By 8:30AM we were all ready to roll out, 2 – Yamaha FZ1’s, 2 – Ninja 250’s (Our students for the day our new buddy Josh on his Honda 600RR, and one amazingly smokey Dodge Diesel pickup truck.

After a bite to eat at Panera Bread company (Cinnamon Crunch Bagels ROCK!) we set out to find some good curvy roads… Did we ever! After a couple of runs, dragging knee and showing the guys how to properly get off their bikes to keep them from continuing to drag their pegs, we headed back to the house so that Ethan and I could rush North to Des Moines.

We stopped once for food, twice for fuel and once to take a picture of a giant 8 ball. All day, it was around 106 degrees… HOT! I drank over 4 liters of water in those short hours, probably could have downed even more.

Me, with a HUGE 8 Ball! (Everyone should paint their water tower at least as cool as this).

The “Mighty Melt” which had excellent food (Somewhereville, MO)

Shortly before we arrived in Des Moines, I started experiencing some really weird riding characteristics, at first I thought it was just the wind, coupled with the added weight on the rear shock, but I quickly realized that I was REALLY low on air pressure. I topped it off about 40 miles South of Des Moines and by the time I’d helped us get thoroughly turned around in the city, it was back down to where it was dangerously low (Scary feeling!).

Another top of and a couple of dozen more wrong turns and we’d found our way to our long time friends, the Sorenson’s home… A delicious lasagna dinner and we were out the door to downtown Des Moines for a show at the Muse.

“Envy Corps”

From the Muse we took a quick ride over to Emily’s favorite “Spot”… The steps of the Capitol building. She said she’d only been harassed by the Police once, and that was at around 3AM, so we figured we were safe

Gave me the chance to get this cool shot though:

Still working to catch ya’ll up… Riding through to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or Montana tomorrow, weather permitting.

By 8:30AM we were all ready to roll out, 2 – Yamaha FZ1’s, 2 – Ninja 250’s (Our students for the day our new buddy Josh on his Honda 600RR, and one amazingly smokey Dodge Diesel pickup truck.

After a bite to eat at Panera Bread company (Cinnamon Crunch Bagels ROCK!) we set out to find some good curvy roads… Did we ever! After a couple of runs, dragging knee and showing the guys how to properly get off their bikes to keep them from continuing to drag their pegs, we headed back to the house so that Ethan and I could rush North to Des Moines.

We stopped once for food, twice for fuel and once to take a picture of a giant 8 ball. All day, it was around 106 degrees… HOT! I drank over 4 liters of water in those short hours, probably could have downed even more.

Me, with a HUGE 8 Ball! (Everyone should paint their water tower at least as cool as this).

The “Mighty Melt” which had excellent food (Somewhereville, MO)

Shortly before we arrived in Des Moines, I started experiencing some really weird riding characteristics, at first I thought it was just the wind, coupled with the added weight on the rear shock, but I quickly realized that I was REALLY low on air pressure. I topped it off about 40 miles South of Des Moines and by the time I’d helped us get thoroughly turned around in the city, it was back down to where it was dangerously low (Scary feeling!).

Another top of and a couple of dozen more wrong turns and we’d found our way to our long time friends, the Sorenson’s home… A delicious lasagna dinner and we were out the door to downtown Des Moines for a show at the Muse.

“Envy Corps”

From the Muse we took a quick ride over to Emily’s favorite “Spot”… The steps of the Capitol building. She said she’d only been harassed by the Police once, and that was at around 3AM, so we figured we were safe

Gave me the chance to get this cool shot though:

Still working to catch ya’ll up… Riding through to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or Montana tomorrow, weather permitting.

We woke up early and took the guys riding on their Ninja 250’s, their friend on a CBR 600 rr came along as well. We rode out to Panera bread for breakfast and looked like a biker gang pulling in My dad called me and I told him who I was with and it turns out that the Eldridges used to live in PA and we had gone to their house looking at mini bikes. Now 10+ years later we were riding together in Missouri, it’s a small world after all. We rode some good roads, I got my knee down a few times, which was fun and we taught them how to get off the bikes and ride a little better. After riding, they went to work and we went to Des Moines.

The trip up was almost as hot as the day before but minus the traffic and with much prettier scenery. We filled up with super unleaded in a small town for 2.82! only to discover that at the next town it was 2.72. They need to start adding ethanol to the gas on the east coast. We arrived at the Sorenson’s house and went out on the town with their daughter Emily.

We went to Vaudeville Muse and listened to a band called “The Envy Corps” they were pretty good but I had more fun watching the crowd try to be cool and sampling the local brews. If you ever go to Iowa try Boulevard beer, I had their wheat ale and pale ale and I was impressed. After the concert we drove to the capitol building overlooking the city and hung out. It was a beautiful view and the place was deserted making for a fun evening. We got back to the house late and watched “Amile”. After 20 minutes the day caught up with me and I fell fast asleep.

We woke up early and took the guys riding on their Ninja 250’s, their friend on a CBR 600 rr came along as well. We rode out to Panera bread for breakfast and looked like a biker gang pulling in My dad called me and I told him who I was with and it turns out that the Eldridges used to live in PA and we had gone to their house looking at mini bikes. Now 10+ years later we were riding together in Missouri, it’s a small world after all. We rode some good roads, I got my knee down a few times, which was fun and we taught them how to get off the bikes and ride a little better. After riding, they went to work and we went to Des Moines.

The trip up was almost as hot as the day before but minus the traffic and with much prettier scenery. We filled up with super unleaded in a small town for 2.82! only to discover that at the next town it was 2.72. They need to start adding ethanol to the gas on the east coast. We arrived at the Sorenson’s house and went out on the town with their daughter Emily.

We went to Vaudeville Muse and listened to a band called “The Envy Corps” they were pretty good but I had more fun watching the crowd try to be cool and sampling the local brews. If you ever go to Iowa try Boulevard beer, I had their wheat ale and pale ale and I was impressed. After the concert we drove to the capitol building overlooking the city and hung out. It was a beautiful view and the place was deserted making for a fun evening. We got back to the house late and watched “Amile”. After 20 minutes the day caught up with me and I fell fast asleep.