Blue Wheels of Valor

Let's see, I owe you some pics from this past Sunday's Blue Wheels of Valor run.  I wasn't able to snap any while we were riding, but I'd hoped to collect a bunch from Facebook, but unfortunately; they haven't been posted yet.  Anyway, here's what I do have for ya;

At the start of the run.  Looking right, we see two rows of escort, lined up and ready...

And to the left, there was another row of escort.  This had to be the highest number of police escorts I've ever seen.

It was pretty amazing to watch them way, way up ahead, leading the huge column (450+ bikes) down the roadways.  And, at the end of the run, they paused a bit at the last set of lights so that all of their guys could come together at the front and lead the whole procession into the ending parking lot.

Speaking of parking lots, I strode around, looking at what sights were there.  This was the only bike that caught my eye.  It was pretty sharp!

This was what greeted us as we rode across the Boston Marathon finish line.  Well, that and the hundreds of people lining the streets who were clapping and waving to us.  It was an awesome, awesome feeling.

There was another giant flag waiting for us when we got back to the BBC (the restaurant where the after-party was being held).  All told, I think we passed about 4 or 5 of these giant flags, and it's something I never get tired of!

The Honor Guard that presented, upon our arrival...

These guys had things timed perfectly, for what we didn't know, was there was a helicopter fly-over, too!  They had a guy off to the side (out of the picture) who played TAPS, and just as he was finishing, a helicopter buzzed LOW, right over our heads.  I wish I'd known it was coming so that I could have my camera ready.  It was amazing!

Time to eat!  The event was well run and everthing went very smoothly.  Even the food lines (two of them) moved very quickly.

Pulled pork, corn bread, marinated pork (separate from the pulled pork, and just as tasty), mac and cheese, salads, etc.  Quite a feed!

Thanks buddy, you were tasty!

Harpoon Brewery was assisting with the event and had a beer tent set up of their own offerings.  Their pumpkin ale was very good, but we soon moved inside to get out of the sun.  Inside, I stumbled upon something from Southern Tier brewery, called Pumking (yes; Pumking).  It had a different, almost cinnamon-y taste to it at first, but I really liked it.  I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

And there you go; the Blue Wheels of Valor run.  It was a great day, with a great turnout.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Fruit, Fall and Frivolity

I opted to take things easy this past Friday night.  I had Nelly's annual pig roast on Saturday, and the Blue Wheels of Valor m'cycle run on Sunday, so I figured a nice relaxing evening at home was not a bad idea.  Besides, I had some preparations to make; Rum Fruit Bowl!  That's right, I made another watermelon fruit bowl, full of rum-soaked fruit.  Quite tasty, if I do say so myself.  It's pretty easy, too; just buy several different kinds of fruit, a watermelon, and a big bottle of rum.  For my concoction, I used bananas, watermelon (obviously), pineapple, and mangoes.  Mangoes are a pain in the balls to cut up!  I'm not sure I'll use them again, but who knows.  Anyway, cut an opening in the top of the watermelon, scoop it out, setting some of it aside and the rest goes into a water-tight, sealable container (I like to use the lock 'n lock ones).  Anyway, cut the fruit up and put into the container with the rum, and put it into the fridge for overnight.  Periodically, take the container out and spin it around a few times to really get all the fruit mixing into the rum.  As for the watermelon, I put the "cap" back onto the watermelon, wrap it up tightly in a plastic bag and stick it in the fridge as well.  This helps keep it from drying out.  The next day, put the fruit and rum into the watermelon, and voila; a great party idea.

The rum that I'd used this year was a mix of 96 proof, as well as 140 proof.  Yikes!  Each person (during the daytime) that tried it, all said it was VERY strong, and were not too keen on having more than one or two pieces at a time.  As the day wore on, I was afraid there was going to be a lot left over, but then sometime after dark, when all the young kids came out to play, they must have stumbled upon it and lit into it with a passion.  Nelly's son Storm came up to me asking if there was any more.  More?  Yeah, there's a whole watermelon full of it, over on the table.  Nope, it's all gone he says.  Wha...??  It was full, not one hour ago!  LOL, good luck to the ones who tore into that stuff!

