Dave & Teds Most Excellent Adventures 2013

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part VIII - We're actually On The Road -Continued

So there I am bumping and jostling down the road, managing the best I can under the circumstances acting like a jockey on a Spyder. All awhile, I'm so thankful that Teddy isn't having to endure the same and appreciative of the fact that even tho I thought having our 'buddy' along for the road-trip was going to lead to disaster, and here he is the one turning out to be Teddies savior :bowdown:

At this time, its around 46 degrees and I'm soaked to the bone, boots full of cold water, and my teeth start to chatter a bit. I have the Sleds heated grips on High, which helps the palms and inside fingers of my hands, except for the one that most needs it, my right index finger which I can't make grip the grip, but instead, have it sticking straight out and freezing. I tell ya, sometimes you gotta make decisions that are not good either way, try to make it grip to get the warmth but then deal with the pain or just leave it straight out so it doesn't hurt so bad but then its freezing :sour: truly a no win situation so I try to modulate and do a bit of both, but soon realize that the freezing feeling is much more acceptable to me than the pain. Its hard to explain why, but I knew eventually the freezing feeling would go away, but the pain is a constant, and trying to grip would just exacerbate the amount of pain, say from a 4 on a 0-10 scale to a 6 or 7, and I manage a constant 4 now, but not the 6 or 7, so I just left it sticking straight out to freeze.

Soon, the rain started to let up and I think we were somewhere in either Indiana or Illinois, not really sure which really. But then I noticed with checking the GPS, I was down to only 2 bars on the digital fuel gauge and with towing the camper, I was only averaging right around a dismal 100 miles per tank. That meant I needed to be looking for fuel soon, but the GPS showed there wasn't another station on our route for another 26 miles ahead or 3 miles back the way we just came. Not wanting to chance running out, I decided to take the next exit and head back to the closest fuel station, and since the weather had finally broke, we'd take our lunch break at the McDonalds off the exit, and I'd thankfully change into ALL dry clothes at the time.

Now with our new and improved water-proof Teddy-Cam system, they offered it in either 2 camera or 4 camera mode systems, and it not really being budgeted for replacement, we opted for the cheapest and went with the 2 camera system. I had already had the cameras, and everything was plug n play from our old system to the new system so that was a good thing. I had mounted one camera in the roof of Teddy's Sun-Canopy aiming right down on the lil guy, so I could always keep a watchful eye on the lil guy without ever having to actually turn around to physically see him.

This has come in very handy, especially in cases where he goes and does a nose dive into the carrier, as thats how he manages to push his Doggles from their proper position of protecting his eyes to up above perched atop his head, just like us humans often do with our shades, kinda like this ...............

As soon as I see him start diving, all I have to do is give him a little yeah of "NO! Leave them on!" and I swear, you can see the pissed off look in his eyes that he got caughtpps: its hillarious cause he knows when we didn't have the system working, he could get away with it all the time. But now that we have the new one, he pretty much has to leave them on now, which is good, cause they really do protect his eyes.

Anyways, the other camera is meant as a driving camera for when we're towing the Moto-Mate Camper. You may have noticed in other pics I've posted, but the Moto-Mate is actually the same size height-wise as the Spyder, making it hard to see behind or around even with using the Sleds mirrors.

That can make for a scary situation when on the Interstate at high speeds and you need to quickly change lanes, as you can't see if its clear until sometimes too late. Thats why we needed a second camera, to help with this very situation.

TBC ............................

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part VIII - We're actually On The Road -Continued

So my best friend and I worked for an entire day before I finally finished up the sled for the trip, running all the wiring from the LCD display up front to the 2 cameras in the passenger area. Last year, I had tried a wireless camera attached to the license plate frame of the trailer, but every time I would roll on the throttle, or we'd ryde into an "electrically busy" area, I'd get nothing but static from the unit, so it proved very unreliable in our needed use. I returned that unit for a wired unit, and found that keeping the same mounting location, while ideal, would require another hole and wire to be ran, then also, another coupling to be messed with every time we hooked up and unhooked the camper. While many may think its not much more to deal with, I know me, and more importantly, I know "our" situation. While for the average ryder, you'd be correct that it wouldn't be that much more to deal with, but imagine for a moment, every time you stop, you have a toddler in your passenger seat that you have to take care of before you do anything else. Mind you, I'm NOT complaining & consider myself 'Lucky' that Teddy Chose me to be his chaeuffer, but it does take extra time and consideration with everything we do. For that reason (and my best friend just doesn't "get it") I try my best to keep any and all mods that we do, ones that are 'no-brainers' and that work with little to no 'extra' effort, that way, I can concentrate on whats really important, keep'n the Boss safe and Happy and Enjoy'n the Ryde

