Winding Roads to Wellsville

One might not think much of purposely going to Wellsville, Ohio, located on the western edge of the Ohio River. But, on May 31st I had planned a ride southbound on OH-170. It was me, Tiny, and Goldilocks. Bryon's clutch hub went bad, so he had to stay home. Stay home? Not me, no way!

Well, the three of us headed out in the beautiful weather. Down through Lowellville, and out of there along Washington Street or something which I was supposed to take Lincoln or something, but Washington was a lovely tree-shadowed road leading to OH-224. It's a nice way to go if you want to avoid bumpy roads in Campbell and Strutters along OH-616.

We finally got onto 170 south and scooted along that road, which is really nice with sweeping curves and smooth asphalt. I don't ride crazy or fast by any means, but those curves can make you do things. One of my favorite feelings is that of accelerating out of a curve. Bryon always taught me that when you can see where you are going, you can put more throttle into it. Sometimes I imagine leaving everyone in my rice-filled dust! I almost did when we took a right turn when I saw the Mail Pouch Tobacco billboard on the left. I did a dumb thing and pulled across the opposing lane and stopped off the road in the gravel. Why? Because Tiny likes to take photos of his bike with Mail Pouch signs! He had pulled off on the right into a lot wondering what I was doing, so I flagged him to ride over, and then told him it was a photo op. He obliged. And what a cool photo!

At Calcutta, we stayed on 170 to get to OH-7 south. Our food destination was the Riverside Roadhouse in Wellsville. We made our way there, taking a left down the mostly dirt, bombed-out road paralleling railroad tracks and the river sandwiched with the highway. It wasn't what we hoped for, and it was still take-out only, so fuck that, we turned around and went back toward the town.

The alternative I had in mind was the Someplace Else by the Paddle Wheel restaurant. As luck goes, Tiny spotted a sign in the window that said they were open, and there were cars in the parking lot. So we quickly made the decision to go there. What a great decision! The front of the restaurant is along the main street with parking on three sides. They are doing that thing where you enter in one door and leave by another, so we entered and took a table that had three seats. The waitresses were really nice and helpful. There were plenty of other people there (at every other table). We got our menus, ordered drinks, and looked over the list.

Along with my coffee, I ordered the chicken fried steak. Goldi-locks ordered half a sausage sandwich. Tiny ordered the meatloaf dinner. We weren't expecting what we got: it was so effing delicious! Huge portions! A biker's food paradise! The hunk of meatloaf Tiny got was huge, Goldilocks' sandwich could have been two, and my fried steak was smothered in a perfect white gravy! You have to go there sometime. They have one pound burgers too.

Looking out the restaurant windows, I noticed a bridge that crosses a stream, that in turn deposits right into the Ohio. I suggested we go for a walk after eating; it was still early in the day. Well, it it an old bridge that has sidewalks and the town has hanging flower baskets hung along the way. (Notice Goldilocks' name on her red hoodie sleeve; she was Mrs. Tiny before she earned her Goldilocks road name).

On the other side of the bridge was something unexpected, and even now I don't really know what the structure is, but it's a bit like a building or a bridge tresses or something. Anyway, the town at some point invested money into making it a work of art with a massive mural that is located on both sides of the main road. Don't let the bricks fool you - those are all painted on too! Hard to believe from a distance.

 

I liked the train station painting, and others. Each represented some aspect of local and American culture. I found it amusing that it looks like you can sit on the brick ledges, so I had Tiny take a picture of me in front of the Standard Oil gas station painting. I squatted down like I was sitting, it looks pretty darn real I think. Well, that started a trend.

One of the things that we didn't understand was the Saint Rocco's Festival mural. Just why is this dude lifting up his robe to show off a cut on his thigh? And why is everyone gawking? Who was Saint Rocco? (Nice leg, by the way). Apparently he gave up his good life to help the poor and is said to have been a curer of the plague in Italy. Well, we have plenty of plague to go around nowadays too, or so they've said. Maybe people should be dressing as St. Rocco instead of a plague doctor. 

