Cold, Snow and Couch...or Drive, Truck and Bike

It was just another mundane Friday in the office. The weatherman was all over the radio announcing that it was going to be extremely cold and snowy all weekend, I was dreading spending the weekend on the couch. Then suddenly out of cyberspace an email arrives just as I am getting ready to shut down my computer. Seeing that it is from my buddy Diek, I instantly check it out. Hmmm, he is looking at a bike for his girl Maria and has found this one that just appeared on eBay and wants me to check out the pictures to see if I notice anything wrong or questionable because the deal is almost too good to be true. I had to get the whole scoop so I immediately rung his cell. He explained the situation and was giving serious thought to driving down to Kentucky to check it out. While conversing for a few minutes about the bike, the price, and the place, one thing led to the next, you know what that meant, ROAD TRIP! I hung up, called Betina telling her to leave work ASAP cause we are heading to Kentucky, of course she was all over that and promised to be home by 5:45. I sped home and packed a quick bag and had everything ready to go. Of course, Mother Nature wasn’t going to let us escape Michigan with out a fight. While backing out of the garage to head to the Double D Ranch the white shit started flyin’. It took longer than normal to get to the ranch but he had the truck warm and ready to go. The plan was simple, get as far south as we could before 11, find a hotel, crash, hit the road early on Saturday. Since the plan was simple the driving had to be challenging, two tracks in the snow, white outs, and fools that can’t drive. We spent the night in Peru… no not that Peru, Peru Indiana.

Saturday, we awoke around 6 am and showered up, grabbed some java and daringly ran out into the parking lot. The mercury was reading 2 degrees, but thank god we where out of the snow belt. We continued down Rt 31 merging onto 465 then onto 74 east with the sky opening up for a great sunrise. Around Cinci and down 75 we head. This is where the fun really started and we had all sorts of laughs. I will share them at the bottom, first lets take care of this bike.
We arrive at Central Kentucky Truck and Trailer Sales about 1:30 and crawl all over the bike to find some reason for the great price… we can’t find anything… it mine as well be brand new. It’s a 2006 Deluxe, Black Paint, Security, Windshield, Crash Guard w/ Highway pegs and only 1211 on the odometer, and even better its still under factory warranty until August. Betina and I go for a walk around the lot checking out the trailers leaving Maria and Diek to wheel and deal, I do not know what happened with the dealing but next thing you know I see Diek wheeling down the road… WTF, that bastard… I want to ride too!!!

Once Diek is back the finalize the deal and we hit the road to Lexington to the Harley Shop and then a celebration dinner for Maria and her new Deluxe. We try this joint called Malone’s….wow! If you’re ever in Lexington Kentucky you must go here…to die for crab cakes!

After eating the plan was to try and get back up to Indianapolis early, find a hotel and maybe catch a movie or something. Well Diek was haulin’ ass so we made it north of Indy before 8 pm… which then led us to discussing one shotting it home, only 210 miles that’s a walk in the park. We all agree that we are going for it, so we pull into a gas station, Diek fills up the truck while I get a extra jumbo coffee and adjust the cockpit for my turn behind the wheel. It was great cruising until we hit that damn Michigan border again, snowing even harder than last nite. The last 100 miles was a pucker of a time, about a half foot of snow on the highway, you couldn’t make out the sides of the road and every five minutes there would be a complete white out… like all you could see was the windshield wipers. We managed to finally pull back into the Double D Ranch at 1 am.
All in all… it was a great trip. I didn’t have to sit on the couch, and Maria got her first Harley, you go girl!!!