RI - Meet & Greet- Saturday 16 Nov 1:00 pm - Coventry, RI

[B.D.F.]

Note: time change from 2:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Come on our and join us for this late M&G. A nice local restaurant that is sort of a diner and a pizza place all in one; and they have pool tables in case we get bored. A modest ride into southern CT may follow depending on the weather, how many people come on bikes and want to go for a ride. Meeting time is 1:00 PM.

Here is a link to the calendar page.

And unlike our dastardly competitors compatriots to the north, there is plenty of room at this event! Bring all your friends and family!  :rotflmao:

 

[rubberducky]

Had signed up but then noticed that it was later in the afternoon and had to back out as I have another comittment in Boston at 6pm.  Too bad as now you are in MY old stomping grounds! 

Coop

 

[B.D.F.]

Would it work for you if we moved it an hour back? Boston (depending on where of course) is only about 50 minutes from here and the restaurant is pretty close to I- 95. Be happy to accommodate you if we can Lyle.

Brian

Edit: I did change the time from 2:00 PM to 1:00 PM  It just won't be the same without Lyle's smiling face! And Lyle, bring Mrs. Lyle 'cause I got a joke she is going to LOVE....

Had signed up but then noticed that it was later in the afternoon and had to back out as I have another comittment in Boston at 6pm.  Too bad as now you are in MY old stomping grounds! 

Coop

 

[rubberducky]

Brian,

Appreciate the time change.  I should be able to get there now and I'll try to get Mrs. C. there too (she has got to hear the new joke :rotflmao.  Thanks!

Coop

 

[B.D.F.]

Who said anything about a new joke? I was planning on re-using the one I already know she likes so much.....  :rotflmao:

Glad to hear you are going to make it!

Brian

Brian,

Appreciate the time change.  I should be able to get there now and I'll try to get Mrs. C. there too (she has got to hear the new joke :rotflmao.  Thanks!

Coop

 

[B.D.F.]

Better hurry up, almost down to 600 slots left! You don't want to miss out on what is going to be the event of the season! Well, maybe not the season but probably next week. Or at least Saturday!

Brian

 

[B.D.F.]

So I just happened to notice that Chris signed up for this event. Great- looking forward to seeing you Chris, and I would like to take a moment to let everyone know that this is one tough COGite.

Let me explain: a few weeks ago, we had a M&G with a ride following in which Chris participated.... kinda'. I don't want to mention any names but the guy riding on the bike with Andrea just did not do a very good job (OK, it was awful) of organizing this ride; we actually lost two people on the way to the start point of the ride, about 80 yards from the restaurant we all just dined in and left. Yep, it was that bad. But then it got worse: we got a little turned around and missed a turn or two (same guy that did the ride planning did the ride leading  :-[  ) but finally managed the stop at the half- way point. We stopped for fuel, chatted for a few minutes and then began the ride back. The ride leader neglected to count the bikes (it did seem like an ever- changing number anyway) and rode off into the proverbial sunset. After a final bit of confusion at yet another fuel station, we started the final leg of the ride only to notice a C-14 getting off the highway directly in front of us. What a coincidence you are thinking but not so- the bike was carrying NY plates and was the very gentleman we lost somewhere between the mid- fuel stop and this point. Well, we caught up to him and he got behind us and followed (why would anyone do that.... AGAIN?) us to the ice cream. Turns out Chris had left his bike by a fuel pump where I... er, the rider leader did not see that and thinking we were all together, rode off into the sunset..... while Chris was in the bathroom! Yep, he came out, a lot of miles from home, in a different state, only to find the group he was riding with was gone. He headed back to New London, CT to take the ferry back over to NY again only to mistakenly run into the group who left him a half- hour before. We all had ice cream and a few chuckles.

But the amazing thing is that he is coming back for more! Way to go Chris and I promise not to leave you in any more bathrooms.  :-[ :rotflmao:

Brian

 

[opie6051]

Glutton for punishment?..........nah...........I had a GREAT time!........Brian, will you be locking the door to the diner like you did at Mystic Ice Cream?.........curious minds want to know..............Chris

 

[B.D.F.]

Great Chris, glad it worked out as it did.

Nope, I am not in charge of doors or drawbridges, I merely point out the absurdity of locking one of the two entrance doors. It really is a strange world.

Looking forward to seeing you Sat.

Brian

Glutton for punishment?..........nah...........I had a GREAT time!........Brian, will you be locking the door to the diner like you did at Mystic Ice Cream?.........curious minds want to know..............Chris

 

[Pat and Sher in Ma]

Sher & I hope to make this event but since I'm not sure what my work load is for tonight
we will be winging it and making a last minute decision in the morning when I get out of
work.

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

 

[rubberducky]

Looks like a few more folks have signed up Brian.  For awhile I thought maybe Mr Elk Hoof scared everyone away!  (You know how he is always glaring at folks  ).

 

[B.D.F.]

Great M&G with a nice mix of 'the usual suspects' along with some new faces. A real treat for us was meeting a sort of new couple from RI riding a C-14. I say sorta' new because while they have been COG members for a while and have owned the bike for some time, this was their first COG event. Because RI is such a small state, new COGites are a pretty rare pleasure.

We had 15 for lunch and then 9 of us (seven bikes) went for a leisurely ride into southern CT. The weather turned out to be unseasonably fantastic, sunny and just a touch over 60F- a real treat for such a late date. I felt kind of silly spending 28 COG dollars with the weather gods when I bought this nice weather but it really worked out in the end.   And today's ride was organized and went off without a hitch; I will work on this further to try and prevent that from happening again.

A special thanks to Chris S. for coming all the way from L.I. (across the ferry both ways) but especially for coming back at all after that unfortunate bathroom incident (where we left him in the middle of a ride in the bathroom of a fuel stop). But even more so for taking it in stride and with excellent humor!

By name we had:

Todd and Sherry from RI
Chris S. from Long Island
Bill B. from CT.
Bruce J. from CT
Paul M. from MA
Carl D. from CT
Chris L from CT
Wayne G. from MA
Pat and Sher from MA
Lyle and Lou from MA

No particular order here, just the way the names are on the sign up sheet. It was really great to meet Todd, Sherry and Chris L., and nice to see Bruce and Carl just because we have not seen them in quite a while.

So thanks to everyone for coming out- as always, it was a great day with great people. We hope to have more M&G's in both RI and CT over the winter but this is probably the last one most of us can ride to this year.

Brian and Andrea

 

[BJ_CT]

So there's this monkey that eats absolutely everything...
:rotflmao:

Had a wonderful time yesterday getting together with a motley crew of miscreants for food, fun and frolic.  How can I tell we were miscreants?  We were all riding 'sport bikes'.  It was great to see everyone plus the new folks.  Did I mention the weather BDF bought (if truth be know, it was really Mrs. BDF that made the weather perfect)?  And the diner / restaurant was a perfect pick and it had 'stuffies' as an appetizer (Google is your friend).

Last ride of the year?  Not even close. :motonoises:

 

[opie6051]

A big thank you to Brain for putting this M&G together and to Andrea for being the always classy organizer for the event........this was a breakthrough ride for me as it was the first time I programmed a route to my GPS.....the night before I used the Garmin Mapsource software to pick a backroads route from New London, CT to Coventry, RI.....zooming in and out of the maps, and using the arrow keys to move the map I picked the most backroads I could that didn't look dirt......it turned out to be an amazing trip through backroads CT and RI......some roads were single lane.....in 2 hours I think I only saw 20 cars.......I did learn you have to put faith in your GPS.......most of the time I had no idea where I was and just kept following that pink line through golf courses, neighborhoods and out in the middle of nowhere........backroads CT and RI were unexpectedly beautiful......some areas largely unchanged since colonial times you could see the role agriculture plays in those states to this day......tradition and work ethic oozing from every stone wall........wonderful aromas and sights we all enjoy as motorcycle riders.......I don't know if the file will translate but it is attached if you want to try it one day......the only part I can't verify are the turns around Foxwood Casino....the GPS routed me through their service vehicle parking lot and indicated there was an exit to the North....I turned around when I got there as it was full of buses and trucks......found an easy way around it and resumed the route on the GPS.....the lunch and camaraderie were the typical excellent COG fun....renewing building friendships and making new ones!......great people sharing a passion..........riding bikes we're all somewhat risk takers and being no different I took a chance and went to the bathroom at the end of the meal.....on the way out I could hear the Twilight Zone jingle and knew I'd be alone in the Bermuda Triangle.....after seeing the pull Brian has with the weather gods, bribing the time travel gods would be a piece of cake for him........to my pleasant surprise everyone was still there!...........Brian must have been off his game.....I don't even think the cat got killed yesterday.......be well all........Chris

 

[tfly]

My wife Sherri would agree...She thinks COG stands for Concours Owners Gang. Sorry we did not get to talk to everyone(had to sit at the kid's table ).

