cowpuc

KEEP IT UP FOOL, IT WONT BE LONG AND WE WILL HAVE THE WHOLE FROZEN NORTH COUNTRY TO OURSELVES!! Have fun down their Reiny and haul back some warm air IF/when ya return will ya? PS, this little vid says it all,, it even has a quick picture of Reiny while in Mexico at 1.44 in the vid!!

What da heck,, barely a bump in the road,, why I bet Yammer Dan and Skid on their 2nd Gens could do that trip in less than 4 hours!!

[h=2][/h] Originally Posted by Rick Haywood Doesn't Ohio bike week start the same weekend in Sandusky? Sounds like an extended trip may be in order. Thats a good question Rick, if it does I wonder how far from Don's Sandusky is. Definitely have to check that out!! Sure nuff,, Ohio Bike Week starts on the 29th at the Harley Shop in Sandusky.... Tweeks and I gotta ride right pass that place, probably oughta leave a day or so early cause when that beat up old Yam smells HD exhaust in the air she tends to get side tracked.. I wonder if any of the other 300 plus VR members that will be showing up for Dons MD will be stopping in there on the way thru? THANK YOU for pointing that out Sir Haywood!!

Thats a good question Rick, if it does I wonder how far from Don's Sandusky is. Definitely have to check that out!!

WOW is that purdy!! I LOVE the classic look and feel of the older bikes too Eagle, CONGRATS!! Are those carbs I see hanging on them intake manifolds or are they throttle bodies made to look that way?

I suffer from equal opportunity , I could care less which of our countries you live in Kev,, THAT was just plain I thought I heard not to long ago that BC got pounded? I had written a thread asking about Kitmat (or whatever its called) and it seems like shortly after that someone out there mentioned the coast had gotten nailed. That picture of yours looks more like southern Florida or something Kev..

Lefty, you and the CptN' werent touring out near Crater Lake last summer were you? I have pics somewhere of a biker bird sitting on Tips arm from that one, be pretty cool if that happened to have been CaptN Ike.. Never hurts to ask! Heyyy,, just thought of something,, are you two coming to Don's MD this year? Just wondering cause if you do, I would LOVE to let him sit on my shoulder as I walk around Don's "Campground"!! Got a couple hotshots that I hear might show up that I would LOVE to give the bird to:big-grin-emoticon: (probably heard that a few times while hanging out with the Captain) Seriously Lefty, he is gorgeous!

Plus the fact that open carry makes you a walking gun cabinet. How easy would it be for a kid to thump a person, like the lady in the pic, over the head with a can of beans and bingo - instant robbery weapon. Not only that, but I have heard of folks getting robbed for a couple bucks, if the bad guys see a person with 900 bucks (or more) worth of handgun and 300 dollars worth of ammo (I know, I am stretching that but it sure seems that way these days) hanging on their side it seems like that would be a major attractant for theft in itself. Years ago we rode around with an easy rider rifle rack (my oh my, been a long time..) in our pickup windows with our rifles hanging in plain site - what a beautiful thing! That came to an abrupt end as more and more people got killed and robbed or truck windows got broken and guns removed. Same with those gorgeous gun cabinets filled with thousands of dollars of guns and ammo.. Remember those days? Everybody and their brother had gorgeous glass windowed display cases - days gone by because, just like the comment about open carry making the women a target, it made the home owner a HUGE target from a variety of bad people.

Yea,, thats to bad Don.. If I were back at it full time and a Vender/Member, I would actually contact you and want my ads here to be Member Only - Period.. Remembering the days of dealing with the jokers and scammers on Craigs and even Ebay,,,,, I would actually have enjoyed having one place of refuge to do business in where I was pretty much assured (I know - stuff still happens) that I was dealing with good folks.. Kinda use my buy/sell here as therapy Then just run my usual ads on the open Internet and let the scammers do their thing....

I am willin it to ya Cha,, I am willin it to ya!! You need a vacation!! THANKS DON FOR THE INPUT!! Wish I coulda been there for that BIG ONE!! But,, this one looks like it will be a TON of fun too!!

By the way wrench, those V-45's were known for cam issues.. Might wanna do a compression check on her..

