Red Rocks Ride - October, 2009

October 23-25 2009

I'm not going to tell the entire story until after I've posted the pictures.  This was a weekend get-away held regionally as a replacement to another Honda Goldwing-based 'rally' called Rockies-Gold (R-G).
The original individual who had put on R-G did a fantastic job so we understand (we weren't able to attend either one of them...) but had gotten burnt out.  So, a couple of the guys arranged a smaller version of this ride and based it in Prescott, AZ.  It was held one time.
We arrived Friday afternoon, and had a 'bench racing' session in the parking lot.  From here, a group of us walked over to a close-by place for dinner with a small subset of the overall group.  Good times, no pictures.
Next day we get up to go for a ride.  Group is too big, so it gets whittled down to where it's just one guy and the two of us.  We went in a totally different direction from the rest of the group...
Anyway...a few photos!

US-93, headed toward Yarnell Hill

I'm also playing around with taking good photos while