Budweiser Grand Nationals

The Prophet · 09-08-2010

Trip Report!!!

Day One: Friday. Weather - partly cloudy, looks like rain, 86 degrees.

The ride down to Peoria was great. Beautiful roads all the way from Fox River road, to route 71, to Route 6, to route 29 and into Peoria. It’s nice to experience some rises and falls in the road works, some nice sweeping curves, a great view of the river as you look left, overhanging trees, and a nice shortage of stop signs or traffic lights. Traffic was extremely light, as it was Friday mid-morning.

We stopped for Lunch in Spring Valley. Rode through about a half dozen extremely small towns, that would otherwise be refreshingly quaint and nice if only the residents would change their minds about storing trash, old appliances, junk cars, and other … stuff in their front yards, and in clear view of any traveling passers-by. Being not very well to do financially is one thing, understandable, and no one’s business, but being a poor housekeeper (property keeper?) is another. Come to think of it, taking this stuff to the local recycler would bring in a few bucks, and beautify the local landscape as well. Who’s running or helping to organize these little towns? On the other hand, is it “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”? Or something like that. I’m too judgmental or idealistic at times.

After a lunch and some much needed hydration (Temperature about 92°F), we continued on, and arrived at the Mark Twain Hotel at about 3:15 PM. Just prior to entering Peoria, we looked everywhere for signs or markers directing us to the world famous, iconic, historic “Grandview Drive” which should have been in Peoria Heights, north of Peoria, but neither of us could find any. Hmm?

We parked the bike and headed in. Rain was definitely on the horizon, and the Website for the Hotel mentioned “covered parking available”. That said, when we reached the front desk, we enquired about this. Confusion reigned, and the 17 year olds in charge were sullen and unhelpful. I suggested they look up their own Website on the internet, and they stood motionless, eyes slowly blinking, mouths agape. The best they could offer was that we would have to pay the Lot next door directly, as the Hotel didn’t offer any overhead parking. Finally, an adult staff member happened by, and when asked immediately directed us towards the multi-tiered public ( for profit.. $25.00/day) lot next door. The charge was refundable once we turned in the ticket stub to the Hotel, so no problem. Way to train that staff guys!

I parked the bike in the covered lot, took the stairs down to ground level, opened the door to the outside, and whoosh, it began raining buckets. We had just made it by seconds. It rained extremely heavily on and off for the next 7-8 hrs.

I won’t go too much into a review of the Mark Twain Hotel, other than to state my personal opinion (FWIW) that… it is extremely average, maybe a few notches below that. Suffice to say that the staff seemed very unhappy, and the service, or friendliness, was non-existent. Noisy below window 1960’s air conditioning units (who the heck invented these horribly uncomfortable, noisy, inefficient POS things anyway?), an unbelievably poorly designed area for the coffee maker, sub-average basic cable TV, but – one plus - a very good, high water pressure shower. That said… $135.00 a night “all-in” and breakfast included, so … not a lot to complain about. Plus, no one is listening anyway!

I give the Mark Twain Hotel … one star for the decent shower pressure. Best honest, forthright recommendation one can ever provide: “Would I go there again?” Nope.

Aside from all that, it WAS convenient, as it was roughly 2 blocks from the festivities.

The rain let up for a brief moment at around 6:30PM, so we walked over to the “Riverfront” area seeking a restaurant for Dinner. IMHO, Peoria should be sued for false advertising, as the “actual” riverfront area differs significantly from the “reality” as illustrated in their City Website rendering. There are roughly three restaurants to choose from, and they are spaced about a city block apart each. Not exactly a “thriving”, exciting area. We chose Chicago Pizza, and it was actually great – excellent Pizza, great, expansive on-tap beer choices, friendly staff, etc. We had to wait out the rain for a while, and then ran back to the Hotel, ducking under awnings, and weaving in and out of doorways. We fondly remembered doing this sort of thing in our teens, so it was actually fun.

Once upstairs, we dried off, changed shirts, etc. and under my always questionable recommendation, went downstairs to the Hotel Bar. This is the famous (or infamous?) “Two/25” club so often praised. If any of you have seen the fantastic “Naked Gun” movies, you may remember the Bar Leslie Nielson goes to, apparently the most depressing, saddest bar in the world, to drown his sorrows after Priscilla Presley dumps him . This one would beat it hands down, actually, the Naked Gun movie bar had considerably more patrons, and they were considerably happier IMHO. It was roughly 10:30 PM; the Two/25 had three customers, including us, the other being the apparent local female bar-fly, embarrassingly attempting to pick up the laconic, socially impaired barkeep. All this while a huge Biker Rally is occurring 2 blocks away. Exhausted from the overly entertaining and exciting atmosphere, we headed for bed after about ½ hour of this.

Day Two: Saturday. Weather – Perfect, clear skies, a little hot at peak 92 or so, but crystal clear skies and zero rain.

