Mark, Skiplate and I met up at 9:00AM Sunday at the Dunkin Donuts. One of the members of the rideohio.org board was going to ride a track day at Mid Ohio so we decided to take a ride out there and watch him take some laps.

As usual, we tried to put a little adventure into the ride. We decided to ride through the Amish country in Holmes county and then through Mohican State Park.

We took 62 for a ways, then we took a little detour for a while on some single lane road through farm country. We came across a big group of Amish and they all seemed to be looking at us wondering what we were doing on this little road out in the middle of nowhere. When I am out to do some sightseeing the little single lane roads are where its at for me. That is where you see real people and real things. No billboards or stores.

The area really is a nice place to ride with great scenery, but you really do need to keep your eyes on the road:

This stuff is slippery. And stinky.

When we got off of the one lane we ended up right at Heini’s Cheese Chalet!

Since it was Sunday, and since we were in Amish country, nothing was open. As we were just hanging out and stretching our legs, I noticed a sign on the building.

It says, “Yes, We’re OPEN”. It sure didn’t look open. The Tankster loves motorcycles, but the Tankster also loves cheese. If I had to pick between motorcycles and cheese I would choose motorcycles for sure, but I pray to God I never have to make that choice. When I point out the sign to Skidplate her eyes light up and she takes off across the road. Skidplate is also a big fan of cheese. The sign did not appear to be able to say “Sorry we are closed”, so I just assumed by the fact that there was nobody else within a mile of us that they were, in fact, closed. When Skidplate finally returned I could tell by the look on her face that they were, in fact, closed.

Here is Skidplate standing on the porch of a bakery across the street that is also closed. She stood there staring into the dark windows wishing it was Saturday. Finally, she just got an ice tea out of the vending machine.

By the time we got to Lexington we were pretty hungry. Out of the corner of my eye I see this sign:

Let me tell you what. The Tankster loves Mexican food. Mexican food has plenty of cheese. And beans. And meat. A quick right hand turn and the earlier disappointments are forgotten.

Once inside, I knew this was the place for me. The inside is very festive. The tables were festive. I spoke a little spanish to the guy who showed us to our table. His response was to look at me like I am stupid. He responded this way because I basically am stupid. Nothing I said in spanish really made any sense to anyone except me. I guess you are not multilingual if you are the only other person in the world who knows what you are saying.

When you sit down to eat at a table like this, you know the food is going to be good.

I ate like a pig. I ate all my meal, the appetizer, and some of Skidplates meal. I dribbled most of the Chori Queso onto my shirt. By now we were only a couple of miles from the track. I was looking forward to handing out and digesting me some Mexican food.

Here is the star of the Ride Ohio board, 100Ohio! All winter he worked on this bike and posted pictures of his progress. It really is a spectacular bike.

Click here for a panoramic picture of him on the starting grid.

It is kind of hard to find him, but he is in there!

This dude is about to get smoked.

Click here for a panoramic view of the section we spent most of the day at.

This was a Sportbike Track Time event and I was very impressed with how well organized everything was. I was surprised how much actual track time the riders got. Everybody was very friendly and there were all levels of riders. While the majority of motorcycles were Japanese sportbikes, there were a lot of other bikes as well. There was a 1979 Moto Guzzi that got around the track quite well, as well as a few two stroke race bikes.

The fence did not help my photography very much, but it did prevent any flying debris from killing me. Even with my very limited photo skills and a giant chain link fence to interfere with me I still managed to get a few decent pictures.

The weather was perfect for hanging out and watching the bikes and it was great to pretty much have the run of the place without having to fight the crowds. The staff and the track was excellent and very friendly. We left around 6PM because it was a decent ride home and I had to be to work the next day. I really hated to leave, but I am planning on going back next time!

President Bush today announced that the long awaited “rebate” checks from the IRS will be going out ahead of schedule. “Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country,” Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House.

I am so sleepy.

The winter was so long and so cold, and now that warm weather is here I am going crazy. I’ve been out on the motosickle almost every night this week. Truth is, I didn’t even have the energy to go out on the bike, but I just could not stop myself. The threat of colder weather next week also had me out and about because I knew next week probably will not be so good.

I have an important announcement:

Robbie “No Show” is back on two wheels! Thats right, the guy who gave Tank his biker name is riding again. We all know what a limited attention span Robbie has so lets try to get out and ride with him before he gets bored with this bike and sells it like he did all the others.

Robbie is showing a lot of dedication.  The temperature the morning I took this was only about 40 degrees.  Wind that cold over a head that bald is pretty miserable.

I went to QS&L in Sharon, and the Ice House, and QS&L Austintown this week.  Mark made a new friend at Sharon.

This weekend I will be taking a ride to Mid Ohio to watch a guy from the Ride Ohio board take a few laps.  I’ll probably do this on Sunday because it looks like the best day of the weekend.  Check the bike he built up over the winter:

That really is a sweet bike.  I kind of hate to see him take it out on a track!

Shoot me an email if anyone wants to come along for the ride to Mid Ohio!

Last night a few of us from the Ride Ohio forum went to a fundraiser that Skidplate organized. It was called Crazy Bowling and it was like regular bowling but you had to roll the ball backwards, or bowl with your eyes shut, or bowl with your non-dominant hand. Everyone seemed to have a great time and they raised around $1,000.

Here is a picture of my daughter trying to bowl backwards.

Here is Bonnie bowling with her non-dominant arm. She still does way better than I can do with my dominant arm!

Here is Kerry (Harley Guy) bowling with his eyes shut. Once again does better than me on my best day!

Here is my daughter:

And here is my son:

Click here for more pictures from the night!