Return-Path: From: east@big.att.com Date: Sun, 2 Jul 95 22:25:29 EDT Reply-To: east@big.att.com Sender: east@big.att.com Original-From: Ian Howie To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Yet Another RCR IV Trip Report X-Comment: East Coast Motorcyclists Mailing List Greetings! This is a trip report by Ian Howie and Angela Miller describing the weekend that was the RCR IV. So get a coffee, put those calls on hold, and shut the office door. For those of you who couldn't make it, maybe we'll see you there next year. It has been cross-posted to the east list, nedod, and nj-cycles. If this is the second or third time you are seeing this, you may want to hit "d" now.... ************************************************************************* Even though this would be the fourth RCR I had attended, and the third for Ang, it was the first one where I would be appearing on more than two wheels. Bike or no bike, preparations still had to be done since Ang wanted to take the Anga-bike ( a Suzuki GS-450L), and I had volunteered to coffee and tea for Saturday and Sunday morning. We also had to make sure the cats would have an ample supply of food and water so we wouldn't get mauled when we returned. As usual, there was the necessary cleaning, fine-tuning, and road-testing to be done. Once the coffee makers were running great, it was on to the Anga-bike. The bike had only been driven sporadically over the past year, and had spent most of the two years before in less than ideal storage. Much of the air filter had dissolved from an excessive amount of fuel, oil, and water collecting in the air box due to a blocked drain hose. The carb jets were partially blocked and the bike would not idle, nor was the throttle responsive over the entire rpm range. Since Ang had to work and could only take care of some of the problems, I ended upail sugge The road testing phase was amusing 'cause I had lost all my gear last December. Hmmm, my brothers new RF-700 will fit, and I've still got those gloves, what to do about a jacket?? As a last resort I squeeeeezed my way into Angela's jacket--a 38 regular. At 6 foot even and 200 pounds it was a tight fit and there was no way the zipper was going up! After what seemed to be a multitude of problems, the bike was finally ready for the trip. We left Newark about 8:15 Friday morning in a light drizzle and took Rt 273 East to Rt 1 South. I was leading with Ang in close pursuit. Using the excellent directions provided by Mr. Bill, we made it to the Leavitt Mansion to meet up with PoPs and Mr. Bill in good time. After using the facilities, swapping stories, and trying to play with the shy mini-tiger who lives with Mr. Bill, we headed to Bob's BMW in Jessup so PoPs could get some new hard bags and to meet-up with Walt Dabell. Even though Ang was on the bike and I was in the car, I did have some company. Ang had put her "Brando" Bear--a plush bear done up in leather pants, jacket and hat--in the car. At least he didn't complain about my driving. The trip was wet and relatively uneventful and included the mandatory wrong turn that must be included with any group ride. When we arrived at Bob's, we discovered that Walt Dabell and Jim Bessette had left only about 10 minutes before! Oh well, we would get to Thurmont soon enough and meet them there. While at Bob's, we got to slobber over the small museum that is kept upstairs. Included there are two 1929 R62's in original condition, a leftover but new R75/5 from 1974 or so that has never been ridden since leaving the factory (2.5 miles on the odometer!), and numerous posters, pictures, and interesting and unusual parts. The new and used bike showroom also had some interesting items in it. Fortunately for me and Mr. Bill, we were both effectively broke and thereby prevented from buying anything! After staying at Bob's for a couple of hours it was back on the road again, this time in search of lunch. Found a nice place in Sykesville Maryland called E.W. Becks. It had a tavern style decor with plenty of pictures from the "big-steam" era in railroading, and good food at reasonable prices. The Newcastle Brown Ale *on tap* ensured its popularity to Mr. Bill and PoPs! Any of the crab soup entrees and the beef BBQ with a side of fries gets the diners guide best value rating. After lunch, we attempted to get on our way and ran into trouble. The Anga-bike didn't seem to have any electrons in its wiring. Me, PoPs, and Mr. Bill ran down the customary trouble-shooting checklist and disassembled many parts of the bike in the process while the gods of motorcycling laughed at us from behind the incessant rain showers. Nothing-nada-zip. Everything we checked seemed to be ok but the bike still wouldn't run How did Angela take this? Archimedes once said that if he had a place to