We had a great time... except for getting a nasty sun burn on top of my head! I sure miss having hair up there!
Anayway, the ambiance, food, and company were all wonderful. The kids had a blast. We truly appreciate being able to take a break from our routines to relax and enjoy friends at such a great location.
Beth and I arrived with the kids just before dark and with enough time to set up the tents. Not long after we got the kids put away for the night and joined everyone else around the campfire until the wee hours... As is most often the case, I did not sleep well and morning arrived FAR too soon. It did not help that Daniel had his alarm set for 6:00 freaking AM!!
I managed to find that and shut if off, then rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. In what seemed like only a few moments later, the girls come running over to the tent yelling at me to wake up!
Well, it was obvious I was not going to sleep well enough to make a difference so I rolled out to greet the day and have some really good breakfast sausage courtesy of Cagiva Dave
Unlike the bikes, which were mostly BMW's it seemed, there was an amazing variety of tents. So...
The "Women's" tent, shared by Beth, Sarah, Rachel and Debbie (Snoopster)
Jamie, Rebecca (Squeaky) and Opie's tent (Opie is the dog)
Rusty's (Woodbutcher) Garagemajal
The view from his tent
Sarah found a patch of
Passion flowers
Jamie and Becca's tent, pre doggie door modification by Opie
Donnie's (fjrtx) tent? I am pretty sure that SPOTLESS GS behind it is his
Ron's (ThumperTX) tent and GS800
This monster tent belongs to Jeff (4JRanch) and Lynn. The picture actually makes it look smaller than it is
The small addition to the side is for Carson, their grandson. He slept ALL night!
Steve's (RockmanTx) trailer! Very cool.
Not to be out done, this is Hardy's trailer with all manner of reflective ropes and stuff. You should see this thing at night!!
The fire pit with everyone gathered in the background for breakfast: fried biscuits, sausage and eggs.
Andre's trailer
My humble abode, which I shared with Daniel
No idea whose this is, but I have never seen that particular kind of tent
Again, no clue whose, but I have at least seen this one (online)
Sarah modeling with Kenneth's (Hizzo) BIG tent
No clue and I've never seen this one either, looks cramped...
Forget the tent, dig that bike!!! (oh, the tent is an MSR Hubba Hubba) This belongs to TxTiger
This also belongs to Ron (TxTiger), a pretty cool setup
Camillo (cdc)
Jamie (whose username I can NEVER remember
)
Al (Moose)
This would be the elusive Rebecca (Squeaky), who used to be spotted everywhere snatching rides on other people's bikes but is now only rarely seen
Beth and Rachel
Josie, who belongs to Curtis, who works for Hardy to make and keep this place so nice! (Curtis is in for a WORLD of trouble when she hits dating age!!)
Dave (Cagiva549) doing his thing and working on lunch already
Hardy helping out with the cooking
Daniel (my son) bottom left, the two above him are Al and his son Sam, then cdc, Opie (dog), Jamie and Rebecca
Hardy and his beautiful wife Denise
Dave making gravy for the biscuits
Dave's daughter, Cindy, on the left helped with a lot of the food prep and she informed me that she's the better cook
So the kids waited until maybe... 15 minutes after I woke up to ask me if they could go swimming... I think it might have been 8:00am... maybe...
Josie and Daniel racing to the boat dock. She's fast...
But he starts catching up to her...
Sarah beat both of them!
Lots of kayaks for putting around the lake
The view from the dock
The boat dock was still on land and under construction the last time I visited. It is really nice and the kids really enjoy using it for swimming...
And jumping in the water... "On 3!"
Well... except for my little cowards!
They decide to "test" the water first... (I should have tossed them in for making Josie go alone!)
They eventually get in a bit at a time, then Rachel comes to see what's going on
Trying that whole jumping off thing again... Josie is going before I even hit 3
He never had any intent to go... Sarah masters the belly flop... As always, Josie gets the distance award!
Sarah
Jamie decides to try out one of the Kayaks...
with Opie the reluctant passenger! It took Daniel giving him that "extra" push to get him in the boat
Rachel decides the others are having too much fun without her and decides to give it a try with encouragement from the others.
She never ventures far from the ladder, which is fine with Daddy
Sarah trying to hitch a ride with Jamie and Opie
Opie manages not to fall in despite his precarious perch on the front of the boat
Rusty decides to try his had at the kayaking thing
Jamie tormenting Opie by trying to get him to jump in and swim.
Opie is having NONE of it! Until he gets an extra little push...!
I should have kept taking pictures, but the dog was wigging out and trying to climb back in the boat. I wasn't sure if Jamie and the boat were about to capsize and I might have to lend a hand. Opie did eventually manage to swim the short distance to the shore and give everyone a good shakedown shower. He never got near a boat after that...
Curtis (Josie's Dad) and Hardy
Hardy said something about dog snacks in his boots... This guy got his head WAY down in those boots but kept coming up empty
Daniel and Hardy took pity on him and helped him out
I'll have to let Hardy tell you how he met the guy in the middle, a cool small world story.
Sarah decided she needed to try the kayaks
and she gets the hang of it pretty quick, zooming all over the lake
A little before lunch time Mark "Gravel Guy" Drumm and his crew show up. The last week for their family has been a nightmare after the accidental death of his younger brother. I was a bit surprised to see them, but I am glad they came. It was good visiting with him and I think they had a good time, which they no doubt really needed. They brought more kayaks and more kids
I think the floating head in the center is Mark
Sarah still at it...
