So as the Sun is rising in the Smokies (and it was truly gorgeous!) I am
driving home and trying to figure out just what I would say to folks about
the whole experience. I think the comic events are fun and I haven't heard
much of that side of things, so...
At the Sunday night dinner after things get finished up the hard core cadre
generally go out to a good Mexican restaurant that is a favorite of Dales
(Not the one of the infamous female food fight a few years ago...that one is
closed...the women swear it was not their fault...some now even deny any
participation...). While there Mike Schmidt makes a toast to someone: "To
the nicest guy I've ever run into..." I'm sitting across from Ray Homisky
and I say to Ray "What the (censored)...he doesn't know you and me?" Ray
tells me that the subject of Mikes toast is the guy Mike crashed into on
the ride earlier...Nearly had me falling off my chair when I heard that.
Then while cruising through Dale's parking lot I see a young guy pulling our
a nice Vanilla bike from the back of a car...I stopped so abruptly that my
sneakers squealed and smoked and I Said something inane like "Wow! That's
one of Sacha's bikes?" The fellow says "I'm Sacha" So much for my level of
sophistication.
Then there is always meeting dear old friends and making new ones. I got
to meet Mark Nobilette, Daryl McCullough , go bombing around the city with
Karen Rawls, Bobby and Sacha White in Karen's car...where else you gonna do
that? I got to meet Doug Brooks who I have long admired and guess what?
He's absolutely charming and even more interesting in person than I might
have guessed. Lord the interesting stories that guy can tell!
The bikes were awesome as always, and the auction was fun, raising good
cash although it seemed a bit thin in offerings to me somehow...maybe just
fewer things I was after.
The Swap Meet was awesome! I have never seen such a great selection of
stuff, especially tools that I lusted after. Some tools I had searched
after for years were there, sometimes for two or three bucks! Sometimes I
just took all of them the seller had at those prices!
The real score of the weekend for me was a fantastic drillium Nuovo Record
group from good friend Lou that come to find out was apparently done by the
very same guy who did such a fabulous job on John Barron's Paramount! Lord,
but I sweated blood until I had in in my avaricious mitts! I can hardly
remember the last time I wanted something that badly.
As he often does Dale smoothed out a major problem for me ...this time
involving not having a table at the sale...My God! Have you got any idea
how big Scott Ramsey looks when he is a bit miffed at you?
Thanks Dale...I think if I had bugged Scott one more time I would have ended
up with my feet sticking out of the top of a trash can!
Hopefully Scott and I are ok again...man, I sure hope so!
So a great time was had by everyone as far as I could see...Once a year is
just not enough to see some of these wonderful folks. It was once about the
bikes, but it is now about the people and the bikes are a bonus...
Make your reservations at Leesburg real soon folks...You've just gotta come!
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA