Lamonster
SpyderLovers Founder
I was inspired by BajaRon to do a little recap of my run out to the BRP Spyder event in Hollywood. I used this trip to spend some quality time with my mom but there was so much that I did get out of this trip I thought that I would just throw it out here.
As you can see from the pics below I racked up just over 5000 miles and the Spyder turned over 35K on this trip. This is the most miles in the shortest amount of time I've put on anything I've owned in the pass. I guess that right there say's a lot about the Spyder and what a joy it is to ride. :doorag:
Getting ready for the trip is one of the most stressful parts of going on a trip. I used my past experiences to decide what I needed to bring on this run. I used a lot of the tools I brought "including the claw hammer" :clap:
The first day was just Ron and I and neither of us had much sleep. :shocked: We hit some pretty hard rain just outside of Knoxville and I got to see what it feels like to go a little bit sideways towing a packed trailer in the rain at 70 mph, oh in the dark too. :yikes:
The rain didn't last long and we really never hit any hard rain the rest of the trip there and back. I did love uploading pics and videos from my new iphone at each gas stop. I would do the email and web work thing too so it was like being at the office but the scenery was changing. :2thumbs:
First day we made it to Checotah, OK with no real issues. That run was 825 miles.
We were pretty beat and didn't find the place we were staying right away. When we pulled in we met up with effgjamis and REPOPS and another SpyderLover but I can't remember their names right now.
pps:
Deb & Brian weren't there yet but we found the trailer we were all staying in. I got my web work done and headed for bed. It was pretty hot at the time and the trailer only had one ac unit at one end and the cold air never made it to our side of the trailer.:sour: That's okay because we were so beat it didn't matter and I actuality slept pretty darn good that night. Deb & Brian showed up late that night after doing an Ironbutt. I heard them come in and take a shower but I was too wiped out to say hey.
We decided to take off early to try and beat the heat. I think we left at 4 or 5 am and fueled up and headed down the road.
I was fighting a sour stomach and hoped it would get better as we drove. Every gas stop was a mental fight for me. I would tell myself if I can just make it to the next stop I can get a place to stay. Then I would get to that stop and do the same thing. I thought I was pretty much done at the banner signing in Albuquerque, NM but decided to press on.
Harvey and Forrest had reservations in Gallup, New Mexico and I thought that's where I would quit too but decided to see if I could make it to Flagstaff, AZ. Our last gas stop before Flagstaff I had my first real meal in two days. We had a Subway and it stayed down and gave me a little more gas to make it the rest of the way.:thumbup:
Once we got to Flagstaff we found a motel but we had one little problem, we couldn't get into Brian and Deb's trailer. Being the prepared for all situations kind of guy that I am I lent them the proper tool to access their trailer.
This was another 1000+ day and I was done and wanted to get to my room asap. :doorag:
The next morning we headed to Hollywood. Ron took off early so he could make the run up north to his brothers and I rode with Brian and Deb most of the way to Hollywood. They split off and went to a KOA in Pomona and I headed to the host hotel. The first guy I see there was my buddy Doc. :doorag:
The hotel was really nice but to be honest it was a little too nice for this old biker.:doorag: First problem I ran into was my credit card was rejected. My wife had a new card sent out just before the trip but even though it was the exact same number the numbers on the back were different and that's where my trouble began. So here I am standing at the check-in looking like I was rode hard and put away wet with a bad card. :gaah: The gal was nice and after a few phone calls we got it all worked out. Then I checked my email and found out my card was rejected when my servers went to get paid. That would make about 80,000 members very unhappy if they couldn't get their message board fix. So I spent some more time on the phone getting that fixed. :sour:
A little while later the No Magic crew showed up and we went all went to dinner. It was Doc's treat and he picked a great little Steakhouse.:thumbup: That's when we got the idea to have a little photo fun. We had a missing member Photoshopped in at all the places we met.
