Episode 050 - BMR Podcast Year in Review Show

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[00:00:00] Todd, what did the motorcycle say about the past year? I don't know. It had its ups and downs, but we're still in gear. ​

Well, the bottom line Todd on this kind of year in review for 2024 is we had two nice rides, two day rides and one big ride and one big ride.

So it kind of started off in April on a unfortunate waylay for you, I guess. Right. Yeah. So we had planned, let's see, the eclipse ride that we did a few years back, there was another eclipse coming. So we were like, got to get to it. It was kind of dicey at first think planning it because it was in April.

Yeah, so it was early and we could have met it a little further north if we had went due west like into Indiana, but with April it's like We got to be careful. So we kind of chose to head south So basically just due south of Iowa City all the way [00:01:00] down to the Missouri Arkansas border, right? To Donovan, Missouri is where we ended up going And, uh, wow.

And this happened to be a pretty long eclipse. Uh, so that was kind of exciting and fun, I guess. We ended up going to this town where it was a ton of people there. I mean, I picked a town where I thought maybe there wouldn't be anybody. I mean, there was probably 3, 000 people, maybe more, 5, 000 people. But we ended up parking in a church parking lot.

~Um, ~And watching it there, because I was kind of looking for some place to fly the drone and do some things, but it was long, uh, and wild. I mean, you would experience the full eclipse, but what I would say about that is if you ever get a chance to see the full eclipse, you really got to try to figure out how to get there.

~Um, ~and then the second thing I would say is. Don't try to go on the main roads to get out of there. That was horrible. Afterwards, we really got tied up on these main roads. And the funny part is if we'd have went back to the motorcycle roads, we'd have had a [00:02:00] great ride and we had not gotten like literally just stop and go.

Yeah, so and Google Maps when there's that much traffic is BS. So don't even pay attention. It was like, oh take a left. There's a new faster way. Yeah, it just saved us two minutes. Because everybody made that same turn, right? Well, you could see that happening too. Like people were taking the turn, then it said, go back the other way.

You know, and it's like, but we really should have just went left when the others went right, and that would have been better. Yeah. We'd have been better going south 400 miles,~ um,~ than we would have there. So, but it was a great way to start the year. I mean, I think from the ride standpoint, uh, That it was really fun, and it was super cold the day you left.

I mean it actually it was raining. It was raining Yeah, and of course in my fashion. I didn't put the gear until it was full boat raining until you were totally safe Exactly, so no, but it was fun in the next day though or even the rest of that afternoon It got warmed up sun came out and things got better So so that was kind of a [00:03:00] couple three day four day ride In May, uh, Turk and I just ran a day ride up to the Slimy Crud Run, which, you haven't been Still haven't been up there yet.

We definitely gotta do that. So Slimy Crud Run is a run that goes from Pine Bluff, Wisconsin to Leland, Wisconsin. It's always the first Sunday and the first October of, uh, excuse me. The first Sunday of May, first Sunday of October. And it's just a funky thing, ~um. ~These guys that used to write articles for motorcycle magazines back in the 70's just started doing their group ride.

Just for them. We're just riding from Pine Bluff to Leland. ~Um, ~just for fun. And then it just kept growing. No sponsors, no ads, no one even really talks about it. There's a Facebook page that I think is defunct and a website page. All they do is keep the dates up to date. But, it's just the wildest thing and you really do have to go to it.

Cause, there's a Anywhere from two to five thousand bikes there. Mm hmm every bike vintage classics new bikes Three wheelers, [00:04:00] you know cafe racers. You pick it like You know Self creations Frankenstein bikes, but yeah, my quote on that is you'll see one of every bike you can ever imagine. Yeah, I mean almost To religiously, like from small rup mini bikes to Harley's every version of Harley, every version of every bike.

If you just want to see the bike that you think you might want to go there because it's going to be there. And Wisconsin's known for adventure riding bikes. So, I mean, it's just literally everything. That's all cool. Yeah. It's just wild. And everyone's just really cool. Everybody hangs out. There's no garbage.

And, and then when you get to Leland, you can get a salami and cheese sandwich and that's the thing you do. So like, I don't know. It's wild. ~Um, ~I mean, Leland's now, unfortunately, almost become an unincorporated place. And I think the only time it's even has more than 10 people in it is, is the first Sunday of May and first Sunday of October.

And they, they pick those dates because it's kind of the bookends in the Midwest for motorcycle season. Yeah. I don't [00:05:00] know why. I mean, I don't think there's a rhyme or reason, but yep. I mean, that's just what it became. Yeah. They kind of call it the start of the season and the end of the season. I think so.