I dealt with a lot of bike yards years ago and, other than Harley, never did bump into a Honda Only place. That V-45 should be fairly easy to find used parts for, they were popular. Would you like some phone numbers of places I dealt with, some may be out of business but I know some of the larger ones are still going strong. Another thing that you can do (depending on how much stuff you need) is go to Adhuntr.com (searches all of Craigs) and see if you can find a parts bike near you. Most of the bike yards I have dealt with charge 1/2 of new plus shipping so it can get pricey if you need a bunch of stuff..

I was just looking at the list of great folks who are signed up for Don's MD and smiling over what appears to be a GREAT time to put faces with names and a thought occurred to me - I wonder what the largest attendance of any VR outing has been? I also wonder what the largest attendance of a Freebird MD has been? Anybody have a clue? I know,, sometimes I wonder to much..

Last year I was standing out front in the hot sunshine, Tweeks up on the lift in front of the Garage, wearing shorts and no shirt - sweat just running off my body... My neighbor stops by, shakes his head, points over a shady spot on the concrete about 10 feet from where I was working. He says "what are you stupid - why on earth aren't you at least working in the shade"? I looked at him and said "Apparently you have forgotten about last winter already!! I am sucking every bit of that hot sunshine up while I have a chance cause I KNOW that bone chilling winter is coming back!!". Bottom line you guys, when summer finally does get here - GET OUT AND ENJOY IT,, STORE IT UP!!!

I think its fine just the way it is Don. Part of me screams,, nooooo,, close our site off to members only, have only a limited amount of the Watering Hole viewable to outsiders so they can get a small sample of who we are and what being part of a great family like VR is and, if they want to give it shot - sign up for a free trial membership so you and the moderators have record of who's coming and going.. BUT,, I am not a Vendor/Member either and I think anything we can do to help Vendor/Members be successful is worthy of some tolerance to the being more open.. I think in the end, your last sentence: "At the very least, you should be aware of the fact that you need to do your due diligence when selling something. Not everybody uses the "buy now" button and if they do, it will be a member here. If somebody contacts you through the "contact seller" link though. You need to be a bit more cautious in dealing with them." Is very solid advice that we should all read very carefully and live by as, IMHO, this addresses the real issue.. Whoever you were that got taken advantage of, I am sorry to hear about the situation. Good lessons aren't always cheap (most do come with some kind of price tag) BUT, if we grow from them (and don't grow bitter) we are usually better people for paying the price and learning!

You are welcome Nanci, my pleasure - I only tell it like it is, YOU DO VERY NICE WORK!!! Hey @Freebird, check this out. I used one of those "@" symbol smoke signal things that you figured out and got for our usage (you da man Boss!!) in telling the story about @Luvdaleather and her leather business. I may be wrong here, but there is a good chance that it was that little "@" thingy that ultimately woke Nanci up from her deep sleep and now it looks like that is gonna lead us into a hunt for a lost @LoneEagle!! Thanks again for watching out for us Don!! Hey Jack, I think we should send out some undercover spies, find out where that Harley riding Bald Eagle is hanging out at. See if there is a Leatherby's near his hangout. If there is, maybe you, Nanci, @EasyRider , @VentureFar, @shuttlebug, myself and any other of you California crazys who want to join us, could go buy a Banana Nut ice cream cone, stand in front of LoneEagles hangout and yell "SEE WHAT CHUR MISSING!! - COME OUT AND PLAY WITH US YA PIRATE!!"

:clap2::clap2::dancefool::dancefool::thumbsup::big-grin-emoticon: Heck yea,, even the chipmunks out there are man eaters!!!

