Indy Epic Adventure

[joneill]

THE EPIC INDY ADVENTURE!

Well…. it began on a cold March morning. While watching reruns of of lasts year’s MotoGP races, an irresistible urge to see the races in person took hold. Hence, the Epic Indy Adventure was born.

Every adventure needs a hero and every hero needs a trusty sidekick. Batman has Robin, Superman has Jimmy Olsen, Fred Flintstone has Barney Rubble and so the search for a trusty sidekick was on!

And finally……

who should wander by but, the master of disaster, bubble wrap boy, motorcyclist extraordinaire and #1 Son, Michael O’Neill (The Warrior17).

So with the mission objective defined and the team assembled all that was left was the PLAN! Many days and nights went into formulating our assault on Indy with a side campaign to slay the Dragon at Deals gap. Constrained by the dates of the MotoGP race, the number of available vacation days and Michael’s return to school, coming up with a plan was impossible. Many days and nights were spent plotting and re-plotting routes on the GPS. It was impossible to complete the mission in the time available. We were stumped! Finally, master tactician, Kathy O’Neill, took one look at our situation and suggested “Why don’t you run it in reverse?” We scratched our heads, looked at the route and the solution was so simple. Hit Deals gap before Indy and everything fell into place.

And so a Plan was born!

The basic elements of the plan were to visit the motorcycle museum in Newburgh NY, the battlefield at Gettysburg, SkylineDrive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, slay the Dragon at Deals Gap, spend 3 days at the Indianapolis Speedway for the MotoGP races, and make it home in time for Michael to pack and get off to college.

Now all there was to do was wait…..and finally in mid July our tickets arrived and we were a GO for launch.

On August 11^th, with bags packed and a foolproof plan in place were ready for our Epic Adventure.

With our typical precise execution we checked and aired up the tires only to find our air pump was kaput. No matter, on to plan B, we’ll air up at the gas station when we get gas. It had rained heavily the night before and for some reason the air pump at the gas station was putting more water in the tires than air. After conferring with my wingman we decided that this was NOT A GOOD THING.

Well, on to plan C. Its always good to have a plan C! Soon we were off to Autozone to acquire an air pump of our own.

After a return trip home to get last minute forgotten items we were on our way at 9:00 am. Some operations use Eastern Standard Time, some use Zulu time, but this operation was using the O’Neill time standard. According to O’Neill time leaving at 9:00 am for a planned 7:00 am departure qualifies as on time performance. We would adhere to this time standard for the rest of the mission.

We slabbed it all the way to Newburgh. NY. Although, the forecast threatened showers all day we hit only one small stretch of rain in Danbury, CT. We stopped to don rain gear and 20 minutes later we were riding in +80F degree temps and sunshine. It seems rain gear acts as a sort of rain repellent.

Once in Newburgh, the GPS took us to the geographic center of the city. At this point Michael had looked around, sized up the rough neighborhood and was questioning my decision to stop and program in the address of the Motorcyclepedia Museum. I can recommend the Museum; the City of Newburgh, not so much.

We spent about 2 hours touring the museum. We could have spent the whole day there and still had more to see. This museum has the largest collection of Indian motorcycles. The display starts in one corner of the room and proceeds around the room with a motorcycle from every year starting at 1901 and ending in 1958. At each motorcycle is a plaque describing the motorcycle and what new features where introduced that year. For Indian motorcycle enthusiasts this is a “must see” stop. Indian sold motorcycles from 1901 until it when bankrupt in 1953. After 1953 the company was taken over by Brock Engineering and they marketed Indians with imported parallel twin motors. They too went bankrupt in 1963.

The museum is not just Indian motorcycles. There are old ice racers and hill climbers, choppers, drag bikes, a large collection of vintage police motorcycles, Flying Merkels, vintage BMWs, Matchless, BSA, Cleveland, race bikes ( my favorite was the Yamaha TZ250), Henderson, Bultaco, Autocycle, Thor, Vincent, Triumph, Cushman…well you get the idea. There is also the old and the new. They have the oldest running motorcycle in America and the motorcycle from TRON (not too sure about the authenticity of this one).

Once out of the museum we had a decision to make. Do we stay with the original plan and ride some twisty roads in Pennsylvania or slab it to Gettysburg and try to get ahead of schedule to spend more time at the Dragon? Michael convinced me we need to proceed to the Dragon at “Mach Schnell”. Once the rubber hits the road, the plan goes out the window!