Had a wonderful time yesterday getting together with a motley crew of miscreants

 

[B.D.F.]

By the way Bruce- I think you have a driving light out. I cannot be sure but someone following me with two sets of aux. lights had one of the lower (fork mounted) ones not working. All three others were working.

Brian

So there's this monkey that eats absolutely everything...
:rotflmao:

Had a wonderful time yesterday getting together with a motley crew of miscreants for food, fun and frolic.  How can I tell we were miscreants?  We were all riding 'sport bikes'.  It was great to see everyone plus the new folks.  Did I mention the weather BDF bought (if truth be know, it was really Mrs. BDF that made the weather perfect)?  And the diner / restaurant was a perfect pick and it had 'stuffies' as an appetizer (Google is your friend).

Last ride of the year?  Not even close. :motonoises:

 

[B.D.F.]

Thanks for the kind words and excellent post Chris. You are the perfect spirit for COG I think- taking everything with a grain of salt, having great good humor about things going wrong and most of all, having fun along the way. And we do appreciate the extra effort you put in in attending things 'over hear' because you have to cross the Sound using the ferry, which is both a bit expensive as well as time consuming- especially for lunch!

Good to hear you are making progress with Mapsource. Steve Smith (the northeast area director of COG) is a fan of Mapsource and is now using Basecamp as well I believe. He has put on seminars on GPS navigation for COG and is a good source of info. for both of those Garmin software packages.

I would like to find a package or service that would allow public map sharing as well as public electronic file sharing but I have not yet found anything that works well for the task. I do believe it will be along sometime and that will really help people share rides, directions, etc. using interactive maps and being able to download routes directly into their own GPSs. There are some trip planners that are very close to what I want but all  that I have seen have some type of problem(s) that end up being 'deal killers' for me.

By the way, I use Streets and Trips by Microsoft. Not a free program but it is very reasonable in price and my favorite of the navigation programs. Unfortunately as of 2013 S&T is now putting out GPS files that all of my Garmins choke on so I really cannot recommend it until / unless that is fixed.

Brian

A big thank you to Brain for putting this M&G together and to Andrea for being the always classy organizer for the event........this was a breakthrough ride for me as it was the first time I programmed a route to my GPS.....the night before I used the Garmin Mapsource software to pick a backroads route from New London, CT to Coventry, RI.....zooming in and out of the maps, and using the arrow keys to move the map I picked the most backroads I could that didn't look dirt......it turned out to be an amazing trip through backroads CT and RI......some roads were single lane.....in 2 hours I think I only saw 20 cars.......I did learn you have to put faith in your GPS.......most of the time I had no idea where I was and just kept following that pink line through golf courses, neighborhoods and out in the middle of nowhere........backroads CT and RI were unexpectedly beautiful......some areas largely unchanged since colonial times you could see the role agriculture plays in those states to this day......tradition and work ethic oozing from every stone wall........wonderful aromas and sights we all enjoy as motorcycle riders.......I don't know if the file will translate but it is attached if you want to try it one day......the only part I can't verify are the turns around Foxwood Casino....the GPS routed me through their service vehicle parking lot and indicated there was an exit to the North....I turned around when I got there as it was full of buses and trucks......found an easy way around it and resumed the route on the GPS.....the lunch and camaraderie were the typical excellent COG fun....renewing building friendships and making new ones!......great people sharing a passion..........riding bikes we're all somewhat risk takers and being no different I took a chance and went to the bathroom at the end of the meal.....on the way out I could hear the Twilight Zone jingle and knew I'd be alone in the Bermuda Triangle.....after seeing the pull Brian has with the weather gods, bribing the time travel gods would be a piece of cake for him........to my pleasant surprise everyone was still there!...........Brian must have been off his game.....I don't even think the cat got killed yesterday.......be well all........Chris

 

[BJ_CT]

BDF - Yep. Right lower light failed.  Hope they'll fix or replace just one.  Don't want to have to buy the set.

Ocean - I've been told that a good many of those stone walls, particularly the very old ones in the middle of the woods, were done by prison gangs.  My SOs father was a farmer, industrious with a solid work ethic, and he built stone walls for a living.

 

[opie6051]

BJ.......that wall building has to be tough...matching geometry and size to produce flat surfaces.......they seem to be a last forever structure too........quite the skill!.....Chris