Airheads campout

[Ed Miller]

I don't know that anybody else is close enough to make it, but there's a small Airheads rally in Maupin, OR this coming weekend.  I'll head over after work Friday with my friend Tom (he rides an R100GSPD), spend Friday and Saturday nights, and head home Sunday.

I see other R65s every once in a while but I never think to see if the riders are on this forum.  I guess I need to wear those T shirts more often!

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

So which route will you take, coming home?  I assume you will take the highways there, since it will be after work.

Google Map

Around Detroit?  Estacada?

Where do you go, to work, anyway, Ed?  Portland?

[Ed Miller]

We'll take back roads.  I hope I'm not setting up my tent in the dark.

I'll be working in Salem tomorrow, and get off work at 3:00 pm.  My buddy has a tooth cleaning at 2:45 so I'll head over to his house after work to wait for him.  

We'll head out through Silverton, Mololla, and Estacada, and over that little forest road by the lake to highway 26.  I love that forest road:  single lane, paved, with turn outs for oncoming traffic.  Luckily Tom rides pretty well when he has a mind to, so I doubt he'll hold me back much.

It's been too long since I had the bike at work, all loaded up with camping gear.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

That sounds like a lot of fun!

I guess I never asked what you do for a living, that you work at different locations?

[Ed Miller]

I work for the USDA inspecting (i.e., eating) processed fruits and vegetables.  A local processer called Norpac Foods has a contract (Our service is not manditory; they have it because they want it and pay for it.  We're not tax funded.)  for year round inspection, and I'm assigned to them.  They have a main plant in Stayton which is my actual duty station, but this week and next week I've been working in their facility here in Salem.  They also have a plant in Brooks, just up I5 from Salem, but it's a nice back roads ride from Stayton.  :-)


Now I'm impatiently waiting for this day to get by; the bike is ready and so am I.  I hope my buddy brings his digital camera; I don't have one.

[Ed Miller]

The day is dragging....

[Ed Miller]

We made it there (barely in time to get tents up before dark) and back fine.  It was fun.  I definitely saw 4 and maybe 5 R65s, not all at the same time.  Maybe I should have asked for the flag.

A guy named Vit (Veet) was there, a really nice guy and I hope he joins this group.  Not just because he's a mechanical engineer and revised his front wheel bearings in a fashion I won't attempt to describe.  He's from Czechoslovakia, back when it was all one word.  I mean, country.  There was a lady with a nice LS, red like Sue's.  Sorry I forgot her name.  

It turns out my buddy Tom, with whom I rode over and back, has his picture on the back of the rally T-shirt.  I don't think I teased him too much, maybe just about right.  I'm awaiting pictues from another rider, John, who accompanied us on his R1200 GS.  

[DeeG]

Holy smokes!!  We were down the road that weekend at the Humbug campground just outside Detroit.  We came down from Hood River and then took that same USFS road to Rd 46. Then went back the same way.  I saw a pair of Airheads heading east on Friday on the 'two lane' section, and almost got run over by a baby GS on the way back. This was on the single lane portion, good thing we were on 'our' side of the lane.  

Had never been on those roads before, I was dying to go and explore some of the dirt roads, but on the Guzzi, that wasn't going to happen. Oh well, an excuse to come back again.

[AH1510]

Hey!!!
 I did not see it listed in the AIRMAIL "Whair and When " section. If Gary Newby is there and it gets a good turnout, please ask him to list it next time. Thanks. OLDPAUL ABC #1510.

[Ed Miller]

Yeah, Gary caught some grief for not listing it in the Airmail.  Not ALL Airheads use computers and email, and that's how he spread the word, via the Airlist, the Oregonairheads list, and the OVM lists.  I'll try to pay attention next year.

1510?  Dang, you must be one of the founders!  I'm 8031, and the numbers are up into the 11 thousands now I think.

[AH1510]

Hi Ed,
              Not a founder. All of them that are still on the planet are in the in the low hundreds. It is up to us to past the word and keep it going. I got into it as a motorcycle camper. I love the desert and go camping there in the winter. I ran into them at Death Valley. reat Ggroup. Right not I am a "flounder" with both bikes down, but I am working on that. Death Valley is where I first ran into Gary. OLDPAUL
ABC #1510.