DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260422

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: RANDOM RAMBLES 

SOURCE: Tony Stein 

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

YOU CAN'T BEAT VIEW OF THE COUNTRY FROM A HIGH-CLASS MOTORCYLE

Sure, says Dave Schloff, you can see the same scenery from a car that you see from a motorcycle. But when you're in a car you can't smell the flowers and you can't really experience the freedom of the open road.

Dave, owner of the Great Bridge Exxon service station, speaks from a lot of open-road experience. He, his wife Judy and their friends Jerry and Tue Windell crossed the country on their motorcycles this summer. Precisely 4,831 miles of two-wheeling. From Portland, Ore., to Chesapeake, Aug. 23 to Sept. 6.

Jerry, who owns Matco Tool Co., introduced Dave to motorcycling in 1992. Dave had been drag racing, but got tired of pouring money into his hobby. A competitive dragster costs about $75,000 and regularly eats more cash for maintenance.

So Schloff tried motorcycles and now he's happily hooked.

He and Judy rode a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide and the Windells rode a Harley-Davidson Heritage Soft Tail. Yes, that's soft tail as in keeping your butt comfortable as you cruise. The cycles were shipped to a dealer in Portland and the trip-takers flew out there Aug. 20.

For the first time in 17 days, it was raining. No problem. There was a big Harley-Davidson rally in progress and the Chesapeakers met a lot of kindred motorcycle souls. Nice folks, too. Forget the image of crazy bikers in those old movies, Dave says. Nobody once rode their bike through a hotel lobby.

The trip itself started on Highway 101 along the Pacific coast. The redwood trees left Dave reaching for the right words. ``300 feet tall, beautful, unbelievable, he says.'' There was a lot of appreciative awe in his voice as he described places like the Columbia River that flows between Washington and Oregon and Mt. Hood in Oregon.

He had another kind of superlative for Rt. 50 across Nevada. It's billed as ``the loneliest highway in the world'' and it lived up to its name. At one point, Dave says, he and Jerry timed 45 minutes between other cars on the road.

A lot of touring bikers tow small trailers, but Dave says he and Judy just packed light. They had three days worth of shirts, dungarees and et ceteras plus stuff bought at Harley shops along the way. Thus, laundromats, though not exactly scenic, were ``must'' destinations. The travelers never worried about how many miles they'd cover each day, but 300 miles was the average.

One place they visited was the bombed-out federal building in Oklahoma City where 168 people died. Talking about the memorial there, Dave simply says ``it made you cry.'' A happy stop was Lafayette, Ind., where they visited with Gary and Kay Hosack, who used to live in Great Bridge. The rest of Indiana, it seemed to Dave, was flat and corn-filled. ``I've never seen so much corn in my life and I don't want to see any more,'' he says.

Probably the most memorable stop of the whole trip for Dave was the Grand Canyon. ``You cannot believe the vastness of it,'' he says. And he thinks that if you go anywhere in this country, you ought to see the Grand Canyon. Then the seriousness drops out of his voice and he grins. ``It's hard to believe there's a hole in the ground that big,'' he says.

If the Grand Canyon was a high point, a meal at one California restaurant was the low point. When you ordered the meat loaf special, you got a free dessert. ``What it was,'' Dave recalls, ``was five-day old birthday cake, the worst-looking mess you ever saw.''

Dave gave the weather a grade of about B-plus. They simply rode more carefully in light rain and quit for the day if it got heavy. One hint from a voice of experience: do not ride near big trucks on wet highways. Their wheels splash you up an absolute shower bath. The motorcycles themselves got A-plus grades. No mechanical trouble in almost 5,000 miles; not even a flat.

Looking back, Dave remembers a lot of gracious people along the way and a lot of senior citizens who looked over the bikes and wistfully talked about how they wished they'd toured themselves when they were younger. Ask Tue Windell if almost 5,000 miles on the back of a motorcycle was enough for a while and she vows she's ready to go again.

One other important thing about the trip: the Schloffs are very enthusiastic fans of the Dallas Cowboys football team. The Windells are just as enthusiastic about the Cowboys' arch rivals, the Washington Redskins. Yet these two couples remain close friends after riding together all the way across the country.

Hey, United Nations, you need these people.

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