New Ulm BMOA (British Motorcycle Owner’s Association) 2006 Rallye Report
The weekend was more beautiful than anyone could have hoped for, mostly clear, breezy and temps between 60 and 90. We believe God answered prayer on this! (After all, He is the only one that can create “made-to-order weather).
We had a mini-caravan consisting of 2 tow vehicles with trailers and one rider on a bike. Sally drove my pickup with Talitha in her baby seat, with all the CMA gear and my ’72 Rickman Montesa 250 dirt bike in the back, pulling the 6-bike trailer loaded with a ’75 Norton Commando 850, ’72 Norton 750, two Triumph Bonnevilles, a BSA 441 Victor, and a Ducati 900. Eddie rode his Kawasaki Vulcan 750 in the “rocking horse†position, between the two tow vehicles, and I drove Sally’s TrailBlazer pulling the camper and the rest of the gear.
It was somewhat slow going, we left at 10:AM on Friday morning and only got as far as Pearsall by lunchtime because Talitha needed diaper & bottle breaks. So, we made the best of the situation and got gas, then ate lunch at Cowpoke’s BBQ.
We hit San Antonio in pretty good time, then went all the way to the North side of town to a flooring outlet store to turn in some leftover flooring we had for a refund. Once we got done there, we took the loop to the East side of town and I dropped of a Triumph Bonneville rim at the chrome shop. We gassed up again and headed East to Columbus making pretty decent time the rest of the way.
We got to New Ulm a bit earlier than in years past, about 7
M, so we were able to set up the RV and CMA tent before it ever got dark. That was nice, because I would not have seen the huge Black Widow spider waiting to sink it’s fangs into me from inside the RV outlet box (after I reached my fingers inside to open it!). One thing I noticed was the absence of the usual “love bugs†from the front of everyone’s vehicles, and/or flying and landing all over the place, like in your tea.
After setting up the refreshments, we took a stroll around the park and I found a few early deals on swap meet parts. Saw a few new faces and definitely more RVs and tents than in years past – good turnout!
Once we were settled in, we all piled in the TrailBlazer and headed to the “Texas Star†café for a delicious country style dinner. I guess everyone else was as tired as we were from the drive and dinner; it was quiet by 10M and we were fast asleep with the A/C humming in the RV and Eddie snoring in the tent.
Saturday morning dawned very much as usual with the train blaring by about 6:AM, and everything covered in a heavy coat of morning dew; guess who forgot to cover all the bikes? The usual crowd, Jimmy, Malcolm, “Twitchy†Dave and company were hanging around the coffee pot and kibitzing about the finer points of making a good pot of “Jesus†coffee (Dave’s term for CMA coffee). Charlie calls it “free Christian coffeeâ€, but I pointed out to him that I could not vouch for the spiritual condition of the coffee, only that it was free and it was coffee. But, I guess it’s a minor miracle to turn water into coffee…
The Saturday morning swap meet was the best ever; I saved over $500! As soon as Ron Peters showed up, I bought ½ of everything he brought in the back of his truck. He just happened to have the exact front rim I was looking for, a Dunlop 19†2x19 with fresh chrome; perfect for a ’68 Bonneville.
Made the rounds again, this time with Sally & Talitha, who added a few hundred members to her fan club. Her stroller looked quite the part with a Norton 2-into-1 header under the seat, sticking out the front and back, and a bunch of parts in the lower basket.
One of the kids on mini-bikes rode by the CMA tent to have a cup of lemonade, and we took the opportunity to get a photo of Eddie on it, then another photo of him picking it up. We got a few laughs out of that!
About mid-day, my oldest son, Jason, showed up with his buddy, Louie, and his dog, Snoopy. They unloaded Louie’s Honda 650 Dual-purpose bike, visited a while then took off on a short ride through the countryside.
There was so much going on, and so many people to chat with, that we missed almost all of the bike games. I was able to be the first one to “ride the plankâ€, and I managed my first complete run ever! They made it really hard by nailing two 10-foot 2x4s together with a 2-foot piece underneath that created a “humpâ€. I didn’t make the final round, but it was fun trying.
There were some really close races in the “cold start†and “dirt drags†categories, I watched a guy beat the perennial favorite, Gene, while doing a wheelie almost the full distance of the track and throwing a 50-foot rooster-tail of dirt.
While we were all involved with the bike games, an airplane buzzed the crowd at high speed, dipping below the treetops through the park’s clearing, then pulling up and over the far edge and he was gone in just a second or two. There were people “oohing†and “ahhingâ€, and I must say I was rather impressed. I hope somebody got a photo of that!