After all the mural excitement, we walked onto the raised boardwalk that leads to a river overlook. Goldilocks noticed shards of broken plates in the water, and I believe Tiny said he had looked at a map of the area and there was a manufacturer of plates upstream and that the shards may be trash from the plate facility. 

We ended up taking some winding roads toward home, staying on side roads until we got back to Calcutta. I wanted us to ride OH-170 back, and I'm glad we did. Ohio has a lot of nice roads when you head to the southeast section. I don't know much about the Ohio routes west of Akron and Cleveland, so if anyone has any tips, I'd like to hear them. Always looking for new places in this great big nation. 

May your life be solid, solid as a rock.

- Holly

Lake Erie Bluffs, Collecting Rocks

Lake Erie Bluffs

On May 24th, Bryon, Tiny, and I took a nice ride. The weather was perfect: blue skies, and some wispy white clouds, temps in the low 70s. With Bryon and I getting married in July, I wanted to do something that would help guests recall the day, and being the Earth-loving, stone-appreciating woman I am, I decided to paint rocks with flowers and set them out as celebration favors.

But I needed rocks! What a better idea than to plan a ride to Lake Erie to collect the sanded and sculpted rocks from a beach. Put me near a body of water where the horizon never ends, and I am taken away, not like in a Calgon bath, but like in a finding my place in the universe way. So far out the sky becomes the water and the water becomes the sky; that blurred line lets me know that living is about flow and interactions. 

So, rocks. I planned a route to Lake Erie Bluffs, west of Geneva, and the route was a zig-zag one, going north then west, north then west, and so on until we reached a point where the roadsigns didn't match my printed directions. Hmm. I took a guess and turned left at the light we were at, and sure as shit, the road we needed to turn right on was just down the road. Good guess! 

I did miss one turn and that led us up a concrete road to the nuclear power plant on the shore. We did a big U-ey in the road and went back to the missed turn. We then found ourselves at the part of Lake Erie Bluffs with the lookout/viewing tower. The tower was closed due to the Covid horseshit, but that saved the guys from having to climb all the stairs, which I'm almost positive they would have had to either call for pizza and pop delivery or an ambulance! LOL

Halfway up the walkway were some pretty daisies. I had to get some photos of them as they are the flower for Bryon's birth month, April, and part of our wedding flowers. (Mine is the carnation, but those just don't grow in the wild.)  We walked past the tower to the first viewing area where a couple was taking in the view too. The colors of the water and the sky were fabulous - radiant turquoise and faded purple. 

This area ended at an abrupt drop off into some plants and eventually the beach. We took some pics and turned back to take the dirt path to the next walkway and down to a beach, but that was closed off because the hillside slid off and was dangerous. So, we went back to the bikes to go to the next option.

The bluffs have a park area too for picnics and frisbee, no pics were taken by me, but it was a nice place with a walkway on the hillside above the shore area. There were stairs at one end that lead down to the beach. Not just any stairs, a lot of stairs, and the guys looked at each other with the I can walk down them, but walking back up is doing to Kill me!! Awe c'mon, guys! 

Such troopers! We walked down. Tiny and I brought bags in which to put the stones and we started collecting. Now you'd think I would have taken pictures of the stones, but no, I became engrossed by the trees that were wearing away on the section of shore that I encountered. Oh, how I loved the fibers extruded from the trees. It was soft and strong. Rayon is made from tree fibers, so while this didn't surprise me, I was still tickled pink because I'd never seen this before!.

I think we collected about 150 rocks off all sizes and shapes, a lot of them flat like a painting canvas. I could have stayed all day, but the guys were complaining of being hot and hungry. This is why it's a good thing to always plan alone time doing things you like. Not that going with others is bad, but to fully enjoy your own living, it's good to do things alone too.

