09 Dances with Turtles LDR R2E

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The Email:
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Dances With Turtles IV RTE will be held Saturday June 6, 2009 at Giant City State Park Lodge approximately 12 miles south of Carbondale, Illinois. Coordinates: N37 35.573 W089 11.010.

Info on the facility can be found here www.giantcitylodge.com Roads to the Lodge are paved and there is a large concrete parking area. There is no entrance fee to the park.

Lunch will begin at 12:00 noon (CDT) so arrive early for tire kicking and tall tales. The restaurant is famous for fried chicken dinners. In order to expedite service to a group, management strongly recommends the all you can eat family style dinner. We concur. I can attest it is a quality "belly buster"! Of course, those with special dietary needs will be accomodated. Chicken dinner, drink, tax and gratuity should cost around $15.00. Hopefully, I will once again be making "Turtle Pie" for dessert.......
Buck Lemme
Ned Siddens
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6 JUNE 2009 - Saturday

What an awesome day... the weather was great and I had all day to enjoy it. Well I was stoked to begin with, not only because this was my first LDRider R2E (Ride to Eat) but because Roger was coming along. This RTE was Dancing with Turtles, an annual event for a few years.

54 riders from about everywhere rode to a little state park in IL to share a meal and a pc of turtle pie. The farthest was from Mass. The closest was less than 20 miles away.

My pictures of the trip while going there consists of gas stops. That is pretty much all we got to do. I forgot how much slower I travel with a companion. I am not complaining, its just something that I had not remembered. I had allowed an extra hour travel time, and even sent a joking email to the head of the R2T the night before saying we would get there by 11:30am. I was thinking we would be there by 11am. So Roger hasn’t been on any long trips in a while. About half way there he says something about hoping he doesn’t have to turn around. What if we don’t make it in time?? Well then we just eat on our own. It had gotten colder than we had expected. The temp had actually dropped from 71F when we started to 61F about an hour into the ride. We stopped and put on rain gear to block the wind. Rogers range on a tank is about 120 - 140 miles. He has a 2003 V-Rod. I got to tell you I am so impressed with how well he can maneuver that bike. I test rode one at a HD demo ride and it is just like a sporty but on steroids. It gets rid of some of the problems with the regular HDs, one is same ole cruiser styling, the other is water cooled. I want one.

We made it there about 11:55am, I did have some street closures and GPS issues for the last 5 miles, I was very relieved to finally make it there. Okay, I am claustrophobic. I don’t like sitting in booths at restaurants I don’t like sitting elbow to elbow. We were in tight on these tables. The guy beside me kept an arm on my chair, I felt like he was in my lap. I am uncomfortable so I am pretty quite. Luckily Roger is a chatter bug, so I don’t think people noticed I wasn’t talking. Roger is such an interesting guy to talk with. Some one said something about an air horn and Roger is telling about an actual air horn that would push a ball of air capable of breaking windows. Everyone wanted one installed on their bike. One of the riders there told of his SS1000 that was a beltway loop ride around indianapolis. The beltway is 26 miles.

The meal was really good fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, cole slaw, baked beans, rolls, Ice tea. $15 per person. Served family style bowls and platters of food were zooming around the tables. Desert was turtle pie. Just AWESOME and rich. Did I tell you it was RICH!

When the meal was over the waitress came around and collect money with instructions for us to wait at the table and she would bring back change. Of course the 5 people that did wait were the last 5 to get our money back and only then because we went to her. She complained because no one waited. I didn’t reply, the ones that didn’t wait were the smart ones.

We were going to have a long ride home. We had come straight here, but Roger and I were both up for getting off the interstate on the way home. I told him that we could stop by Chester and see Popeye then run by Daniel Boone’s burial site that is north of Washington. The problem is that I didn’t have the Boone site way pointed, so I could just get the GPS to route me there. We had to keep stopping for map checks. It really took a long time to get from Chester to Washington. Every highway we got on was a special treat, what a hoot. I could have ridden this all week, during daylight hours. By the time we got there we were both ready to ride the interstate on home. Neither of us were anxious to ride these little highways after dark at o’deer thirty.

During the trip Roger told me about the Vintage Bike Show going on at the downtown airport at KCMO. It was happening the next day, Sunday June 7.

We got back close to 11PM. I hope he didn’t get in trouble. When I called the next day, he was sore and not up for another long ride for a while. We traveled 780 miles round trip for that lunch.

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Photos

Gas Stop
Thats about all we did on the way there, it was a pretty much straight shot to get there.

Chester IL
One of the many other statues in town

Chester IL
Roger with Popeye

Boone Burial Site
Daniels bones were stolen along time ago, but Becky is still there.