stand he could move the Earth. He could have stood on Angela's lower lip... We decided to ask the proprietor of Becks if they would let us stash the bike behind their shop. While I was inquiring they asked if we knew what the problem was, to which I replied that no we didn't and that between us we had several engineering degrees and 40 or 50 years of motorcycle experience. That effectively squashed debate about our diagnostic skills. After securing permission to store the bike, PoPs got an inspiration and said lets try jumper cables. Voila! Lights, ignition, action! On to Thurmont! The camp is set back in the woods about half a mile off the main road. The road used to get to the camp is in pretty good shape and goes from asphalt to dirt and cinders. The first road leading off to the right from the main drive effectively splits the camp in two. Before this turn is the in-ground pool and the large field. After this road, the ground slopes upward and has the cabins and wash house seemingly scattered around on the terrain. At the top of the slope, which can be reached by following the main drive further, is the mess hall and covered pavilion. The area to the left of the main drive was taken up by a fenced enclosure with about 30 or 40 *goats*. When we arrived we found that quite a few Denizens were already there. After unloading the coffee supplies and claiming some bunk space, it was time to see who had arrived and find out about dinner. Ang, Jim Bessette, and I eventually headed out in Angela's car to the Mountain Gate Restaurant. On the way we almost bagged a deer at the entrance to the camp. Jim and I were definitely excited by the possibility of venison, while Ang was definitely not! Once we got to the restaurant, Angela was not feeling her best, and decided to head for the bathroom while we were in line for the table. I have to thank Amy Spiker again for heading into the bathroom to see how Ang was doing. Howard Carson showed up during the meal--a proud member of the "Black Hands Gang" from riding in the rain. The rest of the meal was fairly uneventful. Neither Ang nor I was up for the all you can eat buffet, but for very different reasons. Returning back to camp, we found that even more Denizens had arrived, and they were all appreciative of the three cases of beer Jim had bought while in town. I fired up the coffee makers and wandered around looking for Dean Cookson and the rest of the Boston contingent. Ang was still feeling kinda ill, so she took a nap for a couple of hours. After some searching I found where the Boston group was hiding, and was given a big hug by catness. She made the greeting even better when she handed off the four pounds of coffee that Dean had managed to buy the day before. As I was walking out of the cabin, Dean came in and we briefly exchanged pleasantries and I thanked him for the coffee and went on my way. Dean seemed surprised that I would let mere friendship stand in the way of quality coffee. Hah! ;-) :-) As the evening wore on, we began to wonder where the Philly contingent, and Chris and Annette BeHanna, had gotten to. Chip Roberson eventually started a pool over what time Chris and Annette would arrive. I bet 12:45 am and managed to miss it by just under half an hour when Chris and Annette showed up at 12:19, or thereabouts, on Baby Bike. I don't know who won the pool, or even how much they had won. After the events during the ride to the RCR II, Chris and Ang have had a special respect for each other. When Chris saw Ang he said, " Hi Angela 'Puke" Miller, its Chris 'Puke" BeHanna!" Ahhh, the mark of true friendship... The Philly group, including Cate Leonard, Douglas Davis, E.Y. Murphy, Rich Garella, and who else I don't know, arrived around 1:00 am which was shortly after I had racked out. They claimed to have left at 7:00 pm and traveled some 180 miles--all of it in the rain. I believe it. Cate and Douglas were soaked, and Cate kept praying to the mc gods, "Please -oh-please let my sleeping bag be dry!" It was... Since I had volunteered for coffee and tea service, it was up B.A.F.E. (that's Bright aaaaannnnnddd Early) at around 6:10 am. Imagine my surprise to find out that there was already a small crowd of people up and around. Fortunately I had set up the coffee makers the night before with timers and instructions! We had a few problems compounded by me forgetting one of my coffee makers and inadvertently putting too much equipment on one circuit, but eventually the coffee was flowing in copious quantities. Without the assistance of Mr. Bill, and the understanding of the Denizenry during the problems, we would never have been able to pull it off! From some of the comments made that morning, I got the impression that the coffee assortment was a caffeine addict's version of paradise. Jim Bessette borrowed Angela's car to make a donut run with Ted Vician, and Howard Carson had held up a bagel store the day before. Between the coffee, the donuts, and the bagels, there was a large number of contented people on Saturday morning. Once breakfast was more or less out of the way, many of the Denizens had headed out for the two hosted rides or individual rides to explore the area. Jon Kadis led the sport tour ride on his FJ1200, while Martyn Wheeler led the scenic ride on his Virago. Although there were no accidents, there were some minor mishaps in the camp as the wet grass and mud acted to increase the local gravitational constant acting on some of the bikes. There was a machine related fatality as the driveshaft in Steve Garnier's XS1100 gave up the ghost somewhere in Virginia. Well, it was the original unit, and Steve does have some *165,000* miles on it! After breakfast it was time for Ang and I to do some trouble shooting on the Anga-bike. Turns out the battery had a dead cell, which resulted in the charging system dumping the excess into the headlight--which eventually blew! The need for a multimeter led to a brief confrontation between Dean and Chris over who's meter was bigger. Ang called all the nearby shops and struck out on the battery. Hmmmm--what to do now?? Cliff "Dances with Federal Rangers" Weston suggested going to K-Mart. Heck, why not--its the home of extra value shopping! Dean Cookson, Mr. Bill, and Mr. and Mrs. BeHanna piled into Dan Brown's Civic, and Angela, myself, and Amy Spiker piled into Angela's car--a Chevy Cavalier. Since the auto parts store on the way was closed, K-Mart it was! Not only did they have an Exide battery which was matched to the bike, they even had a halogen replacement for the headlight. After that, it was across the parking lot to raid a Shoney's. While at the Shoney's, Amy conferred with Dean about the finer points of micro-brew and then headed across the parking lot to raid a package store to get some "supplies" for a friend doing some critter-watching. On the way back, I kept falling asleep and debated whether or not to take a nap. No way man! Lets fire up those coffee makers! We soon discovered that there were plenty of Denizens in our cabin who opted for sleep, though. Sounded like a wood shop class in there! Ang got the acid into the battery with the assistance of Walt Dabell, and put it on charge without managing to disturb the sleepers too badly. We then replaced the bulb in the headlight housing without too much difficulty. Those retaining springs sure have plenty of tension on them don't they? After dinner, the battery was deemed to be charged enough and the bike was reassembled. Turned the key, hit the starter, and the bike fired right up. A quick check by Chris showed that the charging system was working properly. Dinner was eventually served around 6:30 or so. I wasn't really hungry after the Shoney's all you could eat breakfast bar, but still managed to polish off two plates of chicken, pork BBQ, and beans. For some reason the people sitting near Chris were saying that one portion of beans for him was plenty. For the non-meat eating portion of the gather there was spinach lasagna. Ang said it was ok, and a few of the other Denizens said there should have been more. The Stewart's Root Beer gets a definite thumbs up from me. Verrry smooth. The awards were given out after dinner by Mike Beavington. Ang and I got to see Mike officiate at the Canadian Assault 1.0 awards last year. He does a fantastic job both with the award titles and the construction of the trophies. While the awards have already been discussed at some length on the east-list, I'll include them here as well. Bravest Pillion Annette Behanna Bike Most Likely Not To Make It Back (the smashed electrode award) Steve Garnier Most Memorable Moment The web page images will determine this one! Iron Butt - Longest Distance Jim and Lou Groh with honorable mention to Tom Gent. Best Nocturnal Noises Jon Kadis Cruelest Bike Douglas Davis on a 1969? Honda 350. Largest Moving Land Mass Amy Spiker for TheBagWagen Best Excuse Not To Ride Ian Howie Baring's Financial Management Award for RCR III Cliff "I want to be a lion tamer" Weston Drooling Spagthorpe Award for Most Appreciated Person Jim "Dances with Moose" Bessette Keeper of the Hangover This one was not awarded (pink elephant on a trophy base) but will be taken to the Canadian Assault 1.1. Feats in the Horizontal Plane catness Joe Ogulin was given a disc lock for having two motorcycles stolen in less than three months. There were still a few people who had not seen the FJ photos that I had brought, and I was more than happy to oblige their curiosity. A couple of group photos were taken by Josh Fielek somewhere in this time-frame as well. As the evening wore