(awake again, 4 hour nap, Boy I needed that)
Another Friday evening around the fire pit, chatting and swapping tales, along with a bottle (or 2) of our Rally drink, Fireball.
A good showing from the new attendees, from Idaho. Thanks guys for joining in on the fun and bring some more colour to our event. Also a long haul traveler, Mitch from Illinois, great to put a face to the handle. Along with Gryphon Rider and his daughter from Calgary. Christian from Vancouver (Surrey) BC, up for Sat night. We all hope you come on back now, ya hear?
Sat rides went in a few directions. Murray and Doug off to the north to Little Fort and a ride across to 93 Mile House and back along Hwy 97, a long days ride. Steve took the biggest crew to the auto Show and Shine in Penticton, through Princeton and the great detour along Green Mountain Road (which I believe they had another detour along too?). Mike lead a crew straight down Hwy 5 to Hope, and back up the Fraser Canyon Hwy 1 to Spences Bridge. The Spokane people rode up to Kamloops to the Hospital to find out what they could, plus deliver the belongings to his family. I went late down to Princeton, then Hwy 3 to Hope, and George was planing on parting with me there to head home to prepare for a trip today with his wife, and I was going to continue up the same route of Mike, Hwy 1 to Spences Bridge. Dusty was doing the reverse direction I was doing.
But for George and I, it wasn't to happen. After fueling in Princeton and heading to Hope, I noticed that I did not have alternator voltage, 11.9V. Pulled over, had Tess turn off the heated vest, no change, volt dropped to 11.8V. Talked it over with George. My volt meter was in my Tupperware, which was in the trailer rather than my saddle bags. I did have 2 sets if brushes with me. The short of it was George volunteered to follow me back the way we had come, the shortest route, back to Merritt, so we could swap batteries if needed and get my bike back, where we had a spare alternator in my trailer. Thank you George for taking the extra hours to do that! Pulled the fuse for the head lights.
We made it back the whole 100 Km (60m) without needing to change batteries. Voltage was showing 11.3V on my bikes meter. Got out the volt meter, and confirmed what we suspected after going out and buying a new 9V battery for the digital meter. Compared it to the working Valk, just so we knew we where doing it right. Battery voltage off and running, alternator at my bog bone fuse (power off the alt), all confirmed my bike wasn't charging.
Out came the spare alt. Moved the bike into some shade, on the centre stand, and out came the tools and remove the failed alternator, then the replacement back in.
Thanks Mike for thinking of throwing a spare alternator into my trailer, so we wouldn't need it since we had it with us. But here I was after inspecting my alternator and thinking I had another 10K miles of life in it, and was going to replace the brushes next spring.
Thanks Dave from Idaho, who offered to drive over to Canadian Tire auto and pick up some grease for me, as the alternator dampeners weren't holding in place. But after "gluing" them in with the grease, for the second time in the same day, I had the alt into the bike frame trying to line up the splines, which took me longer than getting the alt in. About the only drama of the day.
After diner, we started our annual Sat night festivities. As the host Rep, I have the honour of hosting the evening. Started off thanking msd and Lisa for there help and support, along with my wife Tess, for the same. I had asked Dave Chromy to inform the group on the condition of our fallen rider.
A quick talk about next years location. Redline and I had spoken about some USA options again, but decided on keeping it in BC. msb is expecting to ride through Grand Forks at the end of his travels, and give us a report on Johnny's Motel restorations. If Grand Forks doesn't work out, then back to Merritt again, we still have lots of roads untouched and waiting to be ridden in this beautiful area of BC.
Out came the awards. Mitch had left that morning, for his ride homewards, so the furthest rider went to Sam and Myla from Seattle, whom left home June 3 (?) to come to the Valhalla Rally, by way of Taos InZane 19. Myla is looking forward to being back home soon!
The best non-classic Valkyrie award went to Steve Haddad of Kelowna BC, a white GW GL11800.
Here's an image of Steve's Goldwing
The best classic Valkyrie went to Dave Milne of Spokane WA. (someone have a picture?)
Then the results of the Bug Splatz contest. (sorry my mind is a blank, will edit)
3rd place, Cal and Ingrid from Spokane
A natural fragrance bubble bath. A bag of beans, to be cooked and eaten about an hour before the bath.
2nd place,
Something that would feed a cop for a month. A bag of donuts seeds (a bag of Cheerios)
1st place went to Ken Fox of Port Angeles.
A dinner for 2 anywhere they want to eat. Canned stew and a pair of forks. (sorry for the pic, in the wrong place)
Then our new ode to Cal Stewart, and his lovely Hawaiian shirts.
Then the last group event, the gift exchange. Submit a gift, ticket numbers given and drawn, then pick a gift. Make your selection, introduce yourself to the group, and reveal your prize. There are a LOT of chuckles, laughs, Oh and Ah!, and with a larger group, this all takes some time. It was GREAT!
Last of all, was the Hard Luck trophy. It was discussed and decided to not to continue giving it out. It was just too cumbersome to give out to bikers. We offered it up for sale, raffle, donation. In the end, it went to Murray Peart, for his quick offering of mechanical support, getting in there and helping out fellow riders at 2 Rallies already. Thank you Murray.
Thank you to EVERYONE who attended. Thank you to all who helped out in making this another Great Gathering. Dave Milne and Linda, Steve Haddad and Margaret, Mike and Lisa, all those who lead groups. All who helped in every little way, getting chairs, cleaning up at the end of the night, in the end, it was everyone! We all came together and gave of ourselves.
Finally, Thank you to the staff of the Quality Inn and the Newtown Sushi, who's staff I heard nothing but good things from the others. Thank you Jasmine, Nicole, Kai, and others.
Thank you all!
