2015 - the way it happened to Tip, Tweeks and me....

[cowpuc]

Speaking of our poor, once battered friend. How are ya doing @yammerdan

 

For some reason that "@" doent look like it worked right:think: Lets try this Cha,, @Yammer Dan Cha is looking for ya!!

[Chaharly]

For some reason that "@" doent look like it worked right:think: Lets try this Cha,, @Yammer Dan Cha is looking for ya!!

 

Oh Jeeze! My goof! Well it mike make Yammer's day knowing SOMEONE'S thinking of him too C:

[Yammer Dan]

Sheech!! Cain't a feller take a nap round here?? My Puter is still acting like somebody slammed it off the blacktop at about 40 mph!! It wouldn't load most of the card but I got the Idea. It refused to load the vids guess it didn't think I could handle seeing all those varmits at one time. Thanks for asking guys this has been a very interesting recovery that is for sure. With the "Flail Chest" thing it was one of the most painfull. Somewhere along the middle of the worse part I decided I was done with these 2 wheel things!! Then I went thru the 3 wheel thinking period AGAIN!!! Maybe one of these days. I healed slow this time and it was months before I got to the garage much. When I did get back I still hurt and Git up and go was hiding. I'm finally starting to get around fairly well and its WINTER!! ENERGY still not there but I find myself in the garage looking things over a lot. "Silver" is almost finished and "Brown Sugar" keeps getting in my way when I walk thru the garage!! "Ugly" is hanging out in Skid's garage and plans to get her home keep falling thru!! Leslie will have a "garage Sale" one of these days!!Anyhow I think Spring will find me looking for a ride. White stuff is starting to fall outside right now and Warden tells me we need to go restock some things. Puc I got to see most of that card in bits and pieces I think. THANKS!! I'll keep sneaking to the garage and see what happens come spring.

[cowpuc]

Sheech!! Cain't a feller take a nap round here?? My Puter is still acting like somebody slammed it off the blacktop at about 40 mph!! It wouldn't load most of the card but I got the Idea. It refused to load the vids guess it didn't think I could handle seeing all those varmits at one time. Thanks for asking guys this has been a very interesting recovery that is for sure. With the "Flail Chest" thing it was one of the most painfull. Somewhere along the middle of the worse part I decided I was done with these 2 wheel things!! Then I went thru the 3 wheel thinking period AGAIN!!! Maybe one of these days. I healed slow this time and it was months before I got to the garage much. When I did get back I still hurt and Git up and go was hiding. I'm finally starting to get around fairly well and its WINTER!! ENERGY still not there but I find myself in the garage looking things over a lot. "Silver" is almost finished and "Brown Sugar" keeps getting in my way when I walk thru the garage!! "Ugly" is hanging out in Skid's garage and plans to get her home keep falling thru!! Leslie will have a "garage Sale" one of these days!!Anyhow I think Spring will find me looking for a ride. White stuff is starting to fall outside right now and Warden tells me we need to go restock some things. Puc I got to see most of that card in bits and pieces I think. THANKS!! I'll keep sneaking to the garage and see what happens come spring.

 

My privilege Dan, figured it was the least we could do! Glad I was there to take part in sharing the concern for you brother, that was a close one and you sure gave us a scare!! I hope and pray your recovery continues for the best thru this crazy White Wash and that we get to bump antlers sometime this summer:thumbsup2:!

 

Your ol partner in grime:Bunny:

Puc

[cowpuc]

@The Tooch , just checking in to see if this will load now.. I managed to get some of the links switched over, will try more if it still a problem. THANK YOU for pointing this out!!

[cowpuc]

One of the great side benefits of walking around video taping all my new friends and fellow riders at the Maintenance Day in Oberlin was I got to see them at some of their finest moments. I got to find out first hand how friendly and good hearted of a group these people are. People came from all over the United States, Canada and even as far away as Iceland to attend this Rally and everyone seemed to be very relaxed and enjoying each others company to the fullest - then it happened, someone yelled FOOD and the whole place turned into an uproar!

Having a fair amount of experience dealing with large gatherings of hungry bikers, I approached the feed line with caution. I carefully selected my spot in the food line behind some friendly people who seemed to be missing that "I am gonna bite somebody" look that seemed to dominate most of the empty bellied hardcore motorcyclist who were standing in line ahead of us. I noticed a table covered with prizes that would be given away to raffle drawing winners - apparently this drawing was going to take place right after lunch. I dabbled around looking at the prizes and noticed some really cool stuff. Lots of bike related things with the big prize drawing being that of a Go Pro Camera - NEATO!!