This is Andre's stove -
The BioLite Stove
I've never seen anything like it. It burns small branches. There is a small blower down in it that gets the air moving so it burns pretty hot. But, it also has a thingy on the side that converts heat to electricity and has a USB output that he uses to charge his cell phone. That white chord is the phone chord. How cool is that? I think the Altoid can contains cotton balls permeated with Vaseline for use as fire starters.
Daniel saw Sarah do it, so...
He has to sit forward to clear the width of the boat while paddling and is soon zooming around just like she was
Josie gets to do this all the time since she lives so close by and comes over with Curtis, she's a pro
Jeff and his grandson, Carson
Not content to pilot the small kayak...
Daniel made it from the dock all the way over to the camping area and managed to reach the shore. He was trying to get turned around so he could paddle back to the dock. What he failed to grasp was that it was the WIND that got him across the lake. It was blowing pretty good and I could see that he couldn't paddle hard enough to overcome it. So in a fit of insanity I got in the boat and had him sit behind me while I paddled back to the dock. That was a mistake...
After a recent trip to Arizona at the end of April, my left shoulder started bothering me and has only gotten worse since then. One of the muscles from the scapula to the head of the shoulder is inflamed and rubbing on the rotator cuff. I can barely lift the arm more than 45 degrees from my side. But you know... paddling is a pulling action, not a lifting action... right!?
Well, needless to say, when I reached the dock I was regretting the ride, but Daniel sure enjoyed it, so it was worth it. But I declined when Sarah and Rachel started asking me to give them rides
Carson has missed his afternoon nap
There is just too much going on for him to miss!!
Sippy makes it all better
Erik (Rainmaker) shows up about lunch time. No, that is NOT a kilt. He's wearing shorts
But if it WAS a kilt, I think he could pull it off if he had a horned helmet and sword
Steve disappeared early in the day only to reappear on his GS. Apparently some new KLR farkles arrived earlier than expected at the house so he scooted over to Bryan to play with them.
If you like flames, you gotta like this! One of the best flame jobs I've seen!
Hardy and Ray discussing the finer points of flames and hacks
He wisely went back to the smaller and lower profiled kayak
Dave takes a break from cooking... for a short while...
Debbie (Snoopster) and Erik (Rainmaker)
Dinner... well, at least for some folks... Just the smell of them makes me
This one is holding on for dear life... literally
It doesn't work out like he planned
Curtis relaxing while waiting for dinner
Dave's son in law chowing on the mud bugs
Different strokes for different folks...
For the mud bug aversive crowd... incredible brisket and pork roast
More folk showed up for dinner
It must have been a good ride. It took him three Shiners to come down off of it, or did he fill the Camel-Bak with them
Dave (Ouroboros) and Steve (Tripp)
Jamie and Donnie (fjrtx)
Rusty (Woodbutcher), Al's (Moose) son Sam, and Kenneth (Hizzo)
Steve (RockmanTx), Rick (RickM) and Al (Moose)
Caroline (KamLeeR) and Ron (ThumperTX)
Ron (TxTiger)
Gaylan (she goes with Andre), Katie (Woodbutcher's daughter), Nina (really Negaar, and she goes with Hizzo), Sarah, Katie's friend, Daniel and Rocket, one of the many dogs that got along amazingly well with each other the whole time.
And that's all folks!
I tried to visit with as many different folks as I could, which is why I am having such a hard time remembering names. I have a two register FIFO brain. So it is usually the last two things I learn that I can remember
If you want me to remember your name, make sure you are one of the last two people I speak with before I leave
I tried to get as many shots of people as I could, but amazingly I still missed quite a few, including Jeff's wife Lynn who I was around fairly often all day
I was too busy visiting with Mark to think of getting shots of his clan. Pictures just weren't on the brain at that time. There was also a couple touring the world two up on a KLR, he from Italy and her from Russia. They were basically accidental guests through the twists of fate and fellow riders lending a helping hand. We had people from Japan, Iran, South Africa and Canada as well.
We hung around until about dark-thirty before rounding up the crew and heading for home. I had to be back Saturday night so I could take over being on 24 hr call for work. My Dad graciously covered for me Friday night and Saturday so I could camp out Friday with Beth and the kids and then hang out with everyone on Saturday. The kids were worn out and barely managed to stay awake for fifteen minutes or so by excitedly chattering about all the fun they had. Even Sarah, who normally stays up way too late like me, was out cold by 10:00pm. I lasted maybe another thirty minutes before I too was out cold
I really enjoy this kind of event. I like that I can bring the whole family and not have to worry about inappropriate stuff for the kids. I like that I actually get time to just visit with folks without feeling like I am rushed for time. I enjoy the Pie Runs and other similar events, but people come and go so fast at those that it is hard to spend more than a few minutes at most talking with them. That is barely enough time to get my brain to realize there is information coming in that I would eventually like stored somewhere that might be reasonably accessible some time in the future. I like that it is just a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. I like how folks come together to help and get things done. I like how so many people from so many places and so many different backgrounds can come together as friends and enjoy exploring our differences rather than drawing lines and building fences because of them. I like that someday, years to come, we and our kids will look back on events like this and they will be fond memories. Let's face it. Life can be hard. We all need to store up as many good memories as possible to buoy us for those inevitable times we'd rather forget after we've been through them. To that end, thanks to everyone that attended and made this weekend such fun!