It was a beautiful Monday. What better way to spend the afternoon and take a ride with your son? We were thinking of doing a little more dual sport riding this year. so, we decided to ride up to the PATRA trail head and have a look. We will be back with the right bike and a registration.
The DRZ400 wasn't quite up to being street legal yet; so we improvised taking the street bikes. Who says you can't do gravel roads (not the trails) on a Kawasaki ZRX1200 and a Yamaha FZ6? The big 180-17 rear tires dance around a bit on the gravel, but if you keep the speeds "reasonable" you will be just fine.
We ventured around on some back roads and found The Mount Pisgah Altar and stopped to take a few pics of the beautiful view.
The Altar is quite the sight and surrounded by great roads. The initials or symbol in the setting stone is, however, a mystery to us.
We even had a visitor at one of our roadside stops.
The FZ6 even hit another milestone for us on the way home. Cody is really enjoying his new (to him) motorcycle.
Overall a great evening of putting dust on the bikes and burning some fuel. About 130 miles of easy riding and smiles. Why don't we do this every chance we get?
The Middle of Nowhere Group has done it again! The Whisky Dick Rally was already on it's third year when we discovered this gem, and we are still sorry that we missed the first couple years. This year's theme was the 7 deadly sins,and the MON hosts played up that theme.
Pride, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, and Sloth.
SLOTH
We took a lazy, scenic journey through central PA. We stopped on the way for a snack, and since Cody couldn't make this one; I had to have a cream soda.
Of course, taking the back way means getting there just after everyone left for dinner. (this may be the best pic of Svend all weekend).
It's okay, we found friends and food at the bar.
The Hotel that was chosen for this year's rally was new to us. It had one very attractive feature, an indoor pool. This large meeting area was well used this weekend since Mother Nature decided to bless us with abundant spring showers.
LUST
It's pool time, but first you have to blow these darned things up!
Friday night was spent renewing old friendships, and catching up with out fellow scooterists who had been hibernating all winter. The pool area was a great place to see and be seen.
Saturday morning dawned, but you couldn't tell because it was foggy, and overcast. The MON gang had planned a variety of rides to appeal to the stamina and age of the bikes and riders. Both the long and short rides met at the Pourhouse for a delicious meal.
ENVY
As we prepared to ride out from the restaurant after lunch, it was awesome seeing DOZENS of tuned two-strokes lined up and ready to go.
Saturday afternoon gave us a chance to be (once again) impressed with the thought and construction that goes into a MON Gymkhana. Each of the 7 deadly sins was represented with a portion of the obstacle course, and as always, it was a challenge to complete.
The weather was nice to us this year, and we had plenty of help at the Gymkhana.
GREED
This rally always gives us a chance to admire the workmanship and tenacity of a group of folks that RIDE vintage scooters. The weather wasn't really conducive to hanging out in the parking lot, but we always take some time to check out some of the cool scoots on sight. If you like Lambrettas this is a rally to attend. This just shows the attention to detail you may expect.
This year the rally had a raffle bike. If your dream has always been to own a sweet vintage scooter, this was your chance. The raffle bike below, you could win for just a dollar. Sole Power really did a job putting this scoot together.
Gluttony
After the field events, it was time to go back inside and warm up with some good food. The food was good, homemade, and plentiful. There were even vegan and gluten free options, so nobody had to be left out.
After dinner there was more time for swimming, drinking, tomfoolery and fun.
The pool was warm and the dual hot tubs even better.
Who can forget the parade of duckies at poolside!
More ENVY, and GREED,
thankfully, no WRATH
Saturday Night brought a raffle with lots of prizes
and some GREAT trophies.
Sunday morning we got our pop tart on, had some coffee, but we weren't ready to go home just yet. So. A game of table tennis sprang up. This went pretty well; until the two of them decided a volley was possible with pocket knives. No one died.
We tried to take some leftovers home with us. Sloppy Joe is good for days, right?
The weather for the ride home was not the best, so we took our time and enjoyed the scenery.
PRIDE
The MON crew did a fantastic job of feeding us, adapting to the weather and overall throwing a great rally. We love you guys and what you do. The MON crew puts a lot of time into these rallies and it shows. You should be proud of how well loved your rally is!!
It's always peaceful when a rally is over (and a little sad). We can't wait for the next one.
This is now a go to rally for our family. The ride up is great, the people are friendly, the food is good, AND we found a new hotel that likes us! The new hotel was fantastic. There was plenty of parking, the bar was open regular hours for us and the locals. Thank you to the Carriage House for having us. We look forward to seeing you again.
Today at 11:00 the The Wall that heals was escorted past our shop by a group consisting of many local riders. The Buffalo Soldiers, Blue Knights, Red Knights,, Legion riders, VFW Riders, and the Combat Veterans Association all escorted the wall to its temporary location in Harrisburg for a few days. We were honoured to see it roll by our shop.
We had a great winter with more ride entries than ever before. The list of bonus points was designed so that almost anyone could win if they played it properly. However, one guy received the most bonus points as well.
Our winner for this year is Tony from Harrisburg. Tony amassed a crushing total of 15,217 points. His longest ride amassed 1,250 bonus points alone.
Tony had a few rides early on that were just epic.
Our second place winner (with the most entries) was Alex from Philadelphia. Alex put in some sweet rides in ALL kinds of weather, but just didn't equal Tony's monster ride from Harrisburg to VA. However, Alex was far ahead of third with 3,493 total points. Including many bonus points for riding in the snow.
Both Tony and Alex rode in all sorts of weather and all kinds of temperatures. The proper gear goes a long way to keeping you comfortable on a bad day.
Third place went to Tony's companion Yvonne. She puts on the gear and braves some of those cold rides with Tony.
Fourth place went to a competitor using ONLY 50cc of machine. Steve really put in a showing on a small bike! He logged many short rides to and from work, but all done with just 50cc of fury; netting him 752 points for the year.
First thru fourth place have all won a free Carlisle and Cycle tee shirts. Please stop by to pick one up, or get in touch with us with your size and color choice and we will get one to you.
Congratulations to ALL of our riders. We look forward to the fun of this event every winter. It helps keep us and you going till spring.
Alex and Tony have both won additional prizes of gear from the shop.
