1000 degrees, Killer Armadillos and other Texas Tall Tales

[Wildkat]

Thursday began it all with HobbyMan arriving around 9:30... (I will say nothing about him arriving in a Ford truck rather than on one of the numerous XSes that currently reside in his garage... oops)

He immediately jumped in to help set everything up (Thank you!)... It was a nice enough morning when he arrived... a cool breeze and warm sun... that continued to get warmer and warmer... and warmer...
Dale_1 came in around 12:00 (?) and they started preparations to take the engine out of his bike for some transmission work...
Within a few very short hours... it went from fully operational... to this:



Shortly after the engine was removed from the frame... trbig and Bob Falter showed up after meeting in OK to ride in together (good timing )... followed closely by rockhoundtx...
Everyone pitched in and after an even shorter time... the engine looked like this:



and the culprit responsible for the engine tear down:



trbig had already angled the dogs on the replacement gear and had it ready to go... so a quick switch and things started going back together... It's really amazing to see all of this in action!!

Friday morning brought in classawin from Mississippi, dpotter and his daughter from Maryland via OKC and a surprise guest...

Yes... it was our own Dear prometheus...
What an incredible surprise!


With all of these XSperts... many things were done over the next few hours... including getting my FJ on the road with NO leaks (thank you again to Busa Dave who kept me focused on that one)... and the clutch fixed (thanks to our Dear prometheus)... now I just need to get the rear brake fixed and not only will I be moving on the road... I can stop on it too...

Hopefully, everything else will hold together...



Everyone hard at work:



The ride on Saturday started a bit late... but more bike work was done... and unknown to me... to my bikes as well...
I had to run an errand and when I returned... trbig was fabricating a new bracket for my backrest (THANK you!) and when I returned from another errand... our Dear prometheus and HobbyMan were replacing my cam chain tensioner (and thank YOU both too!) I'm certain both my bikes will feel quite neglected now that y'all aren't buzzing around them...
I can't thank you enough!

The destination for our ride was Possum Kingdom Lake... about 95 miles from our home... dpotter rode John's Bag Lady (no... not me... the bike) and our Dear prometheus mounted one of HobbyMan's trusty steeds...
All bikes on the ride were XS or XJ.... VERY cool!

Part 2 to follow

[Wildkat]

Land of Goshen and BJ Lane

Getting ready to ride:



It takes awhile to get out of the city... but the country scene is worth the ride (and so are some of the names we saw along the way)... but you do have to watch out for wildlife... mainly opossums, opossums on the half shell (armadillos) and any other suicidal critters...

Due to a series of most unfortunate events... we had a rider go down... We shall, at the moment, blame this on the killer armadillo... Someplace close to where we are standing here:



A broken collar bone for the rider and a few scrapes for the bike left it ridable... but the rider not able to ride... The bike and rider were taken to a nearby gas station (rider couldn't ride too long without a great amount of pain)... The bikes at the Poolville Post Office next to the gas station:



The rest of us headed back so that John and HobbyMan could obtain transportation more suitable for the rider and make arrangements for the bike to be brought back to our house... As was the rider after being treated at a semi-local hospital...

In the meantime, Bob, classawin and dpotter and his daughter headed out to their respective destinations...

The rest of us hung out and gabbed for awhile before finally shutting down around 1:00 this morning... This morning was leaisurely with everyone coming in at their own pace to chat awhile before heading out...

All in all... we had 8 Specials, 2 Standards (including Busa Dave's BEAUTIFUL 78), 1 Maxim and 1 FJ... and a 1000 degrees of heat to work in... We discussed moving this event to the 3rd weekend of April next year so that maybe we can beat the heat here and get in after the snow up north...

It was a truly memorable weekend and I'm SO glad that everyone was able to come! We had representation from Iowa, Oklahoma, Washington, Maryland, Mississippi and of course... Texas. (the TeXSives were almost outnumbered)

As always... REALLY great to see old friends (trbig, Busa Dave, Cindy, HobbyMan, Dale_1) some that we haven't known as long (Bob Falter)... and to meet new ones (classawin, rockhound, Montreux Blue, dpotter and his daughter) and to our Dear prometheus... I'm speechless...


We didn't have a chance to give out the awards for farthest distance... but on a bike, it would have gone to Bob Falter... for pure distance... it was a close race between our Dear prometheus and dpotter...

We are sorry that we didn't get a chance to go to the car show... but anytime anyone wants to come down for one... just give us a shout...

Thank you again to everyone for making this a truly memorable experience (maybe a little too memorable at some points)...
We wish our fallen friend a full and speedy recovery... our warmest wishes are with you... and a safe and uneventful return home for everyone...

[Hippie_Dave]

Thanks

Hey guys, we are back at the house. Just want to say thanks for the hospitality. Had an exellent time even with a couple of setbacks. Some great people and nice bikes, I've never had a bad time at any XS gathering, even when my bike has done the return trip in a truck. Love You Guys, see you next time.

[prometheus578]

administrative note:
i'm a two-fingered typer. currently, i'm a one-fingered typer, so please excuse the errors of capitalization, spelling and everything else. thank you.

i had planned months ago to crash this party. i would ride to my brother sluggo's, in denver and then ride down to texas. this was changed to flying to denver, and taking sluggo's ''78e' and riding it to texas. this was further modified... as due to gas prices, it was cheaper to not ride at all and just fly to dallas, as wildkat and john live less than 20 miles from the dallas/ ft worth airport.
but what to do then?
no biggie... take a taxi from the airport to the rally.
but, come on... i'm a guru... this isn't how things are done. as it only costs a few buck more, i would rent a limo and arrive in true guro form, as is befitting someone of my exhalted status. i would have to be appropriately garbed, as well.
i arrived shortly after noon, the driver opened my door and i stepped out.
recognizing hobbyman from forum pictures, i immediately started to order him about and generally made a jerk of myself. john quickly ran over and started in with the "who the hell are you"s and the "am i supposed to know you or something?"s.
i played for a few minutes... but seeing how the crowd was getting unruly, i started to fear for my life and finally uncloaked myself.
a good laugh was had by all.
moments later, wildkat returns from a shopping trip with TRBIG.
john yells, 'honey, come over here... some guy from the govt. wants to talk with you."
i had a hard time staying in charactor. i toyed with her a little... dropping little clues and hints....watching her eyes as she processed things go from glazed confusion to insightful brightness.
"oh my God... oh my God...!"
most women run when they meet me, but our dear wildkat is made of stronger stuff. hugs all around.

the effervescent WildKat... and me, wearing my $8 suit from Goodwill.




always the good hostess.
not being used to the high texas temperture(and sweating due to that damned suit) My "Deer" WildKat offered to lick
the salt crystals that were forming on the back of my neck.




i have made fun of him from afar for many years.... i finally get to meet the one i refer to as "Friend TRBIG"
(note how i first removed my wrist watch before shaking hands with him. always pays to be cautious)







quite the formidable looking man, that TRBIG. i wouldn't want to get on his bad side. here's a shot of his good side.
that's Bob Falter on the left, DPotter on the right. DPotter brought his young daughter to the rally. A fine girl...
always asking how I was doing, bringing me water, etc.
(DPotter...Please say hello to her for me, and thanks)





Now here we go... the second half of our hosting team, John. A man of good charactor, infinate patience and all the other
admirable traits that one would expect of a guru and moderator.. a well stocked garage and well stocked beer coolers.
i later ran out for some REAL beer. no Steinlager, but i found some Foster's Ale... and something that looked French.
Turns out that it was Canadian... which would explain the vile taste (Oh, i'm gonna hear about this one later!)
on the right is Montreux Blue... a new member of the XS family.
So new that... it wouldn't be fair for me to pick on him yet.






Bob Falter and "Classawinn". Richard was kind enough to give me a ride the next day due to the situation that had developed.
It was an odd feeling for me... being behind another man like that ... holding on to his waist. Reminded me of my days as a guest at the Cook County Jail. Didn't help matters has he kept giggling as we rode.




Dale_1, an interesting fellow. His bike was torn apart when I arrived so I didn't really want to bother him at the time. had the time to talk with him later. an easy smile and a quick wit... both high marks in my book.






sadly, i have no photo of HippyDave and the always charming Cindy. they came a litle later. i had hoped to take more pictures, but... things changed... and ya know... i just wasn't in the mood anymore. we've all heard stories about Dave's bike. yes, they are true. there may be stories floating around about Cindy, too. if they testify to her charm and compassionate nature... they are true, as well.



now things get interesting. behold Hobbyman, boy genius. note the smile... we will be seeing it again later.




hobbyman is an interesting charactor study. now, we all know that i've teased and poked fun at HobbyMan for years. so i was quite surprise when he said...
"Hey Kurt... you can ride one of my bikes for the run tomorrow."
"Why thanks, HobbyMan... you texans sure are hospitable."
now, i don't know if it was a bevis and butthead thing, but hobbyman started snorting, 'Hospital.. uhn huh. uh huh, he said hospital, uh huh, uh huh..."
I failed to understand the significance at the time.


anyway... on to what you've all be waiting for.
Yes, i dumped the bike.
oh, there were several reasons that I first offered:
"An Armidillo ran across the road and I...."
"That broken helmet John gave me... the cracked visor slipped down and obscured my vision and I..."
But... being honest and believing that people should always own up to their responsibilities.... here's the truth about what really happened.
This picture explains it all and I have e-mailed it to my lawyer.

(Note.. this is the same evil smile that we saw on HobbyMan earlier.)
Here he is... removing the remote control device... the one that he activated... that locked up my steering just as I started into the corner!






Oh sure... everyone thinks HobbyMan is so nice... he didn't get mad or anything. Yeah, well it wasn't Hobbyman's bike I wrecked... I was riding the bike belonging to Hobbyman's father. (I just hope my injuries heal before he gets back and starts to hunt me down.)
Anyway... like I mentioned earlier... Richard rode me back to the last gas station, and like an old eskimo in the snow, everyone abandoned me there and rode off, leaving me to die a slow and lonely death.

Ahh, but not quite. An old gentleman spotted me curled up behind the ice machine were my "friends" had stuffed me and drove me to the hospital. He refused my offer of money... either due to his pride, or the fact that I only held out two bucks.
Doesn't matter... I was saved.

Anyway... as indicated within the black circle, the doctor said that I have a broken collar bone. They were also quite surprised to see that I have no heart, just a black, soul-less lump in the middle of my chest. Of course, this comes as no surprise to anyone that knows me.




Oddly, I found this:
Check out the "additional notes and instructions" at the bottom of the page.



It would seem that after I run out of Vicodin, I'm supposed to use PCP or something. The drug of choice today would be "Crack", so I wonder if that's a mistake?

Anyway...
I had a hell of a time. For those of you that have never meet John or WildKat... you are depriving yourself of a real honor. I can easily say the same about the rest of the people that I met there last weekend. (Ok, except for HobbyMan).

It's a shame that some people feel that I ruined the rally for everyone.
That's not really important.
What is important is that I was the center of attention and because of that, I feel that the rally was a success.


Thanks, John and WildKat. (And their great children)
Thanks to everyone else that showed up. It was a pleasure to finally meet you all.
Next time, HobbyMan... I'll bring my own bike and let you knock it over a few times and throw gravel at it.

[Paintman]

Crash

Hey Prom sorry to hear about your spill sounds like it was a great time for everyone. Hope ya heal fast and i hope this dosent spark Anarchy here knowing that you cant respond to us quickly.
Enjoy the meds.
John

[trbig]

I don't know what you mean about some thinking you ruined the rally. Any time you feel the need to become the center of attention, it's fine to visit. What better weekend could we have than to see you grimmace in pain as the children point and say, "Mommy, look at that crippled man with glow in the dark legs sticking out of his torn jeans!"




Seriously though.... if a man comes to your door in the next couple weeks wearing an American Airlines pilot uniform.... don't open the door.

Heal up soon Pro.


Tod

[oseaghdha]

Walked Away

......It's a shame that some people feel that I ruined the rally for everyone.
That's not really important.


Aw hell, sorry I missed it!
I am confused; Was that a good landing or a bad landing?

Seriously though, tough spot of luck, get better soon and watch out for that Vicodin.
Stuff'll make ya stoopid!

[dale_1]

Re: Walked Away

Originally posted by oseaghdha
[B] [I]
Stuff'll make ya stoopid!

TOO LATE!!!
sorry Prom just needed to get that out quickly!!!

glad you are feeling a little better and how'd you crawl out from under the ice machine..... we thought we had ya in there good>>>>>

[classawinn]

Being new to the forum and from what I understand about Prom if he had landed on something soft, like his head ,and not his shoulder he would have been OK. That what I have been told. Damn them doogooder in Texas. Spoil Hobbyman perfect plan ,hurt and alone in Texas. I did see and few vultures circleing to lap up the remains.
Enjoy you meds and come on back down to Texas,WE'LL BE WAITING...

[Wildkat]

Ummmm....

It's a shame that some people feel that I ruined the rally for everyone.

I do believe the only one thinking this... was you...



It was a good landing... he got up...

[Bigfoot]

Sorry to hear about the wreck and especially sorry that I missed the event. I am gonna try and make it next time. Looking forward to Talimena and hope to see some of you there.

[John]

Did you mean Talimena in July or for the fall rally?

[Bigfoot]

I am not gonna get out for another rally until hopefully fall. Would love to do sooner but just can't swing it.

[Montreux_Blue]

Originally posted by prometheus578
on the right is Montreux Blue... a new member of the XS family.
So new that... it wouldn't be fair for me to pick on him yet.

You have to start sometime! Have a beer on me, it might make your shoulder feel better!

[Wildkat]

Good Heavenly days!

I didn't notice that you had THOSE when you were here!
(of course... I meant the beers)

Ummmm... is that a stock photo? or something you would be willing to share with the class?