smoke out 8...

took the annual trip to salisbury to attend the smoke out... this year there was some controversy over whether the rally was going to he held or not. the city/county commissioners passed a new law that alcohol couldn't be served on county owned property - which includes the fairgrounds. the county was saying they weren't going to issue the alcohol permit. the smoke out organizers said they had to because the contract was in place before the new law passed. with all the hubbub, there was word vendors were pulling out and people weren't going to show. our crew decided if there was a smoke out, we'd be there - alcohol or not.

the weekend started out the same - everyone showing up friday night. which really means it starts earlier here because my wife starts days ahead to get all the food ready. speaking of wife - this year was going to be especially fun since my wife decided to go. i was pretty excited about that...

friday night and people start showing up. they decided to show up in two groups this year - guess work was getting in the way for some people. that's when i had my infamous incident with the fender... we always pack our garage full of bikes - we had about ten or eleven bikes showing up this year. i decided to move my bike forward about two feet to make more room. not picking up the kickstand, i push it forward the two feet, positioning the front tire perfectly next to the lawn mower. i start to get off and the bike heads over on its side. seems when i pushed it forward, the kickstand picked up just enough that it wouldn't engage when i tried to us it. over went the bike, front fender crashing into the lawn mower. not only did it scratch the paint, it put a nice little crease in the fender. i was upset for about ten minutes until i realized it could have been a lot worse. in addition, it is only a motorcycle. the worse part was the rest of the weekend, and still sometimes, they call me freddy fender...



friday night was filled with eating and drinking, laughing and telling lies. which made saturday morning arrive even earlier. after eating some breakfast and drinking about ten pots of coffee, we're ready to head out... ride out was great - beautiful weather, traffic wasn't too bad and best of all, my wife was with me. it would be nice to take more trips with her... one day... off we went to the smoke out.





we get to the smoke out and park in our usual area. we hop off the bikes and settle in - having a couple of cold beverages, relaxing before heading into the mayhem known as the smoke out.




we wander around and check out the bikes in the build off.





stumble across some bikes by hank young.



and the ice cream man from hell...



compared to previous years, the smoke out was a bit of a disappointment. not nearly as many vendors and the crowd was quite small. it might be signaling the end of the smoke out - especially since they've been promoting a smoke out in the west. if they do have one next year, i'm sure we'll go. one thing for sure, it won't be held in salisbury - at least at the fairgrounds. if it goes, it was fun while it lasted. we'll just have to find another rally to attend. i can't imagine not having the gang down here hanging out, eating, drinking, laughing and lying. hell, we might just have to start our own rally...

on to more pictures... you can always check out the ride map, this one in blue.