So, my best friend and I were struggling as to where we should mount the second camera, that would give the rear view behind the camper. My buddies suggestion was to mount it to the top of Teddy's Sun Canopy, which I agree would've been the best position, if we had enough wiring to do so with hiding the wiring inside one of the 'legs' of the canopy. With the length that we had, it wouldn't have been long enough to hide, but would have to stay wide open and visible and run from the camera right down the middle of the passengers back rest, leaving it open and visible and flapping in the wind. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand that for long, and went about trying to figure something else out that would work, keeping in mind the short length of wiring that I had available. I had gone out and measured the height of the camper, so I knew I needed to have the camera mounted above a certain height, and figured I could place the camera actually inside one of the canopy legs at the very top, that way it was hidden for the most part and no unsighly wires would be visible. My buddy saw the difficulty of my choice, and proclaimed "Good Luck with that" and he was on his way to work. I struggled for a few hours trying to drill a round hole big enough for the round camera, into a round PVC tube. Never had a clue that was going to be as difficult as it turned out to be, but I began to understand why my buddy wished me luck, I needed it, that's for sure.

Eventually, I finally succeeded and made it work, and I have to admit, while far from a professional installation, it served its purpose (so I thought) and was for the most part totally hidden, camera, wiring and all, so I was happy.

Ahhhhhhhh yes, but back to the Error of my ways. Scotty's little voice of sage advice, "Always try things out BEFORE the actual trip" come to mind here. You see, once again, the camper was never hooked up before the trip, and not actually until right before we pulled out of the garage for the trip, there just wasn't enough time, struggling just to get Teds Red Sled done just in time to leave.

So here I am on Teds Red Sled, with Teddy nice warm and comfy in my buddies pick-up truck following right behind us, so I switch the display to number 2 so I can keep Jesse & Teddy in my view, but low and behold, can you guess what I see instead????

TBC ................................ work work work

 

[SpyderWolf]

opcorn:

 

[currin20fan]

Dave & Teddy

opcorn:opcorn: Probably the back of your head.

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part VIII - We're actually On The Road -Continued

opcorn:opcorn: Probably the back of your head.

good one :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

But naw, it wasn't the back of my head. You see, this is where paying attention in math class some 30 odd years ago would have come in handy, as I'm sure there's some mathalogical (is that even a word?) formula that I shoulda used, that would have told me the proper height I woulda needed the camera to be, taking into effect the distance of the object and the angle of the lens to some odd power to the 4th degree, and I would have figured it out easily :shocked: But NO, not me pay attention in skool (j/k) please, that's too much like work, and when your a kid, who wants to work :dontknow::joke: :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

But yeah, without taking into account the distance from the camera to the top of the camper, the view I got in the monitor was of the front of the camper, along with both sides. Not too bad really, except for the fact of its main purpose, like to see whats actually BEHIND the damn camper :yikes: Which I couldn't see at all :gaah: Even tho Jesse and Teddy were directly behind me in a BIG Ole Honda RidgeLine (I think) I still couldn't see any inkling that they existed at all.

So there I was kind of suffering thru with the hopes that since the rain had stopped, I just might be able to click over the view finder & spy me a glimpse of the Tedster jumping up in the front window of Jessies truck trying to catch a glimpse of me like I was trying to do of him. But NO, that wasn't in the cards. And there came Scotty's little voice in the back of my head, just the same as after our little accident where Teddy tried to kill me by pulling the Sled off the jack cause I didn't have it properly strapped. "See Dave, if you would have tried it out before you left, you would have known then that the angle nor height was sufficient:lecturef_smilie:"

Scotty, I love you man, but that just wasn't what I wanted to hear at that time. I mean, have you ever gotten into an argument with yourself:dontknow: I now understand why as my father got older and older he'd have regular arguments with himself and to think, I used to make fun of him for it pps: :lecturef_smilie:

So my hopes of spying a glimpse of the Tedster were dashed, I was cold and soaked to the bone, my index finger was frozen and throbbing, the rough ryde had my back in spasms making me jockey the Sled like a horse and now the last light goes out on the digital fuel gauge & I'm just picturing it in my head, that I'm not going to be able to make it those 3 miles back to that last fuel stop. Not sure if any of you all have been in a similar situation, but it can cause a bit of a panic......



TBC ............................

 

[ThreeFeet]

good one :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

But naw, it wasn't the back of my head. You see, this is where paying attention in math class some 30 odd years ago would have come in handy, as I'm sure there's some mathalogical (is that even a word?) formula that I shoulda used, that would have told me the proper height I woulda needed the camera to be, taking into effect the distance of the object and the angle of the lens to some odd power to the 4th degree, and I would have figured it out easily :shocked: But NO, not me pay attention in skool (j/k) please, that's too much like work, and when your a kid, who wants to work :dontknow::joke: :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

But yeah, without taking into account the distance from the camera to the top of the camper, the view I got in the monitor was of the front of the camper, along with both sides. Not too bad really, except for the fact of its main purpose, like to see whats actually BEHIND the damn camper :yikes: Which I couldn't see at all :gaah: Even tho Jesse and Teddy were directly behind me in a BIG Ole Honda RidgeLine (I think) I still couldn't see any inkling that they existed at all.

