Tag: motorcycle

Vintage Motorcycles & More

Recently we took a ride out to Ravenna, OH to check out Bear’ s Vintage Motorcycle Museum. The museum is in a historic grain mill built in 1881. In 2006 Bear and his wife purchased the building and preserved the bins, shuts and machinery. As they put the museum together they put the items around the original pieces of the mill.

The museum has over 60 bikes, promotional items, memorabilia and much more. Although their passion began with Harley Davidson items, the museum encompasses many more brands and anything that has to do with motorcycles.

Leave yourself plenty of time because there is a lot to take in and if you don’t take your time it’s easy to overlook all the items tucked in every nook and cranny.

Bear himself came and showed us some of the more unique items, giving us the history and even the backstory of how he attained the items. He was super friendly, knowledgeable and it was clear how passionate he is about motorcycles and and the feeling of freedom he gets from riding.

The Harlette bike was a very interesting story. He was especially proud of having this one in his collection because it is the only one in the US. Check out the picture below for more about the bike. Bear and his wife also do an awesome job of writing up and labeling the items in the museum.

Another rare items is the Harley key. There were only three made and one resides in Bear’s Museum.

The museum is also home to two of the original “CHIPS” bikes signed by George Barris.

One of my favorite exhibits were the custom-built “Rat Bikes”. Now these are truly unique. Check out my Instagram post for videos that shows one of them up close so you can see the creative use of items not commonly found on a bike.

There are so many more items I could never touch on everything in one post. Check out my pictures here and on Facebook, and make sure to make a trip to Bear’s Vintage Motorcycle Museum. Trust me you will not regret it whether your a motorcycle nut, a fan or history or even someone like who’s just like seeing new and unique places like me.

Cowboy Sam and Witty Wine

We were finally able to get the bike out for the first time this season, and it was a beautiful ride. It was a short little trip, between 130-150 miles, to see some local places that I hadn’t been to as well as some that I have.

First stop was a little shop with some unique finds, that also sells wine with even more unique labels and names. The wine, is actually what caught grabbed my attention and landed this location on my list of places to check out.

The Rustique Log Cabin is located south of Kittanning, and as the name applies carries rustic home decor. The store is small, but don’t let that fool you because they pack in a lot of merchandise into this small space. Even though there is a lot in this small store they layout and displays nice, and they have a wide array of themes

Now for what first drew me to this store…the wine. The store sell Black Dog Wine, and what makes it stand out from the crowd are it’s unique labels and names. I wanted to buy every bottle just because I loved the labels. I did resist the urge and only bought a few items, after all we were on the bike. Next time we may have to tack our luggage bag with us haha.

The lady at the store was very friendly and helpful. She even made suggestions mixing some of the wines to get whole new flavor option. As we talked I found out that the actual Black Dog Winery is located in Oakdale, PA…looks like I’ll be planning another ride to check out their wine a little more.

Next we headed back north on US-422 to stop at a The Cadet Restaurant who has a unique mascot, “Sam”. Sam is the reason this restaurant was added to my list. He is a 30-foot-tall cowboy statue holding a giant hamburger. This iconic statue was even featured in book “Roadside Giants“. According to the restaurants website this larger than life cowboy got his name from an officer that used to patrol the parking lot to keep an eye out for trouble. For more about the restaurant, and Sam’s history check out the Cadet Restaurant website.

The restaurant itself has an old time diner feel, and serves comfort style food. When we stopped we indulged in dessert. I had the coconut pie and coffee, and the BF had the peanut butter cheesecake and a chocolate milkshake. I would like to stop back when we have more of an appetite and try their “Famous Poor Boy”…I mean if that’s what their famous for how could I not go back and try it.

After leaving the restaurant we headed into Kittanning and stopped at the Riverfront Park so I could get a couple shots of the bridge. On the day we were there the fence at the top of the outdoor amphitheater was lined with American flags and the names of veterans. I’m not sure if this was for Memorial Day or if this display is there all the time but it was a beautiful and is a reminder of how thankful we should be to those who have served and are currently serve for life we get to enjoy.

We decided to go off the beaten path and take a different way back into Butler. If you don’t mind some bumps along the way this is a nice option because it travels along the river and winds amongst the railroad tracks…hence the bumps haha. You can find a Roadtrippers trip I made for this excursion here.

Last stop of the day was at Rock Ann Haven Bar and Grille located in Butler, PA. This is somewhere we often stop when we are in the area on the bike, and the staff is always friendly and attentive. On this day we only stopped for a quick drink, then we were on our way. The next time we stop in for a bite to eat I’ll include more about this this location.

It was a beautiful day and we got some much needed wind therapy, plus seen some new sites along the way.

The Dragon P1

Living in Pennsylvania I tend not to go on as many adventures during the winter months because I’m not a fan of the cold. However, this gives me an opportunity to share some of my past ones. The first one I’d like to share is The Dragon.

One of my favorite ways to see new places is traveling by bike. And no I don’t mean the ones you have to pedal. I think it’s great for those who do, but this gal just doesn’t have that much energy lol. I’m talking about motorcycles. Well, one day my bf was telling about the Tail of the Dragon. A section of road that almost all motorcycle riders have heard of and many have experienced, and how he’d like to do it. Me being the person I am, I started doing my research. I came back to him and said “you do know there is an entire dragon, right?”. Well he didn’t, and as we’ve come to find out most people do not. So instead of just experiencing the Tail of the Dragon, we took on the entire Dragon.

The Dragon is made up of the famous Tail of the Dragon, Back of the Dragon, Head of the Dragon, Neck of the Dragon and the Claw of the Dragon. The Claw of the Dragon is actually made of multiple loops so we decided to divide our “Dragon Adventure” into two trips. The first year we did everything but the Claw and the second year we did the Claw. I’m going to break our trips into multiple posts because there are a lot of miles and sites to cover. In this post I’ll just give you and an overview.

The Neck, Back and Claw are all located in Viginia, the Tail is in Tennessee and the Head is in West Virginia. I laid out our trip so thet we would do the Neck, then travel down the Back, make our way to the Tail, then do the Head on the way back home. Again, the Claw we left for our second trip.

The first day we traveled from western PA to a hotel in Staunton, VA close to the Neck of the Dragon. I planned it this way so we could get a good nights sleep and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the true beginning of our adventure the next day. It was a lot of miles to cover so there weren’t many stops on the way down, but it was a beautiful ride.

The Dragon P2