00 am on Thursday morning and headed up 460 to Petersburg. It was a gorgeous morning, the weather could not have been better. After a couple of stops in Petersburg city limits to ask directions we found our hotel and got checked in. Registration for the rally was quick and simple.








Back in the room we reviewed the registration material and decided we would go on the observation ride. This is a 50 mile ride in and around the Petersburg area. Well, after riding to the rally we got tired and decided not to finish the observation ride. Of course trying to get back to the hotel we got lost again. Fortunately the Petersburg police are awesome and were very helpful getting us back to our hotel.

Thursday nights dinner was Arbys. However, I have never been in an Arbys like this one. First off, it was huge, it had an inside and an outside dining area. When we ordered they gave us a pager so we could get our drinks and find a seat instead of standing there like an idiot waiting for our food. Oh, and did I mention there were four restaurants counting Arbys and an ice cream shop. For an Arbys it was pretty cool.

Back to the hotel, hit the hot tub and the pool. Back to the room and good nights sleep.

Friday was a very busy day there were a ton of events with the rally and we didn't do any of them. We wanted to do the poker run and they also had guided rides to the Petersbug national battlefield. Never made it, instead we hopped on the bike and visited the hosting dealer which was Colonial HD. That's where all of the vendors were along with different events throughout the weekend including Harley demo rides and a NASCAR simulator. After wandering around, buying sunglasses for myself and the wife and a new POW head rag for me we got back on the bike for some more riding. Friday night was the parade of flags in Old town and the lighted bike show. Being one who always worries about everything I wanted to visit old town to get the lay-of-the-land before the evening festivities. Well, when we got to old town Debbie decided she wanted to tour Blandford church and cemetery.

To be honest being a bit of a history buff I didn't put up much of a fight. This church was built in 1735 and has a very unique history. The main attraction are the 15 widows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany of New York, yeah, that Tiffany. Anyway, this tour led to several more tours. If you enjoy history and you have never visited Petersburg before your missing a lot.

After the church and several museums it was time to get something to eat, well actually it was past time to get something to eat. Since we knew we were returning for the parade and we would probably be eating junk food we decided to hit Denny's on the way back to the hotel. After a big lunch we returned to the hotel and relaxed for a while before heading back to old town for the evening festivities.

To be honest I was a little disappointed in the parade. They were expecting about 2000 bikes and my guess was they didn't get half that many. I guess I can't complain too much, if I didn't ride in the parade why should expect others to do so. Anyway, They had at least 2000 bikes in old town on Friday night. There were bikes everywhere. Okay, so it wasn't Sturgis or Daytona, but the locals seemed to be impressed and everyone really seemed to be having a good time. There were food vendors set up in several different locations and many of them had live music. It was basically a block party that covered several blocks.








At 9:00 it was dark enough to start the lighted bike show. This was pretty hard to capture on film but it is really pretty impressive. Folks who participate in this event spend a lot of money for different color lights on their bikes to highlight the engine and the chrome. They drive by one at a time and the spectators vote on there favorite with applause.

After the lighted bike show we headed back to the hotel and lights out.

Saturday morning we headed back to Colonial HD to watch the field events and take another walk around the vendors. After a while it started getting pretty warm so we decided we had had enough. We packed the bike that morning and had checked out of the hotel so we were ready to go and we left the dealership and headed home to Virginia Beach. Oh, did I mention I got lost again, a couple of times. But once out of Petersburg we were good to go.

This was a very good event and if you have never been to a state HOG rally I highly recommend you attend at least once, you don't know what your missing

Around the Sound

What a great day!!!!

Left home on Saturday morning at 7:45. As the title says this ride goes around the Albemarle sound. You cross Four long bridges and you get to open up the bike on route 64 where the speed limit hits 70.

I took North landing road/mount Pleasant road to Centerville. Left on Centerville to Battlefield Blvd left on Battlefiled and head south to Moyock. Continued south to Nags Head. stopped at the outlet stores for a pit stop and to apply another coat of sun screen.

Continued to Manteo, picked up route 64 West and took the bypass around Manteo and enjoyed the open road of route 64 (watch out for alligators - I guess they call it alligator alley for a reason) for approximately 40 miles. Just east of Plymouth NC (about 10 miles east) I picked up route 32 North. Stay on 32 North and watch the signs. There are several options on this road. You can follow the signs to Edenton, or as I did, just head North until you hit route 17. A quick right and you take 17 to Elizabeth City.

I stopped at a sandwich shop in Elizabeth City, I can't remember the name but they are on Seldon street off of Enrinhausen. Anyway I had a delicious roast beef sub and a huge sweet tea, and applied another coat of sun screen. Gassed up at a shell station and continued north on 17. There are a couple of ways you can go at this point, the choice is up to you. I followed 17 to South Mills and then took Ketter Barn, old swamp road and several others to get to Balahak. From Balahak I headed up 168 and home.

271 miles total and I was home by 2:00.

Ok, so there are no pictures from this ride and there are two reasons for that. First is that I forgot the camera. The second reason is there really is nothing to see. This is a great ride to do nothing except ride. As I said the roads are all pretty good and at times on 64 the speed limit is 70, it is all just open country roads. If you do this ride early enough you will miss most of the traffic in Nags Head and once through Nags Head you should be good to go.

Virginia Beach Bike Classic

This event was held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday April 29, 30, and May 1st. Due to work and other commitments the only day Debbie and I could go was Saturday the 30th. This turned out to be a very expensive motorcycle event.

Saturday was a beautiful day, a little on the chilly side, but sunny and dry. Debbie and I left the house at about 11:45 and headed to the North Landing campground. No real hurry as this is a local event and we were there. after a couple of stops, by 12:30. There was a good turn out of all sorts of people which always makes things interesting.







Travis Tritt was scheduled to perform at 5:00 pm
so we had 4 and 1/2 hours to kill. This is a small event as far as number of vendors is concerned so if you are not camping there killing time could be a problem. However, What makes this event unique as far as I'm concerned is the fact that even though ity is a small event they have a lot of interesting and fun biker things to do.

They have celebrity bike builders who bring samples of there work so there is plenty of cool bikes to check out. Plus as I said earlier they have usually have some pretty good entertainment such as Travis Tritt. So Debbie and I spent a lot of time just walking around and taking in the sights while we waited for the concert to begin.






One of the attractions that Debbie and I enjoyed was the World Famous Wall of Death motorcycle thrill show. The show was pretty awesome and it is free. They ask for donations and he will even ride up and take them from you if you want. If you have never seen this I highly recommend it if you get a chance.



It's hard for me to believe that someone does this day in and day out and the guy actually seems to enjoy his job. Just incredible.







finally 5:00 came and the show started. Debbie and I have seen Travis Tritt before and he always puts on a good show. This day was no exception. Even if you don't like country music I'm willing to be you will enjoy his show.






Ok, so why was this event so expensive? Well, one of the vendors was selling a product called softub's. After much deliberation we are waiting for our new hot tub to be delivered. This should come in handy after a long day on the bike.







This is the 15th year for this event and while I haven't been all of them I have been to many. It has gone through many changes over the years but for a local event benefiting a worthy cause it really can't be beat.

The next event is the Virginia State HOG Rally in Petersburg Virginia in June. Hopefully there will be at least one big ride to write about before then.