Well, made it home last night about 11:30pm with a completely uneventful night ride (other than it was a bit chillier than during the day in the mountains). Had a blast eating Mexican with the gang Friday night, even if Benztech and Hondagirl made me sit there and eat dry tortilla chips while they gorged on their dinner (mine was somewhat delayed!), but we did have some funky peanut-tasting Dos Equis dark to wash down the dry chips! Talk about heartless(ha ha!!!), then got to spend some time chatting with Newt, and a little time FINALLY getting to meet Mert (Shari) face to face after all these months chatting. Any Yota, well, Yota, what can I say, one of a kind guy! And Brent for a few seconds before he took off. And of course met up with all the old faces (yeah, Phil especially YOU!!!-HA HA!) from the 2004 Rally that I missed last year, and got to watch Pat almost cry when it looked like he was going to have to choose between the King of Beers or Water to drink(I think I saw him eyeing the port-a-potty a couple times when I offered him a Bud(grin). Even got to help a friend of Chy's straighten out her carbs (on a Legend) for a few hours Sat cause she'd put AT LEAST 4520 Shims on each needle!!!! (actually it was only 2, but they were these huge THICK plastic washers that wouldn't even seat against the head of the needles, "BUT THAT'S WHAT THE BOOK SAID!!!!!!!!" Then Shari and Chy serenaded the rest of us out back with some SWEEET guitar licks, WAAAY KEWLL! Really really hated to leave all of this, although looking outside now at the 60 degree nonstop rain coming down tells me it was a good choice. THANKS ESPECIALLY TO CHY and DI, who put on the whole show, and as was the case the first year, and I'm sure last year, was INCREDIBLE!!!! He was even thanking me for coming. ME, all I had to do was put the key in and twist the throttle, not exactly backbreaking labor now!!!! No, he and Di are TOPS!!! We started out in 2004 with 16 bikes, now we were over 30, and I'm guessing over 40 people, all of whom I'm not going to name, quite frankly, cause the time was so short, I know I didn't get to meet several people face to face!!! Another HUGE THANKS goes out to Larryshep, because on top of putting together yet another great feast, he went way out of his way and not only put up Shari(Mert) for several days, but also let her borrow one of his Speedmasters for the whole time and took her out for a bunch of twistie-riding!!! And Lynn and Janet, I promise, IF I'm close enough to make it next year, I'll talk more, but I warn you, once you get me talking, you might regret it!!!
Meeting everyone, both new faces and old, just reaffirms to me what a great bunch of folks here, and for all the horror stories that we hear about the Internet, there are also success stories like this that bring people from all over the globe together from different backgrounds, orientation, interests, and only one common bond, to form a family!
OH, by the way Adey, what's up with sending Chy an Ace Cafe patch, I had to pay for mine. Where's the love brother?!!! After all the kinds words I've shown you...