So there I was kind of suffering thru with the hopes that since the rain had stopped, I just might be able to click over the view finder & spy me a glimpse of the Tedster jumping up in the front window of Jessies truck trying to catch a glimpse of me like I was trying to do of him. But NO, that wasn't in the cards. And there came Scotty's little voice in the back of my head, just the same as after our little accident where Teddy tried to kill me by pulling the Sled off the jack cause I didn't have it properly strapped. "See Dave, if you would have tried it out before you left, you would have known then that the angle nor height was sufficient:lecturef_smilie:"

Scotty, I love you man, but that just wasn't what I wanted to hear at that time. I mean, have you ever gotten into an argument with yourself:dontknow: I now understand why as my father got older and older he'd have regular arguments with himself and to think, I used to make fun of him for it pps: :lecturef_smilie:

So my hopes of spying a glimpse of the Tedster were dashed, I was cold and soaked to the bone, my index finger was frozen and throbbing, the rough ryde had my back in spasms making me jockey the Sled like a horse and now the last light goes out on the digital fuel gauge & I'm just picturing it in my head, that I'm not going to be able to make it those 3 miles back to that last fuel stop. Not sure if any of you all have been in a similar situation, but it can cause a bit of a panic......



TBC ............................

Been there-- done that--- now I carry 2 gal in the BRP trailer!!

 

[kubie]

opcorn:opcorn::doorag:

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part 9- Time for lunch & to dry out

So yeah, just as panic started to creep into my psyche, I had another one of those 'AHA' moments of clarity and new found appreciation in that low and behold, I have my very own support vehicle with me (of sorts) which I originally and foolishly fought so hard to avoid :lecturef_smilie: having come along for the trip. I had watched shows about endurence racing across Africa and such and they showed them having support vehicles that followed them, carrying emergency tools, parts, gas etc.... just about anything the racers might need in case of an accident or emergency, but that was the extent of my knowledge on the subjuct, til that very point, when I realized I had my very own, in Jesse :bowdown: "Oh yeah" I thought to myself, "He's right behind me, if I run out, no big deal, he can get some for me with ease" and that allowed the panic & ensuing stress to be set free, instead of instilling itself into my psyche.

You see, traveling with someone else, this was still new for me, and since the camera wasn't mounted optimally, I couldn't see them behind me, and with me, out of sight usually means out of mind So I take that next exit and pull over to the side and motion for Jesse to pull alongside and explain that I'm on empty and GPS shows closest fuel is 3 miles back the way we came, so we had to turn around and go back, thinking he'd be upset at my error, but he wasn't. He was happy as a clam, having fun with Teddy and glad to be along for the journey. He said when we stop that we should eat & I should change into some dry clothes now that the weather had broke, and I hole heartedly agreed, and off back the way we just came we set.

We take the next exit off the highway and make a B-line for the gas station and proceed to fuel up. I noticed there was a McDonalds across the street and down the block and suggested we head there to eat and I could change into dry clothes there, and Jesse was all for it.

TBC............... work work work

So we proceed to pull around to the back of the McDonalds so Jesse has enough room to manuver with his truck and trailer and I proceed to walk around with Teddy so I can squash most of the water that had pooled into my boots out, so I didn't make a wet mess while walking into the McDonalds. Oh I hate that feeling So I take and put Teddy inside the camper while I root around in there and go thru my bags of clothes trying to find everything I need, which is EVERYTHING including socks and underwear.

This is when I realized another STUPID MISTAKE that I had made :lecturef_smilie: When we first left home, with it pouring down rain, I knew I couldn't put my Galaxy S3 phone in the mount I have in the middle of the handlebars cause its just an X-Mount & the phone isn't water-proof. So instead, I put it in my front chest pocket of my water-proof (or so I thought) 1stGear Thermo Ryding Suit :shocked: so it would stay nice and dry and readily at hand in case of emergency. You talking about getting that sinking pit of the stomach feeling, I almost threw up :barf:when I initially realized this sad fact.

For those that don't do long distance trips often, your cell-phone is your freedom, its your lifeline in case of anything going wrong, you can always call 911 in a true emergency or if your like us and travel often, you likely have some sort of road-side assistance program plugged into your speed dial, like the BRP road-side assistance or like us, AAA. But without your cell, well, your pretty much on your own, no matter what happens, and that can lead to some very scary situations:yikes: So the fact that our Life-Line (so to speak) was now most likely dead, yeah, had me wanting to throw :barf:up right there.

That is, til I once again realized even if the cell is dead hey, we've got our very own support vehicle along for the entire trip:bowdown::thumbup: and my stomach immediately stopped feeling queezy and I got up the gumption to actually pull the cell phone out of my little pocket swimming pool. I tell ya, I don't get how the water can get in so dang easily but then its trapped and just creates its own pool without seeping out Yup, the entire phone was soaked thru inside a pocket full of water. F:cus:n GREAT! was my initial thought. What a way to start a road-trip we had been anticipating for so long :banghead:

So I take the back off, remove the SIM & SD card along with the battery, wrap it all up in a couple of dry towels and throw them in the corner of the camper to hopefully dry out. And yup, I know about the trick of putting them in a bag of rice to absorb the moisture, but we were on a road-trip in a McDonalds parking lot, so I made do with just taking it all apart and putting it inside dry towels til we got to our destination.