Yeah. And I've been when it's hot, I've been when it's cold on all those. So like I've probably been four or five times and it's fun. It's fun. We'll have to definitely get there. Yeah, for sure. But if you, if you're anywhere near, even if I wouldn't say drive a car there, but like, man, it's just cool. And there's just bikes and they kind of just kind of like we talked about in the last episode about scatter shotgun, there's no rules.

There's no time to be, there's no time to leave, but yeah, it's just, it's fun. It's cool. It's just something so unique in the motorcycling world. Yeah. And then I guess,~ um,~ in May also, we went on a Northeast Iowa ride. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I think our goal on that ride, really, we wanted to try and find, at least in, in the Iowa side where the great river road was going to start.

Cause we've seen some signs. So many times, I think you went to Decorah, uh, to Luther college. My son went to Luther college and we'd drive up there. And the way that [00:06:00] I was always going was,~ um,~ I can't remember what road it even is, but. Eldorado, Iowa. When you're driving through, you come down this huge, like, hill, and it comes into this flat, no cell service whatsoever.

And you go through El Dorado, and then just on the north side of El Dorado, it's the Great River Road on a sign, just on a street sign. And I always said, I want to start there and see where this thing goes. So, that's basically what we did. That's, yeah, what we We were just going to make this a one day ride, and just, you know, for however long it was going to take us.

And, so we kind of headed up there towards Central City, and then made our way across. Uh, found that road, got, got started on it and then, like, no kidding, it was five miles, I think. Yeah, five miles and the bridge was out. Yeah. Like, detour, or, I don't remember if there was a detour sign, it was just bridge was out, right?

Well, yeah, we couldn't go on a portion that we really wanted to go to because the bridge was out. Yeah. So we ended up not going by it. Yeah. But, uh, we ended up getting back to it. I mean, we found our way around. Eventually, yeah. Yeah. So, that was a little bit of a buzzkill, but. For me, the [00:07:00] highlight of that was coming, we went, then, you know, that kind of ends you up in Dubuque, up by Balltown.

And for me, the highlight was Highway 3, which I did not realize ran from coast to coast. Coast to coast of Iowa, thank you. Is there somewhere else? No, I'm just kidding. Out of Dubuque, heading west, out of Dubuque, is a cool road. Like, and it's kind of like, it kind of, you're in town, and then pretty soon you're like, just out of town like that.

~Um. ~That first, I don't know, probably we're at 30 miles, maybe you'd say, that was cool. Oh, beautiful road too, like, well kept, I mean, it was concrete from what I remember. Yeah, I don't remember, but it was nice. Yeah, it was super nice road, curvy, and you know, elevations and stuff to see, and no, it was, it was really great.

It was like, I had no idea it was there, and you know, like, this new discovery of road I want to ride more of. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And then, uh, late July, early August, Turk and I went on the mega ride. Yeah, we rode out to Seattle and back. [00:08:00] So that was quite a ride. How many miles in one direction? Uh, well, it was just about a little over 2000 miles each direction.

So we ended up clocking 5, 600 miles,~ um,~ in 12 days, I think is what it meant, 11 or 12 days. So we rode out to Seattle through the Black Hills, South Dakota way. And then when we came back, we actually came through, I mean, you go to Montana both ways, but we came through Montana and went through,~ um,~ North Dakota because Turk had never been in North Dakota.

So we were back that way. And so it was awesome. ~Um, ~and probably the highlight, I would say, and there's tons of them, but like Olympic Island out in Seattle, my mind, I thought Seattle was just on the Pacific coast and it's not. I mean, it's. It's 200 miles inland, 150 miles inland. ~Um, ~there's a bay, you know, there's a big bay.

So Seattle itself is on a bay of the, of the Pacific, but you go way out there to Olympic Island and it's unbelievable. So Olympic [00:09:00] mountain range is out there and that is basically, all this I didn't know until we went out there is more or less a rainforest. That's in the US. I didn't even know that until we started doing the research and kind of figuring that out.

Yeah, and so it's there's no There's no roads in that, you know, there's there's roads to get there But then like people go out there and camp but it's it's walk in and walk out kind of stuff. So it's it is neat You have to get out there even if you're in a car or whatever just get out there because And it's kind of fun too because you can go all the way down to Tacoma and come up and drive out there, but you can also take a ferry.