Tweeks and I have been together long enough now that she pretty much has any available space in her trunk and saddle bags occupied, matter of fact, even all of her hidden compartments are filled to the brim with stuff from all over the country. I once dug into one of those hidden compartments and had found 2 pounds of loose change all rusted together around a piece of coal that I had picked up while exploring coal mines in Virginia and that mass had attached itself to a handful of double "A" camera batteries that I had purchased for back up batteries for my camera a few years ago. It's discoveries like this that serve as a reminder to me that I really didn't have room to carry a whole lot of stuff home in the way of "winnings". Then I got thinking about my buddy Dan who was laying up in the hospital trying to recover from the wounds he had received during his recent accident. I figured the least I could do was pick up a bunch of raffle tickets for him and if he won anything I could send the winnings home with Skid (a good friend of Dan's) to give to my injured friend. Besides, I figured any repair work that Dan was going to be facing with rebuilding his now damaged 2nd Gen may require parts and I also knew that he had accumulated a few 1st Gen Ventures thru the years and that anything I could send his way in the form of 1st Gen spare parts would be going to a good home. The ladies selling the tickets I would purchase for my friend were really friendly, they didn't check my dollar bills for being counterfeit, they made no snide remarks about me smelling funny and even told me to be sure and check "the other room" for "lots more food then in the main kitchen" so I even bought a couple extra tickets with the hope of winning something that would make Dan smile again - good sales people those ladies selling tickets were!

The outcome of the raffle tickets was going to take some time but I can clearly state this, that little "can" that I stuck my food funds into sure produce some AMAZING results.. I walked into Don and Eileen's kitchen and my hungry eyeballs about fell out of my head!! I found myself humming one of my favorite tunes ("Long Tall Glasses") as I filled my plate with everything from Meat Balls to fresh veggies and was just finishing finding the perfect spot for some baked beans when I noticed the living room located along the front of their home.. Tables of salads and deserts were in there inviting me to explore the deeper regions of my hollow right leg which caused me to actually begin singing the song I had been humming. I casually and carefully laid down my already filled dinner plate near the door that exited onto the front porch, walked backwards in the food line, grabbed another plate and proceeded into "the other room" to complete that song I was singing.

Having managed to sneak my two plates of food out past the people who were enjoying their own delicacies on the porch that adorns the front of the Freebird home, I found my way over to a small gathering of people located within calling range of the garage area where the winning tickets would soon be drawn. BongoBob and Big Tom chewed on my ear about my inquiry of the owner of the extra large set of red underwear that blew gently in the breeze not to far from where we were sitting. As I downed a fairly good sized piece of apple pie that had gotten in the way of my fork, I made a comment about how thankful I was that the red "flag" that mysteriously appears at many of these types of gatherings had been placed in a downwind position to that which I had found myself. Big Tom laughed and then reminded me that Tippy, Tweeks and I had yet to be seen at another Rally that takes place in New York on an annual basis. Bongo then re-enforced Tom's comment with one of his own while he glared at my plate of deserts. I offered Bongo a slice of my pie but he padded his belly and said he was stuffed to the gills. Having full knowledge of the vast selection of endless food inside the Freebird home, turned cafeteria, I could sure understand why as I was stuffed too!!!

Squidley, one of Tippy, Tweeks and my Texas Hero's (see my 2014 ride report for an explanations of why I say "Texas Hero" ), and his wife, Sweet Nothing (I still wonder how that sweet lady ended up being called "Sweet Nothing"), had ridden all the way from their home in Texas to pull a surprise visit to this years Maintenance Day in Oberlin. Among other things, Squid had managed to get himself lured into drawing numbers for the raffle's that were about to take place and I thought I heard his Texas squawk yell something about "anyone wanting to be a wiener best be making their way over to the raffle area" so I departed my comfortable chair near Bongo and Tom and headed that way. I was really curious to see what kind of stuff Dan was gonna find waiting for him on the return from his stay in the hospital and I sure didn't want to miss this version of a motorcyclist Shrine Circus anyway!

I sat on the porch behind the Texan and his wife and videoed some of their skillful drawing methods in case anyone needed to double check the accuracy of their methods and to just keep an eye on the two of them. Doing so proved to be a very strenuous task because I not only had to keep track of recording their fun and games but also had to try and keep track of the numbers on the tickets that I had procured for my buddy. Suddenly the joyful Texan called out a number matching one of the tickets in the spool of tickets I had wrapped around my wrist and I was handed a really neat Leather Tank Bib for a 2nd Gen Venture - PERFECT!! I walked over and handed it to Skid and asked if he could sneak it into Dan's garage for me. Skid grinned and said sure!!!

