Two Wheeled Tales: 358 sleeps until the next one

Rendezvous 2008 has come and gone. We’re so eager for it to get here, and we revel in the freedom it brings us while it’s going on. But all too soon; it’s over and the long wait begins until we can once again enjoy such times.

Our ride out on Thursday wasn’t too bad. We had a bit of a delay when one of the crew who we were meeting along the way was late (forgotten ticket), but we made up for lost time and arrived on Batter street – only to find traffic was backed up to the lake. Holy crap! A quick phone call to our NY brethren, and we were informed that traffic on the other side of the entrance wasn’t much better. Still, Zig and I loaded up our tour packs with beers (easily fitting 60 each!), a quick stop at the corner store for ice, and we were off to the entrance. Sure enough, the unthinkable happened; they were directing us past the entrance! But we’re on bikes! No matter, everyone – two, three, four (or more) wheels, were pointed on past the entrance and down to the end of the line on this side.

Well, we found our NY counterparts and slid into line with them. We set the kickstands and proceeded to exchange our greeting hugs and handshakes. Time passed very slowly; occasionally we’d get to move a telephone-pole span or so before having to shut them down again. At least it wasn’t raining! (Although, word was that this was why the holding pen was empty; it’d been pouring hard for the past couple of days and the pen was a sloppy mess.)

Eventually our turn into the pen came and we shot up to the gate house to get our bands, then it was back onto the bikes for a game of hurry up and wait. We paused at the inspection gate for the required search and then we were on our way. Off to Exit Road, to lay claim to our spot!

Thankfully, Eddie had come in the day before with Jimmy (as a vendor) and was able to hold off the attempts by others to try and hustle in on our territory. By the time we finally rolled up, a few of the cars (Cars! Ahead of bikes!) had made it in so we had enough equipment to block things off for ourselves. The beers kept flowing and by about 10:30, we finally had everything set up and ready to go. The rest of Thursday evening was spent saying hello to old friends, making some new ones, and checking out the grounds.

Friday dawned early, and it wasn’t long until the mind inhibitors were well under way again. A couple games of beer pong and even the holdouts were well on their way to buzzdom once again. (Although, poor Scrobie went a bit too hard and spent most of the afternoon introducing the contents of his stomach to various trash receptacles.) We made several forays into the wildness that is the ‘Vous campgrounds and checked out some bands, some bikes, and some babes.

Saturday was a rough one for me. I’d shot my party wad over Thursday and Friday, and was hurtin’ for certain on this; day 3 of the fun. We had a couple of beer pong games in the morning and that took the edge off, but for the most part of the day, I took it very slowly. Not so for most of the rest of the crew – seasoned veterans they are. They took everything in stride and kept the faith, admirably.

The only down side to the weekend was that we had a crew of d’bags camped out behind us. They’ve been there in years past, and are easily identifiable from the noise. The noise of bikes left in neutral while the throttles are wound wide open and just held there for 3, 4…10 minutes at a time. While this is tolerable during the daytime, when they’re doing it incessantly throughout the nighttime as well, that’s when it gets a bit old. Apparently some folks from a few of the sites around us asked them to quiet down, and in return, the d’bags turned their bikes to these folks’ tents and covered them in mud. (I think this happened to one of our crew as well, but I’m not positive.) At any rate, around midnight on Saturday night, the Staff came by and kicked them out, permanently. Never come back to the ‘Vous. Yes, they will be missed….not.

Sunday dawned overcast with a feel of imminent rain. We got the site broken down – made easier from having done most of the cleanup the night before. There’d been some storm warnings so we’d basically battened down the hatches and cleared the decks of all loose items (trash).

We exchanged our goodbyes to those that were awake and functioning. I took off a few minutes ahead of the crew, as I was heading up to NH for a couple days of relaxation and sight seeing. I was happy to make that trip in just under 4 ½ hours, and dry, to boot! I had enough time to jump in the shower, shoot to the foodstore for some sustenance, and make it back to the house before it started pouring.

I talked to Bill and Flex later in the afternoon to see how they’d made out. Not so well! They’d been rained on for almost half the trip, Bill had lost his shifter peg, and Flex blew a fork seal (requiring his bike to be loaded into Denny’s truck). But at least they all made it home safely.

Back up in NH, I kept checking the weather, but it seemed that I would not be able to get in the sight seeing I’d hoped for –namely; Mt. Washington. The rain was dousing, the wind was ripping through pretty well…definitely no sight seeing would be happening on Sunday afternoon. Checking the weather for Monday and Tuesday, things weren’t going to be any better; thunderstorms and penny-sized hail. That’s all they kept talking about; how bad the hail was and would be. So after checking things many more times on Monday morning, I regretfully decided to scrap the plan and come home a day early. Mt. Washington’s weather is cold enough and bad enough as it is, I didn’t need to be checking it out when the weather wasn’t good to begin with. Besides, what fun is there if there’s no visibility up there? It’ll have to wait for another time.

The ride home from NH yesterday was pretty good. It only started to rain on my by around exit 4 – just enough for me to pull over and put on the rain gear. After that, it stopped (of course) and the rest of the trip was just muggy and damp, but no outright rain.

Home; shower and laundry and get ready for the work week…which is now under way. Bleah.

Here are some pics from the adventure

Meeting up on the Pike