So we took a ferry a few times too, which was really fun. It's just a pretty, it's a really short ferry ride. Okay. But it, it, it, that was fun. ~Um, ~they let motorcycles go on first, like some of the ferries we've been on, but you drive all the way up front and then you're the first ones off. Nice. So like, it is the way to travel on that ferry too, is by bike.

Uh, because otherwise there's a lot of cars on there. I mean. It's neat. ~Um, ~there's tons, tons of vehicles. [00:10:00] So, we had a really good time, met, talked, chatted with the other motorcyclists there. One guy I met, uh, rode his moped from Seattle all the way down to the tail of the Dragon. Oh, wow. And I'm, we're talking like a, like, it was like a 50cc motor.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I still got to get a hold of that guy again and tell his story. But, uh, yeah. There's plenty of groups that do that. Yeah, it's a thing. It is definitely a thing. It looks like fun. I'd like to try that sometime. Have you rode one of those very much? Never. Yeah, you have. Sorry, I shouldn't speak too soon.

We might just turn for a group ride to Iowa City first and see how it goes. Let's just put it this way. I've never seen a Russell Daylong on a moped. Good point. You'll be extracting the seat from your backside before it gets to people. Alright. I've got a scooter ish. ~Um, ~a Honda,~ um,~ silver wing. And I don't have the stock seat on it.

So that could be part of the problem, but like Cedar Rapids and back is a lot. No kidding. All right. Yeah. And it goes a hundred miles an hour. So when you're, yeah, [00:11:00] we'll talk about that later. I think I said the coolest thing I saw was Olympic Island, but I think that's where I went on a rant. And really, literally threw my gear away when we got back because it was so bad.

And that's when we kind of went over to Bond,~ um,~ uh, gear. And I think, there's two things, I mean like, for day rides, I think you'll need a little bit of gear. And Bond has some gear for like, just throwing it on and wearing it. Protection, you know, just riding around local day ride type of stuff. But, boy, this is a game changer.

I've used it one time. And it's more or less like think long underwear with armor and then you just put over the top, whatever you want. It's so great. Like I know you got some just got to try it on the package. I can't wait to try it. Well, maybe we can do the slimy cred run and you can wear it, but perfect.

It's just great. It's, it's so comfortable. ~Um, ~it's just, I can't say enough about it. Check it out on the website and give them a call. Kristen over there is amazing. So yeah. So that takes us to about Labor Day. So that was [00:12:00] our other kind of multi day trip. Uh, Labor Day, we went back to the UP. Now we've been to the UP.

This is probably, maybe the fifth time I would say. And so we just kind of did our classics,~ um,~ went up the North side of Lake Michigan, Manistique, Muskegon, that area went across the Mackinac bridge. And that's where we kind of changed it up a little bit instead of cutting back and hitting Lake Michigan on the It'd be the like what eastern side of Lake Michigan.

We went over to Huron, which we haven't done before. So that was kind of a nude twist On it now, you know very similar looking rides, of course There was nothing super earth shattering about it, but it was neat just to see a little little different area we rode into some new cities and found some new things, you know, and I think the My reflection on that is is like Some of these Midwest areas are really just continuing to shrink and, and you really have to be kind of careful in some of these areas.

There's just not a lot going on in them. So, you know, I mean, you [00:13:00] can make it work, but like even sometimes eating and the first night's hotel in Escanaba, we probably could have chose something a little better. Uh, it was a little bit rough on that Super 8, but in, in general, it was, it was nice and fun and we had a good time.

~Um, ~And then came back through Tunnel of Trees and back over Mackinac and just great, you know, classic roads Some of those are on our best roads of each state. Mm hmm Yeah, so one thing we didn't get to do is there is that Hill, Michigan? That's quite a bit for the south closer to Detroit. We didn't quite get down there It's maybe another trip for another time but the other thing I would say is like like I said, this is probably the fifth time being in the UP and We just learned and saw so many new things that, you know, you don't always see every time.

So I just think sometimes that's the magic of going back, you know, you forget about some of the things you see, you remember some of the things that you did remember. And I don't know, it's just kind of a neat, I guess, just getting old. Is there anything specific that like sticks out to you? ~Um, ~I mean, it was just fun to go back to [00:14:00] some of the pasty shops, but even just,~ um, um, ~Just like riding some of the roads.

There's a there's a couple bridges that you just oh man I remember riding this before You know, ~um, ~we when we go across mackinac bridge, we always stop in the same place take the same picture So we have like three or four pictures from this little spot and I don't know it's just neat to to do that and Now we have like I think we have like three or four pictures from that same spot and I don't know I know, you know, it's the Kind of the recreation of your childhood photos, you know, like we did one of those and The first time we rode that would have been like,~ um,~ I think 07, 07 or 08 was the first time we did it.

