[ad_1]
This Favourite Journey doesn’t embrace a route map as a result of it’s all a couple of single vacation spot: the nook of 300 Highway and 600 Avenue in Moonshine, Illinois. Getting there’s a private expertise for each rider who makes the Moonshine Lunch Run.
Chances are you’ll recall the story I wrote concerning the final official Moonshine Lunch Run, which came about on April 29, 2018. However on that day, as I gathered with different lengthy‑distance riders exterior the Moonshine Retailer, munching my Moonburger beneath a cool Illinois rain, I sensed it wasn’t the tip.
Associated: Reflections on the Moonshine Lunch Run
Commercial
The unique idea for the MLR, conceived by our late farmer buddy Terry Hammond, simply required people to experience from someplace far. Terry knew sure individuals would make the lengthy, typically tough experience to Moonshine to attach with different riders who’d do the identical. The hamburgers have been nice, however the fellowship of lengthy‑distance riders mattered most.
Earlier this 12 months, Bob Cust of Swansea, Illinois, introduced he was internet hosting an RTE (experience‑to‑eat) on the Moonshine Retailer. I shared this with Steve Efthyvoulou, who first introduced me to Moonshine in 2010. “I’m in,” he stated instantly. We reached out to different MLR alums, together with Michael Boucher and Randy Bridgewater, plus beginner Chuck Smolka. All in.
Of us who’ve completed a experience to Moonshine perceive its particular challenges of lengthy distance, changeable climate, and bodily endurance. For me, Moonshine has been the eventual vacation spot of a number of April rides that had me leaving Massachusetts after which becoming a member of buddies to carve mountain roads in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, or Kentucky on the way in which to southeastern Illinois. Moonshine was a waypoint on some journeys to extra distant driving areas, just like the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas, and I earned my Iron Butt certification on the Curt Gran Memorial Moonshine 1000.
If you’d like a real Moonshine Lunch Run expertise, you really want to experience there throughout April, when Terry Hammond invited people to return. The temperature may plunge beneath freezing, however it may also attain 90. You may depend on rain, and snow is feasible. It’s additionally twister season; one 12 months, a tornado touched down a number of miles from our motel. The solar may even shine!
Final April, my ninth run to Moonshine was on backroads via the Connecticut Berkshires and New York’s Hudson Valley, over the hills of northern New Jersey, throughout Pennsylvania’s northern tier, after which onto the more and more flat, open areas of rural Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Sure, extra individuals go to southeastern Illinois for summer time actions. The fairgrounds in DuQuoin host a race within the American Flat Monitor bike racing collection. The Illinois 300 NASCAR Cup race takes place in Madison. There are celebrations for German heritage in Waterloo and Hoyleton, Swiss heritage in Highland, and roots music and barbeque in Mt. Carmel. There are crusing occasions, a world trapshooting championship, artwork festivals, music festivals, county festivals, and far more.
Since I’ve all the time ridden to Illinois in April, I haven’t skilled summertime there. However I’ve loved visiting the city of Casey, some 14 miles from Moonshine and residential of the world’s largest mailbox, pencil, pitchfork, wind chimes, rocking chair, golf tee, and different outsized curiosities. Since my final go to, somebody added the world’s largest antlers. Each MLR has introduced me to Casey, and getting there all the time includes various levels of problem. Different riders who made it overcame their very own challenges. As Terry would say, we “get it.”
Under: Scott and Steve did the 2023 run collectively. There’s much less hair today – and what stays is grey – however the smiles are nonetheless there.
Because the MLR is now not an official occasion, there weren’t 1,000‑plus riders like earlier than. This time there have been a number of dozen, with the biggest contingent being members of the Motorbike Tourer’s Discussion board. However as I’ve come to count on, the hassle to get there – and to attach with different riders who did the identical – was well-rewarded.
I bumped into Mike Brown of Harrisburg, North Carolina, whom I’d seen at a number of MLRs. “When you’ve got been there, you need to return,” he stated. “When you haven’t been there, you’ll want to go!” Mike introduced alongside a primary‑timer, Bob Candy of Harmony, North Carolina. Not like most riders who come on touring bikes, Bob made his first experience to Moonshine on a unadorned bike, his 2021 Triumph Avenue Triple 765 R.
“After we left Harrisburg at 4 a.m., it was darkish and drizzly,” Bob informed me. “I couldn’t inform Mike ‘I can’t do that.’ I received over the psychological barrier, and right here I’m.” Bob will get it!
I met Darryl Halbert, who has been to each MLR since 2011, although by some means our paths by no means crossed. He used to dwell in Atlanta, Georgia, and his experience to Moonshine would come with entertaining curves via the Appalachian Mountains. He’s retired now and residing in Denver, Colorado, so he rode to Moonshine throughout the plains. “There’s lots of Kansas between right here and Colorado,” he chuckled.
I additionally met Greg Rice, a real legend within the lengthy‑distance rider neighborhood, who informed me about one other “lunch run” he had made. Because the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, resident recalled, “I needed to take an image of my bike by the Panama Canal.” So Greg rode to Panama. He received the image and had a burger for lunch. His spherical journey took 10 days.
Associated podcast interviews
Considerably, some MLR traditions carried on this 12 months, like dinner at Richard’s Farm on Friday night and Renee Handelman’s cinnamon buns on Saturday morning. I loved my Moonburger with cheese and bacon at a picnic desk beside the Moonshine Retailer with different riders, and it was good. Quickly after, my group started our rides dwelling to Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Using east collectively, Steve and I endured the wettest day in our mixed Moonshine historical past. Over dinner in a heat, dry restaurant, we laughed about it. Journey is simply discomfort retold at leisure, and we’ve had our share of journey on our runs to Moonshine. Bone‑chilling chilly. Scorching warmth. Nasty storms. Roads that grew to become rock‑strewn goat paths regardless of maps promising in any other case.
Was this 12 months’s Moonshine Lunch Run identical to previous instances? Not precisely. But it surely was at the moment’s model of excellent instances, shared with different lengthy‑distance riders who get it. I count on Terry can be good with that.
[ad_2]