Now then, back to Friday night.  There's been a lot of talk in the news about food companies adding things to our food which is really bad for us.  Pesticides, growth hormones, and other additives.  I really don't pay much attention to these things, but perhaps I should.  Why?  Well because I bought a watermelon a long while ago and was going to do a rum fruit bowl with it, but that never materialized.  After sitting on my counter for weeks and weeks, I finally decided to toss it and get a fresh one.  So I tossed out in my back yard a week and a half ago, assuming it would be devoured by the wildlife that flourish in the woods out back.  So imagine my surprise when the next morning came and it was untouched.  Huh.  Oh well, surely it'll get chowed on the next night.  Nope.  Not that night, nor any of the remaining nights that week.  Figuring maybe the animals were just being cautious, and didn't want to come out into the open (which didn't really make sense, since every other thing I toss out there is gone in one night), I moved it over to the edge of the woods, under the trees, and out of sight.  Well, after almost another week of sitting out there, this is as far as things have gone...

Yep; nothing.  It looks the same as when I bought it in the store, oh so long ago.  Can it be that the animals sense something about this thing that we humans don't?  Oh well...at least the one I used was smothered in rum.  I'm sure that killed anything that would otherwise be bad...

And speaking of 'bad', this is what I saw on my lawn when I was out inspecting my fruit;

That's right; LEAVES!  Dammit...Fall is right around the corner.  And yes, I actually do enjoy the Fall; dry air, great riding scenery, but at the same time, it heralds the end of summer.  Bleah.

Moving along; Saturday came bright and early and I was out the door, arriving at Nelly's house before 7am.  Time to get some last minute stuff taken care of around the yard, as well as heading out for the traditional breakfast before going and getting the pig.  Upon our return, we got the fire going, kept the beerverages going, and settled in for a long, but awesome day.  Time for pics!

The fire is started...

The pig is cleaned, racked, and mounted...

They make 24-oz bud light cans!!!

The piles of pallets for the after-fire...

The after-fire is started...

Ta-da!  The after-fire!  It actually didn't get as tall as it has been in years past.  Someone placed a half-sized pallet near the bottom when we weren't looking, and it caused the entire burning stack to tumble over, as you can tell by the pallets on their sides, in the pic below.  So we were relegated to letting things burn down a bit and then try and keep the cinder pile from growing too big.  Meh, it was still a great fire, though.

And there you have it; Friday and Saturday.  I'll get Sunday's pics/post done when I have all the pics collected.  It was a greaet run to honor the memory of the MIT cop who was killed by those pieces of shit that blew up the Boston Marathon.   Details to come.  Until then...   Ride Hard, Take Chances

The 2014 Labor Day Maine Event

It was another great year up at the Clearing in South Thomaston. The weather wasn't the best, but for the most part, the daylight hours were non-rainy (I won't say 'sunny', as there were a number of times when it was lightly drizzling, or downright overcast). As for the ride home, however... Well, let's go through the pics and we'll see how things were on the ride home.

Well, the first pic I wanted to post was one that I've been trying to take for years and years. There's a nursery that we go by on the way up there, and each year, they put a message on their sign saying "Hurry, only (xx,xxx thousand) mums left!". Well, this year, I was able to snap the pic as I was riding by, and this year's current number of available mums was 17,625. It makes for a humorous photo, and I would really love to post it so you could see it, but this stupid hosting site is once again giving me problems, and it's refusing the load the picture. Whatever.

Moving on...

Jerry tears into a new member of the "Honey-flavored" family of liquors. This one was the Even Williams' whiskey. I hadn't seen/heard of it before. It wasn't bad, but my favorite is still the American Honey, by Wild Turkey.

Food! There was once again more food there than we knew what to do with. Here, Rob is cooking up dumplings of various flavors; some were a garlic sauce (which were awesome), some were garlic + some of his famous "green sauce" (which were also awesome). He also made up a bunch of fried dough, which didn't stick around long at all. (More food pics to come, later in this post.)