TBC .......................

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part 9- Time for lunch & to dry out- Continued

Slosh slosh slosh with every step I took as I walked into the McDonalds Lobby and I immediatly made a B-Line straight to the bathroom with a plastic bag of fresh dry clothes in hand. Get to the baby changing stall so I'd have a little extra room to manuver and boy oh boy, did I need it. Any of you that own a FirstGear Thermo Ryding Suit already know that its a one piece suit and when properly fitted, can be a bit snug getting into and out of. It does have a main zipper with rain cover & velcro for the upper body area and then both legs likewise have a zipper with rain cover and velcro as well. Now imagine my struggle to remove this one piece suit, that was weighted down by all the now retained water that had infiltrated it at every seem, to collect throughout and settle with the effects of gravity. I swear, that thing must have weighed at least an additional 12 to 15 pounds of just water weight. And what a struggle to get it off, as it clung to every part of my soaked thru body. When I finally shed the entire suit, I flung the heavy thing over the stall seperator and I felt embarrassed as water slowly started dripping all over the floor underneath of it, soon spreading all over the floor, but there was little I could do to stop it. I mean, with the thing engorged and weighted with water, it wouldn't even come close to fitting into the small plastic bag that I had brought my clean dry clothes in to change into, less alone, I needed it to put my dreanched regular clothes into, so I just let it make a mess all over the floor pps:

After changing, which took a good 20 minutes or so, I took everything back out to the camper and put all the wet stuff wrapped up in a towel in the back storage area, so the sheets and pillows of the bed didn't get wet. Waved to Teddy who was in the comforts of Jessies truck, anxiously awaiting his fries and headed back in to join Jesse for lunch. We ate and chatted a bit, about how challenging things had been thus far for me, mostly due to lack of preparedness due to time constraints excaserbated (sp?) by my arm/finger injury, but also now that the weather had broke, how good the rest of the trip should go for us. It was now around 2 or 3 pm and we had left at 10:30am, so we were making progress, beit hard-faught progress on my part.

Have to admit tho, as refreshing as the knowledge was that Jesse was right behind me in a nice warm and dry pick-up truck trailoring his Spyder, and here I was, for the most part, getting the crap beaten out me, freezing, in pain, and soaked to the bone, I still didn't think, not one time, that I wished I was in his place instead of mine:doorag:

I'm not really sure what that says about me:shocked: Maybe I'm Crazy, or Insane or maybe I'm a Satist and just like punishment:dontknow: I don't know:hun:

We all know I have a Spyder adiction, but c'mon even adictions have limits, and if these were'nt them, then damn, I'd HATE to find out what they really were nojoke:dontknow::cus::banghead:

TBC ........................ This work thing is get'n old

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part 10- The trip continues much dryer

So we finish our meals and discussion and Jesse had been given an extra set of fries (something to do with how older ppl order things and don't get what they wanted) so I added a few to the bunch and Jesse took them with him to give to Teddy, seeing as his HypoAlergenic diet at home consists of Duck & Potatoe and low and behold, French Fries are on the lil guys diet (tho only in moderation) not to mention, he ABSOLUTELY LOVES:bowdown: them and has been known to spontaneously break out in tricks when he knows there's a chance he might get a fry or two. Believe me, this pup is a :doorag: PLAYER :doorag: and he knows just the buttons to push to get what he wants

So out to the truck we go and I get the Tedster out and let him go potty and run around a little, say my goodbyes once again, but it didn't matter, he coulda cared less at this time, cause he could smell Jesse had French Fries, so as far as he was concerned, I didn't even exist :shocked: :roflblack: See how he is, you got food and you rule this pups world. If you didn't know better, you'd think I must starve the poor lil guy. But its nothing like that, he gets fed daily and fed well. But its usually the same dang thing day after day, so I think you can understand why ANYTHING else would grab the lil guys attention like it does It would me too in all honesty

So I play with the Teddy-Cam LCD monitor, cause with every lil bump in the road, it would angle and slide down a bit more with each hit, and I would have to keep adjusting it back up so it wouldn't start actually hitting the dash bezzle and causing scratch marks, but there was little I could do, as the mount wasn't loose at all, it was solid. Just with the suspension settings at what they were and with the Camper in tow, as I've stated, it was a rather harsh and punishing ryde. I conceded it was as tight as I could get it and decided to not dwell on it anymore, and that we needed to get back on the road.

All in all, I'm guessing this stop, which was our only for food all day, took about an hour in total, so about 4pm we were back on the Interstate heading West on I64 heading towards St. Louis & ultimately SpringField. Now with the rain stopped, and the sun breaking thru the cloud cover every now and then, it was a much more enjoyable ryde, even tho it was still on the harsh side. After changing all my regular clothes, I didn't want to tempt fate any more than I already had, so even tho the radar showed no signs of rain for the remainder of the trip, I had went ahead and put on my Frog Togs over my regular clothes and ryding gear, and with the temps still in the low 50s it made for a comfortable combination.