It’s amazing how comfortable a concrete sidewalk can be after a 400 mile day!

So instead of a manageable ~250 mile day we pulled a 438 mile push to arrive in Gettysburg while it was still light. We located a motel in downtown Gettysburg, right in the middle of the tourist area. Michael was one happy camper.

Tomorrow’s plan was to spend the day at the Battlefield and then push to Front Royal VA, the start of Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Forest.

We ended up spending about 6 hours at the battlefield. We began by seeing the Diorama display which gave an overview of the three day battle, taking the guided bus tour and then ending up at the museum. I recommend this order. The Diorama and narrative provides some context for the tour around the battlefield.

There were cannon, statues, more cannon, more statues, Dwight Eisenhower’s farm and some really cool places like “Devils Den” and the “Slaughter pen” viewed from Little Round top.

I was awed standing there and imagining the confederate soldiers charging up Little Round Top into the face of Union artillery and infantry rifle fire. With the battle the tactics of the day you sure had to have a big pair to be an infantry soldier.

After Gettysburg we made a bee line for Front Royal, VA. Arriving at 4:30 pm, I was content to find a place to stay, a beer and maybe some dinner. Michael convinced me to push on despite the potential for deer on the parkway. One word about deer on Skyline Drive and BRP, they don’t have watches! They don’t know that they are supposed to be out only at dusk! We saw deer at all hours of the day. Dusk, Dawn, mid-day it didn’t seem there was a time of day that was safer than another. You have to vigilant all the time.

Down the Skyline Drive and BPR we did not take as many pictures per mile. We were having too much fun riding some of the best motorcycling roads in America. There was pristine pavement, little or no traffic, little law enforcement, great views, and curve after curve. S-Curves, switchbacks, 270 degree curves, tunnels, it was like an E-ticket ride on a motorcycle. Those of you who don’t qualify for AARP may have to look up the E-Ticket reference – Google is a wonderful thing.

There are a number of tunnels on the Skyline and BPR. They were a little freaky at first, especially the ones that curved around so you could not see the exit. We had a little fun with them including the photo op driving through the tunnel.

We passed many overlooks with great views. The weather was perfect, the views fantastic. After a half a dozen photo ops we pressed on. The Parkway and Skyline are beautiful but it would take forever to get to the Dragon if we stopped at every pull-out, especially since the real entertainment were the curves right in front of us. Let’s RIDE!

It took us several days to ride Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway with stops at Elkton on Skyline and Roaring Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We grabbed the first hotel off the road. Neither stop was particularly memorable and the motel rooms only adequate. If I were to do this trip again I might stop earlier and look for more interesting places to stay.

We did make a side trip to Grandfather Mountain. A short way off the parkway is a toll road up to the top of the mountain. We stopped to pay the toll and the young woman handed us a printed notice “that we understood the road to the top to be treacherous and we were proceeding at our own risk”. Well ain’t that just grand! She explained that the road to the top has many tight corners and switchbacks that are so steep that once committed you can’t stop without dropping the bike. Beware of auto traffic slowing or stopping to look at the view. They give this notice because they have 3-4 bikes dropped daily.

After our initial trepidation we really enjoyed the ride to the top. The ride up was not for beginners and the views at the top fantastic. At the top there is a gift shop, restaurant and suspension bridge across to a higher peak. The suspension bridge is 1 mile high. Note, the elevation marking on the bridge near Michael’s feet.

While on the peak we met a couple originally from Worcester. We made small talk for a while but then it was time to RIDE!

Around mile marker 430 we reached the highest point on the Parkway. I remember hearing that at one time the sign was stolen. There is a wooden replacement. Here’s Michael with the obligatory photo op.

On the road down to Robbinsville there was a little construction with flag men controlling traffic. I could not tell if they were fooling with us but we spent about a half an hour waiting to traverse about 300 yards of construction. I guess things happen a little slower down south. Michael and I laughed at the several signs we saw advising “Rough Road”. The rough roads were better than our best roads here in Massachusetts. Did I mention how great the roads were on the Parkway!!!

It was getting late and we were pushing to make Robbinsville before night. On the road we saw numerous deer and one black bear. It was getting dark so we road with extra caution and lucky saw a lot of wildlife but managed not to hit any. Maybe there is something to getting off the road at dusk. Its not because there are more deer but they get awfully hard to see in the dark.

Since, I originally planned to arrive on Thursday; my reservation was for Thursday night. We called to update our arrival. Good thing too. When we checked in the hotel it was full and they were turning away other motorcyclists.

