cowpuc

I would also like to thank you G.W. for your of service in the Military and congratulate you on your retirement - WELL DONE brother! :clap2: All the best in what ever direction you choose as you anticipate your next career move. With spring right around the corner and all kinds of great VR Rally opportunities you could take the pre-spring time to finish that amazing bike project you have going. Then climb on that puppy and chase its front wheel all over North America, meet some of the crazy varmints here on VR and get some touring time to clear the mind..

the less powerful V-Twin motors that had been used back on Mars in cheese trimming tractors and later converted for use in their Saucers. While ET's were flying around in V-T powered Saucers they came to Earth and discovered the highly advanced, extremely more powerful and better sounding V-4's and were trying to steal one so they could

Figured with the latest outbreak of Cabin Fever that is working its way across North America, I would take a few minutes and do my part in the spirit of Marital support for all my friends.

Not me brother,, I am as pure as the driven snow:biker:!! Hadn't heard that,, I do know that I recently noticed a 2014 EBR (Eric Buell Racing) RX that a guy was trying to get rid of.. Way cool 1200cc scoot that is suppose to put out 185 horse at the crank STOCK - how on earth they see those kinda numbers out of a V-Twin is beyond me... Anyway,, he was only asking 5k for it,,, maybe what you are saying is part of the reason why:doh:.... Hopefully who ever bought Buell does something with it - be great to have a production motorcycle plant in my backyard like you get to have!! Maybe create a 1700cc V-4 powered first class touring bike seems how Mother Yamaha dont wanna do it

OUTSTANDING MAMA!!:clap2::clap2::dancefool: That stack of hog meat makes my mouth water!! Gotta ask,, where on earth did you find your assistant? I swear that is the Lady who use to cook in the cafeteria at the High School I attended.

Proves one again that its not WHAT you know in life it's WHO ya know :vchat:vchat:vchat:vchat:vchat:vchat:vchat FANTABULOUS BROTHER,, THANK YOU!!:You_Rock_Emoticon::You_Rock_Emoticon::You_Rock_Emoticon::You_Rock_Emoticon:

Thinking the Chopper market is about dead and that is probably part of OCC's demise,, was a lot of fun though:bikersmilie:!! Wonder if there are any of the cooky cutter chop companies still in business,, havent heard much about Big Dog, Bourget and the like for a while now..

Natural

I would name it "Bergy" short for Ice Berg cause that's what the poor thing looked like sitting in the corner next to the White Washer the last time I was there to "tune" that infernal ice sickle makin contraption:stickpoke:!!

to VentureRider Gnest - GLAD YOU FOUND US!! Since some of these other lop eared varmints have stole my thunder about our secret forum rules concerning our ongoing quest for 's I can only add one other warning about this place. That being the issue concerning a new member showing up with a 1st Gen Venture to restore = that is like popping a Penyata filled with 50 pounds of candy into a group of 5 year olds:big-grin-emoticon: .. We eagerly await your many questions,,,,,,, and also any 's that you can muster:cop: PS.. @Freebird,,, I tried to copy the image of the flaming "VentureRider" you have placed at the header in the chat room (I LOVE that emblem!!). Wanted to use it in the first sentence above and was unsuccessful.. Wondered if there was anyway that could be made available on the site for such an application?

