When I went to the awards dinner, I really didn't expect to win anything. My poker hands were lousy (but not lousy enough to win the worst hand contest), even though I bought raffle tickets, I usually don't win the good stuff, and even though I had planned to, I did not enter my bike in the beauty contest. So, I was really there for dinner and some socializing. For those keeping score, Jody was right, there was barbecue – – even though I was, also right because I said we were getting chicken.
There were many certificates given out. Person who rode the longest distance, oldest rider, youngest rider, some prices for the bike rodeo and a special award for the rider who was newest Valkyrie rider. Guess who won?
Well, I'd only been on the bike for 2 1/2 months even though I’ve put almost 4000 miles on it.
As a whole, our table was doing very well with raffle prizes. I won some bike wax, a sticker, some Seafoam (courtesy of Grumpy's Custom Parts) and a doo rag. As the evening wore on, each of us at the table had won a couple of different things except for Jody, who went the entire evening without winning anything until the very last drawing – – which was for a prize valued at over $600. Any guesses as to who won that one?
In the end, the real winner was Camp Quality, a very worthy cause. Aside from individual donations that were made, a bucket was passed around that netted over thousand dollars… VRCC handed them a $7,500 check at the end. Valkyrie riders are very generous.
I do wish to thank the people who shared the table with me: Momz (and his wife whose name I did not catch), Banker, Jody, JJ, Turtle Dove & GreenDragon. Thank you all for the good dinner conversation and for sharing a bottle of wine.
Then came the time to say goodbye. I packed up my doo rag, Seafoam, sticker, bike wax, event T-shirt, InZane pin and my framed Certificate of Achievement then got ready to head out. Prior to leaving, I was hoping to get my bike blessed since I had heard that was part of rally as well. Since I did not own the Valkyrie when the annual blessing happened in Baldwin earlier in the riding season, I wanted to be sure to get my bike blessed while I was here.
I noticed a fellow biker wandering through the parking lot and I knew he had been sitting at the biker ministry table. Therefore, I walked up, introduced myself, and met Loren who was a Chaplain. I asked him if he would please take a moment and bless my bike. He smiled and explained that it was more important to bless the rider than the bike but he would be more than willing to do both.
We went over to my bike and he said a brief prayer for the bike and or the rider. I have to admit, I've never heard a prayer that included good mileage and mechanics, but I was grateful for it. Which brings me to one failure that I made that day: I meant to hand Loren a donation for his group and forgot all about it because I was in such a hurry to be headed home. So, Loren, drop me an e-mail or someone drop me the ministries' address and I will be glad to send it on.
Overall, I had a great time. I wish I had been able to stay for the entire event and maybe next year I will be able to go to Arkansas and do just that. It may have been an advertising slogan back in the 70s, but good things do happen on a Honda -- and even better things on a Valkyrie.
After getting parked, I wandered over to the registration table to get signed in. Everybody there was real friendly and curious about me -- they wanted to know where I was from and what my name was and things like that. I thought it was because they were interested in me as a person but I came to find out that they were just looking for my registration form. Once I got my packet of stuff and name tag (which I never wore) I was sent down to the raffle ticket part of the registration table.
K-Dog's Rune
At the raffle ticket table I met Sparky51. We had actually conversed online earlier in the week when I volunteered to help sell raffle tickets. When in doubt or if you are ever going to an event you've never been to before and they're looking for volunteers – – do.
Usually the best thing you can volunteer to do is to tend bar. However, failing that -- offer to help with anything to do with gambling. The reason is easy, if you don't know these people a quick way for them to come to you is to either give them a drink or sell them a chance to win something. Since the bars weren't open, gambling was my only choice.
I ended up staying longer than I was supposed to but I was promised time and half. Actually, I guess I was paid in blueberries. After making pies, there was a bowl of left over blueberry pie filling in the kitchen. Near the end of my shift, this bowl made its way to the table with a stack of spoons to be shared by all present. After some discussion, it was determined that whipped cream or ice cream would make this tasty snack even better. The bowl disappeared then reappeared a short while later with ice cream on top of the blueberries. The volunteers rejoiced and ate of the bowl. Thinking back, this was probably a bit riskier germ-wise than a double dipped chip, but volunteerism strengthens the immune system.