We couldn't wait to see what tatt2r had done with them. :2thumbs::bowdown::firstplace:
On the trip down I had an idea for a shirt and my buddy Mark at CAT was just down the road a bit so I asked him if he could put something together for me so. He did and they came out great. The BRP guys loved them and so did most of the SpyderLovers there.:doorag: It was really cool to see all the folks wearing themhyea: but I should have had him make up more than I did. pps:
Friday is when most of the folks showed up. It was great to meet so many cool people and to checkout the mods others had done to their ride. I spent most of the day in the garage and never got to go out till it was time to roll over to Jay Leno's garage. That was really cool but I was bummed out that Jay wasn't there and we couldn't take any pictures inside. :gaah:
This was the only picture I got and Mark shot this video of the interview I did for BRP and I had one more of getting in the Limo.
When we got back to the hotel I head for my Spyder but got caught up talking with folks and working on Spyders.
There was one gal who was having trouble with her SE and I told her I would take a look at it. While I was doing that Kurt Otteson showed up and asked what I was doing. From there we both started to wrench on the Spyder. For me this was better than meeting Jay Leno, here I was busting knukkles with the top dog Spyder tech. That was great and once again I learned a few things along the way. We didn't get it fixed that night but Kurt worked on it the next day and got it squared away. Turns out it had a few issues that may have caused the problem but Kurt took care of all of them even though some of them were because of a poor install of some HID's.
We both knocked off about 12:30am and was back out at 6am. I didn't get much sleep again as I had a few hours of web work to get caught up on. I was pretty beat that day.
So now it's Saturday the day of the BIG event. I missed my burger at Bob's Big Boy and I missed Jay Leno showing up there but I wasn't about to miss my movie that I drove 2300+ miles one way to see. :doorag:
BRP had a parking lot all blocked off for Spyder only parking and we pretty much filled up the whole thing before the show. It was great to walk around and see all the cool Spyders and to meet some of the members that I've talked to on the boards. :doorag:
From there we went to the Hardrock for a BRP sponsored breakfast. It was a great breakfast and a great time to meet some folks there including Fred Rau. The whole area was decked out for the Transformer movie and the Spyder. Talk about great product placement. :2thumbs:
After the breakfast we had a nice little welcome ceramony and a few awards were handed out to SpyderLovers. Our very own Doc Doru won a few awards and one of them was the most mileage. :firstplace::bowdown:
I thought the movie was great. The Spyders were in the very beginning so that was cool. I wish they could have been transformers but at least they were in the movie. :doorag: After the movie we saw a little BRP movie that they made of the event, that was pretty cool seeing it wide screen. BRP picked up the tab for the movie and the popcorn :clap:
opcorn:
From there we gathered in the parking lot for our ride to Angeles Crest Highway. I'm not sure how many Spyders we had but we had a bunch.
The ride was great and we had a great place to pull over and take some pics. :doorag:
From there we went to the closing ceremony and BBQ. Much to my surprise my father inlaw and his wife were waiting in the parking lot for me. I guess they got on the internet and found out where I was and just showed up. I guess it was cool with the BRP gang as they let them in with the rest of us. :thumbup:
The food was great and so was the fellowship. BRP pulled off another great event and once again I am so impressed with the way they treat their customers. I've never seen any manufacturer put as much time, money and effort into making sure we all had a good time. I think they truly do appreciate our business. :firstplace::bowdown:
After the BBQ we headed back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. It seemed like a long trip and a short event but it was all quality time. We made some lifetime memories and friendships. That's really what it's all about. I'm sure there are folks I met on this trip that will be friends long after the Spyder is gone. :doorag:
Sunday was time to head to San Diego. I decided to take the long way there and went by way of the Ortega Highway. I've been on it a few times before but it's been years. It's a great road and some great stops along the way. The cops were pretty thick but the bikers going the other way were letting me know when to slow down. My last three tickets have been on a Sunday so I have a thing about driving on Sundays now. :sour:
From there I went to my old stomping grounds. I drove to Palomar Mountain and Observatory and took a few pics and video. I ran into an old tuner friend of mine and it wasn't long till I felt right at home. Most of my time there has been on bikes so it was cool to see the reaction of some of the hardcore riders there to the Spyder. For the most part they liked it and couldn't believe how many miles I had on it and how many miles I put in a day on it. :doorag:
From there I went to get a piece of pie at my favorite pie stop, Julian Pie Company. :thumbup: Once again the Spyder was a big hit up there and it was hard to get away long enough to eat my pie.
After the pie I headed down the hill to my mom's house in El Cajon. That's were I did something really stupid but got really lucky. There was this big ol motorhome that could barley make it up the hills but where I could pass him he would speed up so I couldn't legally get around him. After a few miles of that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to pass him. Once again this is on Sunday and I knew it was a bad idea from the start. I had a good spot in the road where I could safely pass but it was a double yellow line but I went for it anyway. As soon as I got around him and was pulling back into my lane a CHP was coming toward me and saw the whole thing. I was busted big time and knew it. My first reaction was to run but at 50 years old my running days are pretty much done and I knew I just had to suck it up and take it like a man. I slowed down and waited for him to get turned around to red light me. Sure enough he did and i pulled over and went through the routine. I gave him my story and I guess being a motorcycle rider himself he could understand my frustration. Even though it wasn't right he did decide to let me go with a verbal warning. I guess I broke the curse of the Sunday ticket thing. Still I knew I was wrong and won't be doing that again anytime soon.nojoke
From there I rode to Lakeside to a friends house and visited with him for a while and then headed over to mom's place. I haven't been there since my Dad died last year so it was good to see mom when the situation was much better.
I spent most of my time with mom and my sister but I did get out to a few car shows and I stopped by Fun Bike and met the guy who runs the place there. It was a great chance meeting and hope that something good will come out of it in the future for us SpyderLovers. :doorag:
While I was at the car show in La Mesa I met a movie producer that really loved my Spyder and has plans for a Spyder to be featured in a couple of his up coming movies. I can't say much more but I will say if this happens the way he want's it to the Spyder will be getting some great product placement in these films. Stay tuned.hyea:
When I was in Hollywood I was having trouble with my PC laptop so I decided when I got to San Diego to go ahead and order a Mac Book Pro. I did so and when I got home and showed my mom the iphone and the Mac Book she decided she had to have one. You see she's 72 but has an ipod touch and is kind of a gizmo junkie. I guess I know where I got it.
I got the 13" for traveling but she had to have the 17" :thumbup:
So now I spend the next two days loading all her movies and pictures from her PC to her Mac Book and ipod. That was quite the undertaking but I was glad to help and it was nice to spend the time with mom.
On Friday my sister Lynette drove mom and I to see where dad was laid to rest at Fort Rosecrants National Cemetery. It was a beautiful day but very sobering seeing it was July 3rd, the day before Independence day. Seeing so many graves of our fallen men and women soldiers really took my breath away knowing that I have three boys that will someday wind up in a place like this. I'm so very proud of their service and commitment to our great country.
I said my goodbyes to mom and thanked her for everything and told her not to get up for me as we were going to leave at 3am to beat the heat once again. Ron was waiting for me at the gas station and we beat feet for East TN. The weather was looking pretty good and all the rain was south of us.
First day we made it to Albuquerque, NM It was right at 800 miles that day and we had good weather and no Spyder issues.
We got a little bit of a late start the next morning but we still made it to Fort Smith, AR. That was a little over 700 miles.
Next day we made it home about 10:30pm with no problems. It's great riding with a guy like Ron as you know he's got your back. We had a few road trip stories to tell along the way and after doing this trip last year by myself I can definitely say that it's more fun doing it with another rider. :doorag:
The event was great, the ride was great, the fellowship was great and the Spyder performed flawlessly. I have over 35,000 miles on her now and plan on running out to Sturgis in a couple of weeks. I trust the Spyder as much as I trusted my Honda's. This has been a great chapter in my life and I can't wait to see what new adventures the Spyder will bring next. :doorag:
As you can see from the pics below I racked up just over 5000 miles and the Spyder turned over 35K on this trip. This is the most miles in the shortest amount of time I've put on anything I've owned in the pass. I guess that right there say's a lot about the Spyder and what a joy it is to ride. :doorag:
Getting ready for the trip is one of the most stressful parts of going on a trip. I used my past experiences to decide what I needed to bring on this run. I used a lot of the tools I brought "including the claw hammer" :clap:
The first day was just Ron and I and neither of us had much sleep. :shocked: We hit some pretty hard rain just outside of Knoxville and I got to see what it feels like to go a little bit sideways towing a packed trailer in the rain at 70 mph, oh in the dark too. :yikes:
The rain didn't last long and we really never hit any hard rain the rest of the trip there and back. I did love uploading pics and videos from my new iphone at each gas stop. I would do the email and web work thing too so it was like being at the office but the scenery was changing. :2thumbs:
First day we made it to Checotah, OK with no real issues. That run was 825 miles.
We were pretty beat and didn't find the place we were staying right away. When we pulled in we met up with effgjamis and REPOPS and another SpyderLover but I can't remember their names right now.
pps:Deb & Brian weren't there yet but we found the trailer we were all staying in. I got my web work done and headed for bed. It was pretty hot at the time and the trailer only had one ac unit at one end and the cold air never made it to our side of the trailer.:sour: That's okay because we were so beat it didn't matter and I actuality slept pretty darn good that night. Deb & Brian showed up late that night after doing an Ironbutt. I heard them come in and take a shower but I was too wiped out to say hey.
We decided to take off early to try and beat the heat. I think we left at 4 or 5 am and fueled up and headed down the road.
I was fighting a sour stomach and hoped it would get better as we drove. Every gas stop was a mental fight for me. I would tell myself if I can just make it to the next stop I can get a place to stay. Then I would get to that stop and do the same thing. I thought I was pretty much done at the banner signing in Albuquerque, NM but decided to press on.
Harvey and Forrest had reservations in Gallup, New Mexico and I thought that's where I would quit too but decided to see if I could make it to Flagstaff, AZ. Our last gas stop before Flagstaff I had my first real meal in two days. We had a Subway and it stayed down and gave me a little more gas to make it the rest of the way.:thumbup:
Once we got to Flagstaff we found a motel but we had one little problem, we couldn't get into Brian and Deb's trailer. Being the prepared for all situations kind of guy that I am I lent them the proper tool to access their trailer.
This was another 1000+ day and I was done and wanted to get to my room asap. :doorag:The next morning we headed to Hollywood. Ron took off early so he could make the run up north to his brothers and I rode with Brian and Deb most of the way to Hollywood. They split off and went to a KOA in Pomona and I headed to the host hotel. The first guy I see there was my buddy Doc. :doorag:
The hotel was really nice but to be honest it was a little too nice for this old biker.:doorag: First problem I ran into was my credit card was rejected. My wife had a new card sent out just before the trip but even though it was the exact same number the numbers on the back were different and that's where my trouble began. So here I am standing at the check-in looking like I was rode hard and put away wet with a bad card. :gaah: The gal was nice and after a few phone calls we got it all worked out. Then I checked my email and found out my card was rejected when my servers went to get paid. That would make about 80,000 members very unhappy if they couldn't get their message board fix. So I spent some more time on the phone getting that fixed. :sour:
A little while later the No Magic crew showed up and we went all went to dinner. It was Doc's treat and he picked a great little Steakhouse.:thumbup: That's when we got the idea to have a little photo fun. We had a missing member Photoshopped in at all the places we met.
We couldn't wait to see what tatt2r had done with them. :2thumbs::bowdown::firstplace:
On the trip down I had an idea for a shirt and my buddy Mark at CAT was just down the road a bit so I asked him if he could put something together for me so. He did and they came out great. The BRP guys loved them and so did most of the SpyderLovers there.:doorag: It was really cool to see all the folks wearing them
hyea: but I should have had him make up more than I did. pps:Friday is when most of the folks showed up. It was great to meet so many cool people and to checkout the mods others had done to their ride. I spent most of the day in the garage and never got to go out till it was time to roll over to Jay Leno's garage. That was really cool but I was bummed out that Jay wasn't there and we couldn't take any pictures inside. :gaah:
This was the only picture I got and Mark shot this video of the interview I did for BRP and I had one more of getting in the Limo.
When we got back to the hotel I head for my Spyder but got caught up talking with folks and working on Spyders.
There was one gal who was having trouble with her SE and I told her I would take a look at it. While I was doing that Kurt Otteson showed up and asked what I was doing. From there we both started to wrench on the Spyder. For me this was better than meeting Jay Leno, here I was busting knukkles with the top dog Spyder tech. That was great and once again I learned a few things along the way. We didn't get it fixed that night but Kurt worked on it the next day and got it squared away. Turns out it had a few issues that may have caused the problem but Kurt took care of all of them even though some of them were because of a poor install of some HID's.
We both knocked off about 12:30am and was back out at 6am. I didn't get much sleep again as I had a few hours of web work to get caught up on. I was pretty beat that day.
So now it's Saturday the day of the BIG event. I missed my burger at Bob's Big Boy and I missed Jay Leno showing up there but I wasn't about to miss my movie that I drove 2300+ miles one way to see. :doorag:
BRP had a parking lot all blocked off for Spyder only parking and we pretty much filled up the whole thing before the show. It was great to walk around and see all the cool Spyders and to meet some of the members that I've talked to on the boards. :doorag:
From there we went to the Hardrock for a BRP sponsored breakfast. It was a great breakfast and a great time to meet some folks there including Fred Rau. The whole area was decked out for the Transformer movie and the Spyder. Talk about great product placement. :2thumbs:
After the breakfast we had a nice little welcome ceramony and a few awards were handed out to SpyderLovers. Our very own Doc Doru won a few awards and one of them was the most mileage. :firstplace::bowdown:
I thought the movie was great. The Spyders were in the very beginning so that was cool. I wish they could have been transformers but at least they were in the movie. :doorag: After the movie we saw a little BRP movie that they made of the event, that was pretty cool seeing it wide screen. BRP picked up the tab for the movie and the popcorn :clap:
opcorn:From there we gathered in the parking lot for our ride to Angeles Crest Highway. I'm not sure how many Spyders we had but we had a bunch.
The ride was great and we had a great place to pull over and take some pics. :doorag:
From there we went to the closing ceremony and BBQ. Much to my surprise my father inlaw and his wife were waiting in the parking lot for me. I guess they got on the internet and found out where I was and just showed up.
I guess it was cool with the BRP gang as they let them in with the rest of us. :thumbup:The food was great and so was the fellowship. BRP pulled off another great event and once again I am so impressed with the way they treat their customers. I've never seen any manufacturer put as much time, money and effort into making sure we all had a good time. I think they truly do appreciate our business. :firstplace::bowdown:
After the BBQ we headed back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. It seemed like a long trip and a short event but it was all quality time. We made some lifetime memories and friendships. That's really what it's all about. I'm sure there are folks I met on this trip that will be friends long after the Spyder is gone. :doorag:
Sunday was time to head to San Diego. I decided to take the long way there and went by way of the Ortega Highway. I've been on it a few times before but it's been years. It's a great road and some great stops along the way. The cops were pretty thick but the bikers going the other way were letting me know when to slow down. My last three tickets have been on a Sunday so I have a thing about driving on Sundays now. :sour:
From there I went to my old stomping grounds. I drove to Palomar Mountain and Observatory and took a few pics and video. I ran into an old tuner friend of mine and it wasn't long till I felt right at home. Most of my time there has been on bikes so it was cool to see the reaction of some of the hardcore riders there to the Spyder. For the most part they liked it and couldn't believe how many miles I had on it and how many miles I put in a day on it. :doorag:
From there I went to get a piece of pie at my favorite pie stop, Julian Pie Company. :thumbup: Once again the Spyder was a big hit up there and it was hard to get away long enough to eat my pie.
After the pie I headed down the hill to my mom's house in El Cajon. That's were I did something really stupid but got really lucky. There was this big ol motorhome that could barley make it up the hills but where I could pass him he would speed up so I couldn't legally get around him. After a few miles of that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to pass him. Once again this is on Sunday and I knew it was a bad idea from the start. I had a good spot in the road where I could safely pass but it was a double yellow line but I went for it anyway. As soon as I got around him and was pulling back into my lane a CHP was coming toward me and saw the whole thing. I was busted big time and knew it. My first reaction was to run but at 50 years old my running days are pretty much done and I knew I just had to suck it up and take it like a man. I slowed down and waited for him to get turned around to red light me. Sure enough he did and i pulled over and went through the routine. I gave him my story and I guess being a motorcycle rider himself he could understand my frustration. Even though it wasn't right he did decide to let me go with a verbal warning. I guess I broke the curse of the Sunday ticket thing. Still I knew I was wrong and won't be doing that again anytime soon.nojoke
From there I rode to Lakeside to a friends house and visited with him for a while and then headed over to mom's place. I haven't been there since my Dad died last year so it was good to see mom when the situation was much better.
I spent most of my time with mom and my sister but I did get out to a few car shows and I stopped by Fun Bike and met the guy who runs the place there. It was a great chance meeting and hope that something good will come out of it in the future for us SpyderLovers. :doorag:
While I was at the car show in La Mesa I met a movie producer that really loved my Spyder and has plans for a Spyder to be featured in a couple of his up coming movies. I can't say much more but I will say if this happens the way he want's it to the Spyder will be getting some great product placement in these films. Stay tuned.
hyea:When I was in Hollywood I was having trouble with my PC laptop so I decided when I got to San Diego to go ahead and order a Mac Book Pro. I did so and when I got home and showed my mom the iphone and the Mac Book she decided she had to have one. You see she's 72 but has an ipod touch and is kind of a gizmo junkie. I guess I know where I got it.
I got the 13" for traveling but she had to have the 17" :thumbup:
So now I spend the next two days loading all her movies and pictures from her PC to her Mac Book and ipod. That was quite the undertaking but I was glad to help and it was nice to spend the time with mom.
On Friday my sister Lynette drove mom and I to see where dad was laid to rest at Fort Rosecrants National Cemetery. It was a beautiful day but very sobering seeing it was July 3rd, the day before Independence day. Seeing so many graves of our fallen men and women soldiers really took my breath away knowing that I have three boys that will someday wind up in a place like this. I'm so very proud of their service and commitment to our great country.
I said my goodbyes to mom and thanked her for everything and told her not to get up for me as we were going to leave at 3am to beat the heat once again. Ron was waiting for me at the gas station and we beat feet for East TN. The weather was looking pretty good and all the rain was south of us.
First day we made it to Albuquerque, NM It was right at 800 miles that day and we had good weather and no Spyder issues.
We got a little bit of a late start the next morning but we still made it to Fort Smith, AR. That was a little over 700 miles.
Next day we made it home about 10:30pm with no problems. It's great riding with a guy like Ron as you know he's got your back. We had a few road trip stories to tell along the way and after doing this trip last year by myself I can definitely say that it's more fun doing it with another rider. :doorag:
The event was great, the ride was great, the fellowship was great and the Spyder performed flawlessly. I have over 35,000 miles on her now and plan on running out to Sturgis in a couple of weeks. I trust the Spyder as much as I trusted my Honda's. This has been a great chapter in my life and I can't wait to see what new adventures the Spyder will bring next. :doorag:
