I would like this to be my first rally

[LickMyBrick]

Just wondering if there is anybody in Albrightsville,Pennsylvania area that is going to the rally next year? I would like to camp there for the weekend,and need some company for my first rally.

Jayson

[BradfordBenn]

Jayson-

I wouldn't worry about company there will probably be 6,000 friends there that you just haven't met yet. :thumb

I would recommend volunteering as it is a great way to meet people, I did it at my first rally and had a blast.

[gsjay]

Where is Albrightsville, Pa. ?

gsjay

[dmaust01]

Jayson,
I second the idea of volunteering. It is a great way to meet folks. The beer garden and registration are two opportunities that provide a good avenue to meet others. There are many other volunteer opportunities. Camping at the rally is also a good way to meet other riders. I think you will find people at the rally to be a very friendly group. I am chairing the gates committee, so let me know if you would like to help out with staffing a gate for a shift...excuse the shameless plug.

Mark

[username]

Where is Albrightsville, Pa. ?

gsjay

Latitude 41.00
Longitude -75.57

[BradfordBenn]

Jayson,
I second the idea of volunteering. It is a great way to meet folks. The beer garden and registration are two opportunities that provide a good avenue to meet others. There are many other volunteer opportunities. Camping at the rally is also a good way to meet other riders. I think you will find people at the rally to be a very friendly group. I am chairing the gates committee, so let me know if you would like to help out with staffing a gate for a shift...excuse the shameless plug.

Mark

Speaking of shameless plug... the charging commitee is always looking for people :brow

[chasman]

Jayson, don't wait until Lima to attend your first rally. Attend some of the great Chartered Club rallies come spring. You'll have a great time and meet new friends that will be going to Lima. And most importantly, you won't be a "Rally Virgin" when you get to Lima! Ride safe and often.


Riding Like the Wind (come spring)...

CHASMAN
Black '02 K12RS

[LickMyBrick]

Where is Albrightsville, Pa. ?

gsjay


Its in between Wilkes-Barre and Allentown. I'm about fifteen minutes from the Pocono int'l raceway.

Jayson

[kbasa]

How to make friends at a BMW national rally.

By KBasa

One may ask, "how do I make friends at a national rally"? It's easy, really, and once you've made a couple friends, you'll find that you'll make a whole bunch of new friends shortly thereafter. After a bit, you'll have so many friends, that you'll be introducing other folks to your new friends and those folks will have new friends too.

How friendly.

Method #1. Get a collapsible cooler of some type (plastic shopping bag with ice works) and fill it with ice and beer. Wander around the campground until you find a bike kind of like yours. Stop and admire it for a bit and wait for someone else to wander along and do the same thing as you.

Now - utter the magic words: "This is kinda nice, eh?" You've now begun a conversation. You'll find that you're both standing there, gawking at this bike while you have a beer. Be neighborly and offer your new acquaintance a beer. Congratulations, you've just made a new friend.

Method #2. Work at any of the volunteer positions. I like security as you get to hang out and watch bikes go in and out of the campground/rally site all day long. You'll get a spot with a couple folks you've never met before. By the end of the day, you'll be friends. Be sure to find them in the beer tent and buy them a beer. (Beer is usually a buck, so you can make lots of friends that way).

Method #3. Show up at the Forum Frenzy in the beer garden. All the usual Forum knuckleheads will be there and some of them *ahem* may bring some kind of malt beverage that's made in Kentucky in a county named Bourbon. You'll make some new friends fer sure. And later, if you have a digital camera, you'll be able to post pictures of them with tequila bottles on their head, strange expressions as they drink things they normally wouldn't do and other income generating things.

So, while you may show up not knowing anyone, that's not gonna last long.

Finally, if all else fails, do what Tina and I did at the 49er Rally a few years ago. We set up a martini stand. We parked the bikes in front of the tent and when folks wandered by to look at them, we offered them a martini. They'd usually hang around for an hour or so while we shot the breeze and discussed the finer points of BMW motorcycling.

Hope to see you there, daddy-o. Get the Sign Man in the vendor area to make you a name tag with your handle on it and we'll be able to recognize you when you're wandering around making new friends and buying us all beer. :wave

:buds

[BradfordBenn]

How to make friends at a BMW national rally.
Method #3. Show up at the Forum Frenzy in the beer garden. All the usual Forum knuckleheads will be there and some of them *ahem* may bring some kind of malt beverage that's made in Kentucky in a county named Bourbon. You'll make some new friends fer sure. And later, if you have a digital camera, you'll be able to post pictures of them with tequila bottles on their head, strange expressions as they drink things they normally wouldn't do and other income generating things.