With the 2014 Venture West Rally having drawn to an end for us on that Friday evening, we hugged and thanked as many people as we could for being so friendly and kind to the likes of us three loafers from Michigan. We headed back to the Loose Moose State Park west of The Dalles to begin the process of preparing for the ride back towards my daughters in Sacramento. When we arrived back at the Moose, the person camping beside us came over and introduced himself. Come to find out, he was the State Park Host and he wanted all of us to know how much he appreciated our friendliness and attention to being respectful to folks in the area. He was a very nice person named "Bob" who, after Tip, Tweeks and I had left, brought an official Oregon State Park sticker over to feed Tweeks insatiable appetite for stickers. Coff had this gentleman sign the sticker and than he mailed it to our home so Tweeks could get her just reward. @CMCOFFEY sent Tweeks a sticker from Nellis Air Base with the Oregon sticker because she had crossed Nellis and had no sticker saying so, that Coff was really out to spoil the old girl completely!! We worked together checking air pressures, tire conditions and over all maintenance on the bikes while we hung out for our last evening together. Coff noticed that his bike, Exodus, had shed a screw in his front fender during our trip to Mount St Helens. We could not find a replacement screw so, the three of us (Coff, BIkerJohn and myself), being all that we could be, decided to use one of my handy tie wraps to reattach Exoduses front fender trim. After doing so, I went and got my permanent marker and signed the Tie Wrap, thus beginning Exodus's life long journey into Tweeks crazy world of stickerdom. Even though I did hear Coff telling people that, because the tie wrap had come from Tip and I, that it would be permanent, I didn't really understand how deeply he meant that until we had gotten home and received Tweeks Nellis and Oregon stickers from Coff. Along with that was a note explaining that Coff was in the process of making stickers for Exodus and for Tweeks and he wanted to know if I would like for him to ship the other sticker when he had finished making them. I wrote him back and asked him to hang onto the stickers he had made for Tweeks hoping that doing this would give her a good incentive to find yet another trip out to Area 51 to visit CMCoffey and his family. Coff thought THAT was a GREAT idea - CMCoffey catches on really quick!! @shuttlebug (Mr. and Mrs), BikerJohn, CMCoffey, Tip and I finished up the evening by saying our goodbyes as we knew that the next morning was going to come quickly. Each one of us who had shared in that adventure known as the 2014 Venture West Rally in the little town of The Dalles Oregon, had came to the this place and time having never met and were now leaving as great friends! In the world of CTFWing, it doesn't get any better than that!

One of the great things that I have come to appreciate about belonging to an organization such as VentureRider.org is the unending wealth of knowledge that the combined years of all the members associated with VR represent. I am not new to spinning a wrench and have gotten my hands dirty a few times in the process of CTFWing. Lets face it, it does not matter what motorcycle you ride (or car you drive), sooner of later something is going to break. Bikes don't really care how much you pay for them or even what name hangs on their placard - stuff breaks. I learned a long time ago that if you want to learn about something, no matter what it is, just surround yourself with like minded people - preferably those who have also been riding similar bikes as the one you have chosen to ride - start a conversation about any given issue, input things that you know and than listen carefully as the other people share how they might accomplish the same task. I have used the process of doing this to define "wisdom" to my children - basically that is the ability to actually learn something from someone else's mistakes or life's experiences. I have personally found that when I do this it can really shorten the learning process and, ultimately, enrichen a persons short existence here on this beautiful planet we share . I had many opportunities and conversations with folks at the Venture West Rally who openly swapped mechanical and electrical detail of our Ventures with me. There was an abundance of real Yamaha geniuses at the rally. We had a great time and it was an honor rubbing shoulders with these folks. I happened upon one of these interludes and seized the moment at catching some of this sharing going on between a very learned VR member named @GeorgeS and @Rainbow Rider while standing in the parking lot after the rally. It was a tremendous opportunity for me to record some this vast knowledge sharing between these two gentlemen. I will also add, that after GeorgeS found out that Tweeks had broken her speedo back in Dennison Texas, he went back to his home in Washington and located a new speedometer for Tweeks and mailed it to her! What an amazing group of people - THANK YOU GEORGES FOR CARING!

After our Friday afternoon banquet had came to close, having a full belly and having met so many great friends, we all thanked the folks at Cousins for hosting the Rally (they did a GREAT job) and headed out to the parking area to get some pictures and just have fun sharing stories. Tweeks came up with this idea of posing herself in a no parking area at Cousins front door with Tippy and I laying down beside her, I love that picture!! We met and chatted with a variety of folks from all over the United States and Canada. Two of our new Canadian friends told us that they each had followed our ride stories in times past and both wanted to say hello (I was honored to meet these fine gentleman). Their VentureRider.org names are @divey and @Dale124. Tip and I had a short chance to sit down with them both and, though it was way to brief, got to learn where they were from and hear about their family's and lives. I am not sure about this and certainly would never purposely want put words in any ones mouth, but I sure got the impression that these two champion Canadian friends of ours totally understood how much Tip and I love hearing about people from around the world and that these two gentleman totally appreciated our effort to be out making new friends and meeting new people by CTFWing. I made a short video to give you, the reader, an opportunity to also meet one of these gentlemen, this is "Divey" - one heck of great guy!! In this same video you may notice people willingly giving of their time to "scratch" Tweeks back. I am always amazed and thankful for those willing to take the time to sign Tweeks, every time this happens it touches my heart to know how from the day of signing and going forward, Tip, Tweeks and I are taking a part of our really special friends every where we travel.

