July 27th to August 2nd
3154 Miles
Rita had been searching for something that’d work better than her Honda Shadow. She’s not getting the hang of riding the bike and wants to get a trike. After weeks of searching, she found one on e-bay that we liked the look of. A nice looking 1980’s era Goldwing trike (1200cc). It wasn’t beat in to submission and had some 40k miles on it which wasn’t all that bad. It was in Dayton Ohio so we planned a trip out to pick it up. Rita was ready to ride it back and she’d sold her bike (although it was still in the garage until the buyer finished her riders class).
I also decided to attempt to complete my first Iron Butt SaddleSore, 1000 miles in 24 hours by riding to Evansville Indiana.
In Ohio, I got directions back to the hotel.
It was 10:30 or so and I needed to check out of the hotel before noon so I asked one of the sales guys what would be the best directions to get back. He said we were fairly close and it’d just take 20 minutes or so and gave me the directions.
Go back out to Steels Corner Road and make a right turn. Go all the way down to the end of the road and make a left. Within 400 yards or so will be Bath Road. Make a right and follow Bath road. It’ll get a little twisty but keep following the signs. Eventually you’ll get to Ghent Road. Make a left. A little ways down the road splits at a fork. Take the right fork. You’ll cross under Route 77. Just a bit down from there is Route 18. Make a right and you’ll be just a block from the hotel.
Excellent. I repeat the directions just to make sure I get them right and head out on the bike. I have to get our gear packed up and head back to the dealership so we can head out.
I make the right turn with no problem and follow it down past a stop sign to the end and make the left turn. Within a short distance is Bath Road and I make the right turn there. A little ways down Bath takes a right off the “main” road but I follow the directions. It comes back out on Revere Road which is also Bath Road. I make a right there and cross under Route 77. So far so good. I get to a light and the road is North Cleveland-Massillon Road. I continue on until I get to the end of the road. Hmm, this is Allard road and he didn’t say it’d end and I’m sure I didn’t pass Ghent Road.
Ok, make a left and follow it around. I pass under an obvious freeway and decide that I need to find an on-ramp figuring I’ll get back to my hotel one way or another. I make a right turn and see the freeway again. I can see a rest area farther down the freeway and make a left after going under the freeway. While I did cross another street, I decided to continue on and hit Route 303. There were several cars going right so I figured I’ll follow them.
When I got to a smallish town I saw a sign that said Route 271 to the right so I made the right turn and headed towards the on-ramp. I was running low on gas so was hunting for a station. When I didn’t find one before hitting the freeway I decided that I had enough gas to get to a station on the freeway and headed off. I figured that I’d get to either Route 77 or Route 71 which was the road I came to town. I could then just find exit 218 which was Route 18 and simply head back to my hotel.
I followed 271 south until I got to the Route 94 exit where there was a station. I pulled in and gassed up. While I was there, I asked the lady behind the counter how to get to East Market Street and Route 77. One of the guys asked which hotel and said that I just needed to follow Route 94 until I got to the Sheetz station. That was Route 18. Make a left and go down to Route 77. My hotel will be just past the underpass on the right.
A little distrustful, I went ahead and headed down Route 94 and made the left. About 10 minutes later I was at the hotel. It was 1pm and the phone was ringing. You know you’re supposed to check out at noon? Yea yea. I got odd directions from the guy at the dealership. I’ll be out as soon as I get packed up. Rita also called looking for me. I explained that I was following the directions from the guy and didn’t find the Ghent Road turn.
I went down, paid for the room and started to head out. I stopped, pulled in and asked the lady what the best and quickest directions to the dealership. She said to head to Route 77 and get in the left lane. Follow it around to the left. Get off at Route 8 and head north. At the Steels Corner Road exit follow it down to State Road and you’ll be at the dealer.
I followed her directions and was back at the dealership in 20 minutes. I found the guy and told him what happened. He looked puzzled and asked if I saw the light and the police station. I said yes but that it was Clevelend-Massillon and not Ghent Road. He apologized saying that he didn’t think it went out that far. Apparently Clevelend-Massillon changes to Ghent Road farther towards town.
That was an interesting ride.