cowpuc

What a wonderful poem and right from the start I could tell it was written with love from your heart Every word was a blessing and brought a great cheer The spirit of Christmas came thru crystal clear Reading your words was wonderful luck For us bikers in Michigan, Tippy and Puc..

Tippy (wife) and I (Puc) pretty much spent the summer out goofin off on Tweeks (83 Standard with second gear missing).. Visited some National Parks out west, visited our girls in California, friendly antelope donated horns to tweeks in Montana, ran out of gas (x2), missed a MASSIVE Elk on HWY-50 topping Connors Pass BY INCHES, saw the new indians at sturgis rally, slept in tent (alot), ate spam at spam museum, found out that "Vogel" is a park in Georgia, met lots of great folks - some from here (some "questionable" persons too), bike now in basement waiting for spring of 14 to start over... Thanks for the post!!!!! LOVE reading where every one was (didnt see many Ventures cept for Vogel), Puc

Way back in the late 60's I bought one of those little Lee Load All's (I think thats what they were called).. Came with an assortment of little plastic charge and shot sleeves.. Cheap (under 20 bucks) but I loaded thousands of 12 gauge shotgun shells with it, "harvested" MANY rabbits/pheasants/partridges/tin cans/clay pigeons/stumps/pine cones,, even rescued Tippy from a snake once with shells loaded from that ol loader.. Wonder if those are still around,,, probably not,,, to old like me... GREAT MEMORIES!! Had another Lee Loader I used for rifle and handgun (sold it last spring,, value went right out of site,, paid 50 bucks for it with tumbler and dies - guy offered me 450 bucks for it,,, crazy!!).. Worked great and easy to use... May have a pic somewhere of this,, hmmmm Loadings fun!!!

AWESOME Lewis,, we are taking it that because you are being released that everything went well?? Glad you enjoyed the rest of that part of the story,, I am going to write some more about our time down there when I get a second.. Thanks for reminding me of allllll the great folks it takes to put together (very well done I might add) Vogel, my hat is off to all of them!! And indeed,, HAPPY TRAILS my friend till we meet again!! Puc n Tippy

Thats the hard part of owning a 1st gen,,,, because they are a living thing they also have feelings,,, they get hungry, tired, grumpy,, mines even had some PMS symptons.. Its all good though when you know folks like the people on here that understand this and can help with cures for em,,, Good suggestion brother Dan...

You betcha Craig!! CLASSICS FOR SURE! Glad to hear that I am not the last man standing of an era gone by.. Sooo,, if we (gotta include Tippy, cant even pull the bike out of the garage without her on it ) did this Regional thingy could we find places to do this (see pic) along the way? Actually, its not the choking as much as the BRAIN FREEZE I worry about :rotf:an us ice cream eaters know how to fix that

Lewis, lewis, lewis,,,, this mr. morphine,, your new buddy,,, lewis your not really on your motorcycle lewis and thats not the throttle your squeezing and twisting,, lewis - charlene's fingers are turning purple so you have to relax........ WELCOME BACK DRAGONRIDER!!!! Been praying for ya!! Heal fast and fully.. Puc

Leave it to a "sailer" to bring us full circle... :rotf::rotf:

Hey Tom,, gotta ask ya sumthin,, do you remember those old Bill Cosby records about go carts, the snake under the bed and, my favorite, when they got their tonsils out?? HILARIOUS!! Anyway,, EVERYTIME YOUR NAME COMES UP ON HERE I THINK OF BILL COSBYS ICE CREAM SONG associated with getting their tonsils out.... :rotf: Someday, somehow, somewhere, sometime - we WILL toss one back!!

Thanks for the kuddos on my story telling Squidley, not that difficult cause I just tell it like it happened (wait till Fozzie comes out of hibernation - he'll tell ya!! ),, nothing hard about that... I can sure understand how folks like those at Vogel last year got close to your hearts - they sure got close to mine - ALL OF THEM!!! It is genuine, kind, fun loving, down to earth, GENEROUS (based on funds for St. Judes - awesome!!) folks like them that make telling about them fun!! It was an honor to meet/eat/ride/laugh and cry with em, CANT WAIT TO MEET MORE!!!!!!! Puc

I didnt even know they had Cows back than,, thought it was all buffalo..... Try milkin one of those suckers (dont know Tom personally but from the stories I have heard he could/would have,, all for the JOY of ice cream..)

Yea right.... Remember that song,, signs - signs, everywhere are signs (LOVE OUR MUSIC!!)?? Just replace the word "signs" with "bums" and you will have the answer to that statement... An even deeper question is what body part does YammerDan represent :rotf: Hmmm,, a map shows his location somewhere south of the armpit and the nipple.. Just got back and look what you started already 99!!!!