After we finished eating, LoneEagle (our Rally host) settled our chatter down by announcing that he had acquired some donated gifts that he intended to award to certain people. I was amazed at this because after I had crawled into my chair and sat down earlier I had noticed that each place setting had a pile of biker gifts (really neat ear plugs, windshield cleaner and stuff), no one thought there would be more. I lost track of who was awarded what during this time, I can say that BikerJohn received a beautiful set of handlebar fringe leathers (those things that proudly now hang from the front brake and clutch lever on his gorgeous black bike). These beautiful works of leather art were made by a fellow VentureRider.org member by the name of @Luvdaleather. Nanci (Luvdaleather) is a very talented individual who operates a business called "Ace High Leathers" out of California and her work is represented on many of the beautiful motorcycles that will be found at many of the VentureRider.org Rallies operating around the world. I was admiring Johns award for taking second place in "those who had traveled the farthest to get to the Rally". It was during my gloating over our Texas Hero's award that I heard Lone Eagle start talking about the 1st place winner. As soon as he mentioned that the first place winners bike had (in his words) "been ridden in with a set of Antelope horns mounted on it for crying out loud". It was at this point that Tip and I knew we were in trouble. We were awarded a gorgeous "Venture West" poster that now hangs beautifully in the living room of our home in Muskegon. Our dear friend Condor mailed the award to us so we would not have to carry it back to Michigan adding weight to a, already picking up road obesity, worn out old Tweeks.

The fuel gauges of our tummys bouncing on "E" from a long day of exploring the State of Washington exponentially increased the wonderfulness of the smell of the dinners that the staff at Cousins were preparing for us. As my nose took over control of my body and I found myself being magically moved into the banquet room, it suddenly dawned on me that I had somehow gotten separated from Tip. Tossing aside the steadily increasing "feed me" squeal from my now empty fuel tank, I focused my visual search on finding that lovely lady of mine. I soon noticed that she had been captured by a group of fellow CTFWers on the far side of the "U" shaped pattern our banquet chairs had been perfectly arranged in. People were seated around the outside edges of the "U" and were, inadvertently, blocking any successful path to the chair that Tip had saved for me to her right hand side. After crawling under the tables while carrying my camera and the Burger King Crowns I had acquired back at the Burger King at Mount St Helens and having made my way up into my chair, I thought I could hear laughter as some folks apparently found some sort of humor in my solution to the dilemma that had presented itself. I am still not sure if they were laughing at me, my taped up old camera or those cute Gold Burger King Crowns that nobody had a clue of what I was planning on doing with them. One of the amazing things that happens to me when I am out CTFWing is how time, space, travel and location just seem to run together. Its a lot like making a really good cake, the combination of all kinds of really exciting ingredients can get mixed together to create something very special and unique. Not that I have done a lot of baking in my days, but I do know from the few times that I have cooked a cake that no matter how careful you plan, they don't always come out perfect, sometimes they are astounding though! As I sat there taking in the main ingredients of the cake mix called Venture West that had gathered around the banquet table, I noticed something unique. It had not occurred to me how close to the Canadian border this Rally in The Dalles (I could make song here, sung by the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell",, The Rally in The Dalles, The Rally in The Dalles, hi ho together we go to the Rally in The Dalles) was located. Due in part to its location, this gave Tweeks - Tip and I the chance to meet some International Riders - talk about icing on the cake!! On top of that, our host - @LoneEagle, had invited some members of another organization known as "Star Riders" (Yamaha changed their name to "Star" a few years ago so I still think they are Yamaha Riders). There were also people from several other states represented too. Our evening cake mix was absolutely perfect!! It was so much fun listening to these marvelous people explain where they were from and have them share some of their motorcycling backgrounds. After our time of introduction in the Banquet Room, the staff at Cousins brought out our pre-ordered dinners. The food that they had prepared was absolutely delicious. Tip had ordered Salmon and I had ordered Prime Rib. As usual, I helped her find room to finish her Salmon so we wouldn't have to haul a doggy bag back to our tent with us. I also helped @kevin-vic-b.c. finish his potatoes and @bikerjohn finish his salad (Kev gave me his potatoes and I had to sneak some of Johns salad). As we ate dinner, I pulled the Burger King Crowns out from under my chair, grabbed a couple of ink pens, wrote LoneEagle on the top of one crown and Condor on the top of the other. I then handed them to the people sitting next to me and asked them to sign them and pass them on. I also asked that we be careful and not let Condor or LoneEagle notice what we were doing. We than presented the two signed Crowns to our two hosts - TWO OF THE MOST REGAL KINGS TO EVER HAVE BEEN CROWNED!! If you watch this introductory video to the end, you will notice the Crown on Lone Eagles head, he kept it there for the rest of the Rally!!