That's been a few years ago. You know, you look a little different, a few less, a few more gray hairs now. Uh, but no, Brad and I, you know, it took a, we kind of retook a picture and I don't know, it's just fun. I think, uh, that trip was one of the ones where I rode a, like a standard, it was like a FC 1000. And like, you know, the difference of riding that bike and this gobling that I had this time is like [00:15:00] Night and day.

Yeah, I mean, it's just things change you change the bikes change We can afford a little bit more I was wearing jeans and I didn't get everything packed into like a nike duffel bag like zip tied onto the back I mean just I don't know. That's the things you kind of refresh and remember ~Um, ~you know There's some restaurants that we've stayed and went and gone to and those have changed and not changed some of them close some of them Are not that's kind of what i'm thinking I guess.

~Um ~You The Tunnel of Trees is cool every time. It kind of amazes me like almost every time we've wrote it. So, just things like that I think. ~Um, ~felt like I had to make more, uh, restroom breaks this time than last time. Just things like that. So, yeah. And then I guess pretty much our last one was a day ride too in October.

I call it the leaf ride. I think we tried to, yeah, we were, we ended up with a brown out. Yeah. We're out a little too early before the leaves really changed colors. It's hard, hard to predict and hard to plan. Yeah. Uh, we, but we kind of said, okay, within this two weeks, that's, that's when the color should change.

Well, they were starting to [00:16:00] change, but it wasn't significant. Like we were hoping, you know, the fire colors, but,~ um,~ I think that one of the coolest things we did was, uh, we rode the Grant Wood Scenic Byway. Yeah. And hadn't done that Grant Wood's kind of a Iowa thing, right? I mean like an Iowa artist that has a lot of history.

A lot of history. All over the state, really. Yeah, and best known for the American Gothic painting. Correct. You know, the old dude and his pitchfork. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Wife stand next to him, barn in the background and So yeah, he lived here. He taught here, you know, he had an art studio and They kind of created this, this scenic byway, you know.

It's like the Iowa historical, you know, travel Iowa people. It's cool. It's kind of neat. It really is. And it's not anything you can Google. You can't really, well, you can Google it, but you can't find it on a Google map. Right. It won't show you that, right, so you need to get to where it is. And then you actually just follow the signs along the road.

And they're, you know, small signs that say, you know, you're on the Grant Wood Scenic [00:17:00] Byway. And sometimes you get to some intersections, you kind of have to look ahead. Where does, where does it go? So yeah, it's, it was fun. It was neat. It's a nice road. And you guys have stayed in the hotel. One of the hotels that's on that, which is kind of cool.

Yes. And I know I'm blanking on the coconut. Sorry. Yeah. But it's a historic hotel. That's that's kind of remained. Uh, you know, with the same decorations in the, uh, in the woodwork and the carpenting and the desk front desk is all the same in the, in the front of the hotel. And,~ um,~ you know, it's still open.

They've done some restorations, but you just hope that some of these things can stick around. I mean, you know, I don't know. This is us getting old again, I think a little bit, but like, you don't want to forget about all these things that have been going on. Like There's just some neat things to see in all states.

I think yeah, I don't know. So yeah, that was a fun ride easy day, right? Yeah, a few hundred miles a couple hundred miles and met a friend for lunch Yeah, most at the end of the day and yeah, that was cool. It was [00:18:00] nice So I guess just like this is kind of our ride reflection for the year. I mean like what?

What are you thinking for next year? I mean after talking about the slimy cred run I think I think I myself and and I think maybe mark have only been there so I think Between the two dates, I'd like to see if most of our people can get to that. Yeah, I would definitely like to get to the May, the May ride for sure.

I think that should be a goal. Yep. A buddy of mine that's,~ um,~ getting a little older, uh, wants to ride the Tail of the Dragon this year. Oh. And then he's going to sell his big bike. No kidding. Yeah, so it's going to be kind of his, uh, final big trip. So sometime, I'm thinking he, we talked about going like, Even if we left like labor day time and then go after like let school get in So I think we're talking about maybe a seven eight day ride Which I think that would be interesting, especially if everyone could plan it out because we never rode It was the most we've ever been down there's five days.

I think yeah, and I feel like i'm always rushed and ~um, ~I [00:19:00] know that he has a niece that's at uh, I think you, uh, North Carolina and he wants to stop and see yourself. I think the Carolina, the Carolinas are a place that we definitely need to ride, right? And then my buddy Mike has that cabin. I'd like to go back and see the tobacco.

