Wiping his feet on the well worn mat outside the door, EVLTWN shouts to Number One, "I'll be in in a minute. Set up a round for everyone while I try to get this stuff off of my boots."

I have been very much on the go since Willa and I returned from MITM, so I have not had a chance to post our take on our *first* MITM. The short version of this report is that we had a fucking blast, met a whole lot of great folks... too numerous to mention individually and I am sure that I will forget to mention many, got wet on the ride up and back, and can't thank Butch, Pat (Pam?), Paula, and Cheezie enough for the great job they did.

Now for the long version... go grab another from the bar on me. This might take a while.

We had decided, due to work and kid obligations, to make the ride up from Nashville on Friday morning. This meant that we missed out on the chance to ride up with some of the SENS group and were unable to partake in the many cultural events on Thursday evening (was really looking forward to the ballet). Nashville Jeff, Willa, and I made plans to pull out early Friday morning. In the meantime, Jeff had purchased a new Road King so we were going to do his break-in service at my place Thursday evening.

Thursday evening, Nashville was beset with monsoon conditions. Heavy winds, sideways sheets of rain, the whole enchilada. Sure enough, Jeff pulls into the garage at about 7 pm with a strange look on his face. yep... he ended up trying to ride motocross on his brandy new Road King just down the street from my house. Hit a low spot in the street only to discover that it was about a foot deep in water and hydroplaned off into a nearby yard and clipped the edge of a culvert coming back out. Never dropped it but mangled his engine guard and left floorboard. He still had the shakes so Willa pointed him to the beer and helped him light his smoke, and while he pulled off his rain gear I checked out the carnage. Nothing that will prevent it from making the trip in the morning . Jeff and I spent a couple of hours grunting and cussing bending shit back into place and replacing sheared bolts, then pulled the engine guard off and pronounced it rideable. By now the rain has slowed a bit, so we changed all his fluids, checked the usual stuff and sent him on his way to pack his bike.

Friday morning, the heavy rain has returned. We checked the radar and moved our departure time back about 45 minutes to let the worst pass on through. We suited up and pulled out to hook up with Jeff. We decided to take the slab all the way to make some time and see if we could get out from under the rain. I think we finally began to cast an occasional shadow up around Paducah, Kentucky.

The rest of our ride in was pretty uneventful. I did manage to lose one of my jackets somewhere along the way when it blew out from under the bungee net I had strung across the top of the load. Since I was covering the back door, I had no idea when she decided to leave. Small shit in the grand scheme of things. No mechanical difficulties and no more than the usual number of shitheads on the road.

Anybody else thirsty? Bartender! Set 'em up again.

Thanks to Cheezie's map we made it to party central. The gravel road in was a real treat. Made for an interesting skills test at the end of the ride. Got checked in, gave Paula a bottle of Tennessee sipping whisky as thanks for all the hard work and rolled out to the camping area to set up and commenced to meet and greet folks. One of the first I met was Len Bradner (#104). I walked up and said, "Hi, I'm Bob Carroll". "I post as EVLTWN". . I learned from that episode to string my name and "handle" a bit closer together when introducing myself.

Friday evening was spent making the rounds and forgetting about as many names as I learned. Mass quantities of good food and cold beer were consumed. Somewhere along the way I was handed a cell phone that was being passed around and spoke to a very sleepy but "took it in stride" Agua Noggin. IIRC this was at about 1 am Central time. Not sure who got the "last man standing" award, but when I stumbled off to the tent at about 2am, Hawgeye was still hanging around *really* close to the beer wagon. The fashion award clearly belonged to Mr. Pink Frillies .

Saturday morning we pulled out (Willa decided to ride with me and leave her bike behind) for a ride down to Buzzies for breakfast and then down to Wheels Through Time. We ended up getting our wires crossed with Nashville Jeff who went to take a shower and, after trying to find him, went to catch up with the SENS at Buzzies. Nice ride down Hwy 4 through miles and miles of grits trees. Never had ridden in this part of the world... it was pretty cool to see the horizon WAYYY off in the distance. Just before we hit Buzzies, we caught up with the group in a parking lot. Paulie, Andrew, Mark, Steve Reyer, Bama Bob, Bama Mike, Tony-D, Turbo Dave, and others . After hitting a nearby Kawa dealership for directions in the group> Steve and Tony-D pulled out for parts unknown while the rest of us hit Buzzies for a carbo load.

We hit the slab and rolled down to Mt. Vernon to the Wheels Through Time museum. Dale was a great host and we thoroughly enjoyed drooling over the many one-of-a-kind antique bikes (and cars) he has there. The entire operation is moving down to Maggie Valley in NC in about 10 months. If you're down that way you have GOT to see this amazing collection.

Willa's ass was really sore from sitting on the pillion behind me (it's just not meant for 100 mile runs) so Paulie graciously agreed to let her return to party central on the back of his FLT. We were gone a lot longer than any of us anticipated, so we had some catching up to do at the beer wagon when we got there.

Speaking of which... anyone whose still with me , grab another!

Saturday night was a blast. Tom Ohmer built one helluva nice fire and Willa and I proceeded to meet as many folks as I could. Many bottles were passed around, including another bottle of Jack Daniels that I had with me. Andrzej had some mysterious Tazmanian Slivovitz . Sure wish I had some right about now cause I'm still trying to get that last of the melted rainsuit off of one of Willa's pipes. Among the highlights of the evening was Steve Reyer burning those pink frillies in Tom's fire and Turbo's infamous "fire dance and haybale gymnastics show". Paulie and I had to zip him in his tent a couple of times before it finally took. And though not exactly a "highlight" Firefly Dave's episode was certainly memorable. .

Sunday morning 10 of us pulled chocks and blasted down to Mt. Vernon for some serious chow to make the run home. Our group consisted of Paulie, Tony-D, Turbo-Dave, Steve Reyer, Bama-Bob, Bama-Mike, Andrew , Nashville Jeff, Willa, and myself. I like running the back door... fits my asshole personality cause I like snarling at cagers that try to horn in on our group. As we rolled down the interstate... I kept noticing strange blobs of a mysterious green substance occasionally splatting my windshield. Naturally, I assumed this was a direct result of Turbo's overindulgence the previous evening. I vowed not to ride behind him once we left Mt. Vernon. As we drew closer to our food stop... it became apparent that this substance was threatening to cover my entire bike. I noticed she was beginning to noticeably slow down as well. As we pulled into the Cracker Barrel, I proceeded to check over my scooter. Green shit was everywhere... dripping from the battery box and coil cover... oozing down between the jugs . Yep... couldn't blame this one on Turbo... I had been slimed!

The responsible party himself... Steve Reyer, and his partner in crime... Tony-D pulled out before we sat down to eat as they had a much longer run and couldn't spare the time. .

One more round bartender... I'm on the home stretch!

The remaining 8 of us continued onward into spotty rain. As we hit our last gas stop (last for Willa, Jeff and I at least) we noticed that we were about to hit some seriously bad shit. We said our goodbyes there and the three Nashville bound riders put on a major haul-ass the rest of the way in. After checking in on RMH, we called it a night.

To sum up our first MITM, we couldn't have had a better time. . If you have not made the trip yet... do so! This place has always been special, but has become much more so now that I have met IRL so many of the fine denizens. I have not EVEN attempted to list all of the folks I met... because I know I would leave out way too many. Next stop... MISFIT.
--
Bob Carroll (the EVLTWN), SENS, BS ###
'93 FXDL - Sort of a FrankenDyna
'99 FXD - Willa Jean's "Low Glider"
'76 FXE - Deceased, a moment of silence please