FL Rally and Club Ride - 3. A Riding Day for the Club But…

3. A Riding Day for the Club But…

We did not ride! 

It is Sunday, heavy rains are predicted, the sky looks ominous; who wants to ride in the rain? But true to form, a lot of our Ontario Club riders scooted for a few hours, exploring the neighborhoods.

Since this is not our first Finger Lakes Rally, we have done those rides, we have seen the lanes, the twisty roads, the villages. The area around Watkins Glen is pretty. The farm land gives way to some very shady, twisty roads with lots of curb appeal. 

Dinner - Chicken With Mushroom Gravy

But we mostly read during the day, hanging out, waiting for the rain to start. 

The Rally admission includes a dinner on Saturday and Sunday, we only had to cover our breakfasts. Our usual breakfast at a rally is granola with yogurt and fruit. It is easy to transport, easy to eat. Just pour the granola into the yogurt cup, stir… voila!  There is always coffee available at most rally sites, the Finger Lakes Rally provided coffee and water all day.

Breakfast at Our Tent

We chatted with a lot of people; we walked around the site, sometimes together, like a couple, other times as individuals, depending on what interested us. Our meeting place was our tent and we set a certain time to meet there.

A motorcycle rally to me is meeting people, exchanging ideas, viewpoints. To me it is not riding around the neighborhood. I ask questions like, why are you riding a motorcycle? (You would be surprised about the answers you get). Or I ask what don’t you like about riding a motorcycle and equally, you get all kinds of answers.

Dinners Are In the Beer Tent

There are lovers of old bikes at each rally, but I prefer the latest, newest ‘inventions’ that are added to a bike. I find some apps to use from other people like the, to me, new mapping app ‘furkot’.  

I listen carefully when experienced riders explain to me what they do when they travel. What gear they prefer or what farkles they use on their bikes, etc.

To me a rally is visiting an ‘experience store’. I can always find new ideas, new points of view or new ‘stuff’ that I have not looked up in detail before. 

Friend Marty Hard at Work and Always Smiling

Talking about detail or detailing!

 Mary Sluyter, the Detail Man… He is a unique individual, everybody knows him, knows of him. He is a ‘Poverty’ Rider. The word poverty meaning he lives off the land so to speak. His tent is small, his global footprint unassuming. He repairs parts before replacing with new ones. Marty rides almost every day, all year long. He details cars, bikes; RV’s anything that needs ‘cleaning’ outside your house. He will come to your place riding in on his motorcycle(s). Just write to him in messenger on Facebook:  Mary Sluyter……….

Marty's Bike

Marty is a nice guy, you cannot help but love him. His life right now is laced with FREEDOM. He loves the road, rides into areas that are so obscure you might wonder how he finds those places. He posts on Facebook, and his trade mark is to end each report of Facebook with the remark “eh?”

Marty sure is a character out of some book.  He could write a book about his experiences but Marty is unassuming. He does not grandiose himself. He is more at ease living off P and J sandwiches. 

Yes, I talk to Marty, talk to his friends, talk to everybody at a rally. I learned one lesson riding a motorcycle… never judge your fellow rider. No matter what he looks like, what he/she  believes, what he/she does… behind what  you see is a whole different dimension. I meet the smartest people that way. Many a time I would think ‘who would have known’ this person is a: lawyer, doctor, policeman, veteran, soldier or even hero.  You never know!

Marc Is Having Such a Good Time

Everybody has a story, everybody’s life is unique and all have their story to tell. To me a rally is getting to meet folks, getting to chat, getting to know life through different eyes, through eyes from a different prospective.

I like rallies.

To me it’s not about the riding alone, or even riding around the block in a new town. To me a rally represents life; a rally is a place where different experiences meet. 

And if you ever have the luck to meet JJ, and get to talk seriously to him, you KNOW you have met someone special……  Hello, JJ!   

Foldable, Electric Bike

It never rained that day, but… there are heavy rains predicted for the night.

Because of this forecast many riders left the rally on Sunday night. I watched them leave, thinking: “ah, we have to pack a wet tent tomorrow morning, Yuk”.

And then while watching the folks pack up their bikes, while I sat in my chair doing my all time favorite thing, “watching people work”, the idea struck me to move into a now fairly empty bunk house; at least for this one night. It would be a new experience for me; the last time I bunked was during Grammar School.

So I took down our tent, moved some stuff into the bunk house and packed up everything dry. Wonderful! Jean and Ross would haul our heavy stuff (tent, cooler, thermarests) with their truck to their house and we only kept sleeping bags for sleeping in the cabin. 

We Put Our Sleeping Bags on Mattresses On the Floor

We had a raffle that night, prizes were given away. I won nothing. Carol won some LED light inserts but they did not fit her bike.

Here are some statistics of the rally:

468 paying people showed up for the rally.  This rally used to have 1200 to 1300 attend years ago.

Kate L. won best of class with her 1000cc /5 bike

John (Dutch) L. won best of class with his 1000cc/6 bike

Dutch and Kate With Their Winning Bikes

88 riders came from Ontario. The biggest club participating was the BMW Motorcycle Club of Ontario, 28 members came to the rally (used to have 40 members attending).

Carol won the ‘oldest’ female rider award, she deserved it.

FL Rally and Club Ride - 2. Finger Lakes Rally Start

2. Finger Lakes Rally Start

The Hotel had a basic American Breakfast; it was good enough for us for this Friday morning.  

We never really ‘unpacked’ our bikes, the tent and sleeping rolls were still on the bikes, so riding to the actual rally site, the Hidden Valley was easy, just swing your leg over the bike, settle down and ride for about 4 miles. That is all I did, just about 4 miles this day. 

Checking In At Registration

When we rode off we met Joe, another BMW rider, he was a Rally ‘Virgin’ he told us. He had never been to this Finger Lakes Rally before so we showed him how to find the hidden spot. He was from Connecticut, a nice enough guy, but we soon lost sight of him once we entered the actual Campground. We were one of the first people to arrive, always a good thing because that way you can set up your spot (tent or bunk) where ever YOU want. 

Starting to Unpack

Also, we wanted to set up our tent ‘early’ because the weather forecast for today: “Heavy Rains” and ‘Thunder Storms”.

Setting up our tent has now become routine. While I do the actual tent, Carol sets up the inside. I put up the poles, the lines, the stakes and Carol is inside the tent setting up the thermarests, pillows and our sleeping bags. 

We work like a team; it does not take that long to set up our camp. We even bring foldable chairs, so we can sit in comfort. 

We no longer bring any cooking utensils; there are just too many other, easier options to find food while we are at the Rally. This is not camping in the wild.

Home Sweet Home

After we were set up, I went to the flea market tent to register and offer my ‘stuff’ for sale. I had packed motorcycle specific items that I took off my old (07) bike and now will try to sell here at this Rally.

While I did that, Carol rode back into town to find our breakfast for the following days, some fruit and snacks, some beer, wine and juice, and ice to keep it all cool (we brought a foldable Ice cooler) and she also wanted some American cash from an ATM. 

Flea Market in Full Swing

I had no problem listing all my items at the flea market tent, Roger, who is in charge of the whole set up, knows how to run this flea market but Carol, oh my, she was alone in town and ran into all kinds of ‘rules and regulations’.

She told me later:

First stop for her was the ATM it did not work for her, but after trying the Automated Teller Machine 4 times she went into the bank to try to get U.S. dollars, the ATM really did not work for her. The teller girl inside the bank tried the outside ATM, but it did not work for her either. So back inside the bank, the teller asked Carol for her ID, of course it was on the bike, so Carol had to go outside, get the ID and still, the teller could not get her U.S. dollars. Computers are great, IF they work. This time they did not. And the people depending on them are paranoid with the ‘security’. So YOUR money is in a bank but you will have a difficult time getting YOUR money out. Yes, it’s called ‘security’ but should there not be an easier way to identify a person? Face Recognition Software near each teller? A chip you carry under your skin someplace?  I think something has to be done to make life easier for the end user.

Friends Roger and Marc (L to R Foreground), Vicki and Jim (L to R Background)

Carol’s next step was the Gas Station, to fill up her tank. Once you fill up, the bike gets noticeably heavier. No money needed, she used her credit card.

Next stop was the Supermarket which has ATM’s.  She bought her food stuff, including some beer but when she tried to check out she was asked for her ID again. Naturally she had put it back on the bike……..duh!  You have to be over 21 years of age to buy alcohol in NY State, and you HAVE TO identify yourself, showing the cash 
register girl that that you are old enough. No, just looking at a person, even if you KNOW that person, or can see that she is older has no effect. You MUST show your ID. So, Carol had to get out of the store, get her ID again, walk back in and show the register girl her Government Issued ID just to buy a pack of beer!

Beautiful Side-Car Rig

So now Carol has her beer but she also paid for 20 LBS of Ice. You pay at the register, then walk outside to the freezer and take your bag. Sounds ok?  Well they were out of 20 LBS bags; they only had 7 lbs bags. Well if it had been me, I would have taken 3 of those and called it even, but not Carol. She is Canadian, they don’t do that. The 3 seven lbs bags are more expensive than one 20 lbs bag. Carol walks back to the register and tells the girl she wants only 2 of the seven lbs bag, and she is due back some money. But... giving back money was not what the register girl could do… you would have to see the Service desk. 

So Carol took only 2 bags, leaving the register girl to keep her extra money and now had to tie all of the ice to her bike. Right!

BMW Motorcycle Club of Ontario Banner With Club Member's Bikes

Strapping slippery ice bags on the rear seat?  It is a difficult, hard item to tie down, it slides around a lot.

Still, Carol managed……but now the bike is really HEAVY with the ice, beer and groceries and now she has to stand it upright from the leaned over position…. Arrrrrrggghh, she finally does it somehow, but now she remembers… she needs to use the ATM, so?  She was so frustrated, she just said, “Forget it!”

It was a frustrating morning for Carol, while I had a wonderful time listing all my ‘for sale’ Items with Roger.

Unpacking Groceries - More Tents Coming In

I helped Carol stash away our food when she got back, we had a walk around, said hello to people we knew and then had dinner with Jean and Ross. They came by car; Jean hurt her foot and was not able to ride her bike. 

We went for Mexican food in town. Margaritas were offered, but… the place was OK, but I would not go back there… the drinks were watered down, the food just so-so.

Jean had bought some Margarita mixes; those were much better than what the restaurant sold for $8 per glass. Thank you, Jean!

Friends Ross, Jean and Jane (L to R)

Everybody was watching the sky for the anticipated rain… it never came; our tent was only ‘dewed’ on by the moisture in the air when we woke up the next morning.

We slept well that night, on the ground, but snug like a bug in a rug.