Saturday dawned cold and dreary. Kev rolled into the driveway around 8 and we caught up on things. Hard to believe it's been almost a year since we've shared some tales and laughter. His schedule wasn't going to allow doing the run with us today, but he wanted to notch some mileage on the day so he was going to ride out to Worcester with me and Zig and then roll back home. As it turned out; Zig was stuck working later than he'd hoped so time ran out on Kev's plan and he wound up just heading home right from my house. But he filled me in on his current goings-on; he's digging the teaching thing, and that's way cool. I admire folks that can do that kind of thing - I wouldn't have the patience. But he loves it, so I'm happy for him.
Zig was able to make a break at around 9:30, so we agreed to meet up off of 495, as that would save the time/trouble of trying to meet up and then hitting the highway. 10:25, I crested the bridge just ahead of our designated meeting spot and there he was; bottom of the hill, ready and waiting. I rocked on past and he rolled out behind me. Falling into position, we hammered down the roads, side by side, desperately trying to make up for lost time.
Registration was slated to run from 10 to 11...we pulled into the parking lot at 10:56. Not that they'd have turned us away, far from it. But it was nice to see that we'd still made it in under the official deadline (I hate being late).
We registered, got our wrist bands, I picked up a shirt, and then we started meandering about, checking out the bikes and the riders. The weather wasn't cooperating at all. Cold, heavily overcast, rain was in the air. Still, we had about 100 bikes show up (plenty more bikes were behind me when I took this shot)...
They certainly had the traffic detail thing covered...
Hell, they even had things covered in the event we had a mishap along the way...
The folks running the show decided to let registration go until 11:30, in case there were folks that were on the fence about riding or not and might show up late. Sure enough, around 11:25, we had a couple hand fulls of bikes show up and they rushed over and got signed up.
We rolled out onto Rte 20 and banked hard to the left, rolling by the stopped traffic that was rapidly accumulating in the oncoming lanes. Picking up 140, we headed for the hills around Mt Wachusett - and the rain started in on us. Nothing too bad at first, just some drizzle that slowly built up to a steadier pace. Then came the sleet. The what? Yeah; sleet. It was frikkin' cold! But those of us with windshields ducked down a bit lower, turned our collars up and squinted through the mess.
We eventually arrived at the Rte 140 Pub Rendezvous (I like the name!) and crammed inside. There was steaming hot chili waiting for us, as well as several lovely barmaids, ready to fill our orders for beers and mixed drinks. We hung out there for about an hour, got warmed up again, then hit the road and completed our trip, ending back at the KAS-BAR for more libations and food.
There were a ton of raffle items there, among them was a stainless steel Coleman cooler, that had the Budweiser logos on it. Here's a pic of it, sitting here in my office...
Wait, if it's sitting in my office...that must mean....? Yep, I won it! Sweet! Especially since I was needing a cooler, ever since Brother Bill happened to launch my old one out of the back of his truck on the highway. Ahhh, but that's a story for another time.
Saturday night, we caught up with some friends and hit a Blues bar in Worcester and jammed the night away. Good times!
Keene Swap Meet
Sunday morning was cold and wet again. Zig had to ref so he headed for home. My destination was north, to Keene, NH, for the annual Spring swap meet. Jumping on the Pike, I shot out to western MA, picked up 91 north and before too long (couple hours?) found myself in Bennington, VT. I picked up Rte 9 heading east and was soon in NH. Winding through the streets, I arrived to a dirt entrance which had been pounded into soupy mud by all the cars going in and out. That's right; cars. This is a MOTORCYCLE swap meet, people! Now I understand that some folks need to bring a 4-wheeler to lug home the stuff they're going to buy, but most of the folks walking around weren't buying anything that couldn't fit into a saddle bag. This event used to draw hundreds of bikes. When I parked yesterday afternoon, I counted 37. Including mine. I imagine the weather had a lot to do with it, but c'mon people.
I was looking for handlebars, throttle and brake cables, maybe a tail light setup (all for the Fatboy project), but I didn't find anything that struck my fancy. (I did pick up a pair of gloves, just so that I'd not come away empty handed.) Oh well, at least the weather appeared to be lightening up a bit. I pointed the bike south and headed homewards. The sun almost made it out, but never quite broke through the clouds.
But today, back at work? Blue skies, sunny, and 70 degrees. Of course.
Michigan Paul is in the area this weekend, too - we'd hoped to catch up with each other for a beer, but our schedules don't seem to be cooperating. Oh well, there's always August when Zig and I will be out there.
That's it for the weekend wrap. I hope everyone had a great weekend and maybe was able to get some miles on.
Ride Hard, Take Chances
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