Seems like forever since my last post and that’s a fact! The last half of 2022 was one to remember, much happened that changed my life for the better and made me a much happier person. Some of that change included a lot of riding Black Betty and some traveling adventures with my sweetheart Patty! We did several trips to places I would probably have never gone and we intend to do more this year.
To explain and talk about these adventures in one blog post would be a very long story and many photos. Rather than do that in one post my intention is to break these up into several posts over the next few weeks. Not all of these adventures included “Black Betty” but this coming year you will see more of her. 😎
One of our first adventures was another camping trip to Blackwater River State Park in late September, my favorite place to camp and enjoy the outdoors. Of course we loaded up Black Betty for this trip because it’s an awesome place to ride with great scenery and no traffic!
Following are a few photos taken at the park and some videos riding through the park in the Blackwater Forest area. If you listen closely, in some videos you can hear me chatting with Patty, our helmets have blue tooth sets so we can talk while riding. 🙂
Stay tuned for our next post coming in a few days. We visited Evansville, IN, had never been there before so it was quite interesting for me.
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
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My brother and I have a tradition of at least once a year camping at Blackwater River State Park. Love that place and our most favored thing about these camping trips is the eleven mile kayak trek down Blackwater River.
We have missed the last two years due to circumstances, one of which was due to my not being able to walk very well. See previous posts if you’re not familiar why that was? Actually the last time we camped here, it was just too cold to get in the river.
This camp time included some friends of ours, Pam and Richard Anderson. They love camping almost as much as my brother and sister-in-law, camp with them on many occasions. Pam and Richard brought some new toys with them to test. Electric powered bicycles! Of course this conjured up many conversations about the future and electric powered vehicles of all types.
They were actually testing their bicycles for a future planned camping excursion out west where a lot of bicycle riding would be beneficial.
First let me post a few of the photos taken with my phone around the campsite, floating down the river on kayaks, etc.
Monday was devoted to the Kayak trip and of course eating. They sure knew how to eat while camping. In fact, not sure why I brought any food as we never used any of it. Will say this trip down the river was much better than our last one since we wised up about the fact that no matter how smart you think you are, SUNBURN is very much a reality. Sunscreen this time, worked great and no pain afterwards.
Most of my motorcycle rides, ones video taped were all done on Tuesday while out trying to find our friends on the electric bicycles. They left ahead of me and plan was for me to catch up, follow and even do video of them riding. I said plan…. gave them about 10 minutes head start, took off and about a mile down the road realized that my phone wasn’t with me. Was wearing blue tooth helmet and wanted to listen to music and monitor phone calls while out searching for them so had to return for it…. see video below.
After retrieving the phone, next video is me listening to music (no, you can’t hear it on video) while beginning my search for the elusive electric bicycles.
This next video is to let you know that even I can sometimes miss a gear, especially on this sensitive shifter they put on the Suzuki. Still out searching the back roads for those bicycles. Just a mile or so from the park there is a four way stop, my decision was, which way to go first, only three options. 🙂
After running a few miles down two of the options, tried to find them on my phone tracker, no signal, so tried southern route toward the camp road entrance off highway 90 just to be sure they didn’t go that way. Next video is a stop on the river bridge which is really on the way out of the park area back to civilization.
Next video is going back into the campground to ensure that they had not returned while I was out searching. No they had not returned but was able to finally find their location on the tracker.
After locating them on the tracker, headed in that direction and finally found them…. next is a short video. Most times my videos are three minutes long (setting on that cheap camera) but battery was getting low so cut this one a little short.
This next video is after finding them and turning around we stopped for a chat about the bicycles. Was curious how they felt about them and questions of how long before recharging, what distance and or speed can be maintained, etc. In this video, you cannot hear much of what they are saying only me since the mic was on my helmet only. Another short video, quick chat in the middle of the road and on our way.
Long story short, they decided that about 35-40 miles would be the distance on one charge. Charging takes approximately six hours. They averaged a speed of 13-15 mph that day just taking it easy pedaling with the battery assisting. Bicycles set at highest mode could probably reach 35-40 mph if needed. Should they run out of battery power they can be manually pedaled like a normal bicycle.
There was a lot more video taken that day but most of those roads you have seen in the past and felt no need to repeat those scenes. Rode each day while there but not with camera mounted helmet.
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
Please leave comments, suggestions and hit the like button. Feel free to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other desired location. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, link below. Thank you so much for your time.
