Mountain Home was a blast. It was so good to see old friends and make new ones. WWR9 is the 9th annual "Wolfman's Wandering Rally" that is held in a different location every year. Wolfman (Rick Jakubas) was our VROC website's designer and a wonderful guy. Sadly, Rick died in an accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway ten years ago. This rally is held in his honor, an acknowledgement of all he did to further the friendships and camaraderie in this big, widespread family we call VROC.
I arrived in Mountain Home on Wednesday, July 22nd, after spending 4 days on the road from Solvang. There were several folks already there, and the party was getting started. I spent Thursday relaxing and getting some chores done, like laundry, a trip to Wally World for Fresca, and scouting out the liquor store for the tequila to go in it. I know my family and friends are shocked about that! I also found a car wash and gave Rose a good rinse, she was pretty dirty after riding in rain on the coast. Not sure why I bothered, you should see her now :(
VROC rallies center around people and fun, with some riding thrown in for good measure. Southern Idaho doesn't offer the majestic views that the northern part of the state does, but we did find some mountains and curves on our ride to Featherville on Friday.
A little history lesson on the way.
We had about a dozen bikes on the ride up, and a few more showed up a little while after we reached Featherville. Those were the late sleepers :)
Some scenery during the ride up, from the moving bike, of course.
Stopped for a break and some bike talk.
Starting to see some curves!
Arrived at Featherville.
Featherville Saloon (restaurant, bar and motel). A neat place.
Eric and Dave from Colorado were the forward contingent. They rode up before the group (guess they don't like riding in a mob).
Meet "Chubba," the proprietors' pooch. She was a sweetie, but she didn't much care for the flash of the camera.
Dave (Colorado), Mark and Bill (North Carolina) enjoying the sunshine.
Pretty flowers everywhere. I guess up in the hills they don't get so baked by the heat like mine do at home.
The southern contingent found a shady spot to relax.
The inside of the saloon. Beautiful woodwork.
Beautiful log carvings in the parking lot across the street. Joe from Colorado testing out the comfort level of the bench.
The artist sure is talented! Very unique.
Getting ready to head back to Mountain Home.
A little more history of the area.
Not sure which of these hills is actually Castle Rock.
Mark and Joe being their silly selves.
This one is hard on the eyes :) Bill and Jason join the fun. These guys are a hoot, and some of the nicest bikers you'll ever meet.
Mark, Bill and Jason, from North Carolina. Great friends who keep us all laughing.
We accosted a tourist at the overlook and got a group photo :)
Headed out, next stop, the hotel pool :)
When we're not riding, we're eating, drinking and visiting.
Shannon got a kick out of my refrigerator in my hotel room...
I made believers out of a few VROCers with the Fresca and tequila mix. I think Wal Mart was running out of Fresca by the time we left town.
On Saturday morning, I had an appointment to get new tires on the bike. Ryan (from Hawaii) had an issue with his rear tire on his Gold Wing (like a big chunk of it missing!) and had purchased a tire in Boise and left it and the bike at the same shop. So we rode together that morning. It was a toss up about who was going to ride on the back, since I've always had trouble getting up on the back of the bike due to my knees (at least that's my story). Ryan's wife Shannon is an expert, and showed me her technique for easily climbing up there, and I was able to hop right up. Who knew?? So he was happy, and I was happy to let him be the pilot. First, the guys in the group would give him never ending grief about riding on the back, and second, he's got a lot more experience carrying passengers. It was kind of neat riding on the back of my own bike for the first time in the 8 years I've owned it :)
Our whole experience at the bike shop was a trip. The service manager was really nice, but they don't normally work on Gold Wings. Mine went on the lift first, at 9:00 a.m. It finally came off the lift about noon, after I showed the mechanic where the coolant tank was so he could check it for me. Really? In the meantime Ryan and I walked around town and checked out the farmer's market that was happening that morning in the park. That was a fun people watching experience. They had some neat stuff, and I did buy a cool hair comb thingie, but it didn't really work in my hair, so I gave it to Shannon, who has about 10 times as much hair as I do with beautiful natural curl. Oh well :)
Ryan was mounting a car tire on the rear of his bike, as many Gold Wing riders do. The mechanic was NOT in favor of that, and gave Ryan a bit of a hassle about it. He tried to mount the tire fully inflated, and it wouldn't slide up into place because of the disk assembly, and he had this smug look on his face, and told us "no way, not even close." Ryan calmly told him to let some air out of the tire and it would easily fit, and when he protested, the service manager told him to just do it, the customer was aware of any risks involved and would sign a waiver of liability. But the fun didn't stop there. As they were backing the bike off the lift, it got hung up on something on their table and punctured the coolant tank! It's now about 2:00 PM or so on a Saturday, and they have to go to Boise to get the new part. Ryan finally got back to the hotel around 4:00. What a fun way to spend the day!
