The weather was gorgeous and when I rolled in to the Post parking lot (the rally point), I was very happy to see a lot of folks already there! And more showed up, after! We wound up with 23 people and something like 18 bikes. Nice!! Hugs and handshakes all around!
11am arrived, kickstands were raised, and off we went. We were fortunate with most of the lights along the way and only really pressed our luck a couple of times where we had about half of the pack rumbling through an intersection after the light had turned red.
We stopped for a brief visit at the cemetery to pay our respects to Shayne, and were then on our way again.
Halfway through the route, we made our obligatory stop at Victory Lane for lunch and libations. They greeted us as well as ever and there were lots of laughs and good times as we filled our bellies.
Then it was back to the road, eventually arriving safely back at the Post for a congratulatory beerfreshement.
The route itself is decent, overall. There's one section in Millis where the pavement is torn up for road work. We talked about it afterwards and some think it will be paved in time for the run (3 weeks) but I'm not so sure. The section was deep in the throes of digging and filling, and wasn't even close to being prepared for resurfacing. But, we shall find out soon enough.
After a little while at the Post, most folks ambled off in their own directions but a few of us headed off to Rex's house to continue the Sunday Funday theme for a while, before finally calling it quits ourselves.
Pics!
What a crowd!
Paying our respects...
Nelly still insists on drinking that nasty Lite stuff...
Outside Victory Lane was this awesome 2012 Ural! The owner came out and was talking with us about it. I'm familiar with them, and he talked about it's an absolute bitch sometimes to control, but he loves it for off-roading.
Opposing cylinders!
Lined up and getting ready to roll back out to the road...
A bit of a backstory here. We'd held the Shayne's Run Yard Sale the day before, and this little girl came by (with her guardian). She was a foster child just recently rescued from her mother. Well, maybe rescued isn't the right word...or maybe it is. Her mother lives out of a car, has 6 children (including the little girl who showed up at the yard sale) and is pregnant with her 7th kid. Awesome. Anyway, this little girl has no money, nothing of her own, etc. Lynn is friends with the guardian (a foster mother of other children) who explained things to us about how rough this little girl's life is starting out. She mentioned that they were putting on a lemonade stand the following day, and Lynn said that we'd absolutely stop by. Which we did.
And here we are, swarming the stand. The little girl's face (and the faces of her friends) all lit up like it was Christmas time when we started all pulling up on our bikes. She loved it! And of course we stuffed her collection jar to the top with cash, she was beside herself, and it was so cool to see.
We'd parked across the road in an available parking lot (here's Bill, in the way of the picture) and when it came time to leave, we all made a grand spectacle of revving our engines and laying on our horns. The kids were all smiling and waving at us as we rode on off into the sunset...er...around the next bend.
Over at Rex's house; my favorite 4-legged buddy; Mudslide!
Here's my attempt at doing a selfie with the crew. All I managed to capture of myself was a small bit of my forehead in the lower left corner. Everyone else agreed it was the best pic of me they've ever seen.
And there you have it. It was a really great day - I think the best pre-run day we've ever had.
Next up is Labor Day Maine Event, which will officially kick off on Friday morning when we head up. McCarthy is talking about leaving at 4am to beat the traffic. We'll see how that goes.
Ride Hard, Take Chances
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