Gathering in Quincy for a BMW motorcycle rally

Do you ride a street motorcycle? Do you belong to a motorcycle riding group? It is a wonderful experience to go to a rally year after year, to reacquaint yourself with the same people each year who have "your" same interest in riding on the open roads.

The 2006 Beemer Bash in Quincy, Calif., is one we attend along with nearly 500 other riders including eight sidecars, one that came all the way from Norway. Even though I ride a Honda Goldwing, they still allow me to participate. This year we had 10 people that I know of, attend the rally from here in Carson Valley.

The road trips included a dual-sport ride (dirt roads and street roads) that was a little over 100 miles long and included riding to the tops of three of the mountain tops that had fire look-out towers on them, that they went and visited. Boy, did the offroaders come back dirty. We didn't make it to the Lassen lava tubes because it rained on us on Friday and it was cold and windy. But motorcyclists are a hardy breed. The nearly 500 little tents that filled up a lot of the fairgrounds had to put up with a 28-degree night Friday night, burrrzzzz worrrzzzz!

Each evening our group of 12 people, including friends from Southern California and Washington, had a potluck and barbecue. Carol and Julie made a wonderfully delicious potato, sweet potato and leeks dish in the Dutch oven. My mom made a great peach cobbler in her Dutch oven. I made salad because I still had lots of vegetables in my garden.

After riding all day on Saturday, the hosts of the event fed us a tasty barbecue of chicken or tri-tip, macaroni salad, green salad, beans and rolls and ice cream sundaes. I was a happy camper with sore arms from driving on the twisty-turny beautiful back roads. It was great to not have to cook that night. Keep the shiny side up.

When I returned home Sunday afternoon, I found that it had also frozen here in Carson Valley. Darn it. I spent the better part of Sunday picking tomatoes and lugging the heavy bags of green and red tomatoes to the house. Now my real work begins. I will be processing tomatoes into salsa for at least the next month. I look forward to writing more about that in a future article.

You are all invited to the one-year anniversary party at Dread-Knot Equine Training this Saturday from 2-6 p.m. Come help them celebrate their first year in business and the addition of an 80- by 120-foot covered arena. Bring a pot to share, and they'll be serving elk burgers, hamburgers, hot dogs and more good stuff. There will be a band playing country, jazz and blues. At 7-10 p.m. Kut-Pile will be playing. This is a 21-and-older show and a donation is appreciated to help raise funds for equipment. Come join Tom and Marty in the celebration. East on Johnson Lane, right on Fremont, left on Sunrise pass, right on Kincaid, left on Reed and it dead ends into their house No. 1744.

For more information, you may call Marty at 267-1177. See you there.

n Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.