Another GREAT thread Larry:clap2: In response to your request, here is a short story of how a normal everyday Half Tube became a Cowpuc.. Back in the late 80's I salvaged my first Venture,, an 84 Blonde Royale (whose side covers can be seen on 1st Gen #5 known as "Tweeks" with close to a million miles on em).. Bought it to take my kids cross country touring (was doing a lot of it on Dual Sports and stuff but needed KID time - grabbed an "estate sale special") to get some one on one with em.. Two oldest were already riding, used to camping (deer woods) and loved the outdoors.. Took my time with em around Michigan on the 84,, starting with the two oldest (7 and 8 year old daughters).. They named that great big beautiful blonde girl "Big Girl", which instantly became B G, which soon became BEEG - crazy world raising kids. Next summer I announced that I was looking for a rider to go out west on a motorcycle trip,, 1st born has always been the timid one, a precious little girl just a little timid,, always liked to let her younger sister "test the waters" before she would bite.. Looked at the 2nd born and teasingly said your too little,, still remember the look on her face http://i.imgur.com/BV4YY.gif We packed up, headed west, my 8 year old, always the brave one of the bunch,, little crazy like her dad, daughter of mine and I. As we cuddled up in a tent under the stars on the rim of the Grand Canyon we got chatting about biker life.. One of the things we talked about was weird biker names we had heard mentioned along the path.. She was really intriqued by those colorful names she had heard.. We decided we needed biker names and talked about "finding" them before the trip was over... One of the weird things that always seems to happen to me when I am touring has to do with cows.. I always manage to find and step in cow manurehttp://www.sovietsteeds.com/forums/images/smilies/bs.gif when we camp - still happens to this very day!! My daughter always laughed at me shaking the stuff off my tennis shoes.. Our kids were never allowed to swear, even "questionable" words like poop or crap were not allowed as youngsters (think thats bad - they were even forced to call adult neighbors by Mr. or Mrs. - addressing an adult by a first name was a no-no around our home).. My daughter had a "lisp" back than,, it was on more than one occasion that she pointed and yelled "dont step in the cow pucky daddy",, somehow I could never miss all of it... As a result, she figured I had earned the name of Cowpuc and it stuck One of the problems we had while crossing AZ headed toward Needles while on that trip was keeping a hat on her little head... I wasnt about to force her to wear her helmet in that heat (+115) but she had really really fine hair that absolutely had to have a cap of some kind.. We finally managed to figure out that one of my caps on backwards with a couple rubber bands poked thru it and wrapped under her chin worked!! I named her "Cappie" - that stuck too.. Other kids all wanted "biker" names but each understood the "biker code" = they had to "earn" their names,, 3 days of touring or more... Now Tip and I have an "Awawhoo" (1st born - woke up out in North Dakota with her singing to the Morning Doves), "Cappie" who you have met, "P-Dog" - son LOVED looking for and playing with Prairie Dogs out in South Dakota, "TOTR" (pronounced Totter), last born LOVES the Tunnel Of Trees up in Northern Michigan = Tunnel Of Trees Rider and TIP,, that Tippy earned her name after the kids were grown,, she stayed home many many times and watched over three little kids while the 4th one was out chasing around the country with ol Puc... She has been, still is and will forever be a "Treasure In Person".. Many years ago my oldest daughter had a shirt made for me for my Birthday.. I only wear it for very special occasions cause it means a lot to me .. She has taken it and added the shoulder patches as my youngest and Tippy earned their names.. You will notice the name "K-Puck" on the back,, a result of a young girl not wanting anyone to think of her pappa as poop.. Later in life she offered to change it but,, aint no way,,, aint no how..... PS Larry - THANK YOU for your service to God and Country!!!

Maybe true BUT, I am saving the rest of my total daily bacon allotment for tonights party.. Knowing Mama she will have another one of those 20 pound mountains of Bacon sitting on the counter waiting for us Fool!! Hate to sound like a hog and aint trying to create a squeal here but I am gonna pig out on the stuff sow quit oinkin at me will ya

Don't take it to personal Carl, if I were in your shoes I think I would:think:,,,,,,,,,,,, ok,, I would probably take it personal too

I'm not offended by that little hog (spose I might be if I had the the poor little fellers papa tied up in my garage and was trying to pass him off as a motorcycle) but he sure gives me the willies. Thinking of him while eating my Bacon, Lettuce and Mator sandwich is making my lunch taste funny!!

Huggy, THANK YOU for posting this and asking for prayers for this young man and your family. Please let everyone in your family know that we will be praying for this 21 year old young man, his mom and and the rest of your family. You folks are not facing this alone!!! Tip and I will be joining the others here in lifting all of you up before our loving God. Prayers Up and Blessings Down Puc n Tip

was built out near the cross roads of Area 51 and the Nellis Air Base main runways. It is said that ol Blue and other early model MK1 1st Gen's that were part of the same goberment project were made from parts of an Alien spacecraft that had crashed near a town known as Roswell in New Mexico. Even though this was suppose to be a secret project, the purpose for the project was well known to have been an aggressive attempt to control

I think we should create a Yammer Dan's Sticker Fund to get him a sticker to finish off the project of restoring his crashed 2nd Gen named Silver.. I propose the sticker has ""sticks and stones may break my bones but whip and chains excite me"" written on it and an emblem that matches the emblem that Don put at the top of our Chat Room.. :thumbsup:

Thats probably because you tried to read it before I had a chance to proof read it and edit it Birdy.. I missed a couple "a"'s and "the"'s in there and have fixed it.. Now it should make sense