I'm happy to say, the rest of the trip westward was for the most part, uneventful. We made our fuel and restroom stops as needed, roughly every 100 miles. I think the best I got was 116 miles and I think I must have worried Jesse a bit with that one, cause he even commented at the fuel stop that he thought I had to be running on fumes or was just about to completely run out, as he was monitoring the miliage as well with his trip odometer in his truck. I remember there was one fuel stop that surprised me a little, cause when you pull up to the fuel pumps, and there were about a dozen of them, that's all that was there, just fuel pumps and nothing else. I was like :hun: no shop, no restrooms, no attendants if you needed assistance, what gives? I was thinking it must be like an automated fueling station with video survalence or something when Jesse pointed over the little hillside, and there all by its lonesome about a 1/4 mile away was the shop for all the pumps. Hmmmmm...... that's different I thought to myself :shocked:

Anyways, on one of our last stops before making it to Springfield was right after dark and it was right around 8pm or so and we stopped to get fuel. Since its dark out now, Jesse decides to show off with a light show of his tricked out Spyder on the trailer. He hits a button on a remote control, and :joke: WOW :joke: its a light show all right :clap: The man has LEDs all over that bad boy and it looks pretty sharp if I do say so myself:bowdown:
I guess he decided to leave them on for a bit while going down the road.

TBC ..................................

 

[SpyderWolf]

I bet the light show on the back of the trailer also drew a lot of attention.

 

[lookerjdc]

:agree:

I should have asked Jesse to punch the button before we all left

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Part 11- The trip continues much dryer

Not sure how many will remember this, but at the 2011 Lamonster's Bar-B-Q, Jesse was the unfortunate guy on the side of the road (when the entire group was making the mass exodus to Maggie Valley) with the tricked out 2010 Black and White Spyder RT-S :doorag: ................. that wouldn't startpps::shocked: Seems he had just had the byke in the shop, adding more farkles and I think a wiring harness for a new hitch-kit cause he had just gotten a new trailer. Seems it all worked back home, but as soon as he got it off the trailer, it was dead, and wasn't anything anyone could do at the time to get him up and running. So it kind of messed up his entire trip :banghead:

After talking with him about that issue, the shop deduced it down to a bad connection in some of the wiring (as I said, he's got all kinds of LEDs and after-market farkles, most 'if not all' installed by the dealer tho) and it was in the shop a couple of weeks getting things figured out and fixed .................... hopefully ray: I remember the day he got it back from the shop, he drove straight from there to our place and as soon as he pulled up the drive, I noticed his left side headlight was out:shocked: As soon as he parked, I walked over before he shut it off and asked him if he had just left the dealers to which he confirmed. I asked him why they had sent him on his way with a burned out headlight bulb, and he thought I was joking with him. I told him to look for himself and he hopped off the byke and walked around front and :yikes: he was shocked. Imediately speed dialed the shop to give them the riot act, and they said everything was working when he left, so it must have just went out on the ryde to my place mmmm hmmmmmm...........

So that's a little history for ya's about Jesse's mis-adventures, and I bring all this up, cause if it were me, with a known electrical history like his personally I wouldn't want to be going and tempting fate, but hey, that's just me

TBC ...................

And with my rear-view camera only giving me a view of the front and both sides of the camper, I couldn't see the light show on the trailer behind his RidgeLine, but I'm sure it drew some attention from other drivers on the highway. At our last fuel stop before making our destination, Jesse had hit the remote and turned the lightshow off, so he didn't run his battery down, which made sense. But when I was out walking Teddy, I noticed a flicker come from the Spyder. I went up to Jesse and pointed out, that every once in a while, a light here or there would seem to flicker. We watched a bit, and we both saw the anamoly happen, tho it seemed erratic. It wasn't the after-market LEDs that were flickering, but the small round LEDs that are built into the headlight assembly on the RTs, every now and then, those and the marker lights would flicker off and on. That gave me a bad feeling, and after a little investigating in a dark parking lot, Jesse said he's look more into it once we reached our destination.

So after a couple more hours, the GPS is finally telling me this is our exit for SpringField MO and I'm thankful that we finally made it. It was right about 10pm now, so sadly we had missed all the days events. Not sure where I or Jesse were staying, I decided just to go straight to PitBulls in the unlikely hopes that someone might still actually be there ray:

Teddy and I had driven (Yes, actually drove a rental car cause the Sled was still apart) down to PitBulls for Lens GrandOpening a few months back, so I was already a little familiar with the area and where the new shop was located. After a couple more minutes we pull into the parking lot, but as I feared, not a Spyder or car in sight and all the lights were off and doors were locked :shocked: Great .......... now what do we do:dontknow::hun:

TBC ............................................

