well the big day is finally upon us. we head out in the morning for our big vacation. Our first stop is martinburg WV where I'm checking out a place called M&J motor company. they are a Lehman trike conversion center and have a good stock of trikes on hand, so I'm looking forward to seeing a few up close.

Then its off to the windy city, Chicago IL for the weekend. my wife will be at the quilt show at the stephens center in rosemont and I plan on hitting the museum of science & industry.
Then either mon or tues morning I'm headed down to Manteno IL to take a tour of Rad Rides by Troy. I hope to get some good pics and meet the man himself.
Then its off to Dayton OH and the US Air Force Museum, housing over 300 vintage aircraft and some very rare birds to be sure.
Then we move on to Bath NY to visit family for a day or so and then head to Connecticut on Saturday for the family Easter dinner. I plan on stopping off at the Orange County Choppers showroom on our way to CT (if we have time)
The we stop off in Red Bank NJ on Mon to visit some long time friends of my wife and then back home to Virginia.
Should be quite a trip...hope the T-Bat will perform with flying colors...check in with you guys when I get back.

T-Bat, have a good trip man. Keep On your way to Martinsburg you'll probably pass by my house, I live about 3 miles off of I-81 in Winchester, Va. And go to sleep!!! You'll regret it in the mornin.

Sounds like a fun trip. I love Chi town.

Have fun

Sounds like a blast!

PICS... PICS... PICS!!!

SOunds like a lot of fun. Like austin said PICS!!!

T-bat,

you should have PM'ed me so we could have met up somewhere. Oh well. Maybe next time.

hey there to all from the windy city!...it seems the hilton here has net access so i thought I'd check in...got a big scare with the car, everytime i crank up I could swear I smell anti freeze...its been three days and 800 miles of running but it doesnt look like its dropped an ounce of coolant...maybe its just my brain...the pipes sound great unless you go 60mph@2000rpm...then it drones like all hell...gezz I am so tired of spending $$$ on the exhaust on this car...I wont be able to post pics until we get back back home but the U-505 sub at the Science&Industry museum was just awesome...we went down to millinieum park today and checked out the "Bean"...that thing was way cool...then we hoofed over to Navy Pier which was also pretty neat...tomorrow I think its a boat tour and a few other things before we are off to Manteno...downtown Chi-town wasnt as big as I expected (compared to Manhattan) and just like New York, boy do they need to fix these streets! shocks and struts wont last long here!

PS I saw another black SSEi at O'Hare Pontiac yesterday...if I hadnt been out of state I might have dared a trade...but oh well

Framos, I did think about contacting you but this is kinda like our anniversary honeymoon so I wasnt sure how she might feel about that, plus we really loaded up the schedule while we were here...no offense...btw, Lou Maltanis deep dish pizza is insane! that box must have weighed ten pounds later guys!

Ohhh yeah thats good stuff!
Have a good time, tbat...

I know what you mean about the pot holes.

No offense taken. I understand completely. Yes, Lou's pizza is just so good.

Hope you had fun in the Windy City T-Bat.

Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary!

dont forget the PICS!

Keep enjoying yourself.

hi ho from beautiful downtown Springwater NY...I'm on a dail up here at our cousins house so I'll try to be brief. heres the latest update.

our sunday and monday in chi town proved to be much better...we hit the art institute, the navy pier and chicago beach. the weather was lovely and the downtown food was great. Monday nite we headed down to Manteno...early tuesday morning we made it down to Rad Rides by Troy...unfortunately Troy himself was in Wisconsin but I met his Dad Jack. This is just a bunch of hard working guys doing what they love. The shop isnt as big as you might think and there are no huge signs. Mr Trepanier told us to lok around all we liked and anyone would be happy to talk to us. Shop foreman Brian Ferguson showed us around and was just great. He passed us off to Levi Green who also chatted with us for awhile. Everyone was pretty bummed over the fact they had just had a show outside of Toronto and their truck and trailer had been stolen...inside the trailer was "chocolate thunder" a radical custom 37 Ford cabriolet worth about $450k!...he said they had over 98k man-hours tied up in that car so I can understand them being ticked over it...I shot a few pics and we let them get back to work...what a great bunch.
We then stopped off at the Indy motor speedway museum, and that was just plain awesome! The museum is actually in the infield and you drive under the track to get in. They also have a small tour bus that takes you around the track itself...man that place is huge!...and the yard of bricks is a way cool sight.
then we headed out for dayton where yesterday we did the US Air Force museum...man bring your walkin shoes for this place!...I wish I could say I got better pics but I got what I could...most of these aircraft were so big you just cant get good shots of them...but it was blow-me-away unbelieveable to see so many cool historic planes right before your eyes...if you go DO NOT miss the Presidential/experimental hangar tour! one of a kind and never to be seen elsewhere monster lurk inside these walls including the gigantic XB-70 Valkyrie...oh and Herc, the badazz "Angel of Death" C-130 gunship is also there...what a beast!
Its family and friends from here til we get back home. The T-Bat seems to be performing well with no further signs of trouble and 27-28mpg @75mph cruising...the drone @2000rpm is still a big problem so I'll prolly be looking to replace my glasspack resonator with a flowmaster hushpower when I get back...right after I pay my friggin speeding ticket!...arggh! 59 in a 45 work zone...I'm sure the state of NY will love my wallet for that one...later guys

T-Bat, we're still waiting for some pics!!! Keep

Sounds like you're having a blast!
I just found out yesterday that an "Air and Auto Museum" will be built just north of Austin. A lot of money is slated to go into this place to get it built. Appearently Austin couldn't find the space for it so the Mayor passed it up to Georgetown, about 15-20 miles north of Austin.
I'm already gettin' all giddy inside over it. I can't wait for it to be built and opened.

Fun fun Tbat!!!!

AustinGTP, let me know when that museum opens up, maybe me and the wife will roll down there sometime. i used to live about 2 hours from the Air museum Tbat went too. I will tell you one thing Tbat, if you ever get the chance to go there when they are having an air show, that is incredible. i am currently in the air force. i think that base in dayton and its museum is what got me started. well, that and the fact that my grandad was in the army-air. can't wait to see pics of your cross-country tour.

well after 12 states,13 days and 2920 miles, we are finally back home...and boy did I hate to see it end. It was an awesome trip (other than my friggin speeding ticket) and the car droning my eardrums loose. I ordered a Flowmaster Hushpower muffler from her cousins house in NY and it should be delivered tomorrow. I am in the process of proofing, enhancing and resizing pics from the trip, plus I have to decide which ones I'm going to post up...I may have to load them to a YaHoo slideshow and then give you guys a link or do a seperate album on photobucket...either way it will take way too much space here...I'll try to have them up by this weekend. Chicago was cool, Rad Rides was awesome, Indy was mind-blowing and the Air Force museum was just freakin huge...not sure where we'll be off to next year but this one may be hard to top.

Welcome back glad to see you enjoyed your self. Now tell us more bout your speeding ticket.

also, some pics would be good.

Glad to hear your home safe.

Welcome back T-Bat!!!

I'd like to see the Air Force museum. The Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacloa is aweome too. Glad you had a good and safe trip, ticket excluded. Welcome back.

I spent many days at that Aviation museum in Pensacola while I was at Aircrew school. I loved that place. I actually enjoyed those displays better then the Air and Space in D.C. The A-4s hanging in formation from the ceiling is just too much (in a good way)

Glad to see you made it back in one piece!

i never got to go to the air museum in Pen. which really sucked, because i was stationed there for four months. so, i guess i can't blame anyone but myself