Oh yea,,,, at least we dont die by the droves from being eaten by bears, run over by mooses (should that be meese?) or eaten alive by black flies/mosquitoes n noo-seee-ums!! Dieing is dieing but at least our way involves something really fun!! :rotf: Double LMAO

Hope all went well today Lewis!! After all your pain and suffereing, here's to fantastic pain free new year!! Scott n Cher

Hey hey hey,, who ya callin a bum I resemble that fact :rotf:takes one to know one,,na na dee boo boo Welcome back 99 and a huge hiii ohhh silver to ya!! From the nipple of the nation (directly across from the armpit) MUSKEGON MI!! Puc PS - best of luck on that interview buddy - NOCK EM DEAD!!!

This is hilarious you guys,, from that link,, Cheesy comments wonder toward sex, Bongos toward food and I got caught up in watching a video about our digestive systems and how we are being poisoned by the use of artificial sweetners, pretty interesting....:rotf: All because we ride motorcycles...

Rollin rolling rolling,, kept that baby rolling!! and saved enough cash to pay for some GREAT tour time to boot!!

Thanks Orlin for posting this!! You are in the perfect spot for folks heading west out of Michigan - that corridor between Chicago and the La Crosse can be dicey for finding camping spots (especially during rally times).. Great little piece of inside info!! AMEN to that brother!!!!

Oh man, I just read about DragonRiders surgery,,, hot off the press JUST FOR YOU DRAGONRIDER!! As we walked into Fozzies den the thought occurred to me that there was only one way of escape should the need arise - still not really trusting the two pranksters.. Thankfully, Fozzie and all others present were gathered on the inside away from the escape route.. Wingman/Dokow pointed out which one was Dragon Rider, they introduced Tippy and I to the group and I went to work.. Before anyone had a second to intro themselves I announced that I was batting almost 100% at guessing folks names, place got dead quite, I pointed at Dragon Rider and said,, lets see,, your,, FOZZIE BEAR... :rotf: ALL HECK BROKE LOOSE!! INSTANT screams and howls of laughter, except for Dragon Rider - he was to busy getting up out of his chair!! He took off chasing Dana around the den.. By the growling and snapping and shouting that came from this bear I KNEW he was no Fozzie!! Thankfully there are some folks that dont need a 1st gen to be fast, Dana is one of them - man could he run!!! After things settled down, Tippy and I learned from the group what the "Vogel" gathering was really all about, and what these guys (and their wifes) were really up to.. Dragon Rider has the heart of a Teddy Bear, his calling to help hurting children (Vogel = $$ for St. Judes Children Hospital) in a REAL way was/is nothing short of remarkable - a true inspiration!! Wingman/Dokow demonstrated the same passion throughout our stay!! What a team!! Dokow and his wife invited us to camp on their site, we did.. Next day we woke up to Dokow holding a big bug in his hand, asking if I had ever seen one before,, nope - weird looking thing, great big horsefly maybe.. Come to find out it was an "CICADA" - COOL!!! After gently placing the bug down we fired up the bike and headed down for the "party", and what a party it was!! More on that soon BUT I gotta get this to press cause our buddy is going under the knife tomorrow and maybe this will make him smile in his dreams....... PRAYING FOR YOU FOZZIE!!!

Tippy and I are praying for you Louis!! Get rid of the pain brother!!! Puc

Tom (and Lew too), Wishing BOTH of you the bests of outcomes!! Lay low and heal up fully so, like already mentioned, we can all ride again come summer!! Prayers for you both!!! Puc

Heyyy,, it worked, woke ya'll up!! THANKS for the responses!! Kevin,, Just way to much back woods riding to try and drag a trailer along, thanks for the advice though. Joe, THANK YOU for taking the time to sign that old beast, made my day!!! RandyR - I said that to myself MANY TIMES over and over down there!! Dan, ME TOO BUDDY and Yep,,, I finally found YammerDan,, ahhh,, I think so anyway Venturous, WOW,, THANK YOU for the compliments - I actually feel the same way towards all of you!! Got called a "real" biker at sturgis for stopping an helping a stranded Harley rider.. That being said,, IMHO REAL bikers are folks like ALL of you who were at Vogel - digging into your pockets to give those kids fighting for their lives a FIGHTING CHANCE!! Totally agree with you about the tranny/rearend change - REALLY APPRECIATE THE INFO BROTHER!! Got several bikes in line (worky worky) before I can even think of tearing into the 83 BUT it may come to that - lower 1st/higher 5th and a working 2nd, be awesome!! DragonSlayer,, hey good buddy,, THANK YOU for fillin in the blanks, PERFECT!! - YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN and I am sure that "we will come back - ya hear.." Oh, by the way, you are absolutly correct about that Zaxby so called chicken,,, someday we will get together and find us a REAL, southern fried, artery hardening, down home cooking chicken place!!! Louis,,,,, almost ready.. I "bear"ly got that part done the other nite before nodding.. Lifes been kinda "grissly" around here, but we are back in the "black" now.. Sure didnt mean to "polar"ize anyone.. :rotf:

Longer belly go without food, better food tastes Grasshopper, silver lining behind every cloud and all that... 61 dollars perdiem, you done been blessed ya pirate!!