We had to get food in Tiny's tummy, so we headed out to US-20 to find the Dairy Queen someone recommended. We got there, but fuck that, you had to go through the drive through and there was nowhere to sit because your breathing poison the air and kill others. Anyway, The Perry Family Restaurant was across the parking lot with an open sign, so we rode over to check it out. Great idea! They were seating customers to dine-in so we did. 

They had a typical family/diner menu and the food we ordered was very good. We thanked the waitresses for being open as it's what bikers need - a place to sit with their food. And, say it with me, "Eat to ride, ride to eat", it's the biker way. Screw DQ, the Perry Family Restaurant was a way better place and wasn't scared to be open.

What to do? It was time to make our way home, but I didn't plan a homeward route, so Bryon suggested we ride through Geneve-on-the-Lake. We headed east on US-20 toward Geneva with me still leading. 

I had put my phone in my Ram mount on my handlebars thinking I could take some videos and pictures.When we got to GOTL, the traffic was slow and backed-up. We walked our bikes down the strip, on occasion getting to use the throttle. I did take a few shots of the oncoming traffic. One of the reasons it was slow and backed up was that the town had closed off sections of the street parking in an effort to reduce the number of people parking and walking around, you know, so that nobody died from Covid. We just kept riding through, plus Eddies hot dogs was closed, Tiny checked us in there anyway just to tease Hammer who wasn't allowed to go on the trip due to a "Honey Do" list.

We made a stop at the gas station at the Indian Lake campground outside of GOTL. A LOT of bikes were out that day. Everywhere. Shelter in place? Nope. Ride all over? Yes! 

Some of the fun things included the astronaut Happy Meal doll shooting off into space off my bike, Tiny losing his head wrap to the wind, and Bryon's phone rocketing out of his pocket onto the pavement at 40 MPH. All items were recovered thanks to Tiny's efforts. 

Here is a photo of most of the rocks I've painted. It's so pretty, I almost don't want to give them away, but I can paint more, and surely another trip to the lake wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

 Live well, give and reciprocate, love and trust. Good words for every day living and to practice in a commitment like marriage.

Take it easy,
Holly

Catching Up With 2020

Life has been busy. Life has been rough. Life has been fun. And life has been weird. So let's catch up on the year of 2020 up to early May.

My last blog was last year when I rode my bike to Delaware, my longest solo trip yet. Since then, all kinds of shenanigins have happened! It was about October when Bryon and I decided we had had enough of Truck World Mall: ran out of room, no where to grow our business, a stupid gate on one side of the store that made us look closed (the mall reneged on putting a window there), stagnant products and stagnant mall crawlers (the kinder of our "terms of affection"). We made the decision to move out of the mall and make a better place for all of us. We kept it all pretty much a secret, too, even from those closest to us.

I suppose we locked on to our new location in the Jugenheimer Park building across the highway in late October, started paperwork in November, and then and only then told a few people, parents included, that we would vacate Truck World by the end of December. We have many good things to say about the five and a half years we spent there, making something for the biker community to share in, and we believe that had a welcoming place for those who belonged to the life.

It was Saturday, December 28th when we closed the big gate for the last time shortly after 4PM. And shortly before that, Hammer, Goldilocks, Tiny, and Tater showed up ready to start the packing. All that evening, the six of us packed things into boxes and garment bags, and plastic totes that Marcia loaned us. We loaded our vehicles and drove over to the new store in a caravan, unloaded everything, and went back for more. Then we did that again all day Saturday, then Sunday, and by Monday, I was filling in holes from screws and painting the walls to leave it in good condition. By New Years Eve, we were done. It was a lot of work, frenzied at times, but we took good care of everything and everyone, and Bryon and I can't thank our friends enough for their support and help.

We took some cool exit photos, unfortunately having to leave Bryon's hand-painted Betsy Ross flag behind as it was attached to the wall permanently. Just like the colonialists who pushed the British out, we haven't looked back with any regret.

The new store was a mess! We had gotten the keys in December and started moving in all the extra apparel fixtures we had in storage. And we had bought more fixtures, including the glass cases, and started making a plan for the layout. During the move, we just unloaded everything as we bought it in anywhere, except that we immediately hung the leathers to prevent any damage. Then we'd bring over empty fixtures from the old store, and more leathers to hang - back and forth. It worked out really well!

To be sure we had the right location, some things were imperative:
1) Parking for our trucker customers, which is located across the way behind McDonalds. And truckers are using it, so that worked well.
2) A resting place for customers, and what used to be a waiting room is now the Freedom Family Room with comfy chairs. We have a lot of people who come from hours away, and they need a place to rest before hitting the road again.
3) Room to move about. The old location was cramped and had that terrible bottleneck in the middle. Not now!
4) Storage. We needed the room to access more quickly and easily helmets and boots at minimum. Everything is now in reach even for a shorty like me.
5) Production space. We had plans to make our store a one-stop place for bikers, and that included making custom and club t-shirts as well as larger patches. The zone we have set up now if perfect and keeps us busy. And, I am not sewing on patches in a tiny sweatshop cave!
6) Proximity to food. Our new location is within walking distance to Arby's and McDonald's, and Dunkin is just across the street.
7) Room to grow and have more products to choose from. With so many choices in motorcycle leathers and accessories and all, we wanted to do more for our customers, and that meant more choices of quality products.

We closed FTC all of January, taking the first two weeks to tease people about the whereabouts of the new location! It was fun. And we took all of January to get the new store ready. We were there sometimes 10-12 hours a day cleaning, moving things, unpacking, organizing, reorganizing, setting up all the spaces and areas, building displays. You know what? It was a great moment, the two of us, and sometimes the Crew, making the new place take shape. When it came to hanging the slat wall and grid wall onto the walls, Tiny and Hammer were the best team in town! They had the ladders and power tools and strength it took to do the heavy work along with Bryon. Goldilocks and I ate bon bons and sipped on wine. Nah, I wish! We do that alone at home. ;)

With everything together, we opened on Saturday, February 1st. The Crew was there to help all day and it was busy and awesome! A bunch of photos are on our website.

First folks to enter the new store!

February went really well. Everyone loved the new store, who wouldn't! No more black walls like a cave and a receptive and private environment. 2020 was going to be a great year and the season couldn't come soon enough.

Then March happened. See, Bryon and I don't watch television, so we really didn't know there was a hyped-up media convincing humans that they couldn't longer trust each other. Hmmm. Covid-19 became the bane of human existence. Just when we were getting launched, the governments and their health departments overreached and shut America down. And people listened. All of a sudden, nobody was coming to our store, nor to anyone else's, except the grocery stores to hoard toilet paper, frozen foods, flour, and eggs. Oh wait, there were "essential" stores and "essential" workers that kept going, which turned out to be "friends of politicians" stores and "expendable" workers. Well, this is how we saw it, and disagreements may occur. In the end, and now with more information and three month having passed, we had a small business apocalypse and further divisiveness.

Without further ado, we had enough bullshit by the end of April and opened our doors without question on May 1st. The SS in Columbus could shove their orders, nothing ever in writing, mind you. So we moved on and the bikers followed and we have all been okay with riding and getting ready for summer. Now that that is here, can we all just go back to the way we were only a few months ago? Celebrate your freedom this coming Fourth of July with extreme enthusiasm!!! 

One of the coolest things about our new location is that we can do more things outside as well. We recently had The Alternative food truck set up on a Saturday. That was cool. Soon we'll have another or have them back, plus have some product events to learn about what's in the market for bikes and bikers. Stay tuned to what we have coming your way!

I have two more blogs coming about two rides we finally got to take. Today's ride got me inspired to start talking again, my anxieties pushed aside. It's still a beautiful world out there, with good people, and the freedom to roll on, to move on. 

In the wind,

Holly

a.k.a. Stitchblade, Mama Stitch