Quick wrap up and a few pictures from my last trip (TX to MI)

[LilBeaver]

I did not go any where exotic like the mountains, out west or the north pole but I did want to share a few pictures from my last trip.

 

In between traveling for work I spent 2 weeks on the road (only put on 4600 miles). The main purpose for my trip was to visit with family. My sister just had another baby (boy) so I wanted to spend some time with her and the newest (as well as spend a little time with my niece (child #1)) So that was a stop in Illinois for me. While I was up there I figured my family in Michigan is not that much farther away so I hopped on over there to see my parents and grandparents.

 

My parents have not taken a vacation in about 6 years (not even a weekend getaway for them) and they have been really stressing lately, courtesy of the terrific economy especially in Michigan. So I talked them into taking a two-day 1 night all expense paid excursion with me. My dad's sister lives in Traverse city and my wing is in my parents garage (both of my parents have ridden bikes all of their lives) so we took a nice and leisurely trip up to traverse city (via a very scenic route along the eastern side of michigan) and visited with my aunt and uncle. The next day we headed out just after sunrise (and one heck of a breakfast... My family LOVES to eat; if you couldn't guess we are a family of bikers) drove around traverse bay and followed the coast all the way down south of Muskegon where we picked up the highway and headed back east to Brighton. We all had a great time and boy my parents complain a lot! In fairness we spent about 15 hours from when we left my Aunt's house that morning to final arrival in Brighton. Total we put on about 800 miles between both days.

 

A few days later I spent some time with my grandparents (mother's parents). My grandfather has ridden motorcycles all of his life too (him and my grandmother toured together until he had a stroke at age 75 and was told he would never walk or use his left side again). 8 years later he is walking (he does have limited mobility of his left hand and he cannot bend his leg very far) and doing much better than the doctors told him he would. My grandma told us that once he was able to move around on his own, he would go out to the garage and sit for hours - really upset that he would never drive a bike again. Well, 4 years after his stroke him and I were talking about some of the riding I had been doing (I had just rolled over 8,000 on my GS750 since I had gotten it) and he said that he would like me to take a look at his bike and take it for a ride (he had given all of us grandkids many many many rides on his wing - and thanks to him I developed an addiction to bikes). It took a while, but between me and my dad's brother we pulled it apart, rebuilt the carbs, and did a lot of other work to get it going (since it sat for so long without being ridden). So I took it around the block and when I was going to put it back in the garage for him he said that if I took care of it I could keep it.

I'll stop yammering now and get to the point.

The next summer I was visiting them and we were talking bikes and he had mentioned that he had never ridden on the back of a bike and would never want to. About 15 minutes later we were out in the driveway and I had managed to talk him into letting me take him for a ride.

Now a last week ago when I was up there the first thing he did was ask where I had parked my Venture then went to check it out. So, I asked him if he was interested in going for a ride and his response in about 1/2 a second was . So I took him out for a 45 mintue or so cruise through some reasonable curves aournd there. He enjoyed it.

 

The next leg of my trip was supposed to be a run to the HUB to meet up with the group with a stop in Louisville and Nashville, TN (for more family visiting). But thanks to the flooding in louiville and a few things that came up with my family while I was visiting I had to put those plans on hold and miss the HUB.

 

Overall we had a great trip. The ONLY rain I hit was a 15 minute sprinkle (and I could hardly call it a sprinkle) going through Kansas. The 1st day was HOT (100s+) but it is the summer so that was expected. The last 2 days were hot, humid, and unbelieveably windy (20-40mph). Outside of that I couldn't have asked for better weather (every day was somewhere between 50 and 80 and mostly sunny).

 

Anyways - I included a few pictues here with explanations above.

 

Enjoy!

Edited August 15, 2009 by LilBeaver
Added Mileage

[flb_78]

That's a good lookin windshield!!

[LilBeaver]

That's a good lookin windshield!!

 

Haha, yup - and after all of those bugs pile up I didn't even notice the little bubble! (Thanks again - it was great)

[SteveB]

Looks like you had a good time. Great pictures.

[Kregerdoodle]

Looks like a Great time.. and that is the " Best" Color Yamy has put out !!!

[LilBeaver]

... that is the " Best" Color Yamy has put out !!!

 

Yes sir! No doubt about it Looks like you were one of the lucky ones too!

[Kregerdoodle]

yeppers..... the few the Proud...... the "others" just don`t know....

 

 

Yes sir! No doubt about it Looks like you were one of the lucky ones too!