i absolutely have to share this with you! i don't mean to offend ANYONE, but...this...to me, was just TOO FUNNY!
a few years ago...i think 2009 perhaps, i went to Erwin, TN for my annual scouting trip in preparation for our annual Rune Rally. It was the year after the second InZane having been held in nearby Johnson City, TN. Come to find out, the very day we arrived, the HUGE annual BMW rally had JUST ended the day before ....with its Ground Zero being just 10 miles from our hotel in Erwin.
so, we pull up, some guy on a BMW is packing up his bike to leave from the BMW rally. he proudly tells us they had almost 10,000 participants. Impressive, indeed!
So as we talk...and he mentions ( I SWEAR TO YOU) how despite the Hog Rally being in this area in 2006 and
a bunch of Valkyries the last two years...despite all of us DEADBEATS...nearly ruining it for bikers (HIS WORDS, AGAIN I SWEAR)...the BMW rally was a smashing success DESPITE those of us who came before. I mean, Sherry and my Valks are parked like 50 feet from this guy as he says this...though granted, he didn' t actually see us pull up on them and MAY NOT have known ...for sure...they were our Valks. he goes on and on about how Harley riders, VALK RIDERS...are all a bunch of posers....etc.
but then, AND THIS IS THE BEST PART.....i notice a manual of about 75 pages or so sitting on the bench next to me. it is HIS BMW Rally manual. I ask if i can look at it. He says SURE, i can HAVE it. I started looking at it....an man, i couldn't believe what was in it.
It had rules on winning prizes, rules on long distance riders....pages and pages of rules. it had THREE pages of "committe chair persons". it had TWO COFFE Chairpersons listed. It had Cyber Cafe Chair persons listed. It just went on and on with rules, chair people. then the list of seminars. SEVEN pages of seminars. And, seminars only the thorough folks of BMW could have thought of. Seminars on riding without body parts/limbs. oh, they had the "usual" seminars on things like oil types, etc. But they had seminars on things that ONLY certain folks could have really appreciated! It was a provervbial BIBLE of rules, happenings, chair people and everything one could think of at a rally, but were afraid to ask (75 pages worth!)!
i mean, the planning part of me...having put on Ralies and events for YEARS....had to admire PARTS of the documents' thoroughness! But the practical part of me had to laugh at some of it...it just wasn't for what i'd call "your typical motorcycle rider"...if you know what i mean!
they had a beer tent...a cyber cafe...a "oil and tire pressure check tent"....the list went on and on!
I STILL have that BMW Rally book today. i took it and at that year's Rune Rally, we made a "satirical" book of "Rune Rally Rules"...copying from the structure of the BMW book. But, ours...was a "tongue in cheek" rendition. We poked fun of just about all of it. I still have that Rune Rally Rule book too....and i still get a laugh from it....
Don't get me wrong, the size, the thought put into the event....etc...it was actually quite impressive. But MOST BMW folks i have met....well...MANY of them...kind of "travel to a different drum"...if you know what i mean. But then, we have all sorts of typical biker types. the "Harley" type. The BMW type. the crotch rocket type. Etc, etc. and of course, we also have non typical types. I mean all of this NOT as an insult to anyone...just an observation of someting i saw......one day..."at the BMW rally"
