Well, here it is, 11:30 at night, After the Meet and Greet. WOW, what a great time I had tonight. I wanted to get things down before my addled mind decided to forget anything.
I got there at the Pyramid Alehouse at 2:00 p.m. and what do you know, Glenn just had to one up me by getting there first
. well, we sat and talked and eventually we heard a bike pull in and before you knew it we had twelve of us sitting around sharing stories, and laughing and in general having a wonderful time. Most of us were able to ride in except Glenn and I and we all ogled and commented and admired everyone Else's bikes. Anecdotes flowed as freely as the laughter. I feel honoured to have met several of the people from this forum, not least of them Glenn, Lloyd (TwoTired), and Fred (MrBreeze). The rest of them, Lee, Adam, Rhonda, Joeb, Sean (Scondon), Wayne (Canyon750), Ron (RCS1956), and Jeff (another one) Made for a very memorable occasion I hope will be repeated in the near future.
I am usually not too good at interacting in person with more than a few people at a time but the time I have spent on this forum has helped me to feel like part of a worldwide family of people and I must say, it is liberating to feel useful to such a family, even if only this areas portion of it. I could not have asked for a better day to have had as I spent today with these eleven other people. The camaraderie I felt today I haven't felt since my baseball team won first place in Little League some 27 years ago. Yes, I lead a sheltered life
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I hope that everyone on this forum can feel the same kind of feelings and experience the kind of day that I did. I will carry the joy from today for a long time to come, and will look upon everyone I met today as close personal friends. I have had an epiphany as well, every one of you is not just a name I see on a screen anymore, each name is a person and each person brings something special to this forum that makes me revel in being a part of something so great. Here is to every single one of you out there, a part of something that amazingly equals far more than the sum of its parts.
I am sure others will post their thoughts as well, and I hope they had much the same feeling of friendship as I experienced tonight.
For now, Peace and Long Rides,
Jeff