After I put in my volunteer time --- I spent a little while wandering through the parking lot and looking at the various bikes. I was really stealing ideas for improvements on my own bike but I was also enjoying looking at what other people had done creatively to theirs. I'd never seen so many variations on a theme.
The next group participation thing that I took part in was the Poker Run. The only Poker Run I had ever been on before was done en mass with several hundred riders going from location to location to pick up cards. This one was a bit different in that everyone was riding the route in small groups. Right after I got mounted up there were four bikes getting ready to head out, so I just tagged along with them.
Membership of our group changed several times as the ride progressed; some people joined while others left. In the end we were a group of 7 and had a trike riding with us.
The ride was 102 miles through small towns and country roads around the area. Some places I had been to before, like Charlevoix, other places were brand-new. It was all pretty and a good site seeing ride.
I rode last in the group so that I could shoot video and get pictures of everybody else. Riding in this position also prevented me from being responsible for any of the navigation, that falling to the bike in the lead. So, now I can safely razz that person about the number of times we got lost. Actually, we only got lost twice and not that badly. But we did get lost.
The problem with joining a ride the way I did was that I never had a chance to find out who I was riding with. I do know that midway through we were joined by Valky Claus, who was from somewhere in Texas. Aside from that, I'm not sure of anyone's names or where they were from except for the bike directly in front of me that was from Canada -- I know enough Canadian that I was able to read his plates. (Note: if it was you I was riding with, please let me know and I will add your name to this rather than leaving you anonymous – – unless you are leading and got us lost then you might want to remain unknown.)
My Valk among the other Dragons
My poker hands actually started out very well, I was going for a straight in one hand and a straight flush in the other. That ended when I picked up my fourth card, which shafted one hand completely and left me with a pair of 8s in the other. Not exactly the way I had planned on the whole thing ending up. However, I did have a great time on the ride and managed to come up with a nice video from it.
As I've said before, I am not originally from Michigan. Therefore, what I know of the state is based on what I've seen in the past few years and not what I've seen over a lifetime. To be honest, like many folks what I knew of Michigan before I got here was Detroit. That is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of what I had heard of Detroit over my lifetime was negative. In fact, that whole side of the state, due to the failure of the auto industry, is not some place I would ever really want to go. However, the western side of the state is something very different.
They are running a series of ads, both on TV and on radio called Pure Michigan. Tim Allen does the ads on the radio, he used to star in Home Improvement, and they feature vivid descriptions of different cities across the state and about how great they would be to visit.
As I rode north of Grand Rapids and continued to head towards Cadillac, I found myself replaying those ads in my head as I looked at some prettiest country I had seen in a while. There were rolling hills covered in trees and lush vegetation with little towns in housing divisions tucked into them. In some ways, it reminded me of Germany.
There are a few rules about constants that I've run across in my lifetime. One is that if you're going to take insurance while playing blackjack you either always do it or you never do it. Another is that if you going to use a GPS you either obey it or ignore it all the time. Now occasionally, a GPS will take longer routes than necessary but overall it will keep you from getting lost. On this day I am fairly convinced my GPS was trying to get me to take it off my bike and throw it as far as I could at the very least I'm convinced that it was psychotic.
First, it took me off a two lane Blue Highway onto a smaller county road -- no big deal. Then it took me from that road onto a smaller lane and a half country road, after a mile and a half or so that road turned into a patch. What I mean is that when I looked at the road I could see at least eight different types of materials used to patch the road that created one of the most unfriendly services for driving I had ever been on. While I was counting those eight different types of materials, I noticed there was nothing identifiable as a base – – in other words, the whole thing was one giant system of patches. Next, the GPS told me to take a left from that road on to Nightmare Lane.
For me, the worst driving surface imaginable is loose gravel. I suddenly find myself on a loose gravel road and according to the GPS; I would be there for at least 3 miles. I slowed to a crawl and had my legs hanging off the bike in case I started the slide. Eventually, the gravel road led me to another two lane county road. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned onto the county road and about 10 miles later found myself turning back onto the road that I had left when I began this adventure.
I pulled off to the side of the road, and I stared GPS. It stared back at me. I didn't hear any laughter but I'm fairly sure it was smirking at me.
I pulled into Shanty Creek about an hour later than planned, but when I pulled in the parking lot, and found myself surrounded by at least 200 other Valkyries, I felt very good about life in general.