on, I did get to see some amusing sights. After one round of particularly conspicuous consumption, Martyn Wheeler was "branded" on the forehead by a couple of people wielding rubber llama stamps they had picked up during the day. Mike Beavington also took some good natured ribbing about what the goats across the way were really saying! Chris showed Josh Fielek some of the finer points in long distance shooting with a super-soaker. Since Joe Ogulin, a dedicated hockey fan, couldn't get a good picture on his mini-tv, he asked, no--begged and pleaded, Ang if he could sit in her car and listen to the game on the radio. After getting about three and half hours of sleep the night before, and no nap, I ended up heading to bed fairly early around 11:30. Unfortunately, it turns out that I missed out on quite a bit of excitement. There was, of course, the antics which will appear on the web page. We can hardly wait! I also managed to sleep through Jon Kadis having a group ride meeting, and later, a business meeting, in his sleep. PoPs and Chris were also reported to be having a meeting over what qualities one needed to be considered a redneck. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more interesting and amusing stories from that evening as the memories are poked and prodded. The next morning was essentially a repeat of Saturday. Up B.A.F.E., discovered I wasn't close to being the first one up, and monitored the coffee pots with the help of Mr. Bill. There were some memorable moments as we considered likely candidates for the Keeper of the Hangover. Martyn Wheeler looked like he was on autopilot for quite a while, but became more talkative as his caffeine level rose. Chris appeared wearing, appropriately enough, a volcano t-shirt which he acquired on his honeymoon to Hawaii and he flinched visibly when the grinder was turned on close to him. While the KotH award appeared inconclusive, it quickly became apparent that Jon had won the Best Nocturnal Noises. He even accepted graciously and took a bow to applause when he first entered the mess hall. After that it was clean up, pack up, and head home. Just before departure, the motorcycle gods unloaded a few more cloudbursts. I rode sweep for the Philly contingent, with Mr. Bill and Ang. After the Philly group split off, we headed east towards the Leavitt Mansion. We made a stop to pick up lunch to go and then headed to Mr. Bill's. After lunch and conversation, it was back on the road for Ang and me. I was so tired that I was driving with the stereo on max and the air conditioner set for "Arctic". It worked--barely. We made it home safely and after unloading the car, crashed for three or four hours. The cats were *very* happy to see us home. Angela and I had a helluva good time even though it rained most of the time and the Anga-bike had some problems. We enjoyed seeing people that we had met at previous DoD events, as well as meeting new people. We will try to attend the RCR 4.1 and the Canadian Assault 1.1. Even though things are kinda up in the air right now, they should be settled by the time we need to make decisions on those events. For those of you that have expressed your gratitude and appreciation for the coffee and tea, both in person and on the east-list, you are all certainly welcome. Even though your enjoyment of the offerings was reward enough, I was bestowed with Keeper status--Keeper of the Grounds! I don't know if it was the quality of the coffee or the numerous impromptu question and answer sessions which were held about the various aspects of the coffee world with some of you throughout the weekend. Several of you also asked me if I would be willing to come by your houses and make coffee for you. Well, I can't really do that, but if you have questions about how to prepare a comparable cup in your own residence--send me some email off line and I'll try to get you started. Good coffee can be had outside a coffee shop. I'll close by thanking those people who helped me provide the rest of you with quality coffee. Mr. Bill for monitoring the pots, gaging demand and operating the grinder. Dean Cookson for recovering the fumble by Coffee Connection and buying four pounds of coffee as he headed out on Thursday morning. Catness, a dedicated tea drinker, gets my thanks for actually transporting the coffee to the RCR. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the efforts of Jim Bessette, Grand Oompah of RCR IV! Ang would like to thank Mr Bill, PoPs, Chris, Dean, and Walt for helping her with the Anga-bike. See you all next year! ************************************************************************** Ian Howie ...you can never have too many coffee makers... KotG DoD 0621 howie@ccm.udel.edu **************************************************************************