A few of us headed into town to check out the Prison Inmate Store, where items made from the local state prison are sold. Many of the items are simple, churned-out-in-bulk kind of things like bird houses and cedar chests. Then there are the moderately difficult items, which are also in multiple-duplicate, and lastly; there are some items in there that are truly amazing. One such item is in the main window and features Poseidon atop a Harley, with his mermaid mistress behind him. (The item is not for sale, understandably.)

Behind the store are the grounds where the old state prison used to be. The area has been converted to an open park, but they left the very back-most corner intact as a memorial, and mounted a couple of placques detailing the institution's history.

When we left there, we were tossing around ideas for a place to eat and a local happened to overhear us, and pointed us to The Slipway, a restaurant just down a side street, located on a dock. Sounded good enough for us, and away we went. (I walked out onto the docks and then looked back at the restuarant to take these pics, obviously.)

Mmmm, beer! A 22-oz Gritty's Black Fly Stout! It was very dry, and overall; not bad at all.

On our way in, we passed this bathtub. A pump was keeping fresh seawater running through it, for the lobsters inside. Pick your own!

After we'd had a bit, it was back to the site to kick back for a bit and digest. I don't have any more pics from Saturday, but rest assured the day and evening were celebrated with lots of food, plenty of cold refreshments, and lots of laughter.

Sunday dawned wet and much of the morning was spent airing things out in the hopes they would dry in time for that evening's rest. Some folks were successful, others, not so much. But let's not dwell on that. Let's focus on the good stuff. Sunday's Lobster Feast was bumped up to be earlier in the day, again this year. It had been tried last year and seemed to go well; folks enjoyed it, and it gave the hosts enough time to get everything cleaned up while it was still light out. So with that said, let's get to the pics!

How's your cholesterol, LOL. Time to get the butter melting!

Sorry guys, it's the end of the line for you...

Random milling about while the water comes up to a boil

Burgers, dogs, sausage, fish...just about anything you can put onto a grille! (Rob added some pork and veggie skewers after I took this pic.)

The corn and lobsters are done - time to (carefully!) remove them from the steamers...

Look at this spread!

After a lengthy feed, and a little bit of cleaning up, a number of us headed off to the Breakwater, just outside of town. It's about 4/5 of a mile long, ending in a lighthouse in the bay. We figured it had to be exceptionally tall (underwater), considering it extends so far out into the bay, but it turns out it's only 50 high at it's deepest point. The base, however, is 100 feet wide. That's a lot of granite!

The really cool thing about this year, is the lighthouse was open for tourists (it wasn't, last year). We got to check out the inside rooms, which are all being renovated, as well as head up to the lighthouse tower and inspect the surrounding views.

Here's a couple of shots leaning out over the railing and looking straight down to the granite base, at the bottom of the lighthouse.

Here's a view looking back toward the shore...

And here's McCarthy, looking deeply into the light itself. (Now if only I can find the switch to turn it on...)

It's a long walk out and back, not to mention the time spent checking out the inside of the lighthouse, so when all was said and done and we were back at the bikes, a few of us felt we'd earned a rest stop back in the center of town. (The rest of the folks headed back to the clearing.)
As we were enjoying our restful break, I ambled off to the neighboring parking lot to snap some pics. The first one is of this massive anchor. I don't know what ship it's from, nor what the "1854" is in reference to (perhaps it's the year South Thomaston was incorporated), but I liked the shot. (Those of you paying attention, will notice the name of the spot we chose to stop and rest at, can be seen just over the top of the hill, in the background.)

Ok, I have to explain this pic. After ordering some refreshments at the bar, we sat out back on the patio (chained-in section of the parking lot) and were watching the sights going on around us. This minivan rode by slowly, and the driver glanced warily over at us as he rode by. He was wearing an eye patch, and we all started chuckling, commenting about how we must have just seen an authentic pirate. Then, to our surprise, he parked his minivan and set about disgorging a wheelchair from its innards. He then set himself inside it, and begin cruising the parting lot in a big circle. When he went by us again, headed back to his minivan, we got a look at the back of it, and that's when it really got funny. He had a "Pirate" sticker on the back of it, and, there was a little stuffed monkey hanging out of the back pouch, looking backward, and it had an eye patch too. All this was pretty amusing, but then it dawned on us that we were missing the true irony that was going on. The name of the restaurant down on the dock, which he had parked in front of, was called The Pearl. The connection to that movie "Curse of the Black Pearl" was too good to pass up, so I tried zooming in as much as I could and snapping a pic. It didn't come out too well, but with the backgropund information, you get the idea.