The Microtel in Robinsville, NC would serve as our base camp for our assault on the Dragon. I’ve stayed there before and it is very motorcycle friendly, catering to sports car enthusiasts and motorcyclists that come to challenge the Dragon and ride the Cherohala Skyway. You know a place is biker friendly when they rent rooms to these guys!

Dan, Rich and Wayne were down from Virginia on a guy’s trip. They were going to ride the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway and then head back home. Nice guys, we talked bikes and they even bought us dinner one night.

Tomorrow, THE DRAGON!! We set our alarm for an early start, gassed up and headed up RT129 for the Dragon. We made our first pass at 9:00 am and had the road to ourselves. We stopped on the Tennessee side and spent some time talking bikes with a guy up from Atlanta on a Kawi Z1000. Our buddies from the Hotel also came through so we had a little social gathering going on for awhile. Did I tell you that folks on Motorcycles are wicked friendly? There are several guys that photograph bikes on the Dragon and then post up pics you can purchase as souvenir of you visit. Below are a couple of pics.

I have come to the realization that perhaps Michael is the Adventure Hero and I am the sidekick! He certainly is a better rider than I am.

We made another pass on the Dragon and stopped at the Tail of the Dragon store to spend all of our money on hats, t-shirts, and stickers.

We ran a loop from the Microtel up the Cherohala Skyway to Tellico plains, cut across Rt 360, Rt 411, Rt 72 and then back down Rt 129 and turning off on Rt 28 just before the Dragon. We couldn’t help ourselves, rather than turn off at Rt 28 we ran the Dragon one more time and then headed down Rt 28 and stopped at the Fontana Dam and then back to the hotel. The Cherohala Skyway is a welcome break from the Dragon. Where the Dragon is 318 corners in 11 miles, the Cherohala is s-curves, switchbacks and mostly high speed sweepers. Rt 28 is nice also. I had many suggestions of “must ride” roads in the area but we ran out of time. So many roads – so little time.

We stopped for gas and lunch in Tellico Plains. The gas station had a little deli and the food wasn’t half bad. When we getting ready to go a couple of locals came over and complemented us on the matching VFRs. It turns out that one of them was the owner of the local Victory/Polaris dealership. I told him I planned to be back down next year with Kathy and he handed me his card and told me to stop by and he would give me the 411 on all the best roads in the area. Did I tell you how friendly the folks are down here?

Later, Michael went down to move his motorcycle. We had pick a couple of spots were we could not be blocked in because we had an early start in the morning. He reported back that he had been talking to some guys and learned we had become “famous” as the father/son team on matching red sport bikes! WooHoo!

Thursday was the “Dash to Indy” – the next objective on the Epic Adventure. Since we wanted to be at the raceway for team practice there was no other option but to suck it up and slab it all 431 miles to Indianapolis in +90 degree heat.

The only way out had us passing through Rt 129 and the Dragon again. On the spur of the moment we decide to take the Foothills Parkway and then let the GPS figure out how to get us back on track for Indy. The Foothills in not very long but it is almost all high speed sweepers with excellent views. We were riding down the “spine” of the mountain ridge so there were fantastic views off to each side.

On the road Michael’s eagle eye picked up a blur of Italian red in a turn out so we pulled in to investigate.

Look what we found!

A pair of 4^th Gen VFRs. They were from Maryland and riding the BRP together. The guy in the Aerostich suit just completed a cross country trip on the VFR750; from Maryland to California and back. We talked bikes but had to move on if we were going to make Indy before dark.

The ride to Indianapolis was HOT. At one point I stopped at a rest area and soaked my shirt in water for added cooling. With the mesh gear it was completely dry in about 20 minutes.

We almost made it to Indy without incident. As we approach Indianapolis we could see very dark clouds and a tremendous amount of lighting ahead of us. We were about 30 minutes out and I thought we might slip in under the storm and make our motel. We sucked it up and pushed on.

Finally we started to notice a few raindrops, then a little rain, then a little more rain, then the sky opened up and we had to pull off the highway and take refuge in the first gas station we saw. There has not been much rain in Indianapolis lately so when the rain hit the roads became slick real quick. We hung out for about 30 minutes waiting for the rain to stop (yeah right) and then we suited up and tried to waterproof the luggage as best we could. We made the last 30 minutes in the dark across I65 though the center of Indy to our hotel. We parked under cover by the front door next to a couple of Guzzi and went inside to register.