The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting with friends, swapping stories, passing the baby around, and snacking lightly in anticipation of the BBQ dinner. As usual, the volunteer firefighters didn’t disappoint us with plates of food piled high and all the iced tea we could drink. I was barely able to waddle away from the table to the tent and sat there burping for hours.
On the way back to our campsite, I passed by Roger’s area and complimented him on his Triumph, then I noticed he had a fiddle case at his table; so, I invited him to join us in a bit of music and fun.
About dark, Eddie had his amp and guitar all set up; soon, Roger and his brother Don showed up with a fiddle and a second guitar. These guys had never met Eddie, but within minutes, they were playing some pretty nice sounding tunes together. It turned out that Roger is a very accomplished fiddle player with a CD (or a few?), Don is a first-class cut-up, and Eddie can play some unbelievable music on his guitar with those “buffalo fingers†as he calls them. We may have been the loudest campsite other than the 59 Club and the Ton-Up boys, but we wound it up by 11:30. Actually, either the rowdy crowd was quieter than usual, or the hum of the RV’s A/C unit drowned out the noise, because I never heard a thing.
Sunday morning the usual crowd was hanging around the coffee pot, and everything that was not covered by a tent or tarp was soaking wet with dew; this time I remembered to cover the bikes! We got the pavilion area cleared, set up benches, and moved the coffee pot over before it was time for the CMA service, then I strolled over and invited Roger and Don to join us.
We had a really good crowd, about a dozen in attendance; we opened with a brief prayer, and Eddie played a couple of songs for us. I gave a short “Tech Session†on how our lives are just like our bikes, they need preventive maintenance and occasional repairs. I focused on the similarities between our group specifically and how we all need to have a complete restoration “by the Bookâ€.
I closed the message with an invitation for everyone to let God take control of our lives, tear us down to the nuts and bolts, and restore us to a complete new life according to His plan. Everyone was given a “Hope for the Highway†Bible to take with them, and Roger blessed us with a tear-jerking rendering of “Amazing Grace†on his fiddle.
After the service, we were able to pray with Jay for his stepson, Brad, and daughter-in-law, Drena, who had been involved in a near-head on motorcycle crash a few weeks ago. We also prayed for him as he travels back to his brother’s house in Austin and then back to his home next month. Eddie and Pauline exchanged song selections for next year’s service and shared how much each of us enjoyed being at the rally and the service.
By that time the coffee and Cheese Danish were finished, so we picked up all the gear and moved the coffee pot back to the CMA tent, then started rolling the bikes over to the show area and cleaned them up a bit. There were more bikes than ever in the show, with all classes having 2 or more entries and most classes having 6 or 8.
The “Pre-71 Triumph†class had almost a dozen entries and many of them absolutely gorgeous; I never had a chance with my scruffy ’69 Bonnie and my client’s unfinished ’68 Bonnie with a ’69 gas tank on it.
While we were waiting for the voting to end, a prospective buyer asked me about Mark’s Norton with the “For Sale†sign on it; Mark happened to be standing right next to me, so I introduced him as the owner and let them discuss a possible deal. It appeared to be a successful negotiation, time will tell.
While the ballots were being counted, the raffles were going on; many numbers were being called for “no-shows†who must have left early, so the promoters decided to have everyone still in attendance come up and exchange their tickets for new ones in order to avoid calling and re-calling numbers of absent ticket holders. We won raffle prizes on 5 out 0f 7 raffle tickets between our group of 5 and Greg & Tom from Corpus who left their tickets with us. I guess Greg & Tom had the two losing tickets (hee hee).
The announcers also made an announcement for the Laredo Bike Show in October, and handed out flyers at the main table where the bike show ballots and awards were handed out.
We did manage to get a Second place with Charlie’s ’75 Norton Commando Café Racer that I built (in VERY stiff competition), a Third place for Mark’s ’72 Norton 750 that I cleaned up, and a Third place for Jason’s Ducati Monster.
I was glad that Mark showed up for the awards, so he was able to collect the plaque; people were starting to wonder how we won so many items in the raffle, and how I had so many of the winning bikes! I think there may have been one other guy, Dave Smith, that had as many bikes on his trailer as I did; Dave’s bikes are beautifully done and more vintage than mine.
We started to take down all the tents and tables by about 1M, and were still working on it after 3 o’clock! Boy, it sure was hot once we took down the E-Z ups. By the time we had pretty much loaded the last of the stuff, there were very few other campers still in the park. Good thing, because everybody would have seen me drop the Ducati on the trailer; after the guys pushed it up the ramp and I said “I’ve got itâ€, it started to tip away from me and fell on the trailer fender. No big deal, one more scratch on the gas tank that now has one dent and four scratches.