We started with a 7:30 AM Breakfast downstairs in the Hotel Restaurant (2/25 Club).

By the way: Advertisement for the All-Inclusive Breakfast Feature - “Eggs… any way you like ‘em”.

Actual experience: (long pause while we wait for the ‘chef’ to acknowledge us……..
“Can I help you?”
“Yes… may I have two eggs… basted”.
“We don’t DO basted” (note that the “chef” is at best a 17 year old kid).
“Hmmm…. What DO you do?

[A barely audible, monotone recital of various egg cooking styles (sans “basted” is overheard…]

And so on.

We hurried back up to the room to get ready, and make it to the “Opening Parade” at 10:30. The parade travels from the Peoria Motorcycle Club Raceway, roughly 15 minutes southward, winds noisily through downtown Peoria, and finally winds up at the Peoria Riverfront Park parking lot. Rumor had it that 900 bikes were in the parade, and I believe it. Add that to the roughly 2000 bikes already parked in the lot, and it’s very impressive from a sheer numbers perspective.

Ton’s of bikes, roughly 98.5% Harley Davidson’s. We saw a few BMW’s (2), a spattering of Honda CB’s (4 or so), a Triumph (Hinckley) Tiger (1), a couple of Gold Wings (3), and maybe a half dozen at most non-HD Cruiser copies. Other than that, all Harleys, which is O.K. – but – after a while, they all look exactly the same to me.

Fact o’ the Week” – adding ton’s of (or having your dealer install ton’s of) HD Chrome Accessories and doo-dads does NOT an interesting, “Custom” bike make. There… I said it. Nice, in that they ARE bikes after all, but eventually, potentially, oddly, more-of-the-same boring.

Picture a 2 mile long line of Harley full dressers, two abreast, revving the motors to get the most out of the “Drag” Pipes, the riders and passengers suitably attired in black leathers, the standard issue HD (your city here) T-shirt, doo-rags, stylish shades, and fingerless gloves. Disappointingly (or maybe not!), no “biker chicks” in chaps who apparently forgot their regular pants beneath as per most Biker Magazine covers, but there you have it. Actually, most of the women I saw would look significantly more at home in a local run down Trailer Park, than on a cover of “Biker Boobs”, but that’s just my opinion.

Once the Parade was over, and the bikes all carefully parked in neat, angular rows, the Riverfront “festivities” began. $15.00 each to get in, not too bad. Some nice, interesting Custom Bikes to view near the entrance, with many (maybe too many) classes to compete in. Three vintage ‘70’s Triumphs – 3 Bonneville’s and 1 Trident – some very cool “Rat” bikes, with the remainder being absolutely identical HD “Ultra –Dyna - Super – Deluxe – Soft-tail - Glide - whatever bikes. Sorry, but again they all look exactly the same to me, maybe one being slightly shinier than the previous one? We voted for the vintage “Indian” based Rat Trike/Bike, and a Suzuki highly customized ‘Busa sportbike.

Walking around the rest of the grounds – tons of vendors for those interested in various leather jackets, vests, chaps, etc. Unbelievably bad taste T-Shirts – get this – “Can you see me now… ***hole? Boldly emblazoned across the back of a fluorescent orange T-Shirt. Actually saw a guy wearing one. Not exactly the elected spokesperson for good motorcycling relations! These are the poor souls that seemingly believe everyone else in the universe is wrong, and their thinking and road “privileges” are right, yet always being abused. Yeah… right.

Actually a whole booth of mind-bogglingly bad (what were they thinking?) t-shirts that no one with an I.Q. over 40 would wear… but I digress. Other booths with heavy boots, Harley Davidson T-Shirts of every color, type, location, style etc. imaginable, and loads of sunglasses.

Heavy Metal bands that may seriously want to consider basic Guitar lessons, and lastly, a Local “Walter Bros.” Harley Davidson Dealer booth – actually really nice guys, we stopped and had a look at the bikes and a nice talk about bikes n’ stuff, etc. Nice booth, nice guys.

Did the walk through the grounds about three times, and bought an event - Budweiser Grand Nationals 2010” - T-Shirt for the heck of it, and to contribute some support. Stopped and had a Pork Chop Sandwich and fries – which seemed to be the local specialty and a Bud (of course!).

We then watched the stunt bike guys pull wheelies and stoppie’s for a while – these guys are nuts – then headed back to the Hotel at around 6:00 PM.

Changed out of sweaty stuff into fresh clothes, washed up, and headed out for a pre-dinner ride. Eastward over the Rt.74 old steel Bridge, across the Illinois River, then around a big sweeping half circular highway 474 at speed, then across the river west bound on Route 474 over yet another great old Bridge to Adams Street. We took Adams street northward on a wonderful “hands-on” tour of the apparent Peoria Slums, gathering strange “what the…” stares from the surprised – but cautiously suspicious - locals, then finally upgraded into what appeared to be a safer, more pleasant area. Finally we reached “Kelleher’s Irish Pub”, our dinner destination. Great place. Good food, good Guinness on tap, and great, friendly service from some pretty local girls.