Yes again. See what he's yeah But ~um, ~so that's that's another one. ~Um ~We've got other things on the kind of in our wish list, but~ um, ~there's a guy, cruise man that's down in Dallas and I'd like to ride. We, we mapped out a really cool ride, basically rides the Southern Missouri like border. And so not everyone might be able to ride all the way down to Dallas, but I was thinking about going to Dallas, catching cruise man for breakfast, and then maybe coming back up to Missouri and then ride, maybe meet you guys.

And maybe we could. Test out that, that, I can't remember what the name of that was, but it was a cool looking ride. Had a bunch of names of, it was just a neat looking place. And it starts basically in the Southwestern most corner of Missouri. We've wrote a lot down there and it's, it's pretty cool. Yeah.

[00:20:00] And you know, Dallas is what? 12 hours. I think, if you don't stop. Yeah. Yeah. Well, why would you, I mean, simple ride. So if we meet for six o'clock breakfast, we just started at six o'clock at night. Yeah. Perfect. Turn around and meet you guys in 12, it'll only be like six hours back to there. Yeah. And I still want to get out and ride, you know, West.

I'd like to get in the Rocky mountains and ride there, but there's only so much time in the summer and we've already got some, some other plans in the work. So, yeah, I mean, that's definitely, I mean, that I thinking that's 2025 ride, but like we got to start planning sometime and figure out stuff. I mean, I know that there's options, you know, I'd like to explore in 2025, the shipping thing, like maybe not do the shipping of bikes this year, but like, I think we should dig into it more and see what it entails.

Yeah. Because man, would that be cool? Well, we've talked about riding the route 66, you know, as much of it as we can find. And I don't think you can, [00:21:00] I shouldn't say you can't, but I mean, I I'm guessing that's a six, seven day ride one way. Yeah. So I think we've got to figure out a way to,~ um,~ Ship bike somewhere.

Mm hmm. Grab them and come back. I would think yeah. Yeah, I would I'm dying to do that at some point. We got to do it and I don't want to rush it There's so many things along the way. I want to see. Yeah, so, you know, even if radiator Springs is one of them Oh, it's more time. That would be fine. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's one of those rides Those are one of those ones that we really do need to kind of get everyone circled I think we need to think about like Maybe getting some ideas for 2026, 2027, because yeah, that's going to be harder to plan.

Oh yeah, for sure. And someone's probably gonna have to go out there and figure out this, like receiving these bikes somehow. Like, yeah, that's gotta, we need to definitely put that on the docket. That'd be a great episode. I think of like, how do you do that? Yeah. I have a cousin that lives in the Los Angeles area.

I've got a friend that's in San [00:22:00] Diego. I don't have anybody up in San Francisco that I can think of, but. I feel like we can figure this out. Yeah. Is it San Bernardino to Chicago? Is that what the, yeah, that's right. And I don't know exactly where that's at. ~Um, ~I think, I'm sorry. I didn't, well, it's tricky.

Right. Cause then if you're out there, it's like, Oh, then there's the PC one, you know, Pacific coast highway. So then do you do that? Then that's two days, three days. Now you're talking 10 days, like, It's so hard like because it's like I don't want to stop so ~um ~so many places I want to ride and then the other thing, you know when we talked about this I think on the last episode but like it's really fun to you know, do the no chains on some of these Oh, I love that idea.

Yeah, that was from John a few a few episodes interview back on the YouTube channel But yeah, I think we should really try that hard as we're doing this is no chains in in No, you, you go ahead. Yeah. No chains means no chain restaurants, no chain hotels. So everything you do has to be independently owned, whether it's a restaurant or a [00:23:00] hotel, uh, no chains.

Yeah. Yeah. And what's really cool about some of the no chain,~ um,~ hotels that we've stayed in is they're just, it's kind of a hoot. Oh, it is. It really is. You know, you meet some great people. Some of these people that run these hotels are just, you know, Happy, happy to have you there. Unique. Yeah. So we, I don't know, like we should definitely, like we, that must, we have to do the no chain route 66 when we do it.

And that's going to be hard. It's going to be very hard. I think, but, uh, we should really try hard because. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's such an iconic thing to do. Like, so. Well, ~um, ~yeah, so that's our goals. So we have to work out the maps and work out the calendars. Yeah. And see what we can do. Yeah. Thank you for watching.

Yeah, it was a great year. 2024. Happy new year. Happy new year.

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