[slideshow=WFO-6,800,600]

Wednesday, July 25, 02:00

I’m about to depart for WFO-6. The Western FJR Owner’s Assocaition is the biggest group of FJR owners currently in North America. We have people riding from as far away as Nova Scotia. Besides being one of the event organizers in charge of banquets and money (I call myself the Cash and Hash Pimp)–the event is currently the world’s largest gathering of FJR motorcycles. I know we’re going to have 230 people for dinner Saturday and accounting for pillion riders and a few non-FJR riders….I bet we end up with around 200 FJR’s in the parking lot.

Not exactly Sturgis with Hardeley’s, but then again the bike has only been on the market for a few years and we won’t have killed nearly as many cows to make leather chaps and bikinis for the chicks. Our biggest crime is killing Cordura and Kevlar trees and having stock exhaust pipes.

So, I’m off to ride to Park City, UT for a 700 mile ride. A drop in the bucket in Iron Butt terms, but a great ride to go see my newest batch of eventual old friends. ……and to tease our rallymaster, Tim (TwoWheelNut) Bates, unmercifully.

Wednesday, Noon

I arrive in Park City with Tobie, Lisa, and Doug after a smooth rendevous at a Motel 6 this morning in Ontario, OR.

Just after we get here the sky decides to open up with rain of Biblical proportion. Funny thing is that prior to riding FJRs long distance I had seen rain on this scale maybe once or twice. It seems like I’ve been in similar rain no less than 4 times in the past 3 years. Perhaps FJRs attract this type of rain…..

The smart folks move their bikes to the garage where MadMike begins his duties as a Parking Nazi Enforcer of the most huggable kind.

Friday, 8 a.m.

I’m in the registration area a bit early trying to get ready for what will be a morning rush. Even though we extended registration to 6 p.m. last night and have 136 people checked in…..there were 157 motorcycles parked at Madmike2’s count in the garage last night! Between pillions and riders….that means we’re going to have a rush.

Last night at 6 p.m. Beeroux did his ride briefing for an instate Saddle Sore and optional Bun Burner Gold. About a dozen riders including 3 “virgins” were handed seriously obnoxious towels (they have to take Polaroids with the towels in them to prove they were at a certain place) and departed the hotel at 4 a.m. for what will be a stunning ride I’m sure. With a 1,000 mile budget you get to see large swaths of this phenomenal state.

Beeroux even is doing a Saddle Sore himself with a towel made up for him and hopes to get back on a bike he borrowed from TurboDave before most of the riders.

Also arrived is Slapnpop…however the 4 admins haven’t actually gotten anywhere in one place just quite yet for fear of being painted with lasers and taken out with high-power rifles by trolls or spammers we’ve banned from the board in the past.

Cdogman hosted a BBQ last night and although I couldn’t make it I know TWN, Mike-H, Toecutter, and others made the journey down to South Jordan and were thoroughly overserved. I have this feeling they’ll be running a bit slow this morning.

Looking through the window I want to ride badly….and maybe will get to in the afternoon. I did get away and demo an FZ1 yesterday from Yamaha and although a fun and tossable bike….it just doesn’t compare to the FJR. Maybe I needed to get used to it, but the torque didn’t even appear until 6,000 rpm and although things got seriously interesting at 9,000 rpm with some serious thrust you had to rev it to 12K to squeeze out the go.

…..and a more entertaining note…..SkooterG finally figured out the meaning on his badge title. I had put “Staff Fluffer” and he didn’t get the meaning until IronMaiden explained it to him. …..he’s now diverting his mental resources to paying me back. blink.gif

I’m sure I’ll report in this afternoon as the first feedbag gets closer.

TWN’s badge is a self-done mug shot styled after Nick Nolte’s arrest with what few hairs he has left sticking straight up.
Friday, 10 a.m.

Tim just rolled in……very, very slowly. To say he “walked” in would be an overstatement. I’d say he “ambled tentatively” at best.

According to Mike-H he became very relaxed, friendly, and sang all the way back home in the rental turned drunk limo he drove. Good call.

His only real statement was that he will never, ever let Cdogman mix his drinks again. blink.gif

Friday, Noon

Escaping from the registration desk, staff went AWOL and wandered the streets of Park City. First we found a BBQ joint and Big Chief Stinky Pants gorged on a plate of Tri-Tip. No more yanky my wanky, the Tobie needs food!

With guts full we opened up this cute little map provided by the BBQ joint and realized we had somehow already walked half the distance to downtown Park City.

…..or so we thought.

After I pronounced on three separate occasions, “I think it’s just two more blocks.” we all realized the map LIED!

If it weren’t for meeting locally colorful inhabitants….we might have ridden the frickin’ free bus. This chap seemed to sport a great ball cap.

We tried to stop at the liquor store, but either Park City or the State of Utah has a mean sense of humor and sent us into the basement of very old building with an old jail. Vectervp1 sits and ponders the bad things he did with his FJR the day before riding at FJR nominal speeds from L.A. He’ll get out in 3 weeks if he cleans everything out.

IronMaiden is just always cute….especially when she’s riding in some ancient contraption that was like the ski lift subway. I have no clue what that was about, but …….hey…..it’s Utah.

Needless to say we rode the free bus back to the hotel.

Saturday, 20:25

It was a fun evening. Besides gorging ourselves on BBQ ribs and chicken, we had some entertainment with SkooterG and Toecutter giving away prizes for things like most farkled bike (TurboDave), farthest traveled (Gypsy from Nova Scotia), loudest ticker (Slapnpop….to the flinching of the Yamaha folks), most public bike drop (somebody that wouldn’t raise their hand and dumped the demo ‘07).

Probably the biggest news of the evening was from Warchild is that….

……

wait for it…..

you ready?……..

Representatives met from WFO, CFO, EOM, SFO, and CFR and in 2008 there will be a NAFO!

As in an international North American FJR Owners meeting….probably in Denver.

TwoWheelNut will reprise his roll and be the rallymaster for NAFO. Because of this huge undertaking WFO itself will be NAFO. WFO staff will work along side other regional gathering staff so that the following year or other year will then have NAFO hosted by another regional organization.

And we’re calling it North American and not National because it’s so important and apparent that Canadian involvement in these gathering is so spectacular.

So, start planning to block out your last weekend of July 2008 to come to the next evolution of FJR gathering.

Now, I’m off to ride. Headed to Cascade Loop and lunch.

..Riding sweeper I snap off a quick shot on the move.

Skooter and his girlfriend pose for a reverse snappy from under the arm.

Notice the two hands of Skooter plainly visible. Clearly he is attempting to set Playa Dancer II free…..and flop on the ground. BAD Skooter!

Saturday, 22:30, The Curtain Closes

It’s a bit bittersweet this evening, but things are winding down. I’m in the event nexus lobby soaking in the scene and can hear a myriad of converstations, a parade of contented smiling faces, and many new friends making plans for nexst year.

Exemplifyingd is RenoJohn walking by. He finished a Bun Burner Gold about 16 hour ago and is feeling no pain. I asked him why his whiskey glass (straight by the way) never gets any less full. He says, “Oh it’s been empty, but my best friend just filled it. Mind you, Dcarver was just an aquaintance before this……but he’s now my best friend.”

In the balcony is one of my new friends FJRPig (and I’m too lazy and tired right now to go validate handles) and we ran the zip line together. We’re probably riding back in th morning.

Or the ride I took today with about 14 people led by Cdogman culminated in a true group shot of every rider at 9,400 feet above Brighton Ski Resort. With my Gorilla-Pod tripod and timer I was able to get even myself. The Alpin Loops just rocked as a ride….and nobody even thought about crossing the centerline.

Or the contest winner for the evening banquet (I just can’t do that subject justice at this point) Ponyfool was also a Zip Line runner.

Just for the record…..it was the final round for a brand new killer helmet. ….I was runner-up.

But more important than the few pictures I happen to have taken is how much the tone has changed over the weekend. It seemed like Thursday the hotel was a sea of kevlar and mesh clad acquaintances bumping into each other politley saying, “Hi.”, “How are you?”, etc. Friendly and inviting, but not a deep level.

Now it’s Saturday night and quieter. But quieter in a deeper way. We’ve each made at least a dozen new friends and mingle around sharing ourselves far more personally than we would have imagined when we first arrived.

Sappy? Maybe a bit.

But, I think the FJR is more than just a piece of well-done engineering. It’s a vehicle for making new friends into close friends.

WFO-6 is done. Now we get to look forward to NAFO and see all our friends again.

This is Iggy signing out………

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For more info and pictures check out various threads here & here.