I LOVE this thread:clap2::clap2::dancefool: Thinking that @Larry1963 has got ol Puc's number:Bunny: THANK YOU for and and getting this started Lar!! You have no idea how many times I have heard those words in my life Birdy, over and over again:rotf: Thinking it all has more to do with the color of the lenses of life that each one of us see the world thru.. Here is a short story about one of the times I heard the words "it just doesnt make any sense" in my life.. While working for the Boilermakers welding tube at a new powerhouse on the shores of Lake Michigan I discovered that the buddy welder I had gotten teamed up with was a major sloth. He would disappear for hours at time when we were suppose to be working, probably out token on a number and diggin on the radio. Our job assignment was for each of us to sit on a side of the "wall" of tubes and pass the puddle to each other to wring the tubes out (wall had little window openings around each tube joint that was ready to be welded - had to have a "buddy" on the other side cause there was no way to reach around to the other side to weld the pipe together). The wall of tubing consisted of 2" diameter tubing (or "pipe" if its easier to understand) with webbing between the tubes to tie them together into a solid wall that formed the inside of the boiler. These "walls" were 40 feet long and 60 feet in height.. One day I got tired of sitting on my bucket for 4 hours waiting for my buddy to show up so we could get started in the process of doing our job. The "Trades" are an extreme Union environment and our Bosses (called a "Push" on the job site) were Union also so complaining to the Boss about a problematic fellow employee would usually get the complainer into more trouble that the person being complained about - make sense? I finally got sick and tired of the unethical practice of not giving my employer an honest days work for a fair days pay and I decided to do something that I knew would make no sense to anyone else (theres those off colored glasses I seem to own). I started welding my side of the wall. About 3 hours and 1/3 of the wall later my Push came up and started screaming at that top of his lungs "WHAT THE HECK (not his actual word) ARE YOU DOING BARNHARD!!" As he was beating his fist against the wall and pointing downward into the "pit" he kept saying over and over again "You got the bottom of this wall pulled out 2 feet and have single handedly ruined well over 40 hours of fitment work on the tubes down there - THIS JUST MAKES NO SENSE!! After he calmed down enough to quit asking me how I got so stupid followed by the words THIS JUST MAKES NO SENSE over and over again and while I was picking up my tools so I could go brass out (in a shop its called "punching out") for the last time (was in the process of getting fired) he finally said "I honestly thought you were smarter than this, you had to know what you were doing was wrong and that it was gonna cause that kinda damage didn't you?".. AHHHH HA, a chance to explain myself!! As we were walking down to the "Change Shanty" (place to slip out of the Carharts and eat lunch on sub zero days) to collect my belongings I explained to him the whole story of why I did something that JUST MADE NO SENSE to him. After listening to my story I could literally see the color of his lifes lenses change right before my eyes:missingtooth:.. Just as we approached the brass house (last stop before entering the parking lot and heading home with no job), he stopped - looked at me and said "Tommy did that?" (Tommy was my buddy welder). He shook his head in a strange - WHAT I AM ABOUT TO DO JUST MAKES NO SENSE - kind of a way and told me to go back to work helping my pimp (that is what a welders helper is called in the field) grinding out all the welds I had done . In the end some other really crazy things happened that made no sense to a lot of other folks.. In the end, my act of making no sense on the job site ended up with a Union boss firing a Union employee (Tommy) and the Union employee being actually booted out of the Union (which in and of itself MAKES NO SENSE cause that NEVER happens) . Speaking about names, I ended up with the nick name of "Half Tube" because of that whole incident. Of all the nicknames of all the thousands of construction workers on the jobsites I worked for the Boilermakers thru the years, my earned nickname of Half Tube inspired more conversations between myself and other curious co-workers.. I cant tell you how many times I had someone walk up to me, stare at the words "HALF TUBE" that always appeared mysteriously on my Hard Hats and across the back of my Carharts. Those conversations more times than not would start out with a new friend saying "HALF TUBE? THAT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE:scratchchin:".. On a side note I would like to add,, I actually WON a BRAND NEW 1978 Harley Davidson Low Rider on the job site where I earned the name of Half Tube - this was AFTER I earned my nickname. I later took 2 months off my welding job and headed cross country on that bike - about three days into that journey my new Low Rider earned the name of "Hoglia" .. "Lia" and I spent many many hours with my feet propped up on her pipes while I slept by her side out trying to find lost Ghost Towns and Ghosts in far away strange places like Utah, Arizona, Montana, Maine and even New York City.. She protected me on the road, had my back under some bad situations by starting on the first kick, never let me down and totally earned her name.. At least thru my off colored glasses anyway.. If I ever end up with your Trike Birdy I will shorten her name to Hanni.. "2009 Yamaha RSV w/Hannigan trike kit" is just to long of a name for this old knucklehead to try call her every time I loose her in a parking lot = "HANNI":rotf:!!

delicacy

lop eared varmint. By the way, I am pretty sure that he is also somewhere here chasing the front wheel of his Blue 1st Gen in the land of Hammers and Sickles cause back there on the side of that back road I found some

