Thursday - Americade - 20 miles

To read about all the demo rides, click here.

Today was going to be another busy demo day, so I stopped at Stewart's for another great breakfast, Hostess Cupcakes and a Pepsi. Met Jim at the gravel lot in RBR around 7:30, as we didn't think it necessary to be that early for the BMW line. We had no problem signing up for a ride together - he wanted to ride the RT (he had ridden the GS Tuesday), and I decided on the F800ST. We went over to Guzzi, Piaggio, KTM, then Honda. We double-booked 2pm for Honda and the Piaggio MP3 3-wheeled scooter, and ended up sticking with Honda. In hindsight we should have went with the MP3.

Saw the woman that runs Crossroads magazine, Shari? Went back into town for some breakfast at HoJo's. Don't need to go there again.

This cool old BMW was at the BMW tent

Somehow a GPS didn't seem right on this bike

We spent a lot of time hanging out at the ROK tent, thanks to Jim this time I got to go behind the velvet rope as a guest of ROK. Free water, soda, snacks, it was a little slice of paradise at RBR.

I called TJConc (Tommy) from STN, and he and StinkBomb had just gotten in to town. We made arrangements to meet in town at the Barnsider, as they were supposed to have great ribs. Tommy called back later to say we had reservations for 6pm - excellent. We arrived a couple minutes early to find Tommy and StinkBomb enjoying some pre-dinner cocktails. Dinner was fun, good stories all around, and we ended up not getting charged for our drinks. Tommy was not thrilled with the idea of riding back to their campground (40 miles away) after dark, but I convinced them to do a little Canada Street walking. He followed Tommy to a secret parking area that didn't require PP stickers (cheapskates!), and made the long walk past the beach to Canada Street.

It was a trip walking around with these guys, 10% admiring bikes and 90% shocked and horrified by other bikes. More good ice cream (can't let a day go by without some ice cream, though Tommy passed as it goes "straight to his hips"), and then they split for the dark ride to their campground. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of fellow STN'ers!

Jim and I walked around for a while longer, and then he took off to get packing for his Friday AM departure. Since this was my last night at Americade I didn't want to end the night early. I walked back to our free lot and rode the bike back downtown, and got my usual spot near the Price Chopper.

Bumped into Dave and Peter, and talked about rallies for a while. Had to explain Mardi Gras beads to Peter, and tramp stamps to Dave. We watched a group of guys taking pictures of every bike waiting for the light and handing out business cards. We split up, and I walked around a bit more. I was delighted to see a Guzzi Sport 1200 parked, and walked over to the guy getting on to ask how he liked it. Turned out it was the Guzzi rep guys, so we chatted a bit. I mentioned I wanted to ride the Sport tomorrow, and the head guy (district service rep?) said I should make sure I get bike G. Noted.

The Star Wars 5-wheeler

Nice awning

Check out the pooch-mobile!

I bet she handles great

Love the shifter

Back to camp by 10:30.