Home Again.

I'm back from Something for Nothing.

I had a great time!

Camping was pretty fun, The rally was fun, The ride was beautiful and I met some cool new people.

Friday we left Tucson about 2PM from the GGR Garage.

Went up to the Rally with 4 guys from GGR Scooters, Bald John, Chris, Ian and Ernie in Bald John's Suburban.

We hauled Three Stella's, a Rally 200 and a P200E with us for bikes on a U-Haul trailer and had a trouble free drive from Tucson  to Prescott Valley where we grabbed some food and beer before heading up to the Mingus Mountain Camp Site.

I camped for the first time Friday, I brought most of the correct stuff but forgot a couple things like a Lantern which I swear I bought but forgot to pack, and a warm hat to keep my head warm. Also a airbed would have been very welcome as everyone else had one in the GGR Camp I think and I got stuck sleeping on a small exercise mat under my Sleeping bag.

I don't think I slept all that great but apparently I was snoring and between Ernie and my sawing logs it was enough that Ian moved to the Suburban to sleep the rest of the night, Sorry Ian!

We met a bunch of people Friday from various groups, cities and even States. Hi New Mexico people!

Saturday was the Ride down to Flagstaff for the start of the official ride from Flagstaff back to the Mingus Mountain camp site.

The ride was beautiful, We must have had nearly 30 bikes at the Mingus Mountain camp site and we started out as a big pack, As riders proceeded at their own pace we ended up splitting off into little sub groups based on how fast we were riding.

Traffic in Sedona was scary with all of the round abouts, We had several close calls due to them in the pack of mostly GGR People I was with.

I hung with the GGR Guys for a long time but when I lost them I stuck with a pair of really nice scooterists from Phoenix who's names I can not recall :( They both had newer Stella's than mine with some minor tuning so I had no problem running with them.

John's Bike broke down on the ride from the Mingus Mountain camp site to Flagstaff, I dont think he made it to Sedona.

I broke my bike at our destination in Flagstaff, I swapped plugs and while doing so cross-threaded the spark plug.

Met some great people, a new GGR Member Bryant, Got to hang out with GGR Steve who's in the band Eurovox and who I don't see often as He's up in Phoenix, Same with GGR Ryan.

On the way back from Flagstaff John and I rode in the back of the Sag Wagon as they were low on seating, When we started there were two trucks, One had a Lambretta in it and the other had a trailer with a Lambretta and our two Stella's on it. By the time we got to Sedona the trailer was nearly full and I think the truck had two bikes in it.

John and I at that point ended up taking Hank's Truck so that his wife Michelle who had been driving it with her operational scooter in the back could ride her scooter from Sedona to the Mingus Mountain camp site.

Hank's Truck is a Huge Cummings powered Diesel that's quite tall, Driving it we made four stops between Sedona and the Mingus Mountain site to assist broken down scooterists. Three of the broken bikes ended up in the other two vehicles but for the last bike the other trucks were full so we ended up moving it.

Thankfully the last bike was a Small Frame Vespa so it was relatively light for a Scooter And the owner loaded it without us needing to assemble the multi-stage ramps needed to get bikes in and out of Hank's Truck.

GGR Chris made Carne Asada on our grill and we had a good time drinking and hanging out late into the night.

It was cool talking to Hank and his wife Michelle whom I'd met in Tucson briefly once or twice as they are both obviously Scooterists and they have a number of cool scooters,
We stayed up well past Midnight so I guess this means the rest is Sunday here.

My good friend Sean made a surprise visit to our Camp Early Sunday morning (like 1AM maybe), He was driving home from a weekend spent hanging out with a couple friends in Vegas.

Sean was awesome and brought me a Hat and brought the camp some Pancake mix so we could have Pancakes in the morning.

Sadly I never got to try them as Bald John asked that I travel back to Tucson with Sean as it was very late at night and Sean had been on the road for hours just getting to the camp site and we had a 4+ hour trip yet to Tucson so off I went taking my Jacket, Helmet and one of my bags with me back to Tucson with Sean.

We made it home about 5AM with a couple brief stops for Fuel & Drinks, and to check on our non human passenger who Sean was delivering for one of his friends from Vegas.

Pictures up at Picasa, I apologize for not taking more but in a bone-headed move I bought AAA Batteries for my Camera by Mistake when it took AA Batteries and the pair in the camera ran out before I got to take a Single Picture with it so all I had was my iPhone.

I've learned a lot, I think I've decided I enjoy camping and will be doing it again and I look forward to upcoming Scooter Rallies in the next few months.