Fifth South'n Spine Raid 2009

[Rain Princess]

You must have been a very happy "Rain Princess" this weekend.

 

Friday's ride to Newport from Atlanta got us a bit wet, and Saturday's main ride started off sodden but improved to a nice day. But, I may never dry out from the ride home today. 300 wet, sometimes pouring, miles. Blech.

 

Seriously, suspect you and the VFR folks also got soaked.

 

Oh, well, gorgeous country, and the swollen creeks and rivers made for powerfully beautiful scenes as they rocked downstream in angry-looking, boiling torrents.

 

Will post more pix later, but here's a teaser of our very own docc. I'll let him explain.

 

 

Bill

 

Bill,

I see you picked up on my screen name! The people I would ride with thought I caused the rain.

 

You are so right about the beautiful country! We rode through quite a bit of rain on Friday including washes of water and dirt crossing the road while we were in the twisties. We took off on Saturday and did the scenic route through SC. I think we found a different route to take us to the mountains!

Here are some pics from the VFR Texas Mac annual memorial. I still haven't figured out how the Guzzi and I got in the front of the pics. I didn't intend to but...how can you put that machine in the back? I'm the girl in the burgandy shirt.

Jada

 

 

You can see more pics here: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51535

[docc]

I've never seen so many *very fine* motorcycles overshadowed by one finer motorcycle and her rider.

It is our loss not to have hosted your Sport and your husband's VFR at our lousy non/rallye-with-no-real-group-picture.

Maybe next year! (I'm hearing Tellico Plains, TN, the weekend between Mother's Day and Memorial Day).

See you for SSR VI (We'll take a group photo with the VFR in the front!)


Wayne, laying on hands:

 

[docc]

Pilots Extraordinaire: Tim and Josh discussing relays, handling and frontal systems.

Fine fellows!
 

[Bill Hagan]

I've never seen so many *very fine* motorcycles overshadowed by one finer motorcycle and her rider.

 

It is our loss not to have hosted your Sport and your husband's VFR at our lousy non/rallye-with-no-real-group-picture.

 

Maybe next year! (I'm hearing Tellico Plains, TN, the weekend between Mother's Day and Memorial Day).

 

See you for SSR VI (We'll take a group photo with the VFR in the front!)

 

****

 

Yes, indeed.

 

In Doc's defense, it's hard to get a group picture when all the group cares about is riding ... and eating. And the time between the two is measured in milliseconds, to wit:

 

[docc]

Ride, eat, apply Guzzi fluid - repeat.

Scene from the paddock:

[Bill Hagan]

Here are some [OK, lots of] pix of the Fifth South'n Spine Raid last weekend.

 

Before you go there, know that I haven't replaced my Pentax Optio W10 after its plastic tripod mount broke, so these are all pix of stops not riding. Some may find that good news as there might be thousands instead of a mere 120 or so!

 

Anyway, as I noted above, Friday's ride to Newport from Atlanta got us a bit wet, but was "mostly" dry. Saturday's main ride started off threateningly, but actually improved to an overall pretty nice day. But, oh boy, the 300 miles home on Sunday was monsoonish.

 

That said, the entire trip was great fun and filled with memories of gorgeous country. The swollen creeks and rivers made for powerfully beautiful scenes as they rocked downstream in angry-looking, boiling torrents. If I were a Daniel Kahlal, whose haunting motorcycling photographs I frequently thought of as we rode, I would have stopped and captured some of those breathtaking landscapes. But, I am not and I so I didn't. Still, these were fun.

 

Remembered one thing as I rode home from work today. At the restaurant you'll see in the slide show, a man came up to me and asked about the Guzzis. Had a European accent I could not quite place. Turns out he was from Norway and amazed at a motorcycle named "Norge."

 

If you view these in slideshow mode, you may have to move your cursor over some of the captions to read all of those ... yeah, only if you want to read all of the captions!

 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/South-n-Spine-Raid-2009