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| Event Description | Location | Date |
| 2nd Annual NEVROC Fall Foliage Run | New England | October |
| Chicago January Nasty Run | Illinois | January |
| Fall Highland House Run | Illinois | November |
| Fall Starved Rock | Illinois | September |
| Highland House / Cycle Empire ride | Illinois, Wisconsin | August |
| Houston or Bust | Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas | July |
| Joker Visits the Midwest | Illinois | November |
| Midnight Tour & Wolfman's 50th | Illinois | July |
| Midwest Great River Ride - Boscobel II | Wisconsin | June |
| Montreal Show n' Shine | Quebec, Canada | July |
| NEVROC Ride | Maine | August |
| Pacific Northwest VROC Ride | Washington | April |
| Rhino visits the Midwest | Illinois | December |
| Ride for Kids | Illinois | July |
| SFBA VROC Mt. Hamilton Ride | California | November |
| Spring Starved Rock Ride | Illinois | April |
| Sturgis, '99 | South Dakota | August |
| Turkey Day with Wrinkles | Illinois | November |
Highland House / Cycle Empire ride
August 22, 1999
Illinois, Wisconsin
(Main story by JR VROC #1585, photos and peripheral comments by Wolfman VROC #3; additional photos by JR.)
I'll try to make this one brief, but I can't guarantee anything... I had a blast! I'll probably say this over and over again, but I can't believe I finally found a group of people who have my two favorite interests in common - motorcycling and computers.
I started the day by leaving my place in New Lenox, IL at 8:00am. I meandered up back-roads for a half hour, and finally got on I-294 toward Half-Day Rd. Well, I must not have been paying attention to the road signs in the construction, because I ended up passing the exit. I got turned around and got back to Hewitt Associates parking lot with enough time left to get some introductions in. I didn't feel so bad when Huge came riding in after me. I think we had 14 bikes at that time, and the numbers kept rising and falling all day.
What JR missed at Hewitt [says Wolfman] was all of us eyeing Slick's bike. Slick came up from Indiana on his very nice-looking 1500 Classic. I threatened to take his Rivco horns off when he wasn't looking; dang, I gotta get me a set of those horns. However, as good-looking as his bike was, everybody just fell in love with, of all things, his leather water bottle holder strapped to his engine guard. If Slick gets a source of those things, he'll make a mint selling them to VROCers.
At Highland House, we spent about an hour ogling, picked up
a few more riders, topped off with coffee and gas, and headed up
to Cycle Empire. Maybe I'm weird, but the thing that stands out
in my mind was riding alongside Taz, and suddenly thinking his rear
fender was coming off. That's when my limited knowledge of the
Drifter was improved by the realization that it's mounted with the
swingarm, and moves up & down with the wheel! (Nice ride)
What can I say - At CE, there was too much to buy, and too little to spend. I know a few of the group left with smiles, but I purposely brought only enough cash for gas and food and left the checkbook and plastic at home. I would have been like a kid in a candy store!
After Sarge got his new pegs (at Bulldog's suggestion)
installed, we were off to Fred's in Burlington. That's when the fun
started. I don't know how old she was, but the look on our server's
face was priceless when Blckchrome asked for Tabasco, and then says,
"No wait, I have my own", and whips it out of the holster like a
gunslinger. Where's that camera when I need it. Although it did
come in handy when Greg was suddenly alone at his table when everyone
else got up and left early. Was it the deodorant, or lack thereof?
Riding the backroads of Southeast Wisconsin is very relaxing. They're not as windy as those near Boscobel, but the scenery is great. I was able to grab a shot of Brillo as he rode next to me. The one of BlckChrome sorta chopped off Sally (sorry, Sally), but I think you all can get the true sense of BC's spirits anyway.
With plenty time to spare, I was able to guide what was left of
our dwindling numbers through a ziz-zag tour of my old hometown, Como.
Sorry if it didn't look like I knew where I was going, but there were
certain key roads I wanted to hit, and they required an odd array of
turns to fit them in.
We stopped at Duffy's Pub for a lot longer time
than I thought we would, but it was nice. I did some reminiscing with
the management, and had some flashbacks, but that was remedied by some
good conversation with WCVROC. I meant no disrespect at all, but I
couldn't help laughing at the sight of a bunch of bikers drinking beer,
and talking about computers. It's not something you see every day.
Unfortunately, I missed one of the roads I wanted to take on the way
out of Como, but I think the ones we did hit speak for themselves.
We headed into Lake Geneva where most of us went our own ways, but not before BlckChrome announced he was making a final drink stop before leaving Lake Geneva. Wolfman, BlckChrome & Sally, Bulldog, Richard Pool, and I got a seat outside of a nice lakefront restaurant, and some of us, no names mentioned, got stares from little kids, probably wondering if those were the people their mom warned them about. Bulldog contemplated making the waitress go through the whole beer list, we spent about an hour BS'ing about past and future rides, and got sprinkled on a little.
We all said our good byes, and headed South out of Lake Geneva. I took
a detour to Walworth to see my Sister and her family, got rained on a
little more, and left there about 7:00pm. I arrived in Joliet at about
9:20pm, and immediately spilled everything to the SO about the great
day I had. I put almost 300 miles on the bike today, and don't regret
one inch of it. I can't wait until the next ride.