Because I was raised living on military bases, the stuff that I saw as a kid was very different than other kids. As a result, when I was about six or seven and saw my first dragonfly, I was convinced that it was some sort of miniature helicopter. After all, I had seen Huey Cobras and Chinooks my entire life. It was a long time before I got close enough to one to know that it was indeed some sort of insect.
Tonight I noticed that the tree by my front door had become some sort of resting place for dragonflies. I took a minute and watched them, remembering what it was like when I was a kid. Seeing one for the first time...wondering how the Army was flying those little helicopters.
When I first saw this, I blew past it without reading all of it. Then I went back an read it and realized it was wanting this, that led me back to riding and got me in the saddle again and started me writing.
"To The Trees!" Came the call. I knew I had heard that before, I just really wasn't sure where. Maybe it was Robin Hood or it was in The Patriot -- of course, it could have been the rally cry of the Ewoks in Star Wars. I guess it doesn't much matter which movie it was, each of them would have used the phrase to mean one thing: "Leave and escape to Freedom". After all, wasn't that what we were doing? The plan was for Saginaw HillBilly, GrnEyes, Workhard, Steve in Red, and Gary all to meet up somewhere on the eastern side of the state, and ride an hour or so to the corner of Highways 57 and 66 where I would meet up with them. It was simple. The most amazing part of it was that it actually worked.
I took off by myself at about 8 AM and headed north. It was a beautiful day for riding; the temperature was about 65° or 70° I was dressed up in my full leathers that were perfectly comfortable at that temperature. My Valkyrie had just come out of the shop having gotten a new tire and it was performing awesomely. I cranked up the radio, rolled it on, and freed my mind. There is just something about the feel of rolling down the highway on a motorcycle that nothing else in life matches.
I arrived at the rendezvous point a little early. So, I went inside grab a Coke and I was taking a few pictures of my bike because it was such a beautiful day. A couple in a truck pulled up and a woman leaned out and asked if I wanted her to take pictures of me with the bike. That really wasn't my objective, but I wasn't going to let an opportunity get away so I posed while she shot a few pictures of me. A short conversation ensued with her and her husband concerning where I was going. I mentioned the Tail of the Dragon that they had not heard of, so I told them a bit about it. They wished me luck and I wished them the same as they drove off.
A short while later I saw HillBilly pull into the intersection followed by everyone else. They all rode into the gas station where I was and filled up. Then, with the posse complete, we continued to ride north.
Our objective was a short span of Michigan 119, which was known as the Tunnel of the Trees. I had heard about this section of road for some time, but I had never thoroughly checked it out or ridden it up to this point. The ride getting there was awesome. The day was beautiful and sunny and as we all rolled down the road together, you could feel the good vibes sweeping over us.
At one point as we cruised down the road I took this picture because it occurred to me the difference in riding posture between men and women. You'll notice the two men that are riding in front of me (HillBilly and Workhard) are both rather hunched over, and on the other hand, GrnEyes is setting up with perfect posture. I have no idea what the larger social and metaphysical meanings of this are. I am also unsure if the universe will continue to spin in greased grooves. It was just one of those things that struck me as I went down the road.
We pulled in for a late lunch at a little roadside diner that seemed to be used to having bikers as clientele. Over lunch, we caught up with everybody's news and shared a few stories. I was surprised to learn that GrnEyes had a repertoire that now included forks in the eye as well as punches in the throat. You never can be sure what talent you are going to find or where.
We pushed on and rode through a town I had never even heard of before called Charlevoix. It was very picturesque and because it was right on the lake's edge, it had great views. I want to go back there at some point in to spend the day exploring the town. We were delayed slightly by some traffic there because they had held a marathon that morning but before long we pulled into Petrosky, which is the starting point of the Tunnel of the Trees.
As we entered that stretch of road, my first thought was how green everything was-- the trees were all full and blooming. There were smatterings of sunlight that was coming through the trees and splashing on the road and us in such a way that it added an unearthly feel to the ride. The curves were not very challenging but the scenery was more enjoyable because of it.
We stopped at a small village called Good Hart that is midway through the tunnel. All of us bought the patch for the ride in the general store/post office/bakery/Townhall/police department/insert your own choice here. The single building seemed to be the all in one of the village and included everything except for a bathroom. That was located a short walk down the road on the opposite side of the road.
