the call of music took me away from my buds and aunt before the saturday night feeding frenzy. leaving a rally is never easy. ask me how i know.
the ride home was a challenge. weather, road conditions, melancholymindset for having to leave early all played a part. it was the shortest distance i have traveled for for a BA rally; but make no mistake the ride was long.
good to meet a couple of folks i had yet to do face to face with; and as always great to see my dear friends.
pre rally time with Jim and Greg was fantastic. we rolled north and north and north. stayed at Nootka Lodge in somewhere, NH, ate fake chinese food, and slept to the sounds of massive thunder and rain.
an early roll out thursday morning was put off in favor of letting the rain abate and letting Greg sleep in. we got to R and C's pretty close to our determined time and fell right into, "we're here!" mode.
group rides. well, not feeling to kindly toward the group ride these days. maybe it's because i was on frankie and have that gofastbike mentality, maybe it's because it took us 8 hours to ride 144 miles on friday, but i might have to re-think my level of participation in the BIG rides from now on.
conversely, there is something about being road guard that i utterly enjoy. so go figure.
saturday was a huge rush-o-rama for me. got to ride an 09 Street Triple. Ed and Cathy and Rob all said they had never seen a smile on my face so big, Mark said he had never seen me get so excited about anything before. well, the rush was close to the best thing i have ever felt.
my time on frankie has proved to be a great stepping stone for the Striple. the variance in height and weight feel minute when compared to the FZ6 (the striple is higher by .3" and 40lbs lighter than the yamaha.)
got to run a seven mile loop with some great twists and hard turns. well behaved, i was, and kept it below 7000 rpm. the machine is so bloody fine. i'll be selling frankie before the season is over. an 09 Striple R will be mine before too long (uh...this is me smiling)
after too much time at the dealership Mark, Kevin, Greg and me took off for a gofastbikes ride, just cuz. it was a blast.
that brings me back to saturday night and time for packing up frankie and hitting the road.
unclecharlie made me swear i would behave and not ride like the motorcyclists your mother warned you about, got one of the best AC hugs ever, rounded up the group for a final pre ride meeting(my ride of course) so i wouldn't have to say big teary goodbye's to everyone...all i had to do was collect my hugs.
see y'all soon.
peace out.
mert
PS: we got sneakysqueeky Pete to change lane position and maintain stagger. that was very cool.
PPS: got Vicki to do the thisiswhatitfeelsliketoridethetiger dance a few times.
PPPS: more to follow