Ok,, so here's some thoughts,, especially if you have younger children.. Make your way up to Michigan, stop and say hi at our house - camp in our yard, if we are home our place is child proof and we love kids, even if we happen to be out of town you are still welcome to camp in our yard - we are 2 minutes from Lake Michigan and the State Park with LOTS for kids to do and where you can dump your holding tanks if you need to. On the way to the Badlands from our house you could either take the Ferry across to Wisconsin (expensive) from Muskegon or you could go up Ludington and take the big Ferry across (a LOT cheaper than Muskegons) or you could go up, drive across the Mackinaw Bridge (WOW) and cross the Upper Peninsula (BEAUTIFUL) into Wisconsin or you can always drop down and go around Chicago and up to "90". A stop in Austin Minnesota at the place that makes Spam is really fun. They have an AWESOME free tour that the kids would LOVE. Stop in Blue Earth Minnesota for a night or two of free camping at their Fair Grounds - you can stay 2 nights with FULL hook-ups free of charge. Blue Earth is the home of Green Giant foods - they have an AWESOME park right next to the fair grounds with a HUGE Jolly Green Giant. The Fair Grounds also have hot showers, bathrooms and all that too. Chamberlain South Dakota is where the Missouri River crosses 90, before you cross the river gorge, pull into Chamberlain. On the North side of town there is a local RV park with a GORGEOUS swimming beach. Also has showers and full hook ups. Real neat town. Watch for "Draper" as your headed west on 90 toward the Badlands NP. Only a couple miles off the Ickspress-way - place is a step back in time - old cow town with dirt main roads. GREAT people!! The Badlands NP has an East and a West Entrance. Wall Drug is located near the West Entrance. Time of arrival would determine how I would play this one. The Badlands are UNREAL at night - the park remains open all night (the roadway from at the east entrance is also the main road leading down to the town of Interior) even though the Toll Booths close at 9ish - there are no closeable gates at the booths. Wall Drug would be boring at night for the kids. If it were later in the day when I came to the east entrance,, say after 5, I would take the East Entrance. There is a Prairie Dog place on the right hand side, place sells Prairie Dog food but the little buggers LOVE Pop Corn and Sun Flower Seeds (wink wink).. Your kids would LOVE em!! Actually biker named my Son after one,, P-Dog LOL.. Anyway,, driving thru the NP at night is a MUST do!! Warm canyon breezes coming up out of the Badlands are unforgettable!! So are the formations in the moon light. Park Rangers wont allow overnight camping in the pull offs (they wont kick ya out but will ask you to move LOL) BUT - about half way thru the park there are a couple of back roads that go North (South would be off the edge of the Badland canyons and you dont wanna do that) - not very far and your outside of the Park onto the National Prairie Lands where you can just stop and camp for FREE!! I can tell you exactly where this is if you would like.. Camping on the Prairie is the ULTIMATE!! Coyotes howling and all that great stuff!!! Talk about STARS!! Kids would love it!! Follow the rim of the Badlands headed west, you will exit the park, stay on that roadway - you will cross the ickspress-way and pull right into Wall Drug. Lots of gas stations, Subway right on main corner.. Turn left and another quick right and your on "Main Street" of Wall (towns name is Wall, Wall Drug is actually the name of the old Drug Store,, long story..). Drive down main street past all the tourist traps LOL.. End of Mainstreet you will come to last building on the right and will see a sign that says "Back Yard". Walk around the side of the building and they have a quick entrance into the Back Yard. Bring your camera and let them kiddies have ball!! LOTS of stuff for em to do!! Wont spoil your fun by telling you about it but trust me,, its a really fun place for all ages.. From the Badlands and headed to colorful Colorado.. I would head back to East entrance of the Badlands, go out of the bottom of the park and thru Interior. West under the Badlands toward Rapid City is gorgeous.. I would keep heading west and go right into the Black Hills and into Keystone. Up the hill to Rushmore. I would then take Iron Mountain Road down to Custer State Park (LOTS of animal life). There is small camp ground that is also open to RV's where a guy raises Timber Wolves - been there for years and place is AWESOME!! Very reasonable rates.. Keep in mind that you can also pull off anywhere and sleep for the night - South Dakota is an open camp state - you can even pull off on the prairie like some of the Sturgis Rally goers do.. Come out thru Custer, roll down to Hot Springs where there is an AWESOME mammoth dig, drop down to Lusk and straight south toward Cheyenne. Cheyenne to Loveland into Estes Park from the east side!!

I'd be more concerned about Bongo, Fool and Rbig running around in Toga's with loaded AK47's than I would with that whip snappin Venture riding Yama Mama.. Thinking Freebird should have stuck with Air Soft BB Guns when he went thru the selection of Chat Weapons

and COVERED with some VERY special

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!!