We were a small, but determined group of riders who set about to explore the area on our weekly sojourn of asphalt surfing and curve-straightening. So small, in fact, that only three of us made the ride. That's okay, we still had a good time, logged some quality miles, and had some interesting adventures.
The started out in the usual -- if not traditional -- manner with a hearty breakfast and good conversation. Eddie joined us for the meal, but due to commitments involving visiting relatives, he was unable to join us on the ride.
That left yours truly, Robert, and Boyd as the only three riders for the day.
Leaving our rendezvous point, we headed east and meandered our way along one back road after another until we ended up at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City. We mainly just stopped in to see what they had going on and didn't actually enter the attraction; choosing instead to hang out in the parking lot and watch the action through the fence for a little while. And this low key approach proved to be quite an interesting way to kill some time.
This is the main entrance to Fantasy of Flight:
This is a glimpse into one of the several collection hangars:
The attraction also has a large maintenance hangar across the field from the collection hangars:
They were prepping this bi-wing plane for aerial tour flights:
She was a real beauty and the sight of her sitting on the ramp was an inviting and inspiring sight:
This PBY Catalina was sitting across the way on the extreme edge of the tarmac:
While we standing at the fence soaking up the sights, they rolled out this Stearman. You can pay for flights in this beautiful plane and they let you take the controls and fly it. And, yes, I was VERY tempted to give it a whirl:
The other bi-plane took off with a load of paying passengers as we stood there admiring the Stearman:
Looking around, we spotted this little guy swimming across the pond that was just on the other side of the fence from us:
He came very close to where we were standing and didn't seem the least bit concerned by our presence:
Walking around the entrance building, I spotted this bicycle parked up against the building. This biker could teach us touring motorcyclists a thing or two about packing to maximize carrying capacity:
Inside the entrance building I shot a picture of this large diorama of Charles Lindbergh's plane, the Spirt of St. Louis, in flight:
This Lockheed Constellation (Connie) is parked at the entrance/exit to the attraction. As you can see, it is undergoing restoration work at this time:
Leaving Fantasy of Flight, we continued our journey by just following our noses along many an unknown road:
We traveled eastward into deepest, darkest Polk County, before turning north and finally west. We ended up on Green Pond Road, where Boyd and I did a little bit of bike swapping. Here's Boyd on the Red Velvet, while I prepare to mount up on his new V-Max:
Of course I was too busy piloting the V-Max to get any shots of that action, but here is the V-Max sitting at the far western end of Green Pond Road while I await the arrival of Boyd and Robert:
The V-Max is an awesome motorcycle and I managed to give it a spirited ride thanks to Boyd's trusting courtesy. I managed to get a bit out in front of Boyd and Robert as can be seen in this photo looking east on Green Pond Road. That's right...they're nowhere to be seen!!!:
Here comes Boyd and Robert some 30 minutes later (just kidding!):
We ended up riding another 50 miles or so after all this fun and excitement before I called it a day. It was an interesting day of uncharted riding and it seemed we all enjoyed the adventure.
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