After we loaded the bikes, Sally drove off to get us a good table at the restaurant instead of sitting in the sun waiting for us to take showers. By the time I came out of the shower, there was only one other guy putting away his stuff; while I sat in the air conditioned TrailBlazer, he came up and knocked on the window. He asked if I knew anything about RVs? His friend had his Harley broke down and sent him to get his RV and trailer, then come back for him; it turns out he was only 1/4 mile away, up the road that is mostly downhill. He didn't want to leave his bike and come get his own rig.
Anyway, he had taken the awning apart because he couldn’t figure out how to roll it up, and we got it put back together, rolled it up, helped him fold up the stairs, hook up his trailer and load his bike. We were the last ones to leave right before that poor guy as he was still putting away tools and stuff from the trailer so he could drive away. His buddy was just up the road, sweating and burning in the sun wearing a tank-top, standing next to his Harley as we drove by. We told him his ride wouldn’t be much longer and it looked like he sure appreciated that!
Sally and the boys had already gotten their salads and placed their food orders by the time we got to the restaurant, but we caught up to them pretty quick and enjoyed some delicious food in the cool air conditioning.
It seemed like we made better time going home at 65 MPH than we did coming down at 70, but mainly it was because we only stopped for gas. Eddie and I stopped for gas just South of San Antonio and Sally kept rolling because the truck was getting good mileage and Talitha was asleep. After gassing up, Eddie stayed behind me for a while, then he said it seemed like God was telling him to go around and catch up to Sally. Everything went pretty smoothly ‘till about 10:30 PM just North of Cotulla when one of the trailer tires blew out; it was a good thing Eddie had caught up to Sally, he saw the sparks and pulled up alongside to let her know she had a blowout. The trailer has dual axles, so she didn’t know it had a flat!
I sure am glad Eddie was there because he came up with a great idea to put the RV spare in front of the good trailer tire, then drive up on top of it; we hardly needed the jack to get the new tire in place in just a few minutes. The rest of the drive home was uneventful and we rolled into the driveway just a few minutes after midnight.
After unloading on Monday, we counted an all-time high donation from ANY rally to the (Laredo) Gateway Apostles’ CMA coffee fund of over $70.00! I must say that the fine folks who make up the BMOA New Ulm Rallye every year are some of the best there is and we will certainly be back next year, God willing!
The weekend was more beautiful than anyone could have hoped for, mostly clear, breezy and temps between 60 and 90. We believe God answered prayer on this! (After all, He is the only one that can create “made-to-order weather).
We had a mini-caravan consisting of 2 tow vehicles with trailers and one rider on a bike. Sally drove my pickup with Talitha in her baby seat, with all the CMA gear and my ’72 Rickman Montesa 250 dirt bike in the back, pulling the 6-bike trailer loaded with a ’75 Norton Commando 850, ’72 Norton 750, two Triumph Bonnevilles, a BSA 441 Victor, and a Ducati 900. Eddie rode his Kawasaki Vulcan 750 in the “rocking horse†position, between the two tow vehicles, and I drove Sally’s TrailBlazer pulling the camper and the rest of the gear.
It was somewhat slow going, we left at 10:AM on Friday morning and only got as far as Pearsall by lunchtime because Talitha needed diaper & bottle breaks. So, we made the best of the situation and got gas, then ate lunch at Cowpoke’s BBQ.
We hit San Antonio in pretty good time, then went all the way to the North side of town to a flooring outlet store to turn in some leftover flooring we had for a refund. Once we got done there, we took the loop to the East side of town and I dropped of a Triumph Bonneville rim at the chrome shop. We gassed up again and headed East to Columbus making pretty decent time the rest of the way.
We got to New Ulm a bit earlier than in years past, about 7
M, so we were able to set up the RV and CMA tent before it ever got dark. That was nice, because I would not have seen the huge Black Widow spider waiting to sink it’s fangs into me from inside the RV outlet box (after I reached my fingers inside to open it!). One thing I noticed was the absence of the usual “love bugs†from the front of everyone’s vehicles, and/or flying and landing all over the place, like in your tea.After setting up the refreshments, we took a stroll around the park and I found a few early deals on swap meet parts. Saw a few new faces and definitely more RVs and tents than in years past – good turnout!
Once we were settled in, we all piled in the TrailBlazer and headed to the “Texas Star†café for a delicious country style dinner. I guess everyone else was as tired as we were from the drive and dinner; it was quiet by 10
M and we were fast asleep with the A/C humming in the RV and Eddie snoring in the tent.Saturday morning dawned very much as usual with the train blaring by about 6:AM, and everything covered in a heavy coat of morning dew; guess who forgot to cover all the bikes? The usual crowd, Jimmy, Malcolm, “Twitchy†Dave and company were hanging around the coffee pot and kibitzing about the finer points of making a good pot of “Jesus†coffee (Dave’s term for CMA coffee). Charlie calls it “free Christian coffeeâ€, but I pointed out to him that I could not vouch for the spiritual condition of the coffee, only that it was free and it was coffee. But, I guess it’s a minor miracle to turn water into coffee…
The Saturday morning swap meet was the best ever; I saved over $500! As soon as Ron Peters showed up, I bought ½ of everything he brought in the back of his truck. He just happened to have the exact front rim I was looking for, a Dunlop 19†2x19 with fresh chrome; perfect for a ’68 Bonneville.
Made the rounds again, this time with Sally & Talitha, who added a few hundred members to her fan club. Her stroller looked quite the part with a Norton 2-into-1 header under the seat, sticking out the front and back, and a bunch of parts in the lower basket.
One of the kids on mini-bikes rode by the CMA tent to have a cup of lemonade, and we took the opportunity to get a photo of Eddie on it, then another photo of him picking it up. We got a few laughs out of that!
About mid-day, my oldest son, Jason, showed up with his buddy, Louie, and his dog, Snoopy. They unloaded Louie’s Honda 650 Dual-purpose bike, visited a while then took off on a short ride through the countryside.
There was so much going on, and so many people to chat with, that we missed almost all of the bike games. I was able to be the first one to “ride the plankâ€, and I managed my first complete run ever! They made it really hard by nailing two 10-foot 2x4s together with a 2-foot piece underneath that created a “humpâ€. I didn’t make the final round, but it was fun trying.
There were some really close races in the “cold start†and “dirt drags†categories, I watched a guy beat the perennial favorite, Gene, while doing a wheelie almost the full distance of the track and throwing a 50-foot rooster-tail of dirt.
While we were all involved with the bike games, an airplane buzzed the crowd at high speed, dipping below the treetops through the park’s clearing, then pulling up and over the far edge and he was gone in just a second or two. There were people “oohing†and “ahhingâ€, and I must say I was rather impressed. I hope somebody got a photo of that!
The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting with friends, swapping stories, passing the baby around, and snacking lightly in anticipation of the BBQ dinner. As usual, the volunteer firefighters didn’t disappoint us with plates of food piled high and all the iced tea we could drink. I was barely able to waddle away from the table to the tent and sat there burping for hours.
On the way back to our campsite, I passed by Roger’s area and complimented him on his Triumph, then I noticed he had a fiddle case at his table; so, I invited him to join us in a bit of music and fun.
About dark, Eddie had his amp and guitar all set up; soon, Roger and his brother Don showed up with a fiddle and a second guitar. These guys had never met Eddie, but within minutes, they were playing some pretty nice sounding tunes together. It turned out that Roger is a very accomplished fiddle player with a CD (or a few?), Don is a first-class cut-up, and Eddie can play some unbelievable music on his guitar with those “buffalo fingers†as he calls them. We may have been the loudest campsite other than the 59 Club and the Ton-Up boys, but we wound it up by 11:30. Actually, either the rowdy crowd was quieter than usual, or the hum of the RV’s A/C unit drowned out the noise, because I never heard a thing.
Sunday morning the usual crowd was hanging around the coffee pot, and everything that was not covered by a tent or tarp was soaking wet with dew; this time I remembered to cover the bikes! We got the pavilion area cleared, set up benches, and moved the coffee pot over before it was time for the CMA service, then I strolled over and invited Roger and Don to join us.
We had a really good crowd, about a dozen in attendance; we opened with a brief prayer, and Eddie played a couple of songs for us. I gave a short “Tech Session†on how our lives are just like our bikes, they need preventive maintenance and occasional repairs. I focused on the similarities between our group specifically and how we all need to have a complete restoration “by the Bookâ€.
I closed the message with an invitation for everyone to let God take control of our lives, tear us down to the nuts and bolts, and restore us to a complete new life according to His plan. Everyone was given a “Hope for the Highway†Bible to take with them, and Roger blessed us with a tear-jerking rendering of “Amazing Grace†on his fiddle.
After the service, we were able to pray with Jay for his stepson, Brad, and daughter-in-law, Drena, who had been involved in a near-head on motorcycle crash a few weeks ago. We also prayed for him as he travels back to his brother’s house in Austin and then back to his home next month. Eddie and Pauline exchanged song selections for next year’s service and shared how much each of us enjoyed being at the rally and the service.