Aiming the phone to the right, I thought this made a decent shot; the bikes lined up in the foreground, and the bay with its moored ships lined up in the background.

Back at camp; just a random shot of some of the bikes gathered together.

Another random shot of the clearing. The skies were very gray and folks were hanging out underneath the canopies. Some were munching a bit, others were playing some cards.

Another random shot of the bikes...but wait...there's geen an addition...what is that little thing in between Aaron and my bikes?

Ta da! Dave bought his first motorcycle! I'm not sure what year it is, but it's an old Honda. Apparently it's been leaning up against a tree in some yard that he's been driving by for years. He always wondered what the story was with it, so he'd stopped in and finally asked the guy. The guy said he used to ride it daily, that it had given him some trouble, and that he'd finally just parked it and left it...for years. Dave asked if he was willing to sell it, and the guy told him that for the price of a case of Budweise (bottles!), the bike was his. Dave couldn't pass up that offer and the deal was made. And now, the process of restoration, begins...

It was getting close to the Sunday Ceremony time, and folks began gathering around the stage. Lynner had brought out an old banner from 2004 that she'd made, and it was great to see the old pics again!

On the left side; the Maine Event family members we've lost over the years; Dana, Gapper, Russ, Rosie, and Chuck.

On the right side; a small collection of the folks that are still with us, and who hopefully will be for many years to come!

The ceremony went off without a hitch, we had 4 more inductions into the royal family, and there was much rejoicing and reveley, finally wrapping up with another boisterous and hearty rendition of The Toast Of Life.

Upon completion of that, it was time to kick back and get the final party night into motion. Games of one-card were played, stories were shared, and wood was added to the fire. It was a great way to cap another great year!

And lest you think we were done with the food...hell no! There was everything that was left over from the daytime, plus additions of pulled pork, and other crock pots full of roasted and simmered meat. Just what happy revelers need to keep their strength up, late into the evening!

Another shot of the party, late-night. I believe folks were taking a break from one one-card game and refueling their bellies in preparation of another game soon to commence.

The sky above gave us some fantastic light shows, with distant lightning lighting up the clouded skies above us. We knew we were in store for it eventually, as was plainly evident from the lightning show getting brighter...and louder. We simply cracked more beers and settled in to squeeze out the last bit of fun that we could.

Eventually, folks began to amble off to bed as the night wore on. I'm not sure what time the last holdout finally succumbed, but I think it was around 4am or so.

And then it was the next morning. Monday morning. Time to arise and get everything packed up and head out. And the weather? Not cooperating at all.

Here; a shot of a couple of the puddles. You can't see it in the pic, but the rain was coming down quite well, off and on, to boot.

The actual ride home was a mess. About an hour in, the group wanted to pull off and grab something to eat, so we hit the Burger King in Bath. And it was appropriate that we were in a town called "Bath" because we'd been taking a bath the entire time we'd been on the road. Here's a shot of the bikes in the parking lot, looking out the window of the BK;

No, the windows aren't smudged, that's how much water was pouring down them from the torrential rain coming down. We'd made such a wet mess on the floor, I asked one of the employees for a mop so we could clean up, but they were very friendly, and gracious, and said they would take care of it.

After an hour-long break, the decision was made. Most of us would soldier on, Aaron, Chrissy and Matt were going to wait out the storm. As we said our farewells to each other, they secured directions to the closest bar, where I'm sure they had a better afternoon than those of us did that returned to the roadways.

Here's a shot that McCarthy took of us (he was in his work truck riding behind.) Man, it doesn't get much wetter than this...

And there you have it. The skies eventually stopped pee'ing on us as we neared our respective homes, but it didn't matter. Everything we were wearing was soaked. Oh well, it was still worth it to have been a part of the 2014 Labor Day Maine Event.

Can't wait to do it all over again next year!! (Hopefully with a lot less rain, though...)

Ride Hard, Take Chances