I highly endorse this plan, especially when somone else provided the Bourbon I was drinking :stick

I am not the one who had the tequala bottle on my head. However I am sure that there are embarassing photos to be had.

Even if you don't drink there is lots of fun to be had. The big thing is don't be afraid to just go up to someone and say "Howdy" most people are pretty nice.

Also when you camp, make sure to introduce yourself to your neighbors.

Also the volunteer thing is a pretty cool way to meet people, cause well they are probably just as nervous about meeting you. :thumb

[LickMyBrick]

Can't wait for the rally,I plan on taking that whole week off of work,and riding RT 6 through Pennsylvania taking my sweetass time! stopping when I feel like it,going when I feel like.See you at the beer garden!

Jayson Vilett

[kbasa]

Can't wait for the rally,I plan on taking that whole week off of work,and riding RT 6 through Pennsylvania taking my sweetass time! stopping when I feel like it,going when I feel like.See you at the beer garden!

Jayson Vilett

I've ridden a big chunk of that road. Army of the Grand Republic Highway or something, I believe. Anyway, from about Bradford east, it's pretty nice. It goes through all the Amish towns before it finally dumps you out in Ohio.

Have a terrific ride and don't forget your name tag so we can find ya!

[SHAG]

Can't wait for the rally,I plan on taking that whole week off of work,and riding RT 6 through Pennsylvania taking my sweetass time! stopping when I feel like it,going when I feel like.See you at the beer garden!

Jayson Vilett

Hey Jayson,

I'm Going! :wave Rt 6 is about 12 miles from my house! Blow the horn on your way through! When it gets closer, I'll know what my schedule will be for that weekend. Maybe we can meet up on the way :dunno

[SHAG]

I've ridden a big chunk of that road. Army of the Grand Republic Highway or something, I believe. Anyway, from about Bradford east, it's pretty nice. It goes through all the Amish towns before it finally dumps you out in Ohio.

Have a terrific ride and don't forget your name tag so we can find ya!

Dave, When were you in Bradford?

[RebeccaV]

Jayson,

If you are on this forum you are already ahead of the game. Plenty of us will be in Lima - you kinda sorta know us, right? At least enough to have a beer with us at the Forum Frenzy I hope.

I also second what chasman says about going to a local rally. When you get there, get a rally mug, fill it with your preferred beverage and walk up to the largest group of folks that you can find. Ask them if you can join them, then tell them where you rode in from and that it's your first rally. I guarantee that you'll have a great time.

[SheRidesABeemer]

And these folks even welcome hotel dwellers in the beer tent, and will allow you to chug bottles of water because you have to ride back to the hotel, that is accoss from Krispy Kreme, where you are hanging with your hotel dwelling friends...then you get up at the crack of dawn and buy them all donuts.

[manicmechanic]

But if you really want to become a rally rat, you'll camp out with the rest of us. Then you can sit in the Beer Tent as long as you want, and crawl back to your tent, or you can just sit around somebody else's camp and talk. The choice is yours. Also make sure to introduce yourself to Helen TwoWheels at the national, tell her you're new at this, and ask for her help. We all like to help, but she does it better. See ya there, wherever there is.

[Hodag]

you meet ten times the people when you go it alone.
Mark

[SheRidesABeemer]

you meet ten times the people when you go it alone.
Mark

You meet ten times that if you're a Chick! ;)

[Emoto]

You meet ten times that if you're a Chick! ;)

That's fine and all, but I intend to remain a man. Can't speak for the rest of these guys... :dunno

[kbasa]

Dave, When were you in Bradford?

I was there in 93 or 94? We were on our way to Oshkosh and stayed at the KOA there.

I was there again in 97 on our way home from someplace out west. We stayed at the KOA (drank at that restaraunt/bar in the quonset hut) and then headed home. My buddy Mark's K75 ate an input spline, so he got a ride back to the Honda dealer and bought a VFR750 and rode it home. They went back later for the Kbike.

We had lunch at a Chinese restaraunt with a buffet in town that day.

Yeah, Bradford's cool.

[kbasa]

That's fine and all, but I intend to remain a man. Can't speak for the rest of these guys... :dunno

I've got enough friends that I don't think I need the surgery. Tina can troll for new friends. She seems to be good at rounding them up.

:buds

[Emoto]

What does she do with them after she rounds them up?

[kbasa]

:drink :drink

[BradfordBenn]

Yeah, Bradford's cool.

Thanks! :thumb

[Joecubana]

Hey Jayson,


You come right through Meadville on good ol' Rt 6....We're heading over but not sure when....

