Vice President's  May 2012

Frosty Nutz Rally … Brrrrrrr

The first camp out of the year lived up to its name. It started on Tuesday, when Bill Kenney called to say it was going to be 25 degrees in Vermont on Friday and he decided not to go. I believed him so I made plans to ride up with Carter and Roy Jackson but I planned to stay with Doug Morrison and Melissa Ryan in Chester, 13 miles from the Rally. They were having a cookout on Saturday for the Yankee Beemers and I figured I could help prepare for the day.

On Friday, Jimmy met me at 11 o’clock at the Dunkin Donuts at Route 6 and 102. Roy was working until 12 and said he’d meet us up there. I had a back-roads route picked out through Ascutney, Vermont, and off we went. One hundred and seventy miles, no traffic. Jimmy and I stopped in Orange, Massachusetts, for lunch and to put on more clothes. It was getting cold!

As we entered Vermont, waiting at red light, there was Roy waiting on the other side to turn into the campground. Timing is everything. Roy had left work early and booked straight up.

Arriving early at the rally meant a lean to for the men. The weather was cold and it had snowed Thursday night. I said my goodnight to them and I headed toward Chester to a heated home and warm bed.

That night Melissa, Doug and I hung around the house preparing food. (There’s no way in hell Carl helped prepare food!!!!!!) Doug asked me jokingly to work the security detail (see photo) for the BBQ, protecting his man cave. His man cave is unbelievable … a Collection of vintage motorcycles in perfect condition, all able to be ridden.

Saturday morning was cold, 27 degrees. I thought about Jimmy and Roy camping and wondered how they were making out. My bedroom in the lower level of the house was a cool 60 degrees.

At 12 noon riders began showing up. There were about 30 members for lunch on a beautiful, brisk, sunny day. Roy and Jimmy did make it. A good time was had by all! At 3 o’clock the place was cleaned up. I headed out to blast home. I gassed up in Chester at 3:10, jumped on 91 South, Mass Pike and got home at 5:20.

No camping this year but a great ride on my new bike to get the cobwebs out. As luck would have it, I had a message on my phone from a man in Connecticut interested in my KLR. By his voice, I knew he would be the buyer of Cappy. The sale went down but I’ll leave that story for next month.


Carl