Squidley announced it was time for the Grand Prize drawing. The place went amazingly quiet as Sweet Nothing reached in the hat and pulled out a ticket, Squidley's Texas drawl voice slowly read off the numbers that appeared on the ticket that his wife had just removed from the pile of little paper stubs in the can, a voice that I recognized from my not to distant past yelled "I GOT IT" from behind me. I turned around to see Monty, with what appeared to be a half a spool of raffle tickets hanging from his hand, heading forward to claim the Grand Prize of the Go Pro Camera - CONGRATS MONTY!!

I am not sure who made the suggestion of having another Grand Prize Drawing but someone came up with the idea to auction off Freebird's new Harley Davidson Road Glide. I will say this though, I noticed the large pile of abandoned raffle tickets laying on the table where Monty had removed the Go Pro from and managed to gather them up BEFORE my buddy Squidley had a chance to start reading off the numbers that would result in someone trying to sneak off on Don's bike.. I listened carefully at the numbers being called, thinking deeply about how cool it would be to send yet another one of Don's bikes to live in Yammer's garage (Dan had purchased the 2nd Gen he had fallen on from Don when Don had purchased his new Road Glide).. While I did not win the Road Glide, I still don't think it really mattered cause I noticed Freebird had taken a security position between his bike and the crowd at the end of the drawings and I highly suspect that the Harley drawing was just another way of poking fun at our wonderful host - what a GREAT rally!!

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2016 by cowpuc

[eagleeye]

Another great memory!

Thanks Puc

[The Tooch]

After shovelling and blowing snow, digging myself out most of the day........it was nice to come into the house, sit down by the fireplace, relax and read your nice WARM story Puc......thanks.

 

But why is there an old guy on Freebird's lawn with a snowmobile?

Edited January 19, 2016 by The Tooch

[cowpuc]

After filling my tummy with a wonderful dinner and sharing a small portion of food with the other hungry Maintenance Day attenders, then going thru all the excitement of participating in the raffling off of the goodies, a fellow Michigander and good friend of mine who I call Raggy (his VR screen name is Ragtop69gs because he actually owns a GORGEOUS 1969 Convertible GS) came up to me and let me know that a huge storm was on it's way to the Oberlin area. Raggy let me know that he and the group he had ridden to the Rally with were going to head back to Michigan. Raggy knew that I had been having some medical issues and he was concerned with the potential of me having physical problems associated with getting cold and wet from the storms that were coming and he wanted me to know that I was welcome to follow his group back to Michigan. I could feel the storm coming and thought his offer sounded good so I started the sad process of bidding all my friends at MD good by..

Starfan, another good friend and one of the Rally attenders, walked toward Tweeks with me and he produced an envelope as we walked. As he handed me the envelope he said he and his wife had brought me something from his homeland of Iceland. I opened the envelope and found some GORGEOUS stickers. Tweeks purred as I cleaned off a spot on her windshield for her new Iceland sticker - her and I were both amazed by and grateful for the generosity of our new Icelandic friend. Tweeks LOVES her new Icelandic Flag sticker and wears it proudly to this day. I hope Starfan knows how much I appreciate his kindness. THANK YOU Jonas and Greta!!

As I was admiring Tweeks new look that the Iceland Flag gave her, Reiny Rooster, another one of my new friends, came walking up and told me he had something for Tweeks and I too. While walking over to Reiny's motorcycle he began telling me about noticing in one of my stories that I was using a make shift Allen Wrench (it was actually a 19mm bolt with two 19mm double nutted nuts) to unscrew the caps on Tweeks front forks while doing some maintenance work on her. When we got to his bike Reiny pulled out a brand new 19mm Allen Wrench and gave it to me. I pulled a permanent marker from my pocket and asked Reiny to sign the wrench which he did. That wrench was greatly appreciated and now dwells in Tweeks maintenance department and is one of her favorite tools. THANKS REINY ROOSTER!!

