A Hurricane scares me away from my planned route

I wasn't about to brave Irene. I gave up and headed where I desperately wanted to be, it's where you wanted to be too you just didn't know it. I'm talking about the Indianapolis round of  MotoGP. The greatest motorcycles in the world ridden by the greatest riders in the world! Where were you when the absolute pinnacle of what man can achieve was on display? What were you thinking?

I made it here, against all odds, unplanned and shaken up.  There were no brewery visits between State College and Indy. I did stop at Rock Bottom and RAM in Indianapolis. The beers were ok to solid respectively. The story lies not in the beer but in the crash in Ohio. No beer was involved in my crash, only complacency and a lack of focus and commitment lead me and my bike to this all time low.

I departed central PA and headed for WV to enjoy what the eastern section of route 50 has to offer.
It was great and I made it through safe.I decided to camp at North Bend State Park in WV. I practiced some "light painting" with my camera to pass the time.

I turned in early with the intent of being well rested for the following morning.This should have helped me be a safer rider......

The following morning, after some strong french press coffee, I was on the road by 7AM and had a nice apple from a farmstand for breakfast. Back on the road in SE Ohio I was determined not to use route 50 once it got flat and boring. I branched off towards route 56 near Athens Ohio. 

Luckily for me the morning coffee kept me blazing until 3 in the afternoon.




I stopped only three other times on the ride to Indy. The second time, unfortunately, was in spectacular fashion. Look to the right of the bike. Down low. That's where I landed after overshooting the corner pictured below.

I landed down in that "ditch", my bike landed next to me a lifetime (1.2sec or less) later. I actually had time to think about why I overshot that corner the way I did and just how much all those parts would cost me. My second concern was missing the races I was riding to see. Normally........Normally I DON'T CRASH! The last time I crashed it was so painful that I can barely remember it. This was nowhere near as painful but it will haunt me. The shocking thing was how unremarkable it really was. It was very quick and very loud, that's what I remember most.

 I really should have taken a photo of the bike when it was laying on it's side but my adrenaline and love for my bike combined and forced me to pick it up. After a 20 minute period of reflection and damage assessment I headed into Athens and began the task of replacing those handlebars and finding a way to re-attach my luggage. This set me back about 3 hours. After I got back on the bike I returned to the site of the accident and rode that section in each direction 5 times to reaffirm my riding abilities to myself.

Now I am safe and sound in one of the nicest Hotel rooms I can imagine in downtown Indianapolis, it is one day after my first MotoGp viewing experience, and I'm writing about crashing. I have never won the lottery before. It feels pretty nice.

Where to go next?