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Chap.12- WE MADE IT

So there we are in the vacant parking lot of PitBulls, and we park longways in front of the shop and we both shut our vehicles off and begin chat'n and scratch'n our heads about what our next move should be. Being so late, I figured just about everyone was already back at their hotels and in bed, awaiting all the excitement that the following day was sure to bring. That's when Jesse's Spyder caught our attention again, now with the lights flickering off and on, still random and erratic but it seemed much more often. We started to investigate a bit more, while I allowed Teddy to run around in the grass to take care of business and stretch his little legs a bit.

Then, all of a sudden, we were surprised to see a PitBull flat-bed with a dead Spyder on the back start pulling into the parking lot :bowdown: WOW!!! Talking about perfect timing ray::firstplace::clap: It was one of the PitCrew who had to bring in a dead Spyder from the BonFire and we had met the few months prior at the Grand Openin, so he sure was a sight for sore eyes and I was very happy to see him again. His wife was in the cab of the truck as he was unloading the Spyder and she played with Teddy a bit while trying to give me directions to where everyone was, still at the Bon-Fire :yes::yes::yes::clap::yes::yes::yes:

I was a little shocked, being as late as it was, but she said everyone was still there & proceeded to try to explain to me how to get there. I kept trying to find the park using the GPS but it just wouldn't come up & I'm the first person to admit, when it comes to following mapping directions in an area I'm unfamiliar with, well to put it simply ............... I SUCK:helpsmilie:

Without a GPS and a smart-phone, Teddy & I would be so lost, we'd never find our destinations. But hey, when your on a Spyder, get'n lost and the journey itself, thats half the fun right there! So they just told us to hang out and wait for a few more minutes and he'd be done with unloading the Spyder and Jesse & I could just follow them back to the park :bowdown: :clap: Wooo Hooo!!!!!!! Game On :yes::clap::bowdown:

So we mount back up, and Teddy is still ryding with Jesse cause now that its dark its gotten more chilly, so I didn't want to subject Teddy to becoming a dog-sicle and he was just fine with Jesse at the wheel, so we set off following the PitBull Flat-Bed through the streets of SpringField:bowdown: making our way to the park where the Bon-Fire was.

Only thing was, on the way there, with it being close to 11pm now, we start seeing Spyder after Spyder heading the other way in a mass exodus Seems we got there just a tad bit late :sour: all the fireworks had been shot:shocked: and even tho the Bon-Fire still looked to be fully blazing a good 30 feet up in the air :yikes: everyone had called it a night and were on their ways back to their respective hotels.

TBC ................................

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Chap.13- WE MADE IT- Now what?

So we followed the PitBull Flatbed to the park where the Bon-Fire was, only to find everyone heading the opposite direction. But you know there are always a few stragglers staying behind and slow to leave at events such as this, and just our luck, wouldn't you know it, they were fans of Teddy and knew who we were as soon as we pulled to a stop. And let me tell you, the light show some of our forum members have done with their Spyders, :yes: WOW O WOW :yes: .......:firstplace: IMPRESSIVE :bowdown: Makes me wish Teddy & I were wealthy enough to afford all that nice bling, not only is it impressive, but there'd be no way in hell you could miss some of the bykes out on the road, so the safety factor is there as well. But lyfe being what it is, we make do with what we have and appreciate ALL that we DO have, so don't get me wrong, I'm not hate'n on anybody here, just impressed

So we got a warm reception from friends of ours from here on the forum, not to mention a few that we had met in the past at other events as well. That Teddy, he's a popular pup for sure Being late and dark however, everyone that was left was packing up and making their preperations to head back to the hotel, and since Jesse nor I had any clue where the Host Hotel actually was, we asked if we could follow anyone back, cause I knew thru PMs that I needed to find the Americas Best hotel, or something like that-lol & we were told to just add to the line and follow the rest of the pack, as they were all headed back to the same area cause most the hotels were all centrally located around each other.

So we follow the pack back to the hotels and I pull into the parking lot for the Americas Best hotel with Jesse and Teddy following right behind me. Now this is where it gets really interesting, cause I had PM'd back and forth with a fellow SpyderLover about an extra bed that he had no need for, and that he hoped it wouldn't be a problem, but it was for a smoking room, and he only needed a king bed room, but they had given him a double queen, and that if Teddy and I wanted to stay with him, we were welcome to it, since I knew camping would be a challenge with my physical state, not to mention its not much fun to camp in the rain He was also aware of our financial situation and me having to take the week off work with no pay to be able to attend the event, so he was very generous in just offering us the room for free :bowdown: Only problem was, I didn't get a final response with a contact or room number, and I didn't even know the persons name at this time :shocked: So how the heck was I going to find out who and where this person was :dontknow:

Jesse and I left Teddy in his truck while we made our way to the lobby, to inquire about any availability of rooms. I was a bit worried for Jesse, as he had no reservation or anything planned, and everything was up in the air for him. But ole Jesse, I told ya he's a character didn't I:dontknow: Well, he's a pretty smooth character when he wants to be as well hyea: and he started sweet talking the lady at the reception desk, even tho she was old enough to be his Great Grand Daughter, that made no difference to Jesse at all :doorag: and all this time, I thought Teddy was a dog :roflblack::roflblack:

TBC ..................................

