Thanks to Lou and Cathy Laguna for knocking the ball out of the park with TriSTAR in Sparta this past weekend. Registration included a nice info packet with flyers about area activities, a comprehensive listing of area restaurants, schedule of events, catered dinner Saturday night, a bike wash area, etc.
Weather was coolish with some scattered showers here and there, but overall, it was pretty nice weather. Some of the roads right around Sparta and on the Blue Ridge Parkway were being repaved, but no delays were more than a minor inconvenience. (It should be most excellent next year once the pavement is nice and cured.) The routes set up over the years (I think mostly, if not all, by routing guru Doug Pippin) are still most excellent. I rode one route myself that I don't think I'd ever had the opportunity to do...great fun!
I saw a good number of familiar faces and a LOT of new faces. Fantastic! We had an excellent representation of the association's officers with President Norm Kern, Veep Lou Laguna, State Director Rep Howard Baumwell, Treasurer Kelly Ernst, and RFK Coordinator Geoffrey Greene in attendance.
The proprietor at the Alleghany Inn, John, pulled out all the stops too with plenty of tents set up in the parking with tables for food and socialization, registration, and a bike wash area.
Thanks to the generosity of the attendees, we collected $540 for the Ride For Kids, our adopted charity. It was good to get back in the saddle for that. My thanks go to all of the folks that participated in that worthy cause.
And speaking of getting back in the saddle, this was my first event attended since my get-off last year followed by several months of recovery. I've done some single days of riding in recent months, but this was the first time I've strung together several days of riding. So after a couple of hundred miles in the saddle to get to Sparta, a similar distance each day riding in the area, and a similar amount going home, I'm happy to say that both my '97 PC800 (with its brand new antique registration tag) and me (am I also an antique?) got a good workout with no issues.
Our Saturday night BBQ was catered with plenty of good food. And I heard a rumor of the possibility of bring back the Friday night parking lot cookout in coming years.
Thanks to Lou, Cathy, and any other volunteers that jumped in to help. I didn't hear of any problems during the weekend, and I hope everyone made it home safely and enthusiastically.
From what I heard, I think we can expect to have this event again next year. Go ahead and call now and make your room reservation at the Alleghany Inn during the Memorial Day weekend. We had a good crowd of an estimated 70-80 people and it wouldn't take much to push us into the days of yore when we filled up the entire Inn for the weekend. With a few cars and trailers in the middle parking area, the bikes dominated the parking around the edge of the lot nearest the rooms. It was great to see!
