Anyway, the rescheduled date arrived, the morning dawned chilly, but clear, and we were good to go. Rally location was 640 South St, and arrival time was set for 10:30. Sure enough; folks began arriving, and even better; just about everyone was sporting costumes!
Here's Kim (cat costume) and Rex (he was going for the Captain America look...we thought Captain Anus was more fitting, LOL);
Ed and Sue, in there death masks. They'd also done up their bike with tattered, bloody cloths, as well as a huge scythe. Sweet!
And here's Matty (once again done up in awesome facepaint), and Cindy (you can't see her eyes due to the sunglasses, but she had creepy eye contacts in. And how about that helmet - the horns are sweet, and that hair on the top extends halfway down her back!)
We'd had some pre-warmups at the house, along with Danno, Kris and Jonathan. Alas, they would not be joining us on the run, so at the appointed time, we said our farewells to them and headed off to Fusion 5 for registration.
Pulling into the registration line, we were met with our first aggravation of the day. All posted info about this run stated that riders paid $20, and passengers paid $15. The registration guys were whacking everyone $20 and when I questioned it, was rudely told I was wrong. Well, sitting in line with a bunch of bikes lined up behind you is not the place to start an argument, so I paid, and headed out back to pick out an assembly spot.
We set kickstands to the dirt and said hello to familiar faces around us, and settled back into the pre-game warmup mentality. This frivolity lasted for close to an hour before we heard the bikes near the front begin to roar, so we finished any open drinks, donned our costumes, and made ready.
The route was slatged to be slightly different this year, but that was not a problem. What did wind up being a problem (aggravation #2 for those keeping count at home) was that someone near the front apparently didn't know the route...or chose to take their own route. I'm not sure. Anyway, at some point, some person opted to head onto I95, and the entire procession followed them. We were roughly 3/4 of the way in the back, and the line was long, so we have no idea how many riders in front of us made this wrong turn before we even got there, but by the time we did get there, the only direction the bikes were going in, was onto the highway. Ok, not a problem, but surprising. Here we have hundreds of amped up bikers soaring directly into (and through) three lanes of vehicles already traveling at highway speeds. Not a safe scenario for anyone.
Anyway, we made it down a couple of exits then peeled off and were back onto the familiar/expected route from prior years. This didn't last long, for roughly 8 miles later, we wound up doing a complete U-turn at the end of the Neponset Valley Parkway and went back through a section of towns we'd just ridden through. (The spectators seemed to enjoy the double-showing, though!). From here, we meandered our way up through Hyde Park and past the Cavan Cafe', the once end-destination, oh so many years go, before being (booted) moved out of Hyde Park. And then, roughly 2 miles beyond the Cavan? We did another full U-turn, going back down and through the Neponset Valley Parkway, for yet a third time. (Even the spectators seemed bewildered at this point.)
From here, the procession jammed onto Rte 128, for a second bout with highway speed vehicles. WTF was going on this year?? No one seemed to know what was going on, so at this point, Flex and I just jumped into the left lane and opened things up. We left the confused masses in our rear mirrors and made for Fusion 5 again (the end destination).
Arriving at said destination, we found many other riders had arrived at the same decision we had, but slightly before we did, as they were already parked and standing in the food line. Flex and Cindy and I took our spots and waited for the line to start moving, once the food was done.
It turned out to NOT be worth the wait. Instead of the usual burgers/dogs and such, the organizers had opted to go with a pig roast this time around. Which by itself wouldn't be bad, except the company they hired didn't seem to know what they were doing (aggravation #3, comin' up!). The portions they gave out were laughable - not even enough pork to cover a burger bun, and maybe 4 spoonfuls of baked beans. (When I say spoonful, I don't mean a serving spoon, I mean the little plastic spoons you eat with. Pitiful!) I heard that after everyone had gone through the food line, that the cooking company had trays and trays of food left over. But that didn't do us any good, as we were only allowed one ticket, for one trip through. I wonder what happened to all that extra food...that we paid for?
Anyway, we made the most of the day by hanging out back with friends and frosties. There was plenty of laughter to go around, and despite the nonsense that had been thrown at us, we still managed to wrest a good day out of everything.
When the chill in the air began to build, and the daylight began to wane, we all broke for our respective homesteads, with yet another successful Halloween Run under our belts.
Ride Hard, Take Chances...and don't let the nonsense get you down!
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