Trip Report: FZ1OA Spring Rally Day 3 and 4

17 Jun 2017:  Free Play Day
After a night spent in the dining room then on the porch, no one mentioned a plan for another group ride.  The best idea seemed to be hang out on the porch, ride the loop known as the Cooler Run, hang out on the porch, repeat as necessary.  For me, I had another plan.

After a night spent on an underinflated air mattress, mad at a tent pole for breaking (or me for never buying the aluminum tent poles I planned to or the boys for mishandling my tent bag weakening my fiberglass poles and stealing my ground cover or....you get the picture), watching the fog slowly saturate the rain fly and then seeing the leak actually start leaking I was determined to get a new tent.

I spent most of the night shopping on the internet for that tent's replacement and finally around 4 a.m. put one in my cart for future consideration.  Then I tried to sleep and when that failed said fuck it and ordered the tent.  I had time to cancel it before it was actually processed.  Maybe the broken tent pole would look better in the light of day but in case it didn't I was prepared to ride down to the Wal-Mart in Dahlonega and take my chance with the $35 tent I saw on sale during my last visit.

I was KSU by 8:30 hoping to get the new tent and have it up before any group ride could get away.  My ride to and from Wal-Mart convinced me that a long ride for the day was not in my future.  I didn't wreck but it wasn't because I used any skill.  I used a lot of slow to make it there and back.  I didn't feel nearly as good as I had the day before.

At WalMart, I stared at the on sale tent and the next larger one for 20 minutes despite the hours I'd spent looking at them on the internet.

Plan A completed by 10ish.

That tent is not supposed to have the hump in the top.  The new tent is as big as both rooms in the old one.  It's taller too so I can stand in the middle but makes it a challenge for me to get the fly over it.  With all my stuff inside there's still plenty of sleeping room but I don't like it for moto camping.  I want the vestibule or front room for my gear.

The Chinook Tent worked for about 5 years.  If I think about it in terms of saving me the full cost of a room or not having to share a room, that's not too bad.  Once I had both tents up, I couldn't imagine lugging both of them home so the blue one went in the garbage.  Maybe someone could get it and repair it.  I was not that someone.

With the tent up, I went looking to see what was going on.  I knew I should rest as much as possible before trying to do any riding so I got a good meal, TWoS is great for that too, and sat on the porch and socialized for most of the day.  Maybe if I wasn't tent camping I might have tried to take a nap but lounging on the porch was just as good.

I heard some great conversations, one Cougar was having with some guy about riding on the track.  The way he described it, you could have thought his bike was doing all the work and he was just along to prove it with eyes to see where to go.  I heard some things that helped me understand what I've been doing too.

Here's a pic of us on the porch.  Probably not from Saturday, but you'll get the idea:

There was a rumor we'd be going to Jim's BBQ in Blairsville for dinner.  I went there on my birthday and was up for some Ribs to wash away the salty mistake from the day before.

Two weeks earlier after some damned good Que.

Cruzman finally got me off of the porch with the promise of a little Richard B Russell.  Well then, RBR, then Que.  Sounds good to me!  I joined  Cruzman, Organ Donor, YamahaMan444 believing we were taking the long way to meet the others at the BBQ place.

Instead of going to Jim's Que, we went back to TWoS were bmidd was waiting after having recovered from a "headache".  I'm not sure if he got any loops in but I was grateful for the ride.  It gave me a chance to change and not have to ride.  I may have been rested but all the good feeling I had on the bike the day before was gone in a bad night of sleep.

By the time we got to Jim's they were out of ribs.  I didn't need much convincing to go to Armadillo's in Blairsville, the home of the Ham Steak that is not a Pork Steak made of Ham but a Hamburger Steak.  Yes, I'm still disappointed.  But the jalepeno artichoke dip makes up for it.  So did the baja shrimp tacos.

Cruzman left us to go spend Father's day with his son.  I called mine while I had service.

On the way back, I was goaded into a Trump conversation.  And again later as I approached the first fire of the Rally.

Finally the Rally was official.  I hung around the fire for a bit before deciding to go to bed early since I had a non leaking tent and an air mattress with air in it (and the bike parked close by in case it wasn't) but ended up talking at another fire with another FZ1 owner from Kentucky (I think).  He came because he heard about the Rally but I don't think he actually rode with us.  He had a red Gen2 but I'm not sure it counts as the third gen2 at the Gen 1 Rally.

Day 4:  Chased by rain
The day dawned cloudy.  Rain was coming and my whole ride home day plans changed.

After breakfast, I broke camp while talking to another Kentuckian (a Concours rider) who kept me company and offered advice while I packed up the tent.  The question with the bigger tent was would it fit in my yellow waterproof bag.  Barely after a refolding.  I didn't get it back into it's bag but with weather imminent, I figured I'd do that at home.

I left TWoS right around 11, gassed up with the expensive gas across the street so I wouldn't have to stop if I didn't need to.  I chose to take 197 into Clarksville to get the last bit of riding before the storms came in.  I skirted the approaching storm, riding through the edges of the rain as I left Clarksville and put the dark the skies behind me.

Those clouds stayed in my mirrors all the way home.  I barely made it, get the bike unloaded and under the cover as the first large drops fell.

It was an awesome weekend.  With my WalMart tent, I thought maybe I'd go to TWoS the next weekend for the movie night I learned about while sitting on the porch but the tropical depression cancelled those plans.  Maybe next weekend.

Now I'm looking forward to the Fall Rally and the Eclipse weekend before that.

Thanks for reading,
patrice, theWolfTamer