Category: Motorcycling

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Clover Cemetery on SR 133

I have passed this place on several occasions but have never noticed the sign in front of the Clover Cemetery on Ohio SR 133, north of Bethel. It caught my eye and haunted me to turn around and stop.

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Civil War Medal of Honor recipient John H. Wageman, of Clermont County is buried in the Clover Cemetery. I searched for his grave, but could not find it. Many markers are not legible due to weathering. I may have stood at or walked past his final resting spot without knowing it.

The US Military keeps a record of all recipients. Here is Wageman’s:

WAGEMAN, JOHN H.

Rank and organization: Private, Company I, 60th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 17 June 1864. Entered service at: Amelia, Ohio. Birth: Clermont County, Ohio. Date of issue: 27 July 1896. Citation: Remained with the command after being severely wounded until he had fired all the cartridges in his possession, when he had to be carried from the field.

http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/civwarmz.html

It must have been quite a battle on the field, and later in the halls of Congress, for according to this record, it took 32 years for John H. Wageman of Clermont County to receive his Congressional Medal of Honor. R.I.P. Private Wageman.

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See you on the highway.

Brent

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These boots were made for riding

Most of the time, the riding boots are stored in the hall closet along with other footwear, jackets, hats and gloves. The house looks less cluttered that way especially around the back door to the garage. The boots don’t always go in the closet. Sometimes, after returning from a motorcycle ride, I pull off my boots while seated at the kitchen table and set them next to the patio door where they are still out of the way but more accessible and at the ready for a quick jaunt or a longer adventure.

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Today, however, I put on the boots, rode out for coffee and breakfast, returned home to take care of a mailing, rode to the post office and then grocery store, and never removed my boots. I wandered back and forth from the kitchen to my writing space with my boots still on, and pondering their comfort. A discussion was going on in my head.

“Why don’t you take off the boots?”

“I don’t know. I might want to go out on the motorcycle again.”

“Are all the errands done?”

“Yes. But, I might want to just go out.”

“Where you going?”

“I don’t know, just out on the motorcycle. It’s the freedom of the ride.”

“So, why don’t you take off your boots. You can put them back on if you go out.”

“Yeah, but I might be going in just a few minutes. I’ll leave them on for a while longer.”

And so went the discussion in my head—past the noon hour, past 1 p.m., past 2 p.m. and going on 3 p.m. Back and forth. Back and forth, until I had an idea.

“Brent, why don’t you take your boots off, take a picture of them, and then write something for the web site? Give it some life.”

“Okay. I can do that.” … The boots come off. Tripod set up with camera mounted. The camera shutter clicks. The laptop keyboard clicks away, and after a quick proof and edit. The publish button is keyed. And now, you are reading this, because I didn’t want to take my boots off.

See you on the highway … after I put my riding boots back on.

Brent

PS Where are my riding gloves?

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Motorcycle dreaming

I’ve been thinking about other motorcycles lately. It appears Suzuki is going to update the V-Strom, and a few details and photos were leaked prematurely. There was a feeding frenzy by moto journalists and several trade publications.

I really like my V-Strom, and I have not found anything that might replace it. But, what if I was looking for something different to ride, a second bike, a stable mate to the DL650. There have been several motorcycles on my short list, including a little nostalgia.

Doug Klassen, Forty Years on Two Wheels, sent me a link to a video of his dream bike, and it just so happens it’s on my short list. We’ve been trading e-mails. Here’s a video link he sent:

Cycle World Presents: The Jack Pine Triumph Scrambler

 

I’ve lusted over a Scrambler for some time. Having watched this video several times, including the times before Doug sent it to me, I decided to ride to my nearest Triumph dealer, Joe’s Cycle in Dayton. They report a Scrambler shortage—no 2011s available. Well … doesn’t that beat all. It’s probably just as well.

I had a nice ride. Wandered a bit.

See you on the highway.

Brent

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Touring aviation history with a passport

Dayton-Aero-NHS-33I knew the National Historic Site was there, but I had never visited. And, I can’t explain why. But, with a day available for motorcycling, I decided it was time. Armed with my National Parks Passport, I headed to Dayton, Ohio, to the Wright Brothers Visitor’s Center to see where aviation as we know it all started.

Officially, it is the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center, just one of five sites in the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park. That’s how it is listed in the Passport and accompanying map of all parks and historic sites.

Most people know about Orville and Wilbur Wright and their efforts towards the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. The Dunbar of the interpretive center is Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American writer and poet known to the Wright Brothers. Dunbar and Orville Wright were in the same graduating class of Dayton Central High School, 1891, and the Wright Brothers published Dunbar’s newspaper in their print shop.

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The complex is in the historic section of Dayton on 3rd Street at South Williams. A 30-minute film provides a lot of information as a docu-drama detailing the efforts to build an airplane and then learn how to fly it.

The Wright Brothers operated several businesses, including a printing business and the bicycle shop. A park ranger said the restored Wright Cycle Co. building is the actual location and building number four of five locations they occupied. The Wright family home was just down the street on South Williams. The ranger also verified that the Wright family home and bicycle shop #5 are at the Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. Ford bought the buildings and moved them to his museum for preservation.

After touring the bicycle shop, I motorcycled to the Wright Brothers National Memorial near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Also at the site is the Huffman Prairie interpretive site. The Wrights perfected their airplane using Huffman Prairie as their test site, and hence, it is officially the first airport.

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It was a great day for motorcycling. Get your own NPS Passport and start planning your adventures and destinations. Passports can be ordered online, or you can buy one at the many National Parks and get it stamped while you’re there.

See you on the highway.

Brent

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Home delivery of the weekly free newspaper

The dually-wheeled pickup truck pulled out of the side road with plenty of safe distance, but then failed to accelerate to highway speeds. Following at a safe distance on the motorcycle, I soon realized why it was going slow and would continue to go slow.

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At every driveway, he was flipping a rolled up newspaper in one of those plastic sleeves out of the truck. Although there was a passenger, the driver was like a robot, throwing to the left and then over the cab of the truck to the driveways on the right.

Because of the double yellow line, and the curves, I was content to follow and watch, but then, I had little choice. He rarely missed. Oh sure, there was an occasional paper in a tree, and one missed the driveway and slid into a gulley. That one will probably lay there for a while. Maybe a long while.

We have the same method of delivery in our neighborhood. The other day, while I was rolling the motorcycle out of the garage, and had it parked at the end of the drive, a delivery driver rolled by and threw our paper forcefully to the side of me. I will give him the benefit of doubt, because he did wave. I picked the weekly flyer up and properly disposed of it in the recycle bin. I never read them. But I am absolutely sure that all those papers thrown out on Middleboro Road delivered by that driver in a dual-wheeled, heavy duty pick up truck were read cover to cover. Well maybe. Okay, maybe they were recycled like mine.

The one aspect of this brief encounter that I am still wondering about is why anybody would use a heavy-duty, dual-wheel pick up truck to deliver newspapers. That thing probably gets 10 miles per gallon! Even the guy in my neighborhood is using a small car. Maybe the truck owner thought it would be a good way to deduct mileage and therefore write off the truck expense, and he would own a truck that could pull heavy duty equipment. Yeah, maybe that’s it.

Or, maybe it’s just a truck thing.

See you on the highway.

Brent