| Subject: Long Post - VMD ROK Ride |
Author:
Grumpy
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Date Posted: 10:47:19 07/31/08 Thu
1st Ever ROK dinner ride at VMD Lexington Ohio - July 2008
This is about our membership in general & in particular. The stand-out examples this past week of Ron & Robin Alestock (OH-KY Chapter), and Keith Stumpf (OH-KY Chapter). Both are brand-new members to the AVA, joining the AVA this year after just a few weeks of being part of our chapter. I mention that 'cause neither has had time to meet or 'message' many of us, but none the less when the ROK was in a pinch they stood up and took over without hesitation, selfless. Speaking to the professionalism of their skills No one on that ride seemed to notice the change that those ROK folks had disappeared. The First Ever ROK Vintage Motorcycle Days Dinner Ride completed without incident or accident, with everyone having fun, and filling-up on ice-cream, pizza and ride tales. So to all of you Ron's & Robin's & Keith's - thank you, and I'm glad you're in the AVA.
The 'Backstory - At the national rally in July, our ROK rep Sue Slate- tapped on our chapter's shoulder asking for help on coming up with the first-ever ROK/VMD dinner ride. ROK had not had a dinner ride before, and Sue was trying to build VMD to a bigger level and have one. Now this was a big deal: 1st Sue was going on on a limb. While at most ROK-attended events the ride-and-dinner-on-ROK has been a standing attraction, this had never been done at VMD. 2Nd She had very specific needs (50 mile round trip, mostly right hand turns, paved roads- but scenic, and more) and had to trust someone she'd never met (us) to come up with a route that 3rd She'd have little time to try and/or change the route. And this was important for our chapter and an honor if we could pull it off. And time was very short as VMD was just three weekends away.
Ron Alestock from Newark, took time from job & family, mapped out a route, then rode the hour from him home to the route start point, rode the route, made corrections, re-rode it re-wrote the instructions. He then created a map with turn by turn directions on his computer, emailed it to me & Sue on Sunday so she could test ride it on Monday or Tuesday. She didn't get to that until Wednesday. On Friday Sue decided she wanted to ride the route with Ron & me. Ron (who was still home in Newark) once again rode the hour from his house to Lexington & the VMD site; and then we all rode the route/turn by turn with Sue. Tweaking & discussion en-route. Well, the route was now set - or so we thought.
Saturday afternoon and ride time came with a damp heavy feel to the air, a grey line of clouds, and a weather report of possible high winds and heavy rains. Some of which came and went, some demo rides were canceled or came back early, but by our ride time all seemed a bit better & we took off. Sue had made a last-minute change and shortened the ride just before we left, I believe based upon what some of the returning Kaw staff had told her about wet road conditions. While Ron & Robin (with CB's) were the Point/lead riders, Keith (also with CB, and sporting a new bright-orange vest) volunteered to be a tail-gunner & I (no CB) joined him . Sue & Carl (?) from Kaw/ROK were the road-blockers, with their experience at this & faster bikes zoomed way ahead, blocked traffic, marked the turns, waited till we (25 or so) all had passed, then repeated that effort - often having to ride in the oncoming lane to get past us.
Well, until they got (can I say it) lost! Would you believe it?? Remember that 'last minute change' to the route?? Not knowing where they went, Ron & Robin talked via their intercom, made the turns as agreed upon, and LO we're on our own now! Of course, that's when the rain drops the size of gum- balls began to fall. Luckily just long enough to get our adrenaline going. Surprising the first time it happened - Keith now began cranking that shiny XII out & zooming past us all in that on-coming lane much larger than that KLR650 we had seen doing that earlier still, so far, no one knew the AVA was now covering for the ROK. And, with their Cb's now very active I'm sure (I don't even want to know what kind of Sailor-talk might have briefly passed between them), we continued on. We never skipped a beat, missed a turn, or had anything but the best of a ride. And when I (ok, I was very impressed) asked 'em afterwards about it all replied hey, no big deal. That's what we do. :) Big hat's off to all of you, and this week, especially to Ron/Robin & Keith!
Here's the ride photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/OHIO.AVA/20081stEverROKDinnerRideAtVMD
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