Tag: travel Ohio

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.

Covered Bridges & Ice Cream

We spent the 4th on the bike enjoying the beautiful weather and exploring some covered bridges in Ashtabula County Ohio. We have been to most of the bridges and once we have them all 17 checked off I will do a post with all of them.

Yesterday we stopped at Netcher Road Covered Bridge, Giddings Road Covered Bridge and South Denmark Covered Bridge. These three are close together and make for a nice day trip. All three are located in Jefferson, Oh and cross over Mill Creek. The total trip for us was around 140 miles. We stayed off the major highways and enjoyed the country roads.

First stop was Netcher Road Covered Bridge located at 1544 Netcher Rd, Jefferson, OH. The bridge is 110 feet long, 22 feet wide and 14 feet size inches tall, and was open to traffic in 1999.

On either side of the bridge there are small pull offs so that you can stop and check the bridge out a little closer, and if you’re like me snap some pictures.

Next up was Giddings Road Covered Bridge, just 3 miles from Netcher, located at 1399 Giddings Rd, Jefferson, OH. This bridge was built in 1995 and 107 feet long. There is only one small pull off, you may need to just park along the road if you’d like to stop and walk the bridge.

The last bridge of the day was South Denmark Covered Bridge. Located at 2670 S. Denmark Rd, Jefferson, OH is is about 8 miles from the Giddings Road bridge.

This bridge was built in 1890, but bypassed with a steel bridge in 1975. Access to the bridge is easy and can still be driven across by any vehicle under 4 tons.

The South Denmark Covered Bridge is 100 feet long with a span of 76 feet, 13.24 feet wide and 11 feet high.

After checking out the bridges we made our way to Jamestown, PA to try to find a bite to eat. Most places were closed for the 4th but the Jamestown Hunger Buster was open and serving great food and had a ton of options for your sweet tooth. They offer over 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream, just as many flavors of hard ice cream, shaved ice and so many more desserts. This little shop even has their own bakery.

There is some outside seating, but the only tables out of the sun are on the small porch. Another option is always to grab you food and head up to Pymatuning State Park just up the road and enjoy the lake view while eating.

We opted to split one of their wedges so we had room for ice cream. I’m glad be did because it was stacked with meat and cheese, and boy was it good. We tried three flavors of the hard ice cream, Brown Butter Bourbon Truffle, Midnight Carmel River and Carmel Cheesecake Cookie Monster. They were all delicious but the Brown Butter Bourbon Truffle was my favorite.

Bellies full, we headed back home for the day.

A couple tips when exploring the Ashtabula Covered Bridges:

  • Check out the area you are exploring for the day and plan ahead for somewhere to get something to eat and drink. Some of the bridges are off on their own so you may want to figure you dining options in ahead of time.
  • Second is related to the location of the bridges as well….restrooms. Most but not all of the bridges do not offer a restroom close, so again just be aware and plan before you head out.