So while Jesse had the receptionist checking the computer for cancellations and such, I relayed to her my quandery and asked if she by chance, had any knowledge of this situation, thinking/praying the person that had offered the room may have left word at the front counter about possibly having a guest with a cute lil black dog and red mowhawk that might be staying with them:dontknow: Well, I shoulda known, ole Teddy was gonna come thru for us. At the mention of said dog, the expression on the young ladies face dramatically switched from one of all business to one of disbelief cause remember, we had left Teddy in the truck, so she couldn't see the lil guy yet. Her reply was something to the effect of, "Are you serious?" :dontknow: I had to laugh out loud :roflblack: cause saying it is one thing, and seeing it is a totally different ball game :shocked: So without saying another word, I just stuck up my hurt index finger motioning for her to wait a moment, and I proceeded out to Jesse's truck to retrieve :doorag:The Tedster:doorag:

When I walked back thru that lobby door with Teddy leading me like a small sled dog with a bright red mowhawk and matching pom tail, well, the expression on the young ladies face was priceless She was all smiles from ear to ear:2thumbs: She had obviously NEVER seen anything like Teddy walk thru her doors before :shocked: and with that, the party was on :joke: Guess you could say, Teddy makes a great Ice Breaker with the ladies I plopped the lil guy up on top of the counter so he could shmooze with his newest fan, and good as gold, he went to work charming the young lady with lick'ns galore You could actually see 'Puppy Love' in her eyes

After a few more minutes of Teddy schmoozing and the young lady finding Jesse a room, we started back with our lil delima of how to find the person that we were hopefully gonna be sharing a room with. She asks if I know their name, which sadly, in all of our back & forth PMs discussing the room, I didn't ever recall seeing his name on one, so NO, I didn't.

I then proceeded to tell her everything I DID know, or at least could remember about the person. That we know them from the SpyderLovers forum and his Screen Name was booker?? something or the other or something like that (was totally wrong tho-lol) and that he lived in Florida and that he was there for the SpyderFest event and that he had originally requested a single king smoking room but had been given a double queen smoking room instead. That's it, pretty much everything I could recall. My memory sucks, so I even pulled out my smart-phone and started to pull up the SpyderLovers site so I could double check my PMs to see if he had maybe sent us a PM with his contact number or room number while we were on the road, but the young lady stopped me and said,
"Oh, their with the Spyder group?"
"Yes" I replied.
"Oh, well that's easy, there's only ONE smoking room reservation with the Spyder Group, so that has got to be your contact."
:yes::clap::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: :clap::yes:
Let me tell you, I was stressing a little about this, so I was loving this girl right about now :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

Now, I don't know about how things in hotels are ran in your area, but here in Cincy, its like pulling teeth to get ANY information about a guest staying at a hotel. Don't know if it has to do with privacy laws or just hotel policy, but if you don't know a guests name or room number, their likely NEVER going to tell you anything about them at all. Mind you also, we're talking about a more laid back country area as well, that being SpringField MO so that might also have something to do with it, not to mention, Teddy was working his magic with the young lady as well :doorag:hyea::doorag:

TBC ........................................

TOTALLY UNRELATED SIDE NOTE:
I just saw on the news last night something I was unaware of. Did you know that Brad Pitt is from SpringField MO and his entire family still lives there? I didn't have a clue, but I guess even the Super Stars have to come from somewhere :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

 

[lookerjdc]

drum roll.......

so its around 10:30 or 11pm and I am just getting ready to crawl into bed and.................

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Chap.14-Americas not so best-lol

So the nice young lady at the reception desk then proceeds to tell me the room number for the ONLY smoking reservation room that they had for the event, which I was elated about :clap:but then I stopped in my tracks. What if this isn't the right room, the right person, what if this person has no clue who I am or what I'd be talking about :shocked: Oh.............. the drama :shocked:

We're do for a little backstory here to help you understand our story-line a little better.
You see, before the Spyder or Teddy for that matter, I had always been a pretty reserved, some might even say anti-social person. I grew up rather sheltered and even tho in a large family, my next closest in age sibling to me was 6 years older and the next to him was 2 years older, so those two got along great, and everyone else in the clan was older yet, with me being the 'Baby' of the family, leaving me all by my lonesome for the most part. And when I say sheltered, I mean like under a rock sheltered. Couldn't cross the street to get the mail til I was at least 14 sheltered. When my Catholic Elementary school closed when I was in the 4th Grade, there were ony 3 other students in my entire class, seriously :shocked: The entire school was kind of like Little House on the Prairy style, with 1st grade thru 8th grade all taught in the same room, devided up in the basement of our neighborhood church and the entire school only had 58 students :shocked: sheltered. When the school closed, and I was forced to go to public elementary school, it was such a culture shock for me, as there were almost 400 students in the new school. I had never even heard of the names Earl (kept calling the kid Oil for the first few weeks) nor even the common name of Jeff (kept calling him Jiff cause I knew about Jiffy P-Nut butter) seriously, I was severely a fish out of water and that honestly didn't change much with age. Guess you could say I'm a totally different person since we got our 1st Spyder back in May of 2010 and that was another major shock. All the attention that the Spyder draws really brought me out of my shell (or brought me from out under the rock-lol) so instead of fighting it, that's why I just decided to go WITH it and decked Teddy out to match his byke. As my buddy put it, he's a byker dog and now he looks the part :doorag: :roflblack::roflblack: So we just try our best to enjoy all the attention, and if we can make another person smile, or as we've been told on multiple occasions, Make Someone's Day, just by doing what we love, then hey, ALL THE BETTER