I had booked our room right after we purchased our tickets to the MotoGP. Good plan since the hotel was full and walk-ins were being turned away. Finding a room in Indy was going to be hard that weekend.

Friday we headed to the track and watch the action from our reserved seats. During practice and qualifying you could sit anywhere with a general admission ticket but I wanted to see the view from our seats. We were in section J up at the top of the stands and the view was fantastic. We had a great view of corners 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. Turns out over the weekend most of the action would take place here.

From these seats we witnessed Hector Barbera crash out during practice and Casey Stoner, Ben Spies and Nicky Hayden crash out during qualifying.

Just a couple pictures of the over 400 pics taken before the camera batteries died.

On Friday and Saturday night of race weekend motorcycles congregate at Monument circle. The police close off the adjacent blocks to automobile traffic and it becomes a gigantic “bike night”. Michael and I went to down there to see the bikes and enjoy a pizza at a sidewalk café. The picture is dark and doesn’t do justice to the number of motorcycles there. There had to be thousands of motorcycles parked.

There is no shortage of things to see at the track. When racing is not going on there are vintage bikes, vender displays, a pit walk where you can see the crews working on the Moto2 and MotoGP bikes and if you are lucky you might get to see one or two of the racers.

Finally, it was time to head back home.

We had accomplished all of our Epic Indy Adventure objectives. We set the alarm, packed up and prepared to head out for a 100% slab ride across Indiana and Ohio. We planned to be in Pennsylvania by the end of the day. At one point during the ride we picked up a CBR as a tail and it followed us for about 20 miles. Eventually, the CBR pulled up alongside. It was a pretty young woman and she was giving Michael “the eye” before she sped off into the traffic.

We reached Pennsylvania at the beginning of route 6 and planned to take one day to cross Pennsylvania and another day to push for home. Michael suggested we push today and make it home by Tuesday so he would have more time to pack and prepare for school. So we pushed on and stayed in Warren, PA for the night. It was another 500+ mile day!

The next morning the plan was to get up and push for home. We headed out at 8:00am in 54 degree temps and fog and the fog only got thicker and the temps dropped as low as 48 degrees. Wearing only vented gear we had to don our rain gear to keep warm. Weather improved by 10:00 am and we ditched the rain gear as the temperatures rose into the low 80’s. We let the GPS pick the route home – Rt6 - Rt15 - I88 – I87-I90 –I290 –I190 and home.

Michael and I rolled into the driveway around 6:30 pm, very tired but happy. After back-to-back 500+ mile days I was a little stiff getting of the VFR. Twelve days, 3101.5 miles, three days of MotoGP, Motorcycle museum, Gettysburg, Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway and slaying the Dragon. Our Epic Adventure was over.

With the VFR washed, fresh oil, chain lubed and Stabil in the tank; Michael headed back to college. I don’t expect to see him again until November. His VFR looks a little lonely. Well, there’s always next year.

[Aeromagic]

Thanks for posting your trip. Looks amazing - and to do an adventure like that with your son. School's going to feel a bit mundane for him I'd imagine. Well done!

[2thdr]

Your kid will remember that trip always. What a great Dad you are.

[Higgin]

Awesome trip! I'm very jealous. Hope you enjoyed Indianapolis and the sourrounding areas. Not too bad of a place to live, if I do say so myself :)

[njcop]

Wow! What an awesome story! Sounds like a heck of a trip! Thanks for sharing.

[Dutchy]

My son is 12 now, I am close to 50

So i hope to do this kind of thing in 10 years time (would like him to ride a car 1st for a few years, getting to know how tricky life on the road can be....)

Inspiring read!!!

[joneill]

Thanks for all the great comments!

[Switchblade]

Great write up.

[panamawing]

thanks for sharing! I have traveled to more places than i have acually been or will ever be able to go thanks to vfrd riders sharing their experiences on the road!

[Chuckster]

Wow, very inspiring story! Really enjoyed reading it.

Chuck

[vanion2]

Awesome adventure. I can't wait until our family can do a motorcycle trip together like that.

[MaxSwell]

What a fabulous trip and great report. You are one lucky dude to do this with your son. And a MotoGP race must me the ultimate destination. Congrats.

[Ashok]

Great read, thanks for sharing

[Guest]

Thanks for the great write up!

[VcFR]

Great story! Sounds like y'all had alot of fun!

[dr.toto]

Good trip, good story!

[SEBSPEED]

Sounds like a great trip, hope to do that myself someday.