Motorcycle Travel

Yves du Parc, Vice President and General Manager of Beijing Sideways, sized my helmet and adjusted my lap belt in the side car of his “Chang Jiang,” literally "The long River" motor bike. He then took my photo, hopped onto his seat, turned the ignition key, and we were off. Although I had traveled through Beijing many times in the back seat of a taxi, this was a new experience, in-fact my first ever motorcycle experience!

There are certainly not many times in life, if ever, that you are looking forward to taking yourself to jail.  But in this case, that is exactly what a happy group of 5 did on a beautiful Sunday in August.  After many, many, many, weekends of rain, Rod, Kathy, Chuck, Chris, and Jeff gathered for a long and beautiful motorcycle ride to a small Brandenburg, KY, jailhouse.

A great crowd gathered for the anticipated ride to Elk Creek Winery.  Rod, Kathy, Chuck, Chris, Kyle, and Jeff all met at Thornton’s on a beautiful day with expectations of a nice ride.  It had been a while since so many had gathered and while everyone was anxious to get rolling it was hard to limit the catch-up conversations.  After more than a few minutes of chatting the group headed out on what turned out to be a spectacular day.

Rod, Kathy, Charlie, Patsy, Chuck, and Jeff enjoyed a perfect (beyond perfect actually) October day driving through the southern Indiana countryside to the past hangouts of the Chicago Mobs, Presidents, Actors, Actresses, and the wealthy.  The weather was unseasonably warm, starting in the upper 60’s and ending, believe it or not, over 90 degrees.  There wasn’t a cloud in sight.