BMW MOA Rally

After attending Gold Rush, Donna and I packed up and headed for Gray, TN where the 37th BMW MOA (BMW Motorcycle owners of America) Rally was being held. This was a great event from my perspective. If you have never been to one of their rally's, and we had never been, then I highly advise you to do so. These people really know how to put on a rally. Joe Larson said it was a cluster compared to previous rallys but I thought they had it well organized. Volunteers did everything from security to shuttling people on golf carts and hay racks to manning places to charge your phone or computer to gofering water and coffee. Almost 9,000 people were there. Hundreds of vendors, 3 buildings full (Gold Rush had 33 vendors). Lots of food vendors. A cyber cafe if you just had to check your email. One whole building to ship and receive goods.

Gold Rush '09

Donna and I went to Gold Rush in Lexington, KY. We didn't get very far the first night as I didn't get out of guard until late and then packing up the trailer took a lot longer than I thought it would. We stayed in Galesburg, IL. after getting there around 11:30. Got to bed a little after midnight. Up and at it in the morning but we still had a pretty long haul. It takes us longer as we can't go as long as some before we have to stop and take a break. It also didn't help that my left trailer light decided to come off. We were outside of Peoria when someone at a gas station let me know about the light ( I forget to check stuff sometimes) and we had to go find a place to fix it up. No brackets were available but I was able to rig something up and get back on the road in an hour or so. Rolled into the motel in Lexington late Sunday afternoon and met up with the others from the group who went down, Don and Kathy Thomason and Keith Zierke. Monday morning the rally got under way. It was an ok time. They could do some work to make it better in my humble opinion but I'm not sure what I would do if I was put in charge of it. Monday was spent getting our registration packets, opening ceremonies and then wandering through the vendors spending far too much money. I should have been out riding the wonderful country roads. Gas would not have been as expensive as all the add on's I bought. Tuesday we spent a lot of time out on the road. We went to the natural bridge down by the town of Slade. This is a rock formation that spans across and makes a bridge. It was neat. Chairlift took us up and that was a lot of fun. I decided to walk one of the paths down, About a two mile walk. It was interesting but also a lot of exercise. Not something I am accustomed to. It didn't kill me though. After that, we went around the Red River Gorge Loop. The Gorge was nothing to see but the ride around was wonderful. Such nice curvy roads and scenery. Also a tunnel cut out of the rock was neat to pass through. If you are ever in that area, I would highly suggest that you find this loop and ride it. After that, Keith mapped out and led us on a great ride back to the motel. From there it was dinner, conversations with all the fellow GWTAer's and to bed. Wednesday we rode with a pretty good sized group to go tour a bourbon distillery. It was interesting but not something I would probably do again. We should have maybe taken the lunch ride over to Virginia or just went and did some riding on our own. Wednesday night we got things organized to get packed up and leave Thursday morning to head to Gray, TN to a BMW rally. Spent time that night also shooting the breeze with fellow bikers. Thursday got up and had breakfast at the spot we kind of adopted. Waffle House near the motel. We found a waitress that was a hoot. If you get to Lexington, be sure to stop in and find Laura. She will definitely make your day. Next post will be about the rally in Tennesee

Murray and Prairie City

Lots of the members came out today to have some fun. We had 9 bikes and 16 people meet at Fenders and Harry led us on a great ride to the town of Murray down by Osceola to the Home Town Cafe. On Sunday from 11-2 they have an all you can eat buffet that Harry said was very good. He was not kidding. The fried chicken, noodles, mashed potatos, ham and many other foods was very good. For $10 a piece, you couldn't go wrong. Several of us left feeling miserably full. I would highly recommend going to this place if you have never been. If you have been, go back again. Very worth the while.

Tonight 21 people on 12 bikes converged on Goldies in Prairie City for ice cream. Some ate food also. One person said the chili was wonderful. The ice cream was good. Don Reeves led us on a wonderful route through Berwick and Colfax to get us there. An absolutely great night for a ride and some ice cream. The ice cream run is becoming pretty popular. I would expect those to continue so keep an eye out for those.

If you didn't make it for any of todays events, we are sorry we missed you. Hopefully you can make it to some other events that will be coming up.

Trip to Gold Rush

Donna and I are heading to Gold Rush this afternoon. I will try to keep this updated with our activities and goings on so that those of you that are interested can keep informed.