By that time the coffee and Cheese Danish were finished, so we picked up all the gear and moved the coffee pot back to the CMA tent, then started rolling the bikes over to the show area and cleaned them up a bit. There were more bikes than ever in the show, with all classes having 2 or more entries and most classes having 6 or 8.
The “Pre-71 Triumph†class had almost a dozen entries and many of them absolutely gorgeous; I never had a chance with my scruffy ’69 Bonnie and my client’s unfinished ’68 Bonnie with a ’69 gas tank on it.
While we were waiting for the voting to end, a prospective buyer asked me about Mark’s Norton with the “For Sale†sign on it; Mark happened to be standing right next to me, so I introduced him as the owner and let them discuss a possible deal. It appeared to be a successful negotiation, time will tell.
While the ballots were being counted, the raffles were going on; many numbers were being called for “no-shows†who must have left early, so the promoters decided to have everyone still in attendance come up and exchange their tickets for new ones in order to avoid calling and re-calling numbers of absent ticket holders. We won raffle prizes on 5 out 0f 7 raffle tickets between our group of 5 and Greg & Tom from Corpus who left their tickets with us. I guess Greg & Tom had the two losing tickets (hee hee).
The announcers also made an announcement for the Laredo Bike Show in October, and handed out flyers at the main table where the bike show ballots and awards were handed out.
We did manage to get a Second place with Charlie’s ’75 Norton Commando Café Racer that I built (in VERY stiff competition), a Third place for Mark’s ’72 Norton 750 that I cleaned up, and a Third place for Jason’s Ducati Monster.
I was glad that Mark showed up for the awards, so he was able to collect the plaque; people were starting to wonder how we won so many items in the raffle, and how I had so many of the winning bikes! I think there may have been one other guy, Dave Smith, that had as many bikes on his trailer as I did; Dave’s bikes are beautifully done and more vintage than mine.
We started to take down all the tents and tables by about 1
M, and were still working on it after 3 o’clock! Boy, it sure was hot once we took down the E-Z ups. By the time we had pretty much loaded the last of the stuff, there were very few other campers still in the park. Good thing, because everybody would have seen me drop the Ducati on the trailer; after the guys pushed it up the ramp and I said “I’ve got itâ€, it started to tip away from me and fell on the trailer fender. No big deal, one more scratch on the gas tank that now has one dent and four scratches.After we loaded the bikes, Sally drove off to get us a good table at the restaurant instead of sitting in the sun waiting for us to take showers. By the time I came out of the shower, there was only one other guy putting away his stuff; while I sat in the air conditioned TrailBlazer, he came up and knocked on the window. He asked if I knew anything about RVs? His friend had his Harley broke down and sent him to get his RV and trailer, then come back for him; it turns out he was only 1/4 mile away, up the road that is mostly downhill. He didn't want to leave his bike and come get his own rig.
Anyway, he had taken the awning apart because he couldn’t figure out how to roll it up, and we got it put back together, rolled it up, helped him fold up the stairs, hook up his trailer and load his bike. We were the last ones to leave right before that poor guy as he was still putting away tools and stuff from the trailer so he could drive away. His buddy was just up the road, sweating and burning in the sun wearing a tank-top, standing next to his Harley as we drove by. We told him his ride wouldn’t be much longer and it looked like he sure appreciated that!
Sally and the boys had already gotten their salads and placed their food orders by the time we got to the restaurant, but we caught up to them pretty quick and enjoyed some delicious food in the cool air conditioning.
It seemed like we made better time going home at 65 MPH than we did coming down at 70, but mainly it was because we only stopped for gas. Eddie and I stopped for gas just South of San Antonio and Sally kept rolling because the truck was getting good mileage and Talitha was asleep. After gassing up, Eddie stayed behind me for a while, then he said it seemed like God was telling him to go around and catch up to Sally. Everything went pretty smoothly ‘till about 10:30 PM just North of Cotulla when one of the trailer tires blew out; it was a good thing Eddie had caught up to Sally, he saw the sparks and pulled up alongside to let her know she had a blowout. The trailer has dual axles, so she didn’t know it had a flat!
I sure am glad Eddie was there because he came up with a great idea to put the RV spare in front of the good trailer tire, then drive up on top of it; we hardly needed the jack to get the new tire in place in just a few minutes. The rest of the drive home was uneventful and we rolled into the driveway just a few minutes after midnight.
After unloading on Monday, we counted an all-time high donation from ANY rally to the (Laredo) Gateway Apostles’ CMA coffee fund of over $70.00! I must say that the fine folks who make up the BMOA New Ulm Rallye every year are some of the best there is and we will certainly be back next year, God willing!
