Here is a little description of how our Red River trip went. First we met in Fallon Nevada as planned, Although I had planned on having at least eight or ten members there to ride with, But as it turned out there was a whole total of four members.  We started out with Frank Boyer, Tom Anderson, Fritz Wells, and myself, Frank and I had made a deal that him & I share a room.  Well the first night there in Fallon dissolved our partnership; He couldn’t sleep and was up and down all night, When I asked him what his problem was he said my snoring, Plus the fact that he couldn’t sleep well in motel rooms.  By the time day light had arrived Frank had decided he wasn’t going to enjoy this trip very much and that since he was so close to home he was going to back out and go back home, So when we left to go East, he left to go West.  We had a very nice trip Saturday until we left Ely Nevada, We were going up over a mountain range and we were about ¾ way up it when I started having trouble steering my bike. I couldn’t see what was going on so I had Tom come up beside me to look at the front tire. He said it looked a little mushy to him but it wasn’t flat Well that was than but 30 seconds later it was flat and no place to pull off the road, so I pulled to the edge and we directed traffic around us.  I always carry a small air compressor just for occasions like this, we got our heads together and decided that since it took a little while for it to go down, it might be possible to put some air in it and make it to the summit. We made up a plan of action and when we had 22 psi in the tire, Tom pulled the plug on the power & Fritz pulled the hose from the tire and I gave it gas and ran for the summit. (Sacramento Summit).  The tire was flat by the time I could park and get off the bike, Here we sat out in the middle of nowhere, But not to worry we all three had our cell phones, Big deal not one of us could get out on the celly telly.  It was decided that Tom would go on into Delta and save our motel rooms, while Fritz went to Baker NV about 15 miles away and call MTS for me. I would stay with the bike and trailer, They both went on their way and I pulled my chair off the trailer and got under some trees in the shade with a bottle of cold water.  I guess I sat there for over an hour, when I remembered I had some beer in the cooler, since I wouldn’t be driving for a while I decided to have myself a beer. I had just finished my first beer when a guy on a Honda crotch rocket came along, he stopped to see if he could be of any assistance, I told him what was going on and it was decided that he couldn’t help me. So I offered him a beer, we sat down on the side of the road and had a beer together.  He was from Canada and was touring the western United States, and thought the desert area was awesome, I told him where we were supposed to be staying in Delta Utah and made the suggestion that he stay there too.  After a couple hours Fritz comes back and gives me the good news from MTS, and low & behold ten minutes later a tow truck comes up to save me.  It’s decided that Fritz will go on into Delta and I will just spend the night in Ely and get up early the next morning and head for Delta. The tow company had a real neat rig for loading motorcycles, first he had a flat bed truck that rolled back off the truck, Than he had a set of dolly’s like you put the front wheels of a car in and than you can pull your car.  He had removed the two tracks the wheels went into, and installed a single track for motorcycle wheels, he dropped them down onto the ground, rolled the bike up onto the wheel track and pulled the back of it up to keep the bike from rolling back out.  He than proceeded to tie the bike down as you would on a trailer, when he got it tied down he put his winch in gear and just pulled the bike right up onto the flat bed of the truck, just slick as heck.  The tow job cost me $185.00, but MTS paid $100.00 of that so I wasn’t hurting to awfully bad, the bike shop in Ely stayed open until they brought me in and than they replaced the valve stem, (which was the cause of my flat).  The new valve stem cost me $8.00, and the labor for installing it was $82.00. WARNING WARNING, If you ever have a 90deg valve stem installed on the front wheel of a Voyager, Make darned sure they turn it to a 45deg angle on the wheel or it will hit the calipers and break off, which is what happened to mine.  (A very expensive lesson learned).

Saturday night was hell sleeping, There was a bunch of Harley riders in town drinking their way to Sturgis and they were running up and down the street all night with their loud pipes roaring.  At 3:30 am I finally decided it was useless trying to sleep, so I got up and headed to Delta Utah, I got there at about 7:00am, the time we were supposed to be leaving for Durango, I had breakfast with Tom & Fritz than we headed for Durango.  None of us had any trouble after that and we arrived in Durango at about 6:30pm (a little late but we got there).  Upon our arrival in Durango, Duane Ash & his wife Charlotte greeted us, we had a little POW Wow with them, Than we met up with the Cascade Valley Voyagers  (Washington State) we shot the breeze with them for a little while.  Before we ended our talk it was decided where we would meet up with them Monday morning for the ride into Red River.

Monday morning came very quickly and we were up and ready to go at 5:30am, but the restaurants didn’t open until 6:00am, some where between finding a place to eat and getting back where we were supposed to meet the CVV we missed them. We did meet up with the Gem State Voyagers, so we rode out with them.  We had been on the road for about 1 ½ hours when we passed the CVV’s eating breakfast, I guess they were in such a hurry to get there they couldn’t wait to have breakfast with us.  We finally arrived at our designated meeting place (Arroyo Hondo) for the So Cal Voyagers, It was 12:10 PM when we arrived there, We waited until almost 1:30, When they didn’t show up by then, we knew we had either missed them or they had troubles.  As it turned out they did have trouble, while we were waiting for the SO Cal bunch to show up, the CVV showed up.  We let Don & Doris Brubaker lead us into the town of Red River all in one group, looked impressive, I think we had about twenty bikes when we rode in.

The campgrounds we stayed at isn’t worth discussing, It was that lousy, a big bunch of crooks.  The rally it’s self was very nice, and a good time was had by all, but the weather was lousy it rained every day and some even at night.  It was so wet we were unable to even has a campfire, so that took a lot of the pleasure out of the camping.  We made a couple of the rides and most & best of all I finally got to go into a Vietnam war memorial, If you have never been to one of them I would highly recommend it.  I have always thought if I ever visited one I could get rid of the horrible feelings I have had since I left there, but it doesn’t work that way We cried some big ole crocodile tears and I thought I would feel better about it when I left, but the feeling is the same.

The final dinner on Thursday night was nice, and they stretched it out as long as they could with anything they thought would hold our interest for a few more minutes.  Next year the rally will be held in up state New York in the Adirondack Mountains, I would sure like to go.
 But that’s a long way to go and I know no one here will go with me, so maybe I will fly to NY and borrow my brother’s bike.
The trip home was uneventful, but there was still just three of us coming home together, this time Bob Webb came with us, and Fritz wet up to Colorado Springs to bum a couple free meals from his sister.

Tom & I left Bob in Fallon and headed south through Hawthorn NV and on up through Yosemite, We arrived in Fresno at about 1200 noon on Monday.  I can honestly say even with the flat tire and the rain plus the crooks at the camp ground I did have an enjoyable trip and would do it all over again tomorrow.  I should also mention that Jerry & Dorothy Grimsley were there, along with Bob Joyner, John & Dotty Adkins, Don & Doris Brubaker, and last but not least Bob Webb.  I think we did pretty darned good, considering this was our first ever rally, and guess what the club turned one year old on July 23rd.

The Triangle rally will be in June and I think we should be giving some thought to attending it, It would be held in Idaho and put on by Duane & Charlotte Ash of the Gem State Voyagers.  They are very nice people and gave us a special invite up to the rally; (LET’S ALL GO)
I would also like to ask that everyone please forgive John & Dottie Adkins for showing up in a motor home, you see John just retired on the 6th of July, and he was under the assumption that when you retired you had to have a motor home.  He has a friend who has convinced him of this, and now we have to retrain him all over again, so don’t be too hard on him, OK.

Cheers. Uncle Ray