As the donutt turns....: go for broke - milwaukee to biketoberfest.

so i woke up at 2am to leave and all i can hear from inside the shed is pouring rain.

i don't mind riding in the rain one bit... but i hate setting out on a ride in the rain. wet ground doesn't bother me. getting caught in the rain, no problem.... setting out in the rain... screw that. I'll sleep in.

8am and and it's looking clearer. it's do or die if i want to make it to Hiltons, VA by tonite. i did the same trip in june and we took a much more leisure 2 days to get there. this time i had to make it by nite...

so i hit the highway and got rolling. of course chicago traffic sucked... chicago traffic always sucks... chicago sucks (sorry gennaro). after making my way through the cluster that is chicago, i headed south on the long and windy 65. it actually wasn't that bad on that particular day... but that long road me realize one thing.... small gas tanks, no matter how cool they look... BLOW.

80ish miles to the tank. if it wasn't for the 1-gallon spare can i decided to strap to the sissybar before i left, I'd still be in indiana. I can count the number of times i needed to use it on 2 hands... so all you kids with your small tanks on your bikes, let this be a warning.... 2.5 gallons will leave you stranded.

so realizing from here on out that i would have to keep it below 80 if i wanted to get any kind of decent mileage, the trip just seemed to get longer... but like any trip, the way there couldn't be better cause it was still day 1 in my 9 day-go for broke adventure.

and for those of you that are bound to ask... yes. that is ConAgra foods beef jerky strapped to my sleeping bag... but this jerky is ultra cool cause it's Harley Davidson "Road Fuel", that's right! i get it cheaper than i could buy a bag at walmart, so i'll suffer the stupidity of eating beef jerky out of a bag with a MOTORCYCLE companys logo on it.

After my June trip i decided i'm never going on a long ride without a full face helmet. forget rotten weather, you can ride through anything with this thing on.

i still can't figure out what the hell i was taking a picture of here, but i got a feeling it's the louisville skyline.

this, ladies and gentlemen, would be the moment i realized that maybe this trip wasn't the greatest idea i've ever had. i'm on highway 15 near hazard, kentucky at about 9pm. it's pitch black. there's no streetlights. the roads are soaked and it's still raining. gas stations are few and far between and Amanda (my friend in hiltons, VA) has advised me that it is mating season for deer and they are everywhere. it took me 3 hours to make what should have been a 1 hour jump to hiltons, VA from here.

I don't think words can quite describe how pretty hiltons Virgina is. Mountains and hills everywhere, and winding back roads that make for a lot of fun on a torquey rigid bike. unfortunately i didn't have time to play around this trip... i still had another 600-and some odd miles to go before daytona. luckily the weather kicked ass that day and there were only a few non-threatening clouds in the sky. My chain was making some funny noise and it was at that point i realized i never picked up a master link to carry along with me. i lubed her up and got a master link at the local bike shop before hitting the road.

day two.

i put the camera away after a while cause i realized that pictures weren't doing this place justice. it's like trying to convey how pretty the mona lisa is without actually seeing it in person.

this i couldn't believe. Inman, South Carolina. and that's premium!

i think the special was tuna tacos.

i finally got into daytona at about 11pm. the first 2 people i saw when i got into town was my buddies Porkchop and Butters. Porkchop is a Daytona resident living and working in Islamorada, and Butters is from my hometown of Fort Myers, FL.

so why the hell would anyone travel 1300 miles to go to a queer-fest like daytona? cause you don't see sights like this in Milwaukee.

Thursday was the famed Willie's tropical tattoo show. Lots of nice stuff, coupled with lots of shit. I understand the idea that every bike in the show is another 10bucks, but some of these billet barges should have been turned away. good to see the brown-guy himself Nads while i was at the show, too.

Porkchop took first place Evo at the show, and if you could see the paint in person, you'd see why. "unfortunately" this was the only angle i could get of him accepting his award.

Friday morning my father met up with us for breakfast on main street. For those that have never been, mainstreet is the epitome of everything anyone would ever hate about the entire motorcycle industry.... but let's face it, who can turn down a good laugh and a ton of fake boobs to look at?

my dad and i left for Fort Myers (my hometown, bout 4 hours south) that afternoon.

Oh and don't let the electra glide fool you... this man will outride any single person reading this post. FL to Sturgis in 2 days. twice. In August he left my brothers wedding in Wausau, WI (3 hours north of MKE) and got to Fort Myers 19hours later. nuts.

Alot of people ask why anyone would move to MKE from FL. well, after seeing this shot, i really can't figure it out myself.

my pops still can't figure out the attraction to rigid bikes... although he did have a huge smile on his face when he got back.

I swung by one of the local shops while i was in town. the place is called Verdow and is run by a guy named squirrell. they've got a couple badass drag sporties that now make great dust collectors. my buddy dave is still trying to convince squirrell to let him run them at the strip.

my buddy one-leg dave.

yes, he does have only one real leg.

and yes, that wheelie lasted about 20feet.

got to see my buddy kevin too while i was there. that's his ironhead in an 8up zero-out 30degree freddy hernandez single loop frame.

the ride back was fairly uneventful. i stopped in Fort Mill, South Carolina to visit my uncle.

the weird thing about Fort Mill, SC is it's the birthplace of Heritage USA. for those that don't know what Heritage USA is, (i never knew all the details till this trip) it's the christian version of DisneyLand that Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker built in 1978. the place shut down cause of all the financial and personnal "issues" the Bakkers were having, but the buildings still remain. the town considers it an eyesore. i consider it pretty interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_USA

sorry about the picture. i couldn't get it to flip upright for the life of me.

what would a road trip be without getting hasseled by the man at least once?! about 30miles from Hiltons, VA on my way back, the blue lights start flashing. I haven't a clue how fast i was going, but it couldn't have been too excessive. i was in a 55mph and keeping steady with traffic. the guy was actually pretty cool, but had no clue what an ASPT motorcycle was. got off with a warning.

I left Hiltons the following morning in the rain again. cold rain. by the time i hit kentucky i swore my toe was gonna have to be surgically removed from frostbite. screw vans, I'm wearing boots next time.

i got back to the shed that nite at about 9:30 pm only to find zinger there firing up a fattie. i then proceeded to Guanaguato's Mexican Restaurant to order the biggest steak chimichanga they could make.

so, the damage assessment: