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Published: January 29th 2009
DA GANG AT ER
We didn't have any one time where everyone was together at one time. This is the Friday crew. Right after John is released. Pain killer perscription in hand we get a picture while everyone is together.For the second year in a row I went to the XL-List East Coast Sportster Rally
ECR . This year it was expanded from the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning activities to include the full day Friday. Unlike most other rallies it is very informal, there is no registration, no t-shirts, no vendors, just a bunch of sportsters coming from all over the east coast to ride together. The gathering is small but only serious riders show up for it. Besides setting up the website and forum Gary H (Higgy) does the planning or should I say he makes the suggestions on different activities and puts it out there for us to comment on. Then he follows through and lays it all out for us. He's a good guy.
May 16-18, 2008, the rally was returning to
Rider's Roost , a motorcycle campground about 17 miles off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Ferguson, NC. Ferguson consists of about 6 houses, a mom and pop quickie mart and Riders Roost. The character Uncle Roy owns & runs the establishment. A perpetually mellow fellow he entertains the campers each evening with wit and stories at the game room shelter house that is in
FRIDAY MORNING FILL UP
I think this is outside the Mom & Pop quickie mart by the roost. We usually filled up there, but we had to wait since they only had 2 pumps. We are 12(?) miles from the next closest gas. the center of the roost. Cabins rent for $30 a night (SO) and those that want to sprawl on the ground can pitch a tent anywhere for $12 a night. The camp is clean and well maintained. The bathrooms are very nice, they are just so far away from the cabin I stay in.
From our experiences the first year we knew there were some things we wanted to change and some things we wanted to repeat. We knew from last year that we all wanted to ride the
Stripe-ed Snake again. And I pushed to eat at the Shatley Inn again, its my favorite place to eat. Friday instead of just having everyone meet up and chill, it was decided to have a long ride. Saturday would be a short day, in 07 it had been a long day with every one returning to the campground well after dark. Gary took suggestions and did some investigating and found a great route for us to take on Friday, areas we had not been to in 07. When I found that part of the route would take us by Grandfather Mountain I requested a quick detour to head up that road.
ELK MOUNTAIN OVERLOOK
Saturday we rode some of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is one of the overlooks. A friend of mine had told me that was the most technical road he had ever ridden on a bike.
It was Wednesday when I left KS on my way to NC. I intended to take 2 days and take a long way there. Competing in the local HOG Group's challenge called the Presidental Race. The rules were long and twisting but basically you get points for towns, statues, homes, museums... named after or associated with a US president. I had found a bunch, TN was rich with towns and counties sharing the names of presidents besides having several presidents coming from there. This would give me a chance to pick up a bunch of points. Plotting sites from Clinton MO all the way into NC I had 2 days of fun riding even though half of it was in the rain. Okay so I have to tell a couple stories about the trip out. The first interesting little town I stopped was Tyler, MO. Buzzing around all the entrances to town I couldn't find a city limit sign. The town was decades past its prime, the only sign of any kind was at a church. It was surprizing
ELK MOUNTAIN Group Shot
This was almost everyone on Saturday, we had 3 riders meet us at Shatley Springs, so this shot is missing 3 people and John. to see such a modern building here amoungst the delapidated remains of the town. Settling for the church sign I pulled into the parking lot laid out my t-shirt logo and dollar bill with Effie in the background and took the picture. It was getting on evening and the pastor and a chruch member pulled into the parking to set up for some activity that night. They debated then walked over and we started chatting. I explained what I was doing and why. It was interesting as they told me the history of the town. Tyler was indeed named after the president and it had been a boom town in its hayday. Known for its casino, people from the surrounding area would come in as it was known as a party town. They told me about some of the building that were still standing and about some that were long gone. The pastor parted by saying they would pray for my safety and put an article in the church paper about meeting me. I continued on into TN and stayed the night somewhere after Madison TN.
Bright and early on Thursday I was off again. Thursday it rained again.
GARY HIGBEE
If we have a rally master, Gary would be it. He complained about the dorky picture I had of him last year so I hope this one is better. I was late getting my raingear on and ended up with wet socks. I pulled over at a roadside picnic table to change socks and put on my rain gear. The area was under a huge rock over hang. It was awesome. I pulled out some flour tortillas and my peanut butter and had a nice lunch too. At some time during the day I stopped at GRANT TN. Grant was again a small town half of the town was a farm. When I stopped, I messed with some gear and was kind of pokey about getting the picture taken. Looking around a noticed a cow coming out of the lot area and into the pasture. It moo'd at me. I proceeded to take the picture, packway my gear and I doubled checked the GPS. By this time the cow has walked all the way out to where I am and has taken position so it can see what I had been looking at. When I took the picture of city limit sign the light colored cow is seen in the picture, looking right at me as it was walking up. It was weird. My grandparents had cows, there were
Johns Bike down the hill
John was so lucky. All the viney weeds stopped the bike from going any farther down the hillside and they cushioned its landing. cows kept in the field behind the home I grew up in. I never noticed a cow that showed this kind of interest in what I was doing.
I got into RR at a decent time and checked into my cabin. Some of the gang was there some were still heading in. Throwing all my gear into the cabin I then headed up to the game room and joined the group. We talked of beer, rides, and generally caught up.
FRIDAY
Friday Morning we head out for breakfast down the road, RR has no food. When we get there we are to find that the diner isn't open on Fridays for breakfast, but they would be happy to serve us lunch early, way early. I have Sweet Potato Fries and a sandwich of some sort. Good stuff. The diner is just a few short miles from RR. It had rained the night before and there are puddles on the road. On the way back to RR Roadster John (from NJ) hydroplanes on some water and does a cliff dive off the road. This could have happened to any of one of us. John crawls up the embankment then
JOHN IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM
I tell you I was a little paniced when they were wanting to discharge him, but he couldn't set up without being in horrible pain. A few more pills and he was walking around. His full face helmet took a lot of abuse that morning. Saved his face a few stitches I bet. just stops at the top. This was followed by the local rescue squad coming by. Out in the boonies they are volunteers that hold other jobs or are retired. An older couple came. I headed to the hospital with John and the rest of the gang got the bike up from the side of the hill. We were calling back and forth, soon they all headed up to the hospital. John's Roadster was still rideable, as a matter of fact a couple of the guys who rode it that weekend were impressed with its handling. So we find out that John has broken his back. But its the best kind of broken back if you have to have one. No surgery, it will self heal. Discomfort, pain will be a part of the next couple days but it will heal. The hospital released John and we are wait for one of our local riders to get a car to take John to a motel so he can start to recoop. A few days later John's nickname of Roadster John was changed to Off Road John.
Its late afternoon by the time we are through all of that, no one
"Off Road John" just released from the ER
Not bad for someone with a broken back?? Johns new motto for the next couple days: Better life through chemistry. is really up for a ride so we all go to get something to eat, got John out to the roost so he could get his stuff and then checked him into a motel (Handicap room was not all that close to the parking lot). The rest of us headed back to the campsite. Beer, fire, fellowship, good time was had by all.
SATURDAY
Up bright and early (9am), I don't recall breakfast on Saturday. I think we skipped it so we could fill up at
Shatley Inn . I really like Shatley Inn, my preference would be to stay in the cabins there. They have awesome food and the cabins aren't just a bed and bug light either like what is at RR. At Shatley Inn they have plumbing, drawers, hot showers right in the cabin, all the little convinences I have gotten used to in my old age. But I was out voted so again in 09 we will be at RR. We ate, most of us family stye, which was all the ham, fried chicken, desert, ice tea and 8 vegetables that you can eat. The area is really rural, so career opportunities are limited here. The
DAVE TOMMEY & HELL RAZOR
I asked each of the rally participants to come up with a qoute for me to use in an article for TP. Dave's was the best. As he holds up the key to his bike he says "The key to life." Awesome Dave. waitresses are all really nice and go to great efforts to please. We all (but one) chipped in on a really nice tip for the waitress. Getting some flack from the one we left it anyway. The waitress came out and thanked a couple members of our group for the tip, saying how much she really needed it. When we had arrived at Shatley Inn, I was so hungry that I didn't look around much, but when we came out I wasn't in such a hurry. And we all dallied looking at the antique cars and other bikes in the parking lot. One that caught my interest was a pink Riddley called CZY4PNK. I wrote another blog on it with its own pics here:
08 CZY4PNK - East Coast Sportster Rally The lot was full of antique cars and we all took time to appreciate them. The cars left before us, but we were soon on their rear. Higgy or Kevin knew of an old stage road. What a hoot! I would hate to be on this road with a bus coming at you though. Stage road and Roundabout road was a kind of short cut, detour on the way to the Snake. I plotted
DAN 'SCREW LOOSE' CUNNINGHAM
Dan is the man when it come to Sporty repair, few if any better to be with when there is a problem. Not a wuss when it comes to riding either. He has taken his bike to Alaska and back. a waypoint in the GPS while we were on this road. The coordinates of that waypoint is N36 27.361 W81 43.300. We came in from the east heading west I think. It reminded me of an old road where it deviates around every obstical instead of blasting them out of the path and having a staight road. You know back when it made a big difference, sweat wise, what size tree you were going to have to cut down.
The snake is always a hoot. We spaced out so we weren't bunched up going through. With the memory of John's accident the day before I don't know about the others, but I didn't push it. All the time I was sitting in the hospital with him I had been thinking about how this would have affected me not having any health insurance. Kind of a painless reality check for me.
We stayed at the country store in Shady Valley for awhile talking with other bikers and amoungst ourselves. It was humorus that Effie was recognized again from the HOG Tales magazine article buy a couple HOG members, Martin was the name of one of them. I think its
KEVIN HARDING
Kevin joined us last year for just a day, but this year he came out and camped with us (well stayed in a cabin like most of us). He is a local and we discovered how handy that can be this year. Kevins a great guy and very helpful. because she has those oversized bags and all that stuff on the handlebars she sticks out in peoples memories. Must be something, that article was in MAY 07.
It was decided to end the day rather early so we could have time to sit around the campfire again. But I can't remember when but at some point we moved John's sporty from RR to Kevin's house. Kevin lives close to Hays NC and had agreed to store the bike and work with the John on getting any repairs needed done at the local dealer. It must have been Friday evening as we were dropping Kevin off at a motel and getting Kevins SUV back to his house.
Although the plan was to get back and curl up next to the fire, we didn't pull in until after dark. Terry's bike started acting up and when we pulled into a HD dealer parking lot it was coasting, no power. The dealer was closed but some of the staff were enjoying the chairs on its porch and drinking a beer. Now I always feel confortable when traveling with Screw loose Dan. He reminds me of Bronson from "Then Came Bronson".
CINDY & EFFIE
yep thats me, I asked Screw Loose Dan to take a picture for me. I needed a pic of me and bike for the cookbook the Ladies of Harley of my HOG group was creating they asked me to submit a picture and text for one of the 2 personal pages they were going to have in the book. I was honored and wanted a neat photo. You did good Dan. Bronson could pack a ton of stuff on his bike and only have a bedroll showing and he could totally tear down and rebuild his motor in an afternoon with little apparent tools or replacement parts and it would start on the first kick. Dan knows sportys, knows what makes them tick and how to find out what is stopping them from ticking. Terry and Dan went at it trying to find what the issue was. After a couple trips to the auto parts store across the street it was decided to move the bike over there. I think they had the battery charged and rode it over. The whole gang moved too. With so many distractions the mechanics of the group wanted to thin the herd of noise makers around them so I volunteered to leave and go check on John. 2 others joined me. Mike opted to head back to the roost after a chat with John. Susan and I stayed for supper with John at the hotel's Japanese resturaunt. He had spent his day well, checking out airline tickets and rental cars for his trip home. Even if the bike was in perfect condition, John had been
MIKE SYNDER
Mike is one of the guys coming in from the Northeast. An accountant, although he kind of blows that stereotype. He is ready for the May break after the first tax quarter rush. Mike has given me tax advise both years as I share my annual bad news IRS letter with him. Thanks Mike, you have saved me. told to stay off the bike for a few months while his back healed. He needed another mode of transport home. As we were sitting and chatting the rest of the crew showed up to eat. Terry's bike was not fixed, but they were pretty sure it was the stator. Terry had talked with the staff of the dealership and they had opened up so he could leave his bike inside. I don't remember if he had the dealer fix it or they couldn't get the part so he had a friend from Knoxville come with a trailer to bring him and the bike home. When I left on Sunday morning I left him my extra pringles. Gary left him the extra milk from breakfast. Saturday after the meal and everyone was ready to head back, Gary & I headed to a grocery store to get some last minute supplies for breakfast. Gary had shipped a camping stove and then everyone had something they were supposed to contribute. The couple who was supposed to contribute the butter and milk had showed up on Thursday or Friday night, but the accomodations at the Roost wasn't up to standards for the wife
SHATLEY SPRINGS INN
Before the food gets here. so they left, we didn't see them again all weekend. Sunday came and we needed thier contributions.
I tried to get pics of everyone as they were packed or with their bike Sunday morning, but somehow I missed LONZO. Lonzo you have to get me before you go!!! Or at least say good-bye.
So at the end of the weekend we had 2 sportys & one rider down and the usual headlight replacement. But a whole bunch more miles on the sporties and a relaxing time for the riders.
SUNDAY
The morning started with a hot pancake breakfast cooked up by Higgy. I headed home with my rainsuit on and had to keep it on the whole way for 2 days. In MO I stopped for gas and couldn't get my saddlebags open. I bought some WD-40 and sprayed the locks. After that the left one would open but not the right. When I got home I had to pry the right one open then took the lock off. For a year I have ridden with that bag lid held down by a blue strap. I finally found the manufacturer of the locks and got 2
SHATLEY SPRINGS INN
Another before the meal. replacements. They just don't like the rain. In Thurman MO I found a full service only gas station. Now for you NJ guys that is common place, but here its rare. This was an old small mom & pop station, old pumps and they still used the old slide credit card machine too. You know the one that actually gives you a carbon of the raised letters on your card. The gas wasn't more expensive here either. When I asked the guy about the station he said he had been pumping gas here for 34 years. He was the owner.
I know I have left a bunch out. Its been a year, I really should have written this up sooner. I remember the Italian resturaunt we ate at I think it was Thursday night or Friday. It was right beside the dealership that Terry broke down in on Saturday. That food was good.
For Presidential Race sites this is the list of what I accumulated on this trip:
Andrew Jackson Home - the Hermitage in TN
Andrew Johnson Burial site, TN
Andrew Johnson Home, TN
Carter Co, MO
Carter Co, TN
Clinton, MO
Clinton, TN
Garfield, MO
SHATLEY SPRINGS INN
Yep, that will do. Now to roll out into the parking lot. Grant, TN
Hays, NC -- was disqualified because it was not the correct spelling of HAYES.
Jackson Co, TN
Jackson, TN
Jefferson Co, TN
Jefferson, NC
Jefferson, TN
Johnson Co, TN
Johnson, TN
Madison Co, TN
Madison,TN
Monroe, TN
Polk Co, MO
Polk, MO
Truman Lake, MO
Tyler, MO
Van Buren, MO
Washington Co, TN
Wilson Co, TN
Here is the link for the blog on the 2007 ECR:
07 XL East Coast Rally And the trip out and back from the 2007 ECR:
07 May NC Trip
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Lonzo
non-member comment
Thanks Cindy!
Great coverage Cindy! That's the "way it was"! Another memorable year at the ECR. Every year brings another group of XL riders closer together. I have the greatest respect for each and every one of you! 'Til we meet agin'... Lonzo