We arrived home from out west to greet my daughter and she was there waiting for us. Becky (daughter) announces her plans to only stay for the day. Got up the next morning and told Tippy I was bored, she said, me too - its still summer - LETS RIDE SOME MORE!!.. I told here about a place/thing/item called "Vogel" I had read about on Venturerider.. I also told her that even though I had spent a fair amount of time on that website I had never actually met anyone from there and it would be fun to see if anyone associated with that site actually existed.. Changed the oil, checked air pressures, bike was still packed from months on the road out west so away we went.. Toured the Red River Gorge area on the way - BEAUTIFUL! Made it all the way to Pigeon Forge by 2 a.m.. Found a slab of concrete behind a Shell station that wasnt occupied, dropped the tent on the slab and nodded out.. Next morning I went inside and thanked the Shell station attendant for not calling the cops on us.. He laughed and said the cops had checked on us 3 or 4 times during the night to make sure we were ok.. Gotta love southern hospitality.. Toured the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the way to Deals Gap.. Crowded, slow moving but real pretty!! Headed down the Foothills Parkway (NICE) to 129 (Tail of the Dragon) with hopes of bumping into some other Venture riders from the site who may have a clue of the whereabouts of a thing called Vogel.. Shortly after we headed east on 129 we came across some folks with bike troubles.. It was getting later in the day and I pretty much knew if I stopped to help we would run out of time in finding any of those VR folks soooo,, of course I stopped, what the heck we had a tent and theres always tomorrow.. The stranded riders were a couple of local guys.. They were HAPPY to let me work on their bike, found out it had a bad connection out of the stator and ran out the battery.. When they found out where we were headed they started warning me about unfriendly cops along 129 (been there several times before,, had more problems dodging kids on rockets than cops..). No sooner did the conversation start than up pulls a cop The officer turned out to be a real nice guy, he even stopped traffic for us while we bump started (pushed) the broken bike.. Rode the Tail and pulled into Deals Gap Store... I noticed a few Ventures and people standing around talking !! After filling the tank I walked over and asked the gang you see in the pics if they had ever heard of VentureRIder.org.. Couple funny looks and they all shook their heads no,,,, they started laughing ( "Dokow" - Dana and "Wingman" - Jamie,, careful if you bump into these two when they are together)... I could tell right away these were my kinda pranksters and these two would later prove just how jokerish they could be!! When asked if they knew what a Vogel was, they invited us to join the tribe and find out first hand.. Having no idea what we were in for or even where we were headed, we just followed the group.... Somewhere along the way we stopped for FOOD at a place called "Zaxby's", finally some FRIED CHICKEN!! The "group" was in a hurry to leave Deals Gap, no time for intro's there BUT did at the resturant.. I am TERRIBLE with names, didnt take any pics (my bad) but it was really GREAT to finally put faces with names!! Of course, there are some faces/names one can never forget, trauma has its way.. I know that YammerDan was there cause someone mentioned his name and when I asked out loud who he was everyone pointed at a different person, thereby leaving that linkering question of - "who IS the real YammerDan" forever lodged in my brain.. I think (feel free to correct me, add to, subtract from) Frodo, Skid, GeorgiaWildcat, Missy,,, are some names that come to mind argggg - brain strain.. After we ate, Wingman and Dokow walked over and said, if you have never met anyone from VR than you have never met Dragon Rider right? Thats right, I replied (I could tell something was brewing).. They said, well, we want you to somehow call him "Fozzie Bear" when we introduce him to you at Vogel.. Now,,, I dont have any pics of this so you, the reader, will have to imagine this one,, at the same time they said "Fozzie Bear" their hands went up above their eyes and there fingers made long eye brows.. Hmmm,, whats ol Puc got himself into this time,, let me think about it guys, OK, sounds like fun.. Of course, having suffered the results of jokes gone wrong in the past, I inquired as to the orneriness of this particular "bear" and got reassured, if he turned mean it wouldnt be towards yours truely, good nuff.. Turns out that "Vogel" is actually a beautiful State Park down south, somewhere in Georgia as I recall (just as bad with directions as names)... We pulled into Vogel, there were bikes all over, a lot of them looked like the bike I was riding, minus the grime, antelope horns and stickers of course.. I could hear the old 83 saying "thanks - I needed this" as we pulled thru and waved (still having withdrawals from sturgis?).. Typical of all bears, Fozzie had chosen a Den up on a hillside that was no small matter to get to, much less park at,, little trials riding, finding a 6 inch high rock to keep the bike from falling over and,,,, we walked into Fozzies Den........ :stirthepot::stirthepot:

Why?? He dont ride a Harley does he? :rotf: