River Run **massive number of picture warning**

[DevilDog]

Well I thought I would get my lazy ass to writing my ride report. September is the month which I take my annual “ No Destination Run “ with a fellow Marine that I served with. Now last year we did close to 2700 miles in 4 days and while “run and gun” is fun and has its appeal, this year would be different. This year we decided to take our time and stay longer in one location, sort of a “base camp” and take local rides kinda thing. This would mean packing more gear ( oh boy ) the basic load of clothes would be the same, just packed a larger tent, full size cooler, 2 burner coleman stove, coleman lantern, and assorted pots, pans and stuff needed for camping. The bike was packed and unpacked a few times until I got the weight distribution as low as possible, and a load plan that I could replicate once we broke camp. I have seen too many people get to a destination and can’t get their gear back on the bike for the return trip and end up throwing stuff away, piss poor planning if you ask me.
I left the house at 0630 on the 18th to meet up with Jerry in Marion Illinois @ Black Diamond Harley Davidson. He lives in Richmond Missouri, and that is our “ meet half way point.” Black Diamond was packed as a poker run was about to get started so we moved our bikes to the Steak and Shake to plan our first day. We decided that we would spend at least the first night at Cave in Rock State Park, Illinois. We stayed @ cave in rock two nights, then we traveled to Horseshoe lake State Park, Illinois. Our last night was spent @ Reelfoot Lake, in Tennessee.
Enough of the bla bla bla…. And on to the pictures..

Note that most of the photos are shot on an Motorola Droid and are not high quality, but I did break out the Nikon DSLR for some money shots..


******************* Warning lots of pictures, Enjoy ********************************

Rest area in Tenn, packed for bear.



Good Morning, I need coffee..



View from pilot seat.




Ohio River



Hoodlums one and all, Hello Mr. Squinty...



First site: Cave in Rock State Park, Illinois



Coleman Max 13 x 11 tent. Good tent for the price. Plenty of room for 2 Marines with gear.



In keeping with Geeks tradition, Food Porn chicken and potatos.



More Food Porn from breakfast, Eggs and fried taters....




Waiting on ferry to cross Ohio River.





Me and Amigo on Ferry crossing Ohio River.



Amigo on the road.



Horseshoe lake campground.



Horseshoe lake.

[DevilDog]

Horseshoe swamp, I mean lake.



You can trust us.... really you can.



Yummm Yummm chili mac and rice in a bag of course....



Cocktail anyone?



Amigo's sled, 2005 Fatboy



My U-Haul, 2008 Ultra.



Pure Motivation here..... Notice HERD Patch.. got to represent...



Thebes, Illinois campground. They are interested in hosting an event for us....



Looking at the Mississippi.



Moving out of Horseshoe heading for Reelfoot.



Waiting on Ferry to cross Mississippi River.

[DevilDog]

On ferry crossing Mississippi.



Bikes loaded on Ferry.



Reelfoot Lake campground.



Reelfoot Lake sunset.



Reelfoot Lake sunset.



Reelfoot Lake Cypress trees.



I really hated to see this one end. Few things in life are as good as spending time on the road with a good friend. Both Jerry ( Amigo ) and I served as Drill Instructors in the same Company. We also Deployed to the sandbox together. We made a promise that we would stay in touch after we both retired and ride the roads together. We are both fortunate to be able to say that is a promise we have kept. So were we going next year Amigo?

See you on the road, DevilDog...... out.

[Crocodile56]

In One Word.......SWEET!!!

[CLL375]

I'm so jealous of you guys. I've been wanting to take a ride like that for a long time. You're living the dream, man!

[JimP]

Sounds like an awesome experience. Nothing better than to be able to share it with a good friend. Thanks for posting

[Cuppa Joe]

Looks like it was a good time and beautiful country to roll through.

[Ironhead]

sounds like a great weekend, and an awesome experience. few things in life are as great as a lasting friendship, and to be able to share it on the open road on 2 wheels makes it even better.

thanks for sharing and thanks for the pics.

BTW.....when did the goatee come back? and......Nice tan line on the forehead erbox

[beer30]

Wow! Pics are great, was that a kitchen sink on the back of your sled?
Glad you two had a good time. What a great way to make memories.

[DevilDog]

It is literally living a dream, we used to sit up at night sitting is some hole dug in the ground telling each other that we are going to ride the roads when we get back to the real world.... So literally living the dream is true...

BTW.....when did the goatee come back? and......Nice tan line on the forehead

I brought the goatee out of retirement for this trip and its already off my face, and the tan line is not mine.... that is Amigo not me. I took my do-rag off so I would not have that line. LOL

[DevilDog]

Wow! Pics are great, was that a kitchen sink on the back of your sled?
Glad you two had a good time. What a great way to make memories.

no kitchen sink, just about everything else....

[vlade]

I was seein a small bit of unorginization in your campsites loose gear an stuff. If you had to bail at night you mighta left stuff behind. Bikes never did looked parked the Marine Corp way.

[steveston]

Two Amigo's!

Well done Lads! It is so cool to share such good times after dealing with some not so good in the past. Friends for life I am sure....Thanks for sharing some great pics from a terrific road trip.

:photo

[DevilDog]

I was seein a small bit of unorginization in your campsites loose gear an stuff. If you had to bail at night you mighta left stuff behind. Bikes never did looked parked the Marine Corp way.

we are working on that..... I reckon a couple more road trips and we will have the zero dark thirty egress thing down.

[vlade]

I thought I saw the mandadory hot sauce but it was jus a empty coke bottle