Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

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Boxer
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Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

Post by Boxer »

We loaded her up and headed out on Sunday morning bright and early....in fact it was too early to see all the threatening clouds overhead. Didn't matter, me and Lil Chubb both are accustomed to the liquid sunshine. What I didn't expect was a hellacious thunderclapper going through Monteagle pass above Chattanooga. I thought Big Chubb's a$$ was a fried fritter there for a while.

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We eventually made it up through Kentucky, stopping in briefly for lunch at Mammoth Cave National Park and stamping my Nat'l Park Passport book. It was really a cool, fairly cloudy ride the whole day until I got up to Louisville and crossed that big river. Finding my way to my first MTN host for the night, I took advantage of a nice shower and bed after supper.

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The next day was cruising through one big freshly planted field after the next as I wound my way across Indiana and Illinois back country looking for corn. Never saw any corn, except teeny tiny little sprigs of the stuff which had just been planted. But the big open farm fields were spectacular. There is no area of this great land that is not beautiful, and the rolling farm lands of the midwest are no exception.

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We found our second day's destination right on the BIg Muddy in a town called Muscatine, Iowa. That's pronounced Musca-Teen for all you non-Iowans. The river was up! Those folks have been getting more than their share of rainfall this year.

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My main objective of traveling to Iowa was to visit Grant Wood home sites and work places. Grant Wood was the depression era American artist who painted the famous "American Gothic" painting of the farmer couple standing in front of the small farmhouse. But for Art buffs Grant Wood is known more for his landscapes of the Iowa countryside. At least that's what I like most about his body of work.

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I rode around that area for the next couple of days, visiting his gravesite, old homes, studios and galleries housing his work. I also too in the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, which also was the place where Grant Wood was born and died in 1942.

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Once I had seen enough of Iowa, I pointed Lil Chubb back southeast and headed for the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground down in western North Carolina. One overnight stopover in Lincoln State Park in Indiana and two long days riding brought me to the campsite on Friday afternoon.

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Lil Chubb performed flawlessly the whole week and drank the precious fossil fuel like it was sipping tea...at about 57-60 mpg overall. Lots of unforgiving slab riding, that I hated, but I had to get across that land faster than back road meandering would allow.
mnnden
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Re: Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

Post by mnnden »

Very Nice report, great pictures & write up, every year I promise myself a ride down through that area, it has been more than a few years since I have ridden down that way. hopefuly later this fall. If you get up that way again jump on the "River Road" & head north, (do a google) I think you & the Lil Chubb would enjoy it. Thanks for the ride mnn
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peels
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Re: Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

Post by peels »

nice ride. Close to my stomping grounds.

Muscatine is 45 minutes north of me. And yes...the river is a swollen beast this year. WHich stinks...because we just got into boating.

The day we towed it home, my wife says "Watch it be a flood year" grrrrr....LOL Just have to drive an hour north to Iowa City (Coralville Lake) until it recedes (hope soon)
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Re: Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

Post by chibbert »

I was half way through this report wondering why there were no pictures of 'lil chubb' your friend. Then I finally realized it - it's your bike's name.

I was thinking "That poor bastard having to wait around for two days while Phil was getting his fill of arts-schmartz and he probably doesn't even have the same interests as Phil"

True story!
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Re: Me and Lil Chubb Visit The Midwest

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

Cool report, Phil...thanks
Always like to see pictures of the Midwest and the Great Plains.
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