Had a great long, leisurely dinner, and honestly, only two beers. It was getting dark outside, so we headed back to the Hotel at around 9:00 PM. The wife was feeling some back pain and was tired after a long day, so we relaxed and watched TV for a while, then hit the sack after a long day out.

Day Three to be continued on next post...

Ride safe!

Bob

The Prophet · 09-08-2010

Continued from last post...read post #11 first.

Trip Report!!

Day Three, Sunday: Weather perfect again, clear, cloudless blue skies, hot, about peak 94 today.

Had breakfast downstairs, but this time wisely steered clear of requested “basted”, and instead asked for “eggs over easy”.

“What’s that?” the seemingly Cooking Methodology impaired chef replied.

“Just like regular fried eggs, but near the end, you flip them over once quickly to cook the yolks a little more”.

“Hmmph… never heard of ‘em”.

“O.K. then, how about sunny side up?”

Yeah, we can do those”.

“Excellent…”

And so on. What a load of crap. Again, the Mark Twain Hotel may not be for everyone, maybe masochists and self loathing aficionados’ only.

Since the wife wasn’t feeling 100%, and further research revealed that although there was a $25.00 entrance fee, and the Races have been going on for 60+ years, no one at the Peoria Motorcycle Club Raceway had ever thought of grandstands, or benches, or seats of any type. The website suggest you bring Lawn Chairs, which rules out arriving by bike for some of us, and we didn’t savor the thought of standing in an open field in 94 degrees for hours… so we checked out of the Hotel (we were saddened upon leaving such a fine, service oriented establishment) a day early, packed up, and headed for home.

It took us forever and getting lost not once but twice - despite a GPS - to find the famous “Grandview Drive” so talked about. Apparently, Peoria no longer feels the drive is worth any effort in signage, etc.

YOU have to find IT, which we did, eventually. We did it north to south, then U-turned and did it again south to north. Actually, not bad. A fun road, some great turns, but be aware of the speed limit at roughly 25 to 30 MPH. The road rises up sharply, and then meanders through a residential area on the west, and the Illinois River way down below on the east. A half dozen or so “scenic view” turn offs, and luxury homes for the most part, mostly apparently built (I’m guessing) in the 20’s and 30’s?

While parked on one of these turn offs, we encountered an overly friendly, but god-awful ugly Turkey Buzzard. He (very colorful plumage) walked right up to us, looking for a treat, of which we had none. Sorry guy. Headed out after a few pics, and got hopelessly lost again. Our trusty GPS came to the rescue, and I finally found Rt. 29 north again. Had a very nice, traffic-free ride for a while, and then spotted an old “Ma n’ Pa” style Café, so we pulled in. It was the Chestnut Family Restaurant in Henry, illinois, right on Route 29. Highly recommended, not a "biker" place so to speak, but certainly "biker" friendly.

Great food, excellent coffee. Had a Tuna on Rye and p-chips, with an Iced Tea. It was great. There were two older Harley’s parked separately outside, so we had fun trying to guess who they belonged to. Both of us were dead wrong, and the actual owners turned out to be the most unlikely looking in the restaurant. So much for premonition.

Continued onward with the leisurely pace, and stopped once again at an antiques store near Starved Rock State Park on Highway 71. Guys – you have to do this kind of stuff with the ladies to keep ‘em happy. Just grin… and bear it. On leaving, about ten Harley’s pulled into the lot, and one guy stopped at my bike and commented nicely on it. I thanked him, asked about his ride, and we talked for a while. Turns out, they were all at the Peoria thing, and had also cut out this AM for the same (no chairs, too hot) reason as us. Small world.

Do it again next year? Nah. It’s just not our thing really – the leather and doo-rags, cookie cutter Harley see – and be seen - stuff. I’ll stick to rides and events organized by our local Triumph dealer – Slimey Crud Run, New Glarus Run, etc. Seems like we mesh perfectly with the Triumph crowd, but are like obvious sore thumbs with the doo-rag set. Go figure.

Headed slowly home, enjoying the ride, arriving at about 3:00 PM. Parked the Bike, unpacked all our ‘stuff’, went out to the patio, and popped a cold Guinness open. Tonight we’ll watch the sun go down together, not much else. Life is good.

[Pics below: Some cool paint jobs on sportbikes at the show (Godzilla!), parking lot full of bikes - see Mark Twain hotel in background, the famous Turkey Vulture at Grandview Drive, I thought the pine shelving unit at the Hotel room was pretty nifty for storing helmets - note the crooked outlet -signs of things to come in the hotel, me & the bike at Grandview scenic lookout with new Clearview windshield shown]

Ride Safe!

Bob