Day 1 of Boscobel 6 - June 19, 2003

One terrific day greeted us as we prepared to leave for the Sixth Annual VROC Rally in Boscobel, Wisconsin. No clouds in the sky, a mild breeze, temperatures in the low 70's -- a perfect day for a ride.

BlckChrome and his new bride Mustang Sally, Rev, Arm Bar, Mad Kaw, and I met at an IHOP in Elgin, IL, bright and early on Thursday for breakfast. As we prepared to leave, Mad Kaw wasn't looking or feeling too good. He had been bitten by a spider the night before, and was now paying the price. We encouraged him to visit the doctor rather than ride to Boscobel. (We were all looking for webs to come shooting out of his wrists; however, all that happened was that he left the restaurant by climbing the walls and ceiling rather than walking out with the rest of us.) As it turned out, he was able to get a clean bill of health from the doctor and joined us in Boscobel later that evening.

We rode the back roads of Illinois and arrived in Savanna, IL. There, we met up with other VROCers from Iowa, Indiana, Georgia, southern Illinois, and other parts of the country.

We had lunch in a cozy little tavern, where we caught up on old times with fellow VROCers and made new friends.

We left Savanna, 14 bikes strong, for Boscobel. Detours around the main highways forced us to take to the really backroads of Illinois. At one point, with Brillo leading us, I thought we were lost for sure. In fact, the whole column of bikes pulled to a stop in the middle of nowhere.

"Ah Hah!" I thought. "Brillo needs to ask a cow for directions."

Nope. Evil lost a shifter bolt on his bike. With plenty of help from the crew, plus a spare bolt, we were up and running again in no time.

Arriving in Boscobel without further incidents, we checked into the Sands and Super 8 motels, unpacked, and took a breather before heading out to Snick's Fin -n- Feather inn. BlckChrome was buying the beer in honor of his and Sally's recent wedding, and we took full advantage of his generosity.

The town of Boscobel had closed off the street in front of Snick's just for the occasion. We lined our bikes down the middle and along both sides of the street.

The weather was too good to sit indoors. We mingled outside on the street, shooting the breeze, and admiring the good looking bikes.

Our benefactor, BlckChrome, and Snick himself.

Piper provided the musical entertainment with his bag pipes, much to BlckChrome's personal delight. While we all enjoyed Piper's playing, we couldn't say the same about BC's "dancing."

Everyone had a great time outside Snick's:

Capt'n Kirk demonstrated his ability to severely reduce the expected mileage one can get out of good set of tires.

Brillo's new custom purple-colored Nomad was the center of attention, as his bike was decorated with a "Hearts and Flowers" plastic horn and water-bottle holder -- the perfect accessories for the discriminating biker.

His bike was topped off with a stuffed "Barney, the Purple Dinosaur." Alas, poor Barney didn't fare very well. The heartless Brillo ran Barney over with his bike -- again and again. (Click here to download a brief, 800kb video, courtesy of Brant Anderson, of poor Barney's fate under Brillo's tire.)

As the evening wore on, we headed back to the Sands, where we sat and stood around the parking lot, talking and having a great time.

In the morning, the group assembled for the first organized run of the weekend.

Darrell Ghost Kasper, this year's Boscobel Organizer, is shown here giving the safety briefing to the group. Ghost did a yeoman's job of putting the event on. Many thanks go to him and his helpers for all the hard work and planning.