No endorsement or commission from Revzilla but I’ve purchased several items from them and have been very happy with the quality of products and the expertise of the employees, highly recommend www.revzilla.com
Seems I’m terrible at coming up with new content and certainly didn’t want to post the same thing over and over again. This however does not mean I haven’t been riding. Still looking for a more touring style bike in order to expand our distances and add new places to visit further from home.
Pretty sure I’ve explored all the back roads within a one hundred mile radius but don’t quote me on that because sometimes while riding you find a new path unknown at the time. Most of my riding lately has been without a camera rolling, just out riding the back roads looking for new places and enjoying the wind.
Below I’ll post some videos of rides I’ve taken while a video was rolling just so you know I’m still active and riding whenever the opportunity rises up and pulls me into it. 🙂
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
Please leave comments, suggestions and hit the like button. Feel free to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other desired location. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, link below. Thank you so much for your time.
No endorsement or commission from Revzilla but I’ve purchased several items from them and have been very happy with the quality of products and the expertise of the employees, highly recommend www.revzilla.com
Rather than join a large group of riders for “911 NEVER FORGET” day this year, decided to create my own FreedomRide. After all, this is about being free. Decision was to saddle up, put on my Freedom shirt and ride. No destination in the beginning but after a few miles decided that riding over to Blackwater River State Park was an excellent idea.
Was suppose to camp there back in August of this year but due to illness had to cancel the reservation. Have camped there before and absolutely love the place. It is my favorite camping place so far, but then again I’ve not camped at too many places yet. Have a reservation setup for early November, hope that nothing gets in the way of this one.
The ride that day 09/11/2021 turned out to be approximately 154 miles round trip. My Freedom Ride was meant to honor those lost on that tragic day (09/11/2001) and to never forget what happened. After that day we’ve lost so many freedoms in the name of safety. The world has changed since then. My wish is that we could someday go back to feeling the freedom we had before that infamous day!
Before going home, rode out to the place of my motorcycle accident in June of 2020. Had not visited the area on a motorcycle since the accident. Needed to do that for some weird reason. Located the lady that I hit since she works near the accident scene, was able to apologize in person and thank her for her concerns on the night of the accident. (Closure?)
See photo below of ride recorded by “My Ride” app.
Image of ride on 09/11/2021-My Freedom Ride
That tragic day actually brought this country together in ways probably never experienced before. Everyone forgot about politics, prejudices, and ill will to others, except to the terrorists. It was a time of confusion, disbelief, shock, and all out patriotism. I felt like many Americans, ready to get back in uniform and fight whatever enemy we faced.
My Freedom Ride shirt this day “INHALE FREEDOM – EXHALE PATRIOTISM”, see photo’s below. Felt that it said what was in my heart.
Front of Shirt
Back-Shirt Purchased from BuiltUsa.com
Since this ride was more than three hours long, had to split, choose some of the riding areas that I thought might be more interesting. First video was early in the ride on a road that I’ve ridden many times in the past and enjoy riding. All excerpts are approximately five minutes long.
This next video is on the road off Highway 90 leading to Blackwater River State Park.
Below video is a slow ride through the camp grounds at Blackwater State Park. Will give you an idea of what it’s like there. Love the camp ground, is reasonably priced, has full hook-ups for RV’s and trailers. Electricity, water, bathrooms and showers available. Hiking trails, access to the river for swimming, picnic pavilions, boarded walkways and near by rent a canoe or kayak and take either a four or eleven mile float down the Blackwater River. My brother and I try to take that eleven mile kayak trek down the river each year but missed last year due to my accident.
This last video was after leaving the campgrounds and heading north out into the Blackwater River State Forest. Did a lot of riding through the forest, this is only a five minute clip of the scenery.
Be sure to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel and like each video. Would help my channel grow and make me really smile. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
Please leave comments, suggestions and hit the like button. Feel free to share this on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, link below. Thank you so much for your time.
Below are links to some of the many items I’ve purchased to enhance and improve my experience with motorcycle riding. Should you be interested, click and make a purchase I might receive a small commission for sending you there.
No endorsement or commission from Revzilla but I’ve purchased several items from them and have been very happy with the quality of products and the expertise of the employees, highly recommend www.revzilla.com
In the Motorcycle Camping trial run back in early March, I certainly learned a lot of things that would help in the comfort area of camping. Since I decided that carrying all the stuff I needed on a bike was looking impossible and made the decision to go with a trailer and haul the bike plus sleep in it at night, still there were things I could do differently.
