My quick & dirty report of the UK BB
After a postponement due to COVID, the time has finally arrived for the UK BB Bash from 30 August to 4 September.
The UK Chapter decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary at the Vayamundo hotel in Houffalize, Belgium. To my understanding, this beautiful location in another country was chosen because the accommodation in Belgium was considerably cheaper than in the UK.
Unlike EU Meetings, which usually last from Friday to Sunday, this celebration started on Wednesday for the English Riders and early birds and they left again on Monday.
I left on Thursday together with Hans, Sander, Ludo & Romy and, after we arrived in Belgium via the A2 HWY, we took a climbing and winding route prior to Liège to Houffalize. The weather was beautiful, 25 degrees and sunshine and we had a lot of fun on the curvy roads through the hilly Ardennes.
The Belgian fuel prices were also pleasant, super gasoline (98 octane) was about 45 cents cheaper than in the Netherlands.
When we arrived in Houffalize, we were warmly welcomed by Bobbie, Ingrid and of course Dianne and were given a T-shirt with Bash print and a welcome drink. Great job and well done, ladies!
It was a pleasant reunion with many friends and acquaintances from Wales and England, Benelux, Germany and even Günie and Petra from Austria were present. There were 130 participants with 80 Valkyries, each of course more beautiful than the other.
Ian, one of the founders of the UK Chapter whom I hadn't seen for at least 15 years, was also present. During a visit to the Daytona bike week over 20 years ago, Bobbie and Ian came in contact with the US Valkyrie community and started their own Chapter in the UK shortly afterwards.
After the reception handling by the club and hotel we parked our Valks in the spacious underground garage. The evening was happily spent at the bar and dancefloor ‘till the late (or was it early) hours.
On Friday there was a joint tour, which was organized by Stef in an excellent way. Ivo showed us a 'rodeo' with his Valkyrie during the 80 km. outbound trip. His front wheel ended up in a large pothole in the road, blocked and the bike reared up, revealing the underside from behind. The rider was launched and landed on the ground next to his motorcycle. Fortunately, apart from muscle pain and the shock, he had no injuries. Only his helmet showed a crack. He was an experienced rider and knew how to fall. And wore a sort of honeycomb protection pads in his jacket and jeans. This stuff spreads the impact force evenly across a larger area and does not move, causing scrapes, etc.
Miraculously, his bike sustained only minor damage as well. It must have landed on the engine crash bar and his saddle bag. By the looks of it, apart from a broken Kuryakyn peg and a small dent in his tank, he was able to continue riding. Not even a mirror was broken off.
After a beautiful and scenic ride, we arrived at the Bison Ranch in Orchimont for lunch. There was actually a herd of Bisons grazing and a small ‘Western' village had been built by the owner with Saloon, Teepees, Drugstore and accommodation. Because there was a lot of gravel on the way towards the Ranch, you could safely park the motorcycle down the road and have a chuckwagon pick you up.
We had a real bison burger for lunch and a lot of pictures were taken of this special location, of course. Great, Stefan, for bringing us here.
Back at the hotel we could freshen up and after dinner we had a very pleasant evening. Dave, the famous Belgian guitarist/singer/musician, had once again fallen for Josette's charms and she managed to get him to play on Friday evening. As matter of fact, he and his partner loved it so much that they stayed all weekend. Needless to say, that after midnight and a few drinks (he mixes beer with the same amount of whiskey), he really got going and gave another smashing performance and we had a great time with his music on the dance floor.
His show was preceded by a HAKA performance where Bobbie was roasted by Colin and 15 Lowland members. No seriously, everything according to the ritual and with colors. We had seriously practiced it, LOL. Great hilarity and Bobbie a bit bewildered, of course.
The next day it rained and most of the guests spent the day walking, went to the indoor swimming pool or were touring the town. Ivo went to Liège to buy another helmet together with Anthony. It appeared those two were on the same wavelength in helmet developments. In the evening a BBQ was organized by the hotel, unfortunately still in the rain. That didn't stop us from performing two more skits. To my understanding (I was distracted) Bobbie had neglected his 'Bobbie's Angels' in recent years and had traded in his ladies for younger ‘bike bitches’, who now assisted him in organizing meetings.
Dianne, Leita and Rosanne now taught him a lesson, he was given a plastic bag of genuine Welsh sheepshit as a present and he had to renew his vow.
Then a Lancaster dambuster act was performed by an 8-person crew sitting on chairs in the shape of an aircraft. I knew that Bobbie had an extraordinary interest in WW2 musea and -graves across the continent. Of course, with leather caps from that time. I witnessed that once in the officer's mess at an airbase. Four of them acted as RR Merlin engines, got propellers and were supposed to loudly roar the sound of an engine. The rest consisted of wing commander Bobbie as 'captain' with matching hat and checklist, engineer Dianne with tools, Stef as navigator with map and Dirk as 'tail gunner' with water pistol. After start-up and during the flight, the A/C had to be maneuvered while maintaining the shape and all kinds of 'emergency' situations happened that the crew had to solve in a hilarious way. The apotheosis consisted of dropping a Dambuster bomb, which consisted of a cardboard bomb body with 4 water-filled balloons as sub munitions. While hard to explain, you gotta see this in order to understand the fun of it. After the necessary mopping, it was time for Colin's disco and it was again very busy on the dance floor.
On Sunday after breakfast, we said goodbye to our UK friends and rode home in dry and sunny weather. Most UK Riders would ride to Calais on Monday to take the tunnel.
I would like to profoundly thank Bobbie and his crew for this celebration meeting and 20th UK BB Bash. And Stef & Colin & Ingrid for facilitating the meeting in Belgium. We all enjoyed it tremendously, caught up on all bike stories and made plans for the future.
UK Chapter you are still the Best in the West
Some pics
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beer1952/albums/72177720302039016/with/52352919956/And (YouTube) video's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8-juS4FF84https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI4EIlRbuZohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUDy729RFXshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNmBUpziX9Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqR_VWJ5QkQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObQWOEZUY74
