Endless Excitement
Day 14: August 14, 2017: SLC
Started out the morning with a massive breakfast burrito from the foodcourt and two seminars with Opa. The first one was with an MOA Ambassador from California, Randy Owens; Adventuring with a Sidecar, Off-Road and otherwise. We walked into the building for the seminar and see Randy's Urul covered in stickers not to mention some boards covered in photos. He talked about taking his sidecar to all of these wild routes, getting stuck and unstuck. It was pretty interesting to watch his use the winch to pull the sidecar across the room. To top it off, I got to ride in his sidecar holding his photo boards while I gave him directions to our side of camp, so he could look at our sidecars. He had parked and started to look them over by the time Opa had walked back across the field to meet us. What a great way to kill time between the hour between seminars than to have a little sidecar convention.
I was floating on cloud nine, even registered for the longest distance sidecar, with 2115 miles. Opa seems to think that I will definitely win. I guess that we will find out.
The concert for tonight was Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. I made my way over to the stage and settled in.
The second one was with Phil Freeman and Motoquest about going to Alaska. He ran a slideshow with hundreds of pictures of the wildlife, the cities, the wide open spaces, dirt and gravel roads. He talked about driving to Prudhoe Bay regularly. he was pretty funny and the pictures were breathtaking.
I met Tracy, who has her tent down the row from us, she has named her sidecar rig the Honey Badger. We were having a chat about sidecars when Pat (MOA# 48876) pulled up on his golf cart. Pat had mentioned a news crew coming to the rally to work on a story a few days earlier and after hearing about my story with Opa, he decided that we should be at least interviewed for it. Well, here he was, news crew right behind him. We spent about 30 minutes with them. Who knows that they will actually use for the story but, hey, it's really cool, right?!
As the news crew leaves to meander through the crowd, and with Opa gone to scope out some goods at the vendors tables, I decided to relax in my chair. How short lived that was! About 20 minutes goes by and I see a somewhat familiar looking guy wander around my rig, He asks if I was Erika, Obviously, I was/am. It clicks! This was Kevin. He had posted the night or two before on the MOA Facebook page to ask about coming to the rally while riding a non-beemer and if that would be acceptable. We had had a brief exchange about it and then this amazing man stepped up, Bruce. Bruce had payed for Kevin's MOA membership for the year! People were blown away by the generosity, I may have gotten a bit teary-eyed, in the metaphorical sense. Bruce was a shining example of how great and open the MOA is. Kevin and I finished our conversation, pointed out some places to look for, and with that-Kevin was back to wandering the fairgrounds.
A man comes racing up in a frenzy. Asking which was my sidecar and why it hadn't been entered into the voting. It hadn't crossed my mind. Turns out this man was Paul (MOA#109294), the People's Choice Vote Chair. Paul rode in my sidecar as I drove over to enter it into the voting. "Can't let a Urul Sidecar rig take first place at a BMW Motorcycle Rally! NO WAY!" Although, poor Paul didn't realize that I would hang around and jokingly coerce voters. "If you vote for my rig and it wins first place, I'll buy you a bag of ice." I can't even imagine how much I said it but, I walked away with a bright shiny blue ribbon that I literally jumped, skipped, and hopped over to. Opa had to take some victory photos to send to Claude, the man who built my rig. After talking with a fellow "competitor" (I guess would be the word), I had learned that he had never ridden in a sidecar. I offered to drive a lap or two and let him ride and take pictures. I don't think I scared him too much, we are friends on facebook.
I was still floating on cloud nine when Opa told me to register for the longest distance sidecar, I had 2,115 miles, afterall. After that, I floated over to the stage and started to get the merchandise ready for Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. They put on a great show, I was selling the cds like hot cakes! The band signed the cds and shirts. They were packing up their equipment, I organized their merchandise back into the suitcases and handed Big Sandy the money. Big Sandy insisted that I grab a shirt and a CD for my efforts, while we all shared a drink or few. I am sure that Lee (MOA# 145612) is to blame for anyone who may have "over-celebrated" that night. Ashley, the other guitarist, and I had a lovely conversation about sidecars-he used to own a Urul in England! Before long, it was time for bed and for the band to leave before the gates were locked.
Started out the morning with a massive breakfast burrito from the foodcourt and two seminars with Opa. The first one was with an MOA Ambassador from California, Randy Owens; Adventuring with a Sidecar, Off-Road and otherwise. We walked into the building for the seminar and see Randy's Urul covered in stickers not to mention some boards covered in photos. He talked about taking his sidecar to all of these wild routes, getting stuck and unstuck. It was pretty interesting to watch his use the winch to pull the sidecar across the room. To top it off, I got to ride in his sidecar holding his photo boards while I gave him directions to our side of camp, so he could look at our sidecars. He had parked and started to look them over by the time Opa had walked back across the field to meet us. What a great way to kill time between the hour between seminars than to have a little sidecar convention.
The concert for tonight was Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. I made my way over to the stage and settled in.
The second one was with Phil Freeman and Motoquest about going to Alaska. He ran a slideshow with hundreds of pictures of the wildlife, the cities, the wide open spaces, dirt and gravel roads. He talked about driving to Prudhoe Bay regularly. he was pretty funny and the pictures were breathtaking.
I met Tracy, who has her tent down the row from us, she has named her sidecar rig the Honey Badger. We were having a chat about sidecars when Pat (MOA# 48876) pulled up on his golf cart. Pat had mentioned a news crew coming to the rally to work on a story a few days earlier and after hearing about my story with Opa, he decided that we should be at least interviewed for it. Well, here he was, news crew right behind him. We spent about 30 minutes with them. Who knows that they will actually use for the story but, hey, it's really cool, right?!
As the news crew leaves to meander through the crowd, and with Opa gone to scope out some goods at the vendors tables, I decided to relax in my chair. How short lived that was! About 20 minutes goes by and I see a somewhat familiar looking guy wander around my rig, He asks if I was Erika, Obviously, I was/am. It clicks! This was Kevin. He had posted the night or two before on the MOA Facebook page to ask about coming to the rally while riding a non-beemer and if that would be acceptable. We had had a brief exchange about it and then this amazing man stepped up, Bruce. Bruce had payed for Kevin's MOA membership for the year! People were blown away by the generosity, I may have gotten a bit teary-eyed, in the metaphorical sense. Bruce was a shining example of how great and open the MOA is. Kevin and I finished our conversation, pointed out some places to look for, and with that-Kevin was back to wandering the fairgrounds.
A man comes racing up in a frenzy. Asking which was my sidecar and why it hadn't been entered into the voting. It hadn't crossed my mind. Turns out this man was Paul (MOA#109294), the People's Choice Vote Chair. Paul rode in my sidecar as I drove over to enter it into the voting. "Can't let a Urul Sidecar rig take first place at a BMW Motorcycle Rally! NO WAY!" Although, poor Paul didn't realize that I would hang around and jokingly coerce voters. "If you vote for my rig and it wins first place, I'll buy you a bag of ice." I can't even imagine how much I said it but, I walked away with a bright shiny blue ribbon that I literally jumped, skipped, and hopped over to. Opa had to take some victory photos to send to Claude, the man who built my rig. After talking with a fellow "competitor" (I guess would be the word), I had learned that he had never ridden in a sidecar. I offered to drive a lap or two and let him ride and take pictures. I don't think I scared him too much, we are friends on facebook.
I was still floating on cloud nine when Opa told me to register for the longest distance sidecar, I had 2,115 miles, afterall. After that, I floated over to the stage and started to get the merchandise ready for Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys. They put on a great show, I was selling the cds like hot cakes! The band signed the cds and shirts. They were packing up their equipment, I organized their merchandise back into the suitcases and handed Big Sandy the money. Big Sandy insisted that I grab a shirt and a CD for my efforts, while we all shared a drink or few. I am sure that Lee (MOA# 145612) is to blame for anyone who may have "over-celebrated" that night. Ashley, the other guitarist, and I had a lovely conversation about sidecars-he used to own a Urul in England! Before long, it was time for bed and for the band to leave before the gates were locked.
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