That young whipper snapper Coff and his super cornering Exodus held back and allowed Tip, Tweeks and I to run lead on the way back. We were in somewhat of a hurry because we all knew there was a banquet planned for the night back at the Venture West Rally HQ, Cousins in The Dalles Oregon. Tweeks did a great job keeping up with the flow of traffic heading down from Seattle and going into Portland. She did have one little interlude with a car that had a person inside who was suppose to be steering the vehicles front wheels but was busy talking on their cell phone. Another one of Tweeks attitudinal problems that I am very aware of is her ability to backfire at will. I could feel her plastic covers tightening up as we started to go past this inattentive driver. I also knew what was coming far in advance of watching the drivers cell phone bounce off the ceiling of his car right after Tweeks loose righthand side exhaust pipe rang out a tone that even a demolition expert would be proud of. As the five of us closed in on the exit that would put us almost directly in front of the Cousins restaurant parking area, I looked in Tweeks mirrors and noticed that our ride group had grown by 2. I would learn later that another VentureRider.org member by the name of @Rainbow Rider had zeroed in on our travels and chosen to follow us into the party that was brewing for the evening. After a brief discussion sitting at the stop sign in front of Cousins, he gave me the honor of video interviewing him and I learned that RainbowRider had become one of the members of VR a couple months before this Rally and had ridden down from his home (located within an hour or so from Cousins) to see what all the ruckus was about. The three of us had made yet another great friend!!

The five of us coasted a short ways down the Mount St Helens overlook, taking a number of hairpin corners and successfully navigating some sheer cliff area's all while under no engine braking assistance, we stopped at another side road viewing area to get some pictures of St Helens from a distance. We than ran a pretty good pace down to the official National Park Gift Shop hoping that they would have the sticker that Tweeks had been hounding me about all day. The gift shop was considerably busier with people than the actual mountain itself had been. I heard something mentioned about foul weather keeping most folks off the mountain side, I looked at Tippy and our good friend @CMCOFFEY standing their with their snowmobile-bike mountain clothing on, shrugged my shoulders and mumbled a word of thanks to myself that we didn't stop here on the way up and ask permission to ride up to the viewing area. Looking at the smiling faces of my two riding partners and knowing how much fun our bikes had while chasing each other up and down those twisty roads, I just could not have imagined riding all the way from west Michigan and not have at least tried to go up there!

After we had spent some time exploring the viewing area, we made our way back to where we had left Exodus and Tweeks. We were walking across the parking area intending check on them to make sure their hooves had not frozen to the pavement when we ran into a person who appeared to have a serious love for taking pictures. We stopped and chatted with this artistic individual and found out that he was from a small town in Illinois only a couple hours south of our home in Michigan, a place called Chicago. After we chatted for a while, I got his permission to make a short interview video and it was during this video that I learned that his name was the same as mine - Scott,, well bust my buttons!! Like so many great people before him that we had met on our travels, our new friend from the Windy City obliged us with his signature on Tweeks.