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Anybody else just take off on random rides?


phpaul

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This seemed like the logical place to put this, if not, Moderators feel free to move or delete.
 
I live in Downeast Maine.  Very rural, 25 miles to a town big enough to support a McDonalds and if I choose my route carefully, I can go a couple of hundred miles and never see more than 3 or 4 houses in one spot.  One of the more unique features of rural Maine (to me at least, I was born and raised in central Michigan) is that the vast majority of rural roads are paved. Not WELL paved in most cases, but paved.
 
I have a map book by DeLorme (may be unique to Maine, not sure) that shows virtually every cow trail in the State, broken into grids.  Mine is old and maybe not as accurate as it could be, but you can get a good idea of your options getting from Point A to Point B.
 
My favorite form of "day trip" is to pick a destination, glance at the DeLorme to see what my options are, then just take off down whatever road leads in the general direction I want to go.  Today my "goal" was mostly East and a little North of me.  Once I got to the first available turn off US 1, I just randomly rode North until I found an interesting intersection, then turned East for a while until I ran out of road or just felt like going North for a while again.  When I estimated I was about halfway there, I started turning South at intersections to head back toward the coast.
 
Great fun IMHO, see a lot of interesting and pretty country, and I've put 2700 miles on the bike in 10 weeks doing just that whenever time and weather permit.  I do need to start carrying the camera with me, but a lot of times I get in the groove and don't want to stop to take a picture.
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I've done this, but only with some forethought. I rode up to Cairo,IL on the FJ because I had read about it. I stared at maps and picked a couple of places to see along the way like New Madrid, MO site of the largest earthquake in the continental US.
 
I did something similar in Los Angeles shortly before we moved away. I rode Lakewood Blvd from one end to the other. I played in city traffic all the way on a Ninja 600, stopped at movie studios, a private military museum, aircraft mfrs, and finally at a locked gate to a dirt road leading up to foothills of the Angels National Forest. It was a great urban ride.
 
Most of my rides focus on the twisty roads, but more and more I find myself wanting to stop in interesting places and not just strafe apices all day.
 
I also want to get back to a track day and strafe apices all day, but it's a different mindset.
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I've done this, but only with some forethought. I rode up to Cairo,IL on the FJ because I had read about it. I stared at maps and picked a couple of places to see along the way like New Madrid, MO site of the largest earthquake in the continental US.  
I did something similar in Los Angeles shortly before we moved away. I rode Lakewood Blvd from one end to the other. I played in city traffic all the way on a Ninja 600, stopped at movie studios, a private military museum, aircraft mfrs, and finally at a locked gate to a dirt road leading up to foothills of the Angels National Forest. It was a great urban ride.
 
Most of my rides focus on the twisty roads, but more and more I find myself wanting to stop in interesting places and not just strafe apices all day.
 
I also want to get back to a track day and strafe apices all day, but it's a different mindset.
Use to all the time, much less now, but I tend to ride more miles now and see much more of the country.  I have done the 11 western states 6 times, not this year though.  Next week I am going to ride to VA for a FJR get together, not on the FJ cause it is broken.  I still prefer to ride the roads vs tourist attractions, but that isn't as important as it used to be.

Ken, Candy Ass L.D.R. Sleeps 8 hours
(2)2005 FJR1300abs:  230,000 m
2015 FJ-09:  114,000 m (Replaced engine at 106K)

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Yup, that'd be the critter. 
And speaking of strange places, I did catch the distant sound of banjos a couple of times... :o
I used to live in WVA. Banjos don't scare me... :D 

"It doesn't matter who walks in, you know the joke is still the same"  Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. USA

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