Hey Shag, were you coming to Meadville this summer and helping with the rider ed classes? I would see a couple guys on Gs' come into town (and since there aren't many here they stand out!). Friend of mine said there were a couple guys from Bradford riding them that were learning the instructo ropes......

JC

[SHAG]

Hey Shag, were you coming to Meadville this summer and helping with the rider ed classes? I would see a couple guys on Gs' come into town (and since there aren't many here they stand out!). Friend of mine said there were a couple guys from Bradford riding them that were learning the instructo ropes......

JC[/QUOTE]

JC
I didn't know anything about the classes in Meadville! There are 2 Adventure's in town (Scott, Doug) ! I never took any rider-ed classes. I went to the hospital with broken bones, several times years ago, for my education :wave

PM me the dates & location, I'll try to make it!

[pmdave]

Add my vote to the suggestion to volunteer, say gate duty one shift per day, or helping with registration. You'll see the same people over and over again, and they will soon recognize you--especially if you wear some outlandish costume bit such as a sombrero or 24" name tag.

You may be wondering how to avoid becoming bored at a rally that goes on for several days, but you'll be amazed at how much there is to see and do (in addition to swilling booze and acting stupid at the beer garden)

When the program comes out on this site, scrutinize the events, and make a few notes about which ones sound interesting to you. During the rally, it's very easy to lose track of the day or time and miss a seminar.

In between the scheduled events, you can rub elbows with thousands of your fellow BMW riders wandering and gawking (and sometimes buying) at the vendor area.

If you're up early looking for action, feel free to stop by "coffee with Dave" at 7a on Friday and Saturday. I suspect that I'll be able to talk Fred Rau (former Senior Editor of Motorcycle Consumer News) into joining me, as he did at Spokane in '04. Typically, we sit around for an hour or so with an open mic discussing whatever comes to mind, then the coffee session is followed by somewhat more organized seminar on riding skills. With any sort of luck, I'll find someone with deep pockets (at Spokane it was Whitehorse Press) to finance some free edible goodies to go along with coffee.

pmdave :wave

[BradfordBenn]

If you're up early looking for action, feel free to stop by "coffee with Dave" at 7a on Friday and Saturday.

Yea, Dave I have been meaning to ask if you could move that to later in the day. I have an important meeting with my pillow scheduled for that time. Ever rally I have been to I have put that on my list of things to do, and every rally I have ended up sleeping through it. :thumb

[pmdave]

Brad, it's interesting you should mention the time of day for "coffee with Dave". The original concept (shamelessly stolen from Fred Rau and his "coffee with Fred" at the Americade) is that there are people up early before the general opening times, so why not have a get-together where they could share a cuppa and start the day?

However, I know there are a few late sleepers who would like to join in--if only they could open their eyes that early. So, I've thought about having one coffee session at say 9a on Friday just for the LSs. What do you say?

pmdave :type

[BradfordBenn]

However, I know there are a few late sleepers who would like to join in--if only they could open their eyes that early. So, I've thought about having one coffee session at say 9a on Friday just for the LSs. What do you say?


Dave-

If you set it up, I will be there! :thumb :twirl :brad

[pmdave]

Brad,

Well, we've probably hijacked the topic, but since this is about the rally, let's continue the tangent.

In past years I've tried to get various interesting people to show for coffee, including favorites such as Mauricio Fernandez, the Brazilian who rode twice in the Paris-Dakar race as a privateer. Mouths were dropping open in Spokane as he described getting airlifted out at night after a serious crash, with the dirt strip illuminated by truck headlights. I've always wanted to get Sandy Cohen (ON Editor) to show up, but she is apparently unawake at 7a. And there are others. You might want to meet Dan and Judy Kennedy of Whitehorse Press, for instance, or maybe Ron Ayres of Ayres Adventures. Name your favorites, and I'll invite them to stand up front and be interviewed.

So, this year I'll request a 9a coffee, followed by a 10:30 skills seminar, on Friday. I'll press Cohen to attend, so we can ply her with questions. Saturday I'll request the "traditional" 7a "Coffee with Dave" followed by a 8:30 skills seminar, to allow folks to participate and then get off to see the rest of the shebang. And no, you don't have to stick around for the seminar just because you accepted the free coffee and pastries (complements of businesses who don't yet know they are going to be involved).

While I will make the requests, the rally seminar organizers have the final say in the schedule. We'll see how it works out.

pmdave :type

[BradfordBenn]

Heck Dave, I was just looking forward to meeting you. Although the idea of meeting Ron Ayers who started my IB rides would be cool. Andy Goldfine would be cool also.

I'll trust your judgement. :thumb