Swoxs ii

[STEPPENWOLF]

Ok this is the second SWOXS( Southwest Ohio XS) group ride. First was a lot of fun soo this time we went a different direction along the Ohio River. We started in Aurora IN at the city park,nice place to meet for a small ride..


We had a Kaw and a Harley join our group of six XS1100's



But the main reason we were there ..












Just a couple of the bikes..
It was a nice cool day as we rode along the Ohio River,good roads and scenery,we followed RT56,156 and back to RT 56 till we hit Madison IN but we had a break at the Markland dam where we stretched a bit,p break and hiked to the observation tower to have a look at the river..

















We are a chatty little group,so after the dam we continued on to Madison and the River Park,nice little area..









Well then we had this chatty local who I think would enjoy talking your ear off stopped by on his chopper..





Neat bike...Madison is a great place to visit and sight see on your own,very historical,an old river town..but we had to head north to North Madison up a nice road and past a small but nice waterfall and found a DQ for a quick lunch break,this is off the cuff,sorta like riding with your buddies,have a general idea but improvise along the way.So Doug not being able to sit still goes out and checks his plugs
A little cluster F at the gas station,busy we are now on RT 62 east and the fun part of the ride,did ride a bit slower than normal but when in a group ya gotta stay together,no gravel on any of the turns and no 4 wheelers attacked us,but we did have one very big Thanksgiving Day turkey walking in the road and Doug blew his horn at it and slowly moved off but the turkey I think gave Doug a piece of his mind,that can't be repeated here.
Well an XS rider coming from the other direction turned around and joined us,Dougs brother on his 1100,so we now have 7 1100's:-)
We hit a few towns along the way..

Banjos playing here.......






Friendship has the mussle loaders assn.,a huge Boy Scout Camp and a Flea Market that wasn't open when we came thru..then we hit Dillsboro,whistle Andy
Griffith and think of Norman Rockwell...
We picked up RT 50 to Lawrenceburg to the Frisches for the group sing a long and hug..



Great ride,good people,all bikes made it safe and sound but it was time to part company as went our seperate ways back to the normal routine.....

[Wildkat]

great pics again Bill!
thanks for sharing


SWOXS is a chatty group?
Surely you jest!

[The Lorax]

Good write up Bill, pics were stellar as usual, nicely thought out and presented. a fine time appeared to be had by all, I know I did anyway. again, bill XSellent write up, XSellent pics, and it was.....an XSellent time. have a nice day and ride safe

[STEPPENWOLF]

The local XS group being chatty Wildkat..What are ya talking about,,you spying in on us?
Mat..thanks..well thought out and presented...never heard that before It is spur of the moment,what ever crosses my mind for that second..

[Wildkat]

No Sir... not spying... y'all left the door open and I just sort of wandered in... You know how Kats are...

Nice to see such a friendly group... kind of makes a person feel XSively warm and fuzzy inside...

[The Lorax]

the more the merrier I say, Kat, you're always welcome in our garrulous band of misfits. have a nice day and ride safe

[DGXSER]

Great write up as usual Bill! Great Pics to. Of course, your the only person I ever saw pull out a tripod to take ride pictures! I am impressed with the amount of thinking you put into such a spurr of the moment ride. The timing of the stops was great. Even the gas stop was well positioned as it came just as I was gettin a little nervous. Having had my tripometer knob come off in my hand at the fillup that morning with the meter somewhere around 230 +/- 4 miles or so, I was not sure how many miles I had gone since a fill up or how many were left as my milage has been improving but still not the 40 MPG that has been reported before.

Yeah Kat, I think the biggest and most contested award in this group would be for who is most likely to chat your ear off!! Not that any of us would vote ourselves, but there is plenty of choices!

It was an XSively good time for sure!! Great weather, awesome company, and nice roads. Even had great folks in the towns we went through that waited at all the stop signs so we did not have our group broken up. And coming around the corner to that water fall was a really nice surprise.

[STEPPENWOLF]

Don..well the tripod was so I could be in the picture also..see saddles bags do have a purpose...which waterfalls..






Trust me gas stops are always on my mind on a special but with my hand on the thottle..I knew we would not have a problem, if we did..leave'em..

[DGXSER]

I knew the tripod was so you oculd use the timer Bill, I just like to give folks a hard time now and then. I honestly am lookin out for a set of bags like that on the cheap. They look good, have a good riding position, and seem to hold plenty of stuff.

[Wildkat]

What a great pic of the waterfall Bill! Where is that?

[Jerry]

What a great pic of the waterfall Bill! Where is that?

Would guess it is Multnomah Falls, along the Columbia River east of Portland, right off the interstate. Parking area, picnic area, you can hike to above the falls if you are so inclined. Multnomah is one of several falls in the area. I have several photos on 35mm film, none in digital.

[DGXSER]

Yes, the first waterfall picture is from Steppenwolf's "non motorcycle vacation" on a train. The lower / second picture could possibly be the fall we drove past. Height and size are about right, but I recall the rock being more clay looking. And the rock ledges or lines were much closer, smaller rises. So neither are from our ride, but both are awful pretty looking.

[STEPPENWOLF]

Would guess it is Multnomah Falls, along the Columbia River east of Portland, right off the interstate. Parking area, picnic area, you can hike to above the falls if you are so inclined. Multnomah is one of several falls in the area. I have several photos on 35mm film, none in digital.

Thanks Jerry,I forgot the name of the falls and would have had to look up some of my notes,nice area but windy as all heck,told the truck seepers had to go out every day and clean up road debries..
Jerry you can get your digital and shoot a 35 pic,quality not so hot but it is doable....pic of a pic..laying on my floor...

[Jerry]

Jerry you can get your digital and shoot a 35 pic,quality not so hot but it is doable

Most of my photos from that time are on 35mm slide (transparancy) film, mostly Kodachrome but also some Fujichrome. I do have a Minolta film scanner that I have used to convert some shots into digital format, but don't really have the space to set it up and do a large number of scans. (Scanner will do 35mm transparencies and negatives.) Would like to get a more modern scanner and set it up for batch processing; I have quite a few slides of the first couple XS11 rallies I attended and would like to eventualy convert them to digital format.

The Columbia Gorge is almost always windy. However, this leads to some fun watching the windsurfers on the river.

For anyone who might be going through this area, old portions of the pre-interstate route still exist on the Oregon side of the river; you get above the Gorge and look into it. These side jaunts are quite scenic and worth-while if you have the time.

[STEPPENWOLF]

For anyone who might be going through this area, old portions of the pre-interstate route still exist on the Oregon side of the river; you get above the Gorge and look into it. These side jaunts are quite scenic and worth-while if you have the time.[/QUOTE]

Left Portland on Amtrak and stayed on the Oregon side..river level but still very nice..not a very good pic but..


Nice area...not many people around on a thursday afternoon in february:-)