Mama Vesuvio’s Palos Heights 7/22

Hofmann Tower and Dam Lyons IL 1908

On Wednesday July 22 Illinois Harley led a group of around 80 motorcyclists on a ride to Mama Vesuvio’s in Palos Heights. This was a repeat of our May ride which was nearly canceled due to the threat of bad weather. (We still rode, but there were only about 15 bikes.)

When creating a route from the shop to our destination, we’re conscious of a few things: construction, road hazards and scenery. For this ride, we chose to head south out of the shop, down Harlem Avenue, into Riverside. We turned right on Longcommon Road to enter Riverside and proceeded at a very mellow 25 MPH pace through the historic village. We crossed the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks and rode along the Des Plaines river, then crossed the river and rode right past the Hoffman Dam and Hoffman Tower in Lyons. Proceeding through Lyons on Joliet Avenue, we turned right at Joliet Road, and took that all the way through McCook and Hodgkins into Countryside and LaGrange.

On LaGrange Road, we were able to open up the throttle a little bit, all the way to Illinois 171, Archer Road. We took Archer Road for just over one mile, until we hit Flavin Road. Many motorcyclists in the Chicago area know Flavin Road as “The Twisties.” It’s also known as 104th Avenue and Willow Springs Road. Recently repaved, Flavin Road is one of the few places in the Chicagoland area where you can actually get on the throttle a little bit and lean your bike into the curves. There might only be three curves there, but it’s a beautiful piece of road, and it’s all we’ve got!

After stopping at 95th street, we get on the gas again hard, and sprint past The Little Red Schoolhouse toward 107th street. A quick right and we’re on another clear stretch of road , surrounded by Cook County forest preserves, all the way to Route 83. Once we hit Route 83, we cruise all the way to Mama Vesuvio’s in Palos Heights.

Look for Mama Vesuvio’s Sign

Mama Vesuvio’s East
6361 West College Drive
Palos Heights, IL 60463
(708) 371-2500

Mama Vesuvio’s has plenty of parking and a great beer garden with bocce ball courts and bean bag games. They had a tent all set up for us with dozens of piping hot, delicious, thin crust pizzas. And just when I thought we were going to run out of pizza, they’d bring three more. The pizzas just kept coming and coming and coming…

If you’d like to follow the route we took, you can download the route sheet here.

Please join us for our next Wednesday Night Ride on August 26, 2009.