Walking back to Tweeks to show her the new Allen Wrench and to begin the process of breaking camp, I noticed Big Tom fooling around with something behind Tweeks windshield.. I walked up and found Tom with a Tank Bag he was holding above Tweeks breather cover. Tom told me he had won the tank bag in the raffle we had just had and he thought it would look really good on Tweeks.. I grinned at the outpouring of love my fellowmen were showing with all their thoughtfulness - it was just endless!! While standing there talking to Big Tom the thought occurred to me that I had purposely sought to show a form of that same kind of love in sending a raffle prize home to Yammer Dan and now it seemed like that act of kindness was being returned to me ten fold - karma is an amazing thing. THANK YOU BIG TOM!!

As Tom was in the process of signing Tweeks new Tank Bag, another one of my dear friends came up with a really cool red Koozie Kup Kooler in his hand. I had met Monty down in Alabama at another VR Rally and he and I had talked a lot about a particular motorcycle breed that we both really liked - The Boss Hog. Monty is a fun loving southerner with a love for big horsepower and big motors just like me.. He is also the varmint who had won the Grand Prize in the drawing at Freebirds Maintenance Day there in Oberlin. Monty held out the red colored Koozie and told me that he had picked it up just for Tweeks!! After getting Monty to sign the Koozie, he and I took some tie wraps and attached the Koozie to one of Tweeks horns that adorn the ol girls fairing.. THANK YOU Monty!! Monty also invited me down to go test riding the Boss Hosses with him and someday, when the snow that is falling outside our home here in West Michigan stops, Tip - Tweeks and I hope to take advantage of that invitation!!

The storm clouds that Raggy had warned me about were starting to gather off in the distance and the Michigan gang were all ready to roll so I finished packing Tweeks up. A fairly large number of friends had gathered around to watch the real life spectacle of how I get all that stuff on Tweeks back (they all offered to help too). After working up a sweat packing all that gear on Tweeks back, I looked at the group standing around looking at Tweeks and I like we were part of Ring Ling Brothers Circus act and told them they reminded me of group of crows sitting on a telephone wire.

Tweeks and I had successfully done our first Freebird's Maintenance Day. We had finally had the honor of meeting the highly creative man who is the founder of the Motorcycle Club Tip, Tweeks and I belong to - VentureRider.org. Tweeks even got him to sign the Venturerider sticker that Squidley had placed on her windshield back in Texas many thousands of miles ago - what an amazingly wonderful couple Don and his lovely wife Eileen are - THANK YOU both for all you do in such a grand effort of uniting us rag-tag group of riders!! We had also met a whole gaggle of new VR friends and partied with almost as many of our beloved old companions. I leaned Tweeks loaded carcass up between my legs, reached down and picked up the Giant Snowflake Kickstand Coaster that my dear friend FlyinFool's Wisconsin White Washer had produced as an after affect from last years snow production and he had freely offered to all MD attenders (THANKS JEFF - THEY WORK AWESOME), stuck the coaster in Tweeks tank bag, touched her start button and the two of us idled out to get in line with the other bikes from Michigan. I could feel a new aspiration of pride in Tweeks as I stood up on her pegs and waved good bye to Oberlin as she clamored down the gravel driveway that had led EagleEye, Tweeks and I so gracefully into our first Oberlin MD experience.

Our group of Michiganders had to make a quick stop in a nearby town so some of the riders could finish checking out at the motel they had been staying at. The rain had just started as we pulled out of the parking lot at the Motel. We did have a couple of small breaks in the rain drops during our ride homeward, just about enough for me to take some short video's of my friends on their motorcycles. As we approached the Michigan/Ohio boarder I decided to split off from the group that would be heading up into the Detroit area and begin the process of heading westward across my home State. I curled up behind Tweeks fairing to allow her another opportunity to take the abuse of the pouring rain and keep me dry. She led us both safely back to the comfort of her stable on the shores of Lake Michigan and the comfort of sleeping in our own beds.

As I unpacked my treasures from Maintenance Day the day after we returned home, I was unable to locate the 4 gig card that I had removed from my camera when I installed the new one.. After unloading all my gear, turning Tweeks tank bag upside down and even unpacking her fairing compartments, I finally realized that the little card with all the pictures I had taken at Maintenance Day before I had replaced the card that I purchased to do the video taping on it was gone. The thought crossed my mind that I had probably dropped the little SD Card on the lawn at Freebirds house when I swapped the cards out. I was saddened by this until the thought occurred to me that my next visit to Oberlin Maintenance Day is going to include a careful examination of Don and Eileen's front yard where I highly suspect there is now a gorgeous SD Card Tree growing with pictures of all my friends taking the place of the leaves on more normal trees. Probably growing big and strong too because there sure was a lot of fertilizer inside that seed Card!!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2016 by cowpuc