On Saturday evening we grilled burgers and brats by the pool, and held the drawing for our 50/50 raffle. This is something we do at pretty much every rally, no matter where it's held. The organizer chooses a local charity, and we sell raffle tickets for stuff that is donated by members and often Kawasaki (at the larger rallies), and donate 50% of the proceeds to the charity. The chosen charity for this rally was the local firefighters' fire victims fund. Jim and Katie Ayres won the raffle, and generously donated their half of the proceeds back to the fund. This is Bucky (Mary Buchholz), our rally organizer, accepting a commemorative coin from the firefighters' representative.
So after a bit more visiting and a lot of goodbyes, we all drifted off to our rooms to pack up and prepare for early morning departures. It was a great time, and many thanks to Bucky, and Barb and Bob Huntley, for putting it together and leading the ride.
Early Sunday morning, I departed for Spokane to see my cousin Jim and his wife Kari. Jim bought a Harley a couple of years ago, so I was anxious to get to ride some of this beautiful area with them.
An hour or so later, when I stopped for a break on the road, this was posted by Joe Blanc on Facebook with the comment "Cleaning up after the Frescaritas". I'm sure housekeeping was wondering about the old broad staying in 101.
I had a beautiful ride up through Idaho and into Washington on state highway 55 and US 95. The scenery is absolutely jaw dropping up here. Unfortunately my second camera battery died before I could get any shots of the rolling hills of grain in southeast Washington, but I did get some nice ones in Idaho.
Here's my sign! :)
I stopped a couple of hours up the road at the Cougar Mountain Lodge for breakfast. Nice folks and good food!
And not a bad view from the parking lot, either.
Some of these mountains make me feel like I'm the size of an ant! These were taken in the Hell's Canyon area of Idaho. Absolutely gorgeous views.
As I was parked at the overlook to take that last shot, who comes zooming by but Ryan and Shannon! I caught up to them (once I got myself out of that deep gravel I pulled into). We rode together for 40 miles or so until they turned off for Nez Perce and I continued on to Spokane.
While stopped for gas in Colfax, Washington, I looked up the Best Buy store in Spokane, which wasn't far from Jim and Kari's house, so I stopped there and bought a couple more batteries for the camera. I'm tired of not being able to take as many pictures as I want to!
It's great to see Jim and Kari again. Jim and I are only about 2 weeks apart in age, both being the babies of our families. We spent a lot of family vacation time with Aunt Vi, Uncle Bill and the four cousins when I was growing up in California. Uncle Bill worked for Seattle Power & Light at the power generation facility at Diablo Dam on the Skagit River. They had a beautiful home in New Halem Camp, with that raging river in their back yard. I always enjoyed our visits there.
We went out for a nice italian dinner on Sunday evening, then prepared for our ride out in the morning.
Jim and Kari preparing for blast off. This will be their first long ride on their bike together.
And we're off!
It will take Jim a few minutes to get accustomed to all that luggage on the back.
It seems like every town has these beautiful flower baskets full of million bells in all different colors. I'm jealous, mine don't look like this!
Sandpoint, Idaho
A beautiful resort. We stopped for a soda on the patio.
Jim and Kari enjoying a cold drink.
And more pretty flowers!
Getting back on the road...
Pontoon boats with canopies in the little harbor.
Uh oh, here it comes again.
We put our rain suits on and got hammered for a ways, so I didn't get anymore pictures. Kari found us a great cabin just outside of Whitefish. Nice place!
At the lodge entrance
Cool front door/entry way.
And our home for the night!
More later!
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