If you follow me on Twitter (@IJustWant2Ride) or FaceBook or Instagram you know that I post, what I think, are some pretty cool motorcycle pictures. I post those photos up as “motorcycle porn”.
This year I started with 26 candidates for the “Best Off” but got it down to the Top 9. Why 9? Because everyone does 10 and 11 is to much work.
Well at least according to the folks over at Test Facts IJustWant2Ride is a motorcycle blog that you should be following, but if you are reading this you already know that! LOL It is always nice to get some recognition for the things that we do and this is no different. Thanks team Test Facts for making my motorcycle blogging day!!
Test Facts is a web site that “independently review and analyze products to find the best in each category”. A few of the motorcycle related items that they have reviewed are the best modular motorcycle helmets and best motorcycle rain suits.
After looking at their site I have added them to my favorites. I added them not because they included me on their list of best motorcycle blogs but because, as I look through their motorcycle offerings, I was impressed enough that I will to back.
Today’s HOG motorcycle tour started early. We were on the road a couple minutes after 7AM (tomorrow will be earlier). Pulling out of the motel parking lot we headed towards Natural Chimneys State Park, the first stop of the day.
It took us a few days to figure this out but this HOG event is really an unstructured structured event. You can go to as many of the stops as you want or none of the stops. You can follow the pre-planned routes or set your own. We all just start and stop at the same location each day. This day we chose to skip the State Park and go directly to the second stop the Museum of the Confederacy.
On the way we had multiple animals try to kill themselves by throwing themselves at our motorcycle. A rabbit, a squirrel, a blue bird, yellow bird, robins and a couple other critters all threw themselves at us, luckily they all missed by quite a bit.
The Museum of the Confederacy is laid out in a fashion that walks you through from what leads up to the succession to the aftermath of the civil war. In addition to the main museum there are several outdoor features including a “log cabin” built in 1832 and used as a home up until the 1960s.
From there we headed to Lynchburg Harley Davison. The Lynchburg HOG chapter
was hosting us for lunch and we had to be there between 12 and 1. I enjoyed the brat’s and thanked the HOG crew for their hospitality. By the way, I now have yet another dealer pin for my collection.
After lunch we remounted the Ultra and headed towards the National D-Day 
Memorial. The memorial honors all the soldiers, from twelve nations, that participated in the invasion of Europe in WWII. As a retired soldier I can say the memorial was quite impressive and provide a poignant reminder of the cost of that invasion. If you are in the area a few minutes of your time to visit this site would be a good idea.
Debbie and I skipped the next stop, Foamhenge. Turns out I wish we had not. Apparently the display will be removed in a couple months. Oh, well.
The last stop on this leg of the motorcycle rally, and our hotel, is the Natural Bridge Park and Historic Hotel. The Natural Bridge is really a bridge with traffic running across the top. Down below you can hike under the bridge and admire the vista in the same manner as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. As part of our package we also got to view a light show projected upon the face of the cliffs. About 10PM we were in our bed with dreams of the next day.
To see what happened on day one check out that post!
ALLTOP is a news/blog aggregation type of site. Today, on the ALLTOP MOTORCYCLE page, one of my “5 Things” posts has made it to the “Most Popular Stories” section. COOL
So what do you think? Do you like it?
THANKS GUYS!
Our motorcycle blog had its best month ever thank to you guys! I don’t expect it to contiune over the winter and the days we will have to ride are going to diminish. I just want to thank you for looking at what interests me and the motorcycle rides that Deb and I take.
Really?!?!?!
I have not even thought of this yet. I typically ride until mid-December and as often as there are nice days in the winter, but I live in Virginia with mild winter weather (most of the time). Yet I have seen a lot of stores with Christmas decorations and associated stuff for sale already so there maybe something to this.
Fox News’ website has an article on what to consider for storing your bike this winter.
Me…..Debbie and I are going to ride a bit longer!
Last night I watched the Discovery Channel’s premiers of “Pure Evil”. This was supposed to be about Evil Knievel “behind the scenes”. I did not think much of the show.
It was interesting to hear some of the “insider” stories regarding Evil. About how he drove his own public relations campaign, about his ego, and about the Snake River Canyon jump. But, I do not think I learned anything new or titillating about his life.
Also, while it has been a long time since I have seen it, I think a lot of the “cut scenes” were from a movie about Evil Knievel that came out years ago. Overall, I feel this effort was well below Discovery’s normal high caliber programing.
Tonight at 10 PM (EST) on the Discovery Channel premiers its new documentary “Pure Evil”. The show is about Evil Knievel “behind the scenes”.
On the Discovery website the show is described as “To the public, Knievel was an American hero and a dedicated husband and father. But behind-the-scenes, there was a much darker and more violent side. Using archival and candid interviews with family, friends and colleagues, the true story of the man behind the myth will be unraveled by those who knew Knievel best”
I have no idea how good this will be but the DVR is set and I will post my thoughts tomorrow.
A fellow blogger recently had an accident riding Route 66 while on holiday. Roy is from the United Kingdom and put a lot of effort into this trip. Luckily Roy had bought travel insurance, just in case and was “covered”. But, from my point of view, the use of the travel insurance was much harder than I would have expected.
You can read about Roy’s preparations for and the ride on Route 66 here.
You can read about his experience with travel insurance complications here.
Based on what I have read about Roy’s experience and my own, limited, international travel I have a few recommendations.
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 