Ohio’s Best Roads II Recap
By Wanda Carlisle - Chapter President and Ride Leader
Mother Nature presented us with a bit of a challenge for our first scheduled July ride, but with a little forethought and effective channels of communication we still managed to pull off a successful ride on some fantastic roads. The ride was originally scheduled as a Sunday ride, but as the Sunday forecast worsened throughout the week a last-minute decision was made to move the ride up to Saturday. Kevin was quick to get out a chapter email and update to the Members Only section within minutes of the Friday morning decision; Maria got a similar update posted on Facebook. Texts flew between the officers and we got the word out to make sure those who may not check email regularly would know. With the decision and notifications coming only 26 hours before the newly scheduled line-up time, we had 13 members at Sheetz at 9:00 am Saturday ready to ride (and hopefully zero on Sunday). Hats off to Kevin, Maria and the rest of our officers for successfully executing the updates and thank you all for embracing our new channels of communication!
But back to the ride itself…in addition to the usual suspects, we welcomed new member Avery Martin for his first chapter ride and were joined by Mike Bates for his second chapter ride in a row (dare I say he’s hooked?!). It felt more like a crisp fall day than early July as we rolled out from Sheetz. Before long we found ourselves in the middle of buggy central as we took 241 from Massillon all the way down to Millersburg, then jumped on an old favorite, 60 through the marshes of Killbuck, the village of Warsaw, and all the way down to Dresden, at which point the ride was starting to feel like a tour of European cities 😉! From Dresden we enjoyed the curvy 208 on our way over to another favorite, 93 headed south. We jumped over I-70, cutting over on 22 to 146 and found a nicely curvy county road to skip over most of the stoplights and traffic in Zanesville and drop straight into Duncan Falls and back onto 60 right on the Muskingum River just a few miles north of one of the stars of our day, the super twisty 376 from Blue Rock to McConnelsville. They’re currently laying fresh asphalt on 376 (literally, they were rolling one lane as we rode through) so we had to take more care with no edge lines and fresh oil, but we still managed to have fun and I think a return trip is definitely in order!
Lunch was at the Boondocks BBQ & Grill on 60 just north of McConnelsville. The staff was ready for us when we walked in, the food was tasty and the sweet tea was plentiful. Unfortunately, by lunch the radar was not looking so good, prompting deep discussion as we ate about the best plan of action for the rest of the afternoon. Ultimately half of the group decided to head home, while the rest of us decided to continue on the planned route, which would take us further south to Stockport before looping back up north and west. The thought was that by the time we got back further north the rain would have moved through and we had a good chance to stay dry. Our gamble paid off, and the rest of 376 down to Stockport, the twisty 266 on the other side of the river and the technical 377 back up to Malta did not disappoint.
From Malta we took the beautifully curvy 37 west to 93, at which point we jumped right on that old favorite and took it all the way home, changing the route a bit due to the late hour. Barring the threatening clouds and a couple minor incidents, including Tom trying to figure out how he would catch Rob’s loose license plate if it fell off (no worries, Rob pulled it off, stuffed it under his jacket and rode home nekkid) it was a good day. Bit of advice for Mike B, you might want to take some Dramamine before your next “Wanda ride!”
Next up for Chapter 1963 – Headlands Beach Ride on Saturday, July 17th. See you there!