So back to our story:
So I'm standing there with the deer in the headlights look :shocked: in my eyes :shocked: and the nice lady looks at me with concern and asks, "Whats wrong? Just go ahead and knock on the door and check to see if its the right person."
"But what if its NOT the right person, and they have no clue what I'm talking about? I don't want to bother a perfect stranger that might already be in bed and not expecting me." I said to her. "Hey, how bout you call the room and ask them if they are the one that's expecting a guest from Cincinnati, with a lil dog with a red mowhawk?" I asked her.
And she was like "Oh sure, I can do that for you no problem." and she then proceeds to make the call while Teddy and I are nervously standing there, and Jesse proceeds to get his stuff from his truck to take to his room. She makes the call, and I can overhear that :yes:YES :yes: we do have the right person and they are ok with us sharing the room with them ray::bowdown::clap: The young lady hangs up the phone and then proceeds to make a new key card and puts it in the little sleeve with the room # written on it and hands it to me and says, "Here you go, they said to give you a key and to send you up, their expecting you."

Wow, what a relief that was :bowdown::cheers: Having the camper with us, I wasn't too worried as I knew if worse came to worse, and we couldn't find the right person, we could always just sleep in the camper in the parking lot, no big deal really, but its always nice to have a little room to stretch out, not to mention a bathroom and shower handy as well

 

[lookerjdc]

and so, my Adventures with Dave & Teddy (and later Jesse) begins..:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I will wait for Dave to get thru his stories of Spyder fest before making any further comments (which are all positive and funny)

 

[CyncySpyder]

SpyderFest 2013 The NEW Adventure -Chap 15-Americas not so best... continued

So with the key card in hand, and a place to stay confirmed, I went out with Teddy to the camper to gather our things and chat'd with Jesse for a few about parking and what not, and confirmed with him that I'd give him a call in the morning about the days plans and events. Seeing as we had just arrived, we agreed that our first thing to do was to go back to PitBulls so we could get registered and then we would have all the info that comes in the packets so we'd know what, when and where everything was taking place. After we got parked, and our things gathered, we said good night and headed our seperate ways.

With my hands overloaded, Teddy eagerly took the lead, even tho he was as clueless as I was as to where we were actually going :roflblack: something about that sled-dog instinct that just makes him want to be in the lead, I tell ya :roflblack: So the room was up on the 3rd floor, so we opted to take the elevator up since my hands we so full. Well, :shocked: Teddy has NEVER liked elevators nojoke something about that sinking feeling he's just never gotten used to, so he stresses when we go to get on. Kind of makes himself like a pan-cake and goes flat on the floor with his legs out to the side, and then I kind of have to drag him along for a foot or two to get him into the door so it can close behind us. He stays in that position and gives a couple of whimpers of dissatisfaction and then its all over and the door opens and he springs to his feet like a jack-n-the-box and out he rushes, glad to have that over with :bowdown:

So we head down the hall of the 3rd floor and find our room number on the door, and I set a couple of things down so I have a free hand to open the door, but then I stop and think to myself, should I just do the key thing and go in, or should I knock first?

I know I know, I make things out to be way harder than they are, but again, I've never met this person, didn't even know his name at this time, and I was just thankful that he was generous enough to offer us his extra bed, so I definitely didn't want to be annoying or a bad guest or anything like that.

So I think to myself, if I knock, then that means if he's already in bed, he'd have to get out of bed to open the door for us. If I just do the key and go in, then he wouldn't have to let us in. But what if he's busy doing something personal, like going to the bathroom and didn't close the door, and we walk in on him :shocked:

See, this is how my dang brain works :banghead: and its so hard at times to make what seems to most, like a simple and rational decision, but for me, rarely is anything simple I blame it on the ADHD & so does my doctor, and I've learned many of the coping mechanisms, and the Adderall really helps alot, but we were on the road all day and I hadn't taken any since early that morning, so it was already outta my system, leaving me to think 50 things at once :banghead::dontknow:

Aha, do a compromise of doing the key thing, and knock right after, that way if he was 'busy' he would have a few seconds to close the door or whatever may be needed at the time:clap:see, a happy compromise

Man, I exhaust myself just thinking about all the dang thinking I do, and most of its needless non-sense :roflblack:

TBC ................................

 

[kubie]

opcorn:opcorn::2excited::roflblack::roflblack: