Returning home from EOM?

[Bearly Flying]

GPS's are Great Mike, You should get one too.

Mine took me through Savannah Georgia, thats a pretty direct route home eh....

 

[Violione]

Got home safe and sound at around 7:20PM and found the house empty of children and wife. Seems that I forgot about PTA open house, whoops . The ride home was lots of fun with JerseyEd and Luvtoride. Started out slow and easy up 219 then Heidi had a Red Bull just outside Marlington, WV and zoom, off we went on WV 39! Said farewell to JerseyEd at the BRP and across VA 60 Heidi and I went. It was a long ride but we stopped a few times which was nice. All in all, had a blast! See you all next year!

 

[Greg E.]

Slabbed it back north to upper NY. Bike ran GREAT all the way. Was home by 6:30 PM Sunday. Had a wonderful time. Let's do it again....next week!! I really enjoyed meeting you guys..

=Greg-

 

[wpbfjr]

I still want to know, out of 130 plus riders on FJR's, how SCAB picked the only guy riding a Suzuki Bandit 1250 as the first prize recipient of a Shoei Synchrotec helmet?? What are the mathematical chances of that happening?

1 in 130?

 

[Scab]

I still want to know, out of 130 plus riders on FJR's, how SCAB picked the only guy riding a Suzuki Bandit 1250 as the first prize recipient of a Shoei Synchrotec helmet?? What are the mathematical chances of that happening?

Considering that I wasn't an FJR rider either and I was drawing the names...

 

[clsonfjr]

I got home Sunday. 12,934 km, 672 litres of gas, 2 oil changes, and a new set of tires poorer. I think I may be the only rider on the forum that did CFR, EOM, and CFO this year. CFO was officially on the same weekend as EOM, but I spent Thursday and Friday in the Black hills and saw several FJRs (hangers-on from CFO I assume).

Some highlights: I didn't meet many of you; I was camping the whole way and missed out on most of the socializing - but the ones I did meet were great. Several of you gave me a bed to sleep on (thank you), several of you planned out routes and served as my guides (many thanks to you as well). Everywhere I went (and I went to a lot of places), total strangers went out of their way to be friendly/helpful to me. The roads in NY, PA, WV, VA, OH, KY, SD, and WY were amazing - 10+ days of continuous turns, wow. The scenery out east was completely different from anything I've seen before, and it was beautiful, but I have more pictures of SD and WY than I do of the whole rest of the trip (once a prairie boy, always a prairie boy). Thank God for good gear; I had several days/nights of rain, a couple of nights/mornings of near freezing, several 90+ degree days, repeatedly set up camp and cooked meals in the dark, and generally drove the **** out of my bike, and my equipment worked flawlessly (if only my eyes and reflexes still did).

Some lowlights: I tried to do/see too much; several 600+ km days on twisties and back-to-back-to-back 1100+ km days over the prairies left me physically exhausted. The Friday rides into both CFR and EOM were multi-hour rides in monsoon rains, and setting up camp was tricky/depressing. The winds in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta were pretty much continuously howling at me over my left shoulder (so much so that the flat spot on my tires is about 5 degrees off vertical), and if you want to try something to completely freak yourself, I had to ride many right hand sweepers while leaning the bike to the left.

Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, in fact I'm already looking forward to 2008. Would I do anything differently? I'd try, but I seem to make the same mistakes every trip, so probably not.

Thanks again to everybody that put so much effort into making these events such a success, and to those of you that helped me out along the way.

Chris

 

[huron52]

Glad you made it home. It was very nice to meet you and drag you through a part of few roads I know.

If you want to come this way again, I'm sure we will be glad to have you !

 

[wheatonFJR]

Glad you made it home safely...

Take care there MR. CFR/EOM/CFO guy...

Oh yeah...you owe us some pictures there buddy...

 

[luvtoride]

Hey Chris, are you the guy who kept giving me Canadian cigarettes? Oh my Lord... for 2 days after I felt like I was getting a chest cold. (coughing & a mild sore throat)

Mike (yamaholic) said to me... those Canadian smokes aren't like cigs in the states.

I was sure to tell him... oh, it's ok Mike... :drinks: these taste good!

Hehehe... well, I'll know better next time.

Heidi

PS... waiting to see your pictures

 

[wheatonFJR]

Hey Chris, are you the guy who kept giving me Canadian cigarettes? Oh my Lord... for 2 days after I felt like I was getting a chest cold. (coughing & a mild sore throat)
Mike (yamaholic) said to me... those Canadian smokes aren't like cigs in the states.

I was sure to tell him... oh, it's ok Mike... these taste good!

Hehehe... well, I'll know better next time.

Heidi

PS... waiting to see your pictures

Nope...I can guarantee that wasn't Chris. Must have been some other Canadian ...

 

[luvtoride]

He was from Alberta, I do know that. I couldn't tell you his name for sure. I'm not sure that I ever collected it... but you know, I was drinking.

 

[wheatonFJR]

He was from Alberta, I do know that. I couldn't tell you his name for sure. I'm not sure that I ever collected it... but you know, I was drinking.

From the attendees list then,

My guess would be...Don Peterson Bearly Flying 1 Pononka, Alberta 05 FJR

 

[clsonfjr]

Hey Chris, are you the guy who kept giving me Canadian cigarettes? Oh my Lord... for 2 days after I felt like I was getting a chest cold. (coughing & a mild sore throat)
Mike (yamaholic) said to me... those Canadian smokes aren't like cigs in the states.

I was sure to tell him... oh, it's ok Mike... :drinks: these taste good!

Hehehe... well, I'll know better next time.

Heidi

PS... waiting to see your pictures

Nope, it wasn't me; triathlon and smoking don't go together very well. And, I was the invisible guest. I didn't (really) stay in the sponsor hotel, I didn't eat at the Saturday dinner, and I rode by myself both Saturday and Sunday. Sorry to disappoint those of you looking for pictures, but you are going to have to wait; although I've spent 20+ years in IT, I've never posted pictures before; although the process sounds simple, I'm struggling, I'll probably need to get help from my daughter. WheatonFJR has posted an excellent ride report covering most of the pre-EOM part of the trip, his pictures are more or less identical to mine, and his memory is much sharper.

Chris

 

[Scab]

And, I was the invisible guest. I didn't (really) stay in the sponsor hotel, I didn't eat at the Saturday dinner, and I rode by myself both Saturday and Sunday.

Do you have leprosy? Or, do we? Did our collective breath stink? A little B.O.?

We're not that bad, really. Most of the things you may have heard about us are embelished to help us score with the ladies.

 

[FJRandy]

... but you know, I was drinking.

Let me rephrase that for you. WE were drinking.

 

[wheatonFJR]

And, I was the invisible guest. I didn't (really) stay in the sponsor hotel, I didn't eat at the Saturday dinner, and I rode by myself both Saturday and Sunday.

Do you have leprosy? Or, do we? Did our collective breath stink? A little B.O.?

We're not that bad, really. Most of the things you may have heard about us are embelished to help us score with the ladies.

Do not take it personally...camping was Chris' modus operandi for his entire three week trip.

Oh...and I forgot that BO makes that big a hit with the southern women.

<Running and hiding from all the southern women on this board>

 

[Bearly Flying]

Ya, Luvtoride it was me leading you astray.

Got home last night about 10;00 pm. Over 7500 miles. Only bad weather I hit was the rain coming into Lewisburg on Friday, A wicked hail storm in New Mexico, no place to find shelter and fairly heavy traffic, got the **** beat outta me pretty good. And the good old crosswind from Great Falls Mt all the way up to Claresholme Alberta. Blowing so hard I had to hold the tank bag with one hand/arm while driving leaned over with the other.

Had a Great time and enjoyed meeting all You guy's, Big Thanks to Heidi and Crew for EOM.

 

[odot]

Chik was worried bout ya, bear. Hope all is well in the great white north.

"take off, to the great white north...take off, it's a beauty way to go....take off....you...hoser".

 

[Bearly Flying]

Ya she already text messaged me,

We will have to do Lunch more often, it was Great visiting with you guy's.

 

[clsonfjr]

And, I was the invisible guest. I didn't (really) stay in the sponsor hotel, I didn't eat at the Saturday dinner, and I rode by myself both Saturday and Sunday.

Do you have leprosy? Or, do we? Did our collective breath stink? A little B.O.?

We're not that bad, really. Most of the things you may have heard about us are embelished to help us score with the ladies.

None of the above, although, after 2 weeks on the road, I noticed that mothers were standing guard over their children as I walked by.

I didn't get approval for the time off from work until the Friday before I left, so I registered late and missed the deadline for supper. I don't have any "on the road" electronics, so I couldn't really make or adjust plans once I was rolling. And never having been to a rally before I wasn't sure how things would be set up; I made some bad assumptions about how things would play out at both CFR and EOM, and found I had things I had to do that kept me away from the group at the times I most wanted to be there.

Staying consistently employed has been a problem for the last half dozen years or so, so my budget didn't allow for hotels and/or fancy meals - so I camped and cooked (this is how I always travel on my bike). I don't drink (would rather go for a run than to a bar), don't like restaurant food, have been married (and faithful) to the same woman for 20 years, have ordinary children, gave up stupid bike tricks with my dirt bike 20 some years ago, and ride a stock bike (which I love) - so although it was fun listening in on other's conversations, I found I had very little to contribute to any of them.

And last, but not least, I love riding the twisties, but I'm a much less aggressive rider than anybody I talked to during my trip (I can ride all day, but can only attack the road for a couple of hours at a time). The combination of unfamiliar roads, morning fog, narrow roads with trees growing right to the edge, and loose gravel in the (often blind) corners was pretty intimidating. (That being said, the Michelins I retired on the ride home had very little rubber left anywhere.) Joining the crash club was very low on my priority list, and never having been in WV before I wanted to sight-see a bit as well. I decided that for my own safety, and everybody else's enjoyment, I'd set my own pace and stop when/where I wanted. I followed 2 of the suggested routes, and loved both; many thanks to the people that did all the work planning and mapping them.

Believe it or not, I had a great time, did as much socializing as my addled brain can handle, and returned home with a few new friends and many great memories (and a bunch of pictures that don't capture anything I experienced). AND I got a Yamaha hat at CFR and an FRJ hat at EOM - what more could a guy ask for?

Chris