As we pulled out I started to shoot some video of the front of my bike, but I had made a cardinal error – – I had gone on a trip and was using a new untested piece of equipment. Therefore, a lot of the footage was out of focus because I had failed to toggle the autofocus setting on the camera. Live and learn. I was able to salvage some video.
Then, all too soon, it was over.
We stopped at Legs Inn and took a quick look inside before mounting up again and heading to Mackinac City. As we pulled in, Hardwork waved goodbye and turned off the head on to where he was going to spend the night. The rest of us parked on the main road and then Steve in Red and Gary bid us a farewell and headed on their way. HillBilly, GrnEyes and I decided to grab a quick snack and a drink before we headed back.
Over dinner at the Pancake Chef, GrnEyes was telling us about her situation with her ex-husband and his psycho girlfriend. AI related that I heard from many women who were suffering from the same affliction and suggested that she should form a support group called “Ex Wives of Men with Psycho Girlfriends". We talked about this for a while and then at some point it was decided to T-shirt would be appropriate. I added that the back should say "Psycho Girlfriend: If You Can Read This You Are in Violation of the Restraining Order". This actually spurred GrnEyes into action and she started ordering the T-shirt on her phone while we were sitting there.
As I rode home later, it occurred to me that the T-shirt could be made non-gender specific and just has checkboxes that says: I am the Ex- Husband/Wife (Check one) of a spouse with a psycho Girl/Boy Friend (Check one). After all, I have heard the ex-spouse with a psycho relationship several times from both sexes. {I mention this here and now only because if this turns out to be a large moneymaking idea I want a cut.}
After some cherry crepes, piggies in a blanket, and biscuits & gravy (Play the home game: Guess who had what.) We all bid each other goodbye and mounted up. As soon as we hit the highway, I headed my bike south and rolled it on leaving both HillBilly and GrnEyes behind – – at that point I had another four hours of riding ahead of me and I wanted to get going.
The ride back was kind of uneventful, but I almost found out how far I could go on a reserve tank because when I was on a desolate stretch of highway 127 my regular tank when dry and I had to switch over and I rode almost another 35 miles on the reserve before I found gas. The bike was still running when I pulled up to the pump so I know I have at least that far on reserve.
I finally pulled into my garage at 2430.
The actual Tunnel of the Trees part of this ride was almost underwhelming as a ride. Overall, the full day of riding was totally awesome. The weather was fantastic and the roads and the company were wonderful. At some point, when I was riding home the last stretch alone, I did the math and it occurred to me that in one 24-hour period I had ridden 14 hours and gone over 700 miles. That was a record-setting event for me.
The Lorax may speak for the trees, but we rode them.
Epilogue:
GrnEyes, who does a mean impersonation of the hog from Angry Birds, made our discussion in the Pancake Chef into a reality by actually desgining the T-Shirt. I have no idea what she is going to do with it, but if she makes a million I still want a cut.
The Gilmore Museum is a very good car museum located near Richland, Michigan. From time to time they hold large events and today (12 June 2011) happened to be the day for the vintage bike show. So, I went to take a look, spend a few hours and take a few pix along the way.
Lots of people turned out for the event
Lots & Lots of people
Yes that is a GoldWing Trike, but the two wheels are in front
A Rat bike
Conversion kit for a Snowmobile to whatever this is now
A naked GoldWing
Another Rat bike
Kindofa scooter thing
Well I saw them looking at it and thought it might be important
so I took a picture.
Ya know, I really don't know what or why
He wouldn't put the ape hangers up but you get the idea
Really pushing it to put this cross between an air-boat &
a trike into a bike show
Did I mention lots of people
And all the people came on bikes
And all the bikes parked
And as I wandered through the rows I found them more
entertaining than the show bikes in a lot of ways
This is actually a wheel chair, he told me he wasn't ready to give up
and go with a standard wheelchair quite yet
It wasn't a bad way to spend a few hours and I did get my patches from Tail of the Dragon sewn on my vest. Also picked up a sticker that says "Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult", at this point I figure I can't hide the truth.
I noticed a fellow biker wandering through the parking lot and I knew he had been sitting at the biker ministry table. Therefore, I walked up, introduced myself, and met Loren who was a Chaplain. I asked him if he would please take a moment and bless my bike. He smiled and explained that it was more important to bless the rider than the bike but he would be more than willing to do both. 
