Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Post Rally Day #1

Today was the scheduled banquet. Most people were staying for it, and I thought that it was an important part of the event, that it would bring some closure...

I went on a bit of a group ride with 5 BMW's and Vanessa... I had removed the top and side cases so she would handle much better. We went North to Kaslo, across to New Denver and then South towards Solcan and then back over to Nelson. This was the first time these guys had ridden this road... They loved it!! Especially the Kaslo to New Denver portion. We had a small lunch in New Denver and then got on our way.

On the way back I decided to look Doug up again and see his new place off in the hills as you get close to Castlegar. Nice place, beautiful home...

I proceeded back to the hotel and then off to the banquet.

I had brought my current TFC passport and the one from the 1982 TFC as well, one of the organizers heard about this and wanted to take a look at it. He thought it was really interesting and cool.

We had a wonderful dinner, sat with the same group that had gone on the ride with earlier in the day, That's kind of an interesting thing about these events, you make fast friends... The awards portion started, we were joking that when they announced that the average age of the riders was 64 years old, that I might very well be the youngest rider again, I had this honor in 1982, thought it would be funny if that were to occur again, it was not to be, the youngest male rider this year was 38. Oh well... But then they announced the rider that travelled the furthest to participate in the event.... They called out my name!! Too cool. They presented me with a plaque and congratulated me. Then the announcer went on to talk about the fact that this was my second Three Flags Classic, and that my first was 30 years ago.. the crowd applauded. It was very cool, they all thought it was a great story. The oragnzers asked that I consider doing another, just not wait another 30 years.

It was really nice to be recognized on a couple of different levels, it certainly was unexpected. It made me feel very good, and it certainly added to the sense of accomplishment.

So then it was off to bed, I had made plans to ride up and around Trout Lake with one of the guys I had met on the ride, and he thought it would be pretty cool. So I packed and got ready for a somewhat early departure.

Got up, loaded Vanessa, and went to push the start button to get Vanessa warming up, nothing, nada... seems as though Vanessa was demanding some attention... So we boosted Vanessa, she started right up. The voltmeter showed it was charging, so the thought was to stop up the block have breakfast and let her charge up. nope, as soon as I got on after breakfast... she died, battery stone dead. I am typing this in the Shell station parking lot across from the restaraunt waiting for Mark to bring back a Battery from the local Yamaha Dealer. Lets hope that it was just a dead battery and not the charging system....

More in a bit.... to be continued.

So, Mark brings back the exact replacement battery, and it gets installed in 3.5 min... Vanessa fires right up, re-energized so to speak (laughing at the pun) and the good news, the Voltmeter I had installed shows that she is charging... WooFreakinHooo.

Repacked and underway, I cannot thank Mark enough for going out of his way to help, oh sure he tells me it was tough drinking the free coffee and lounging in the service department, but sometimes you must do these things:). We altered our plans to delete the ride around Trout Lake, and just do the Kaslo-New Denver road again and then up to Revelstoke. We started pushing rain in Nakusp, and kthe skies were dark...

I put everything warm and "waterproof" on while riding the ferry up to Shelter Bay it was now 3pm by my watch, Lola tells me it's going to be 10:30 pm by the time I get to Rocky Mountain House... well ok... push on... then the skies really opened up and decided to get Vanessa and I wet.... I passed a 4 some on BMW's who were riding probably a more sane speed over the pass. The road is in the worst condition I have ever seen it, and infact there were sections that could very easily cause a motorcyclist to loose control.

It's still freakin raining, I am having a real delemia, I'm cold, I've got no drive, I am exhausted and it's getting close to 5pm and the skies are not letting up. I cave.... pulled into Golden, find the Best Western and get a room... It will be a long day tomorrow, very cold in the morning, but the forecast appears to improve.

The day overall was a roller coaster, Up when Mark and I planned to ride the Trout Lake road, down when Vanessa had a dead battery, up when we got her boosted, little bit higher when we had breakfast (best Eggs Bennys ever), big down when Vanessa died and the battery was not charging, up when mark called to say the dealership had a battery, down when we decided not to ride Trout Lake, down when it started to rain...... down, down, down.......

Checked in to the hotel, got somewhat dried out, and decided to find a good place for supper... Things are looking up, the Fire Pit BBQ across the street looks promising... Nice atmosphere, lots of things BBQ'd the server suggests the combo platter... done...

A group of four sits down beside me after a bit, they look like riders (you can just tell :) ) turns out the were the foursome on the BMW's, cool. we strike up a conversation, share some tales, a great way to finish the day... Garth and the rest of the group, it was great to meet you and share some stories... safe journey home..

Well that's it for me today, I have to get the riding gear dried out a bit... and turn in. Thanks for reading. Safe journies to all my two wheeled riding friends....

 

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