I have arrived. I’m currently in a wonderful chalet room at the Oglebay Resort in Wheeling, WV, ready for a week of excellent industry training at IAVM’s VMS.
When I stepped off the bike at the registration area this afternoon, I was greeted by this sound:
It appears, according to CicadaMania.com, that brood V of the 17 year Cicadas is emerging at this time. I have to say, this is the very first time I’ve been exposed to these little beasties. Interesting. They’re everywhere here.
Anyway, Day 8 of the eastbound trip was uneventful. Riding was great, weather was OK – what rain there was passed by before I left Springfield or was only the most minor of sprinkles along the way. I left the hotel a little earlier than I had originally planned as it appeared that a good sized rain cell was about to graze the town, so I got out ahead of most of it. This left me with time on my hands. Registration for VMS didn’t begin until 2:00 pm, so getting here at 11:30 in the morning would have been a little bit of a waste of time. So, since I passed right through Pickerington, Ohio on the way east anyway, I made a brief stop at this place:
American Motorcyclist Association Museum
This is my second visit to the AMA Museum and Hall of Fame. The last time was many, many years ago on another coast-to-coast-to-coast ride. This time around, the main exhibit space was devoted to the types of racing and riding that earn riders a place in the hall of fame – road racing, flat track and motocross/supercross, offroad, endurance, etc.
Hall of Fame Gallery – roughly 1/3 of it fits in this photo
Steve Posson sculpture of Jeremy McGrath pulling off one his signature Nac Nac moves
One of the great things about the AMA Museum, besides all the very cool motorcycles and stories of racers and riders from all walks of life is the art they have have on display. They’ve done a wonderful job curating some fantasic motorcycle art works in all media.
This sculpture of Jeremy McGrath, who some call the father of modern freestyle motocross, is just amazing. Standing almost four feet tall, the detail is great. His bike stands on a swirling column of dirt as he kicks off the side of the bike in the move he made famous – the Nac Nac – all from cast bronze.
There are paintings and other sculptures in other types of media as well. Hare Raising Ride is kinda cool:
Currently in the downstairs gallery, they also have an amazing collection of motorcycle toys and models. One of the more interesting sections of this exhibit are the superhero motorcycles. It seems like every superhero you can think of – and a lot you never knew of – from Batman and Superman to Spiderman, the Green Lantern and even Underdog got a motorcycle at some point. The collection includes Smurfs on motorcycles, Peanuts characters on motorcycles, dinosaurs on motorcycles, Little Orphan Annie and the Jughead comics characters on motorcycles – you name it.
One part of the exhibit speaks directly to the human spirit the continuing drive to ride and never, ever, ever give up. Inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 2000, Dave Barr lost both of his legs to a landmine explosion while he was in the military. Did that stop him? Hell no. He’s gone on to ride around the world and … well, others can tell Dave’s story better than I can – here’s one of Dave’s bikes, along with a couple of his old legs
One of Dave Barr’s bikes and older prosthetics
The rest of the visit was great – letting the pictures tell the story now
So that’s it for this portion of the eastbound ride. This evening and the next five days will be packed full and busy. Friday morning, the ride begins again. More later.
Track the Trip <– This link takes you to my Amateur Radio call sign on aprs.fi (updated, now shows both radio and Android trackers). I’m traveling with an APRS enabled handheld radio which periodically transmits my GPS location, speed and heading. Standard disclaimer – the system relies on a network of club and privately owned digital Amateur Radio stations. The overall success of the tracking is dependent on a whole list of factors, including the fact that these stations don’t exist everywhere I’ll be riding and it’s all done on VHF radio frequencies. When it works it works, when it doesn’t it doesn’t.
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