It seems I bodged up the last post address, so you many not have found yesterdays blog entry.  If so, this link works:

OTRA Day-1: Return From the R80GS 40th Anniversary Rally

It was much cooler this morning with clouds to the west when I got up. It made for a pleasant ride in the morning on my way to Bedford, IN, where I planned to stop for the day. I had to let a little air out of Gonzo’s sneakers since we have come up in altitude so the pressure in the tires increased a couple pounds. The oil was fine, so not much maintenance required this morning and I left the hotel in Bridgeport, WV about 8:10 am.

We got a few light sprinkles here and there along the way. After a few miles, I got my first speedometer palindrome while cruising down I-50 which had become a divided four-lane highway with cross road traffic crossing the median. And later in the day, I got a second speedometer palindrome. 🙂

It wasn’t too long until I crossed into Ohio not far from Athens. Along US-50 to Athens, I passed the sign for Coolville, OH. It’s Steve McQueen’s birth place. Well, not really, but it should have been. 🙂 Steve was born outside Indianapolis in the town of Beech Grove, which is pretty close to Noblesville where I stayed on the third night of the trip out to Pennsylvania.

Kent Holt, who until recently owned Holt BMW, is now concentrating on painting and is still a US distributor for Glasurit paint used by BMW on all it’s cars and motorcycles. I decided to stop in and see if he was home, and sure enough, he was in his shop doing some welding.

I visited him on my return from the 2017 R100RS 40th Anniversary rally and I was looking forward to chatting with him again. We talked for about an hour and he showed me three projects that were stunning. The first is an oil-head “R” bike he painted. It’s a knockout in my book. The cast wheels are painted in a pearlescent copper color and they really compliment the paint job.

Another project he is working on is a /2 with Steib sidecar done in red. It’s stunning.

And the last project is an eye catching sculpture made by a long time friend of his. Kent is going to paint the white sections. It is a striking sculpture.

After we parted company, I got back on US-50 which eventually returned to a much more enjoyable two-lane country road as it wound up the hill sides over the countryside of Ohio.

I shot a couple pictures along the way. The Dental Museum was intriguing. I wonder if the owner is related to the folks that owned the S&M Lodge I got a picture of yesterday? 🙂

Then I crossed briefly into Kentucky after going around Cincinnati on the I-275 loop, and then into Indiana.

Right after I crossed into Indiana, US-50 becomes a four-lane road that’s very congested. The temperature was pushing into the upper 80’s. In heavy, slow moving traffic, as I slowed down for a stop light, Gonzo lost his footing in a good sized puddle of spilled diesel fuel and he and I fell down in the middle of the road. We were going about 5 miles an hour, but I couldn’t stop the front tire from sliding out. I hit the road and rolled once and jumped right back up and hit the kill switch to stop the motor. As I tried to help Gonzo get back on his feet, mine kept slipping out from under me in the spilled diesel fuel. But “the third time was the charm” and I got him back on his feet.

I pulled into a parking lot after the light and checked him out. He got a scrape and a boo boo on the new left side fairing panel I had installed two months ago, but he wasn’t crying. He’s a trooper. I wasn’t affected due to my Aerostitch jacket and pants with the TF2 armor. So, after taking a couple deep breaths, and putting what happened “into the past” where it no longer has any hold on my emotions, I continued on my way to the hotel.

Along the way, dark clouds were gathering in front of and to the right side of US-50 toward the Northwest, but US-50 was going to jog to the Southeast in a mile or so, so I figured we would miss the rain. But, just before the jog in the road, we got held up by 20 school buses exiting the regional high school. In the 10 mins it took for them to leave, it started pouring. The good part is it washed all the bug goo off Gonzo and me and the temperature went back down into the 70’s. Sometimes, rain is just what you need.

After we got to the hotel and checked in, I put a band-aid on Gonzo’s Boo Boo to make him feel better and to keep it from getting infected. I hope it will be all healed up by the time we get back to Colorado. 🙂