There were several things I could do without and other things I felt would improve my experience with camping. First thing was that the trailer had only one vent in the roof so felt that I needed some windows in it since most of my camping would be done in warmer weather. Looked for someone to install windows and after much frustration and high quotes decided to do it myself. Actually found some windows that would work on Amazon and there were video’s on best way to install them on YouTube. Turns out it wasn’t that hard to do, was so happy with my accomplishment. 🙂
Trailer was really dirty at time of these photos, promise it’s not like that most of the time. 🙂 I’ll put the link to those windows and some of the other stuff I purchased for camping at the end of this post for those interested.
Side Door
Inside of door
Left side wall
Also purchased a tonneau cover for my pickup truck to keep things from getting wet from the dew at night or should it rain. Link below. Purchased a cot with a built in mattress that could be aired up with the included battery operated pump. Cot was smaller in size than the queen size mattress which was really too wide for the trailer. It fit but did not leave much room to walk around it. The cot was slimmer, same length and was up off the floor so easier to get in and out of plus could store things underneath it if necessary.
Found that I could instead of using those l lb. bottles of propane, why not get an adapter hose that would fit my camping stove and hook-up to a 20 lb. container like you use on your grill. So much easier, hate dealing with those l lb. bottles that don’t seem to last very long.
I also started looking for camping equipment that was compact, lightweight, and could easily be packed and carried on a bike since at some point I really wanted to do real motorcycle camping with just the bike and whatever I could load on it. There is a lady motorcycle rider that I follow on You Tube with over 100,000 subscribers that goes camping on her bike and seems to have a great plan. Link follows: Her Two Wheels YouTube Channel and here is a link to one of her video’s where she explains things in detail. Her Two Wheels Camping Alone Video After you watch you gotta come back here though to finish this story, and tell her I sent ya. 🙂
You would be surprised at the things available for motorcycle camping and backpacking and how compact they are. Camping pots and pans, tents, tent pads, sleeping pads & bags, camping stools, etc… Too many things to mention but will put links to some of the things I purchased below including some things I got for my bike.
After accumulating all the necessary things and leaving behind stuff I found out I didn’t need it was time to go camping again, which we did. My brother and sister-in-law had us scheduled again for Karick Lake but this time on the north side for June 1st thru June 5th. Much warmer but there was some rain possible which really didn’t matter. So we get there on the 1st of June, unpack, set up camp, start a fire and begin to relax. Was beautiful weather most of the entire camping time. We hiked almost every day around the hiking trail which goes all the way around the lake, approximately four miles.
Almost every day I took the bike out for a ride in the local area, sometimes for a couple of hours or more just to get the necessary wind therapy. On one of the rides did get rained on a couple of times. Was actually funny because when your riding if the rain stops you tend to dry out quickly in the wind, but this day as soon as I got really dry it rained again. No worries, by the time I got back to the campground was dry again. No videos but some photos below.
Yamaha
Yamaha on bridge
Camp site relaxing
Two favorite people & dog
My early morning friend
Scene on hiking trail
View of the Lake
The Fishing Pier
Fishing
As you can see, it’s a quiet and peaceful place. When we were there not many campers, guess it was because of everyone wanting to keep on doing that social distance thing. Personally what better way to social distance than camping? 🙂
Had a really great time with everything I needed and more. Felt much more comfortable this time out and could not wait until the next camping trip, BUT then things happened that changed a lot of my plans. Information coming about that experience in a later post.
Going to put some links below of items I have either purchased for camping or things I just wanted or needed for the Yamaha. Keep in mind should you click on those links and purchase some of those items I may in fact receive a small fee for sending you there. All those links lead to Amazon so keep that in mind.
That’s probably not all the stuff that I’ve purchased since the motorcycle and camping came into my life, not even close, and I’m sure there will be more in the future. Funny but when you own a motorcycle there always seems to be something else you need or would like to have not including the normal maintenance items. 🙂
Be sure to stay alert and look for the next post, will reveal a lot about my current situation and possible future. 🙂
Once again, thanks for reading/following, hope you will continue. Remember not an “Old Biker” by definition, just an old man (by birth certificate) that loves to ride motorcycles. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Stay tuned, hit that follow button to be notified when next post publishes. And if you feel the urge, you can share this on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Thanks for reading. 🙂
Ray's Motorcycle Experience 