Martin, Ohio

Such a beautiful 4th of July this year. The weather was perfect. Not the traditional hot and sticky humidity of the Great Lakes Region.

 
Had to get the ST out for at least a small day ride after walking the dogs 3 miles and riding the bicycle 20 miles. Have to keep the cross training regimen moving forward. Took a relaxing ride down into Ohio and just wandered around for a couple of hundred miles. Stopped in Martin, Ohio which is as small town Ohio as it gets. Not even a store.


Now that is a tiny Community Hall, not much bigger than the ST. Actually, I spent my first handful of years of life living in this town. As a toddler I wandered into the neighbors garage and ingested some gasoline and had to be taken to the hospital. In my defense, gasoline smelled wonderful in those days. However, this incident has no relevance to my nickname of "Gas Guy". Obviously I made it through the ordeal fine, although maybe I can blame it on some of my issues. Wishful thinking I suppose.

After I took the photo in front of the Community Hall, I turned around for a second and then heard a crash. The ground was soft from all the rain lately, the center stand sunk and the ST was laying on it's side. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of the ST taking a nap but instead heaved it back upright. No light task. I backed into the seat area and with one hand on the handlebar and another on the rear grab rail brought her back vertical. Only damage was to the right mirror housing which is designed to breakaway, but one of the three snap tabs broke. Made up for it with some electrical tape from the tank bag until it can be repaired properly.

Back rolling along, I spotted something in the trees at the edge of a crop field along a desolate country road. Decided to stop and investigate.





Wow !! That is interesting. Not something you expect to see. I wonder to myself what the story is on this old ultralight plane. Did it crash here or was it just parked and left to rot while trees grew up around it ?









More meandering through farm country just relaxing and listening to some tunes piped through my J&M headset while reminiscing old times and thinking about future rides simultaneously. We have a Yooper Madness 1000 coming up in August. Time to get physically and mentally ready for that.





And then I get to experience my favorite time of the day, while on the road, before hammering back north and home. The World becomes so peaceful just before dusk. The winds settle, the glare and heat diminish and everything seems to go quiet and soft before darkness falls. My mind even relaxes - if just for a moment.