I know I'm gettin' old when I start to talk about the "good ol days",
but whenever I start thinking about all the miles and rallies I've attended since 1974, the Dutch Country Rally always comes to mind.
It was held at an FOP campground near Harrisburg, PA and a better equipped campground you couldn't find.
The deal with the rally was $25 per person and that included FREE BEER for the whole rally.
YEP, FREE BEER.
There was plenty of camping under a canopy of old growth tall trees and a large
pavilion that had a kitchen for parties.
After the first rally it became known that the beer truck that had the taps on the sides of the refrigerated box usually showed up on Thursday.
People showing up started to creep back to earlier in the week to take advantage of this fact.
Not to be different, so did I.
I remember the last one I made it to , my tent was setup Wednesday afternoon so I could greet the truck driver as he arrived.
And, I was never the first to arrive.
Every rally had a theme. One year it was "MASH", the next year it was
"Mexican Fiesta" and so on.
Saturday night after the free dinner was always a hoot.
Lots of music going into the wee hours and practically everybody had a costume .
One particular rally I remember well.
Some Canadian ladies who ride showed up and they gave lesson to us on how to drink and , well, decorum prevents me from mentioning more.
That rally, I was hanging out by the beer truck at about 2AM and I thought I'd get some shuteye so i went back to my tent and fell asleep.
About 7AM I woke up and walked back to the truck and the SAME 5 guys I left at
2AM were still there kicking back suds.
Sadly, those *#@%^ developers bought the campground and the rally had to move. It was never the same.
And, of course, the #@^*#$ lawyers scared the beer out of later rallies.
BUT, Im have some great pictures and memories of those years at that rally.
One thing I noticed and I say this as a tribute to most all BMW riders I've met.
We partied hard and always kept our sense of what was proper.
No fights, no bad ass attitudes, no stupid stunts (well maybe one or two).
Thanks for listening,
Gerry
but whenever I start thinking about all the miles and rallies I've attended since 1974, the Dutch Country Rally always comes to mind.
It was held at an FOP campground near Harrisburg, PA and a better equipped campground you couldn't find.
The deal with the rally was $25 per person and that included FREE BEER for the whole rally.
YEP, FREE BEER.
There was plenty of camping under a canopy of old growth tall trees and a large
pavilion that had a kitchen for parties.
After the first rally it became known that the beer truck that had the taps on the sides of the refrigerated box usually showed up on Thursday.
People showing up started to creep back to earlier in the week to take advantage of this fact.
Not to be different, so did I.
I remember the last one I made it to , my tent was setup Wednesday afternoon so I could greet the truck driver as he arrived.
And, I was never the first to arrive.
Every rally had a theme. One year it was "MASH", the next year it was
"Mexican Fiesta" and so on.
Saturday night after the free dinner was always a hoot.
Lots of music going into the wee hours and practically everybody had a costume .
One particular rally I remember well.
Some Canadian ladies who ride showed up and they gave lesson to us on how to drink and , well, decorum prevents me from mentioning more.
That rally, I was hanging out by the beer truck at about 2AM and I thought I'd get some shuteye so i went back to my tent and fell asleep.
About 7AM I woke up and walked back to the truck and the SAME 5 guys I left at
2AM were still there kicking back suds.
Sadly, those *#@%^ developers bought the campground and the rally had to move. It was never the same.
And, of course, the #@^*#$ lawyers scared the beer out of later rallies.
BUT, Im have some great pictures and memories of those years at that rally.
One thing I noticed and I say this as a tribute to most all BMW riders I've met.
We partied hard and always kept our sense of what was proper.
No fights, no bad ass attitudes, no stupid stunts (well maybe one or two).
Thanks for listening,
Gerry
