Real Talk!

We arrived at the Ontario Real Estate Association Offices at 7:15 this morning to find a large area of the parking lot roped off... for motorcycles. We were the first to arrive.

Shortly after, a blue enduro style bike pulled in... it was Bill Sheppard from OREA. He was due for a 7:30 meeting and then planned to ride with us to Kingston and then head back to OREA. He mentioned that he was taking his usual holidays in Combermere this year, at the Opeongo Trail resort.

We swapped tornado stories for a while and then he zipped into the office for his meeting.

The boss... Ron Abraham had gone ahead last night to Kingston and had quite a head start. So we knew we wouldn't be seeing him in the OREA parking lot. All tolled there were 9 bikes and 10 riders, as I was the only passenger. It was a little tricky for Fabian what with a 40 pound gym bag strapped to his headlights and me on the back... and it was a near crisis when my i-pod decided to freeze up.

After the formalities and a brief speech from Ed Barissa the CEO, we were ready to ride. Brian Walker, the President of OREA apologized that he was far too stressed to actually ride his crotch rocket all the way to Lake Placid and he admitted that he was going to hop in the van with his wife, Cassaundra... and meet us there.

Lynn and Harry, veteran HOG riders were a god-send. Lynn led the parade and Harry stayed at the back to "sweep"... I'm sure it was difficult on them, they are accustomed to riding with people who respond to their hand signals and who plan their fill ups... we seemed to have people filling up hit and miss and we were stopping an awful lot.

We stopped at Port Hope and hooked up with Richard Hawkins (the NorthEastern Area director for OREA) and a couple of other fellas... nice guys... I'm so horrible with names, that I might have them figured out by tomorrow... except that there will be a whole whack of new people to sort out!

The border crossing was a breeze, after the first couple of riders had told the story of the organized charity ride, we pretty well got asked if we had any alcohol or tabacco and were told to have a great ride. Police, state troopers etc, waved at us many times along the route.

I have to say that whoever said it was going to be a long day of 563 kms was a great big fat liar... it was way more like 750kms... mind you, we did have a bit of a detour due to someone missing a turn... but nobody gets left behind.

We were a sorry lot arriving at the Crown Plaza, Lake Placid. I felt like the tin-man in the Wizard of Oz... my knees needed oiling... and my hoofies were sore... but it's amazing how one revives in the shower.

We had a nice dinner, the whole group... we took up two separate rooms in the Adirondak Steak House.... we were entertained by Jamie Edwards and Brian Walker who decided to switch shirts to see if anyone would notice... and Bob Kinnear explained that he constantly swerves his bike because he figures it evens out the wear on the tires.

While we walked down the hill to the restaurant, we did not have the steam to walk back up... and managed to hail a cab, just before the skies opened up. We are having a bit of a thunder storm, an interesting lightning show over the mountains.... it can rain all it wants at night, in my opinion.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.