Man, what a trip.. The rally was awesome. I'm just now waking up from the drive home.
To the people who weren't there, Denver rolled up an hour or so after dark, with a dead bus and a serious and urgent need for alcohol.
We got to park at Chuck and Matt's house. Grits and Andrew were waiting for us there. Unloaded, kicked the peds over, and we were rolling through KC.
Sad that we missed the music at that club, but that we all got free cigs made the 20min there worth it. I think Willie ended up with a full carton by the end of this trip.
The next place, the Lava room, is my new favorite bar. Gary (that was the owner's name, right?) was nothing but awesome to every last one of us the entire time. Drink specials, afternoon breakfast.. It's rare to be welcomed into a place like that so readily.
All I ask for when I come to a rally is a 6x2' space of something to pass out on. A sofa bed, in a house with A/C, with showers, is a fucking score.
And having the morning ride start at a bar with a good bloody mary, and breakfast is brilliant. I do appalogise for being a bit trashed for most of the ride, but I was trying to cram a lot of drinking into that one day we had there.
There were frequent ride stops, only one major breakdown that I saw (lolciao..), and aside from that time the wind hit us from what could only be a water treatment plant, it was a very pleasant time.
Then more free shit! Dude, if I didn't wear glasses, I'd be all over these goggles. The jousting was also neat, but mostly just because of the mass of gravel you needed to stop on right after.
And then we fixed the bus.
Matt, I can't say enough about how thankful I am for your help. Your 3ton jack, your tools, your knowledge. l really can't say enough.
Mad crazy props to John from IRE (damn, I really hope I remembered your name). Your knowledge of old Ford drum brakes saved us.
Basiclly, we had the automatic adjuste assembly in one of our rear drums like, shear off and grind around inside. It was ugly, and with dulies it was hard to get to. John, Matt, and our own Rick were able to fix it, along with my frequent trips to the super shady parts store.
Then there was more party, followed by Chuck cooking some awesome 3AM food for us on her back porch. Biscuts, something with sausage, some potatoes, eggs, all of it was great... I don't remember a lot of it, but I woke up ontop of the bus the next morning with a smile on my face.
The next day was more bus fixing, as Matt helped Stoops put a belt on for our alternator, which we'd lost at some point.. (we're buying a new bus piece by piece these days).
Chuck showed up just before we left with an awesome package of food, water, little juice thingies, and the marshmallows that entertained us for quite some time on the way home.
I was sad to leave, and I'll be back there next year for sure.
Thank you Chuck, for all the time you put into this. I felt welcome wherever we went, and all the free stuffs you hooked us up with at every stop was super sweet.
Matt, thanks for being awesome, and lending us your tools and knowledge. I haven't forgot most of the things you told me to look into fixing, and I do plan on acting on them.
Andrew and Grits, thanks for keeping us all together, you make a great lead/chase team.
I'd also like to say that everyone from IRE was totally rad, and that if we have enough cash, we'll try to get to your town this year too.
It was a great time, in all. Not a single official MA member there, but it felt just like the other two rallies I've been to.
Anywho.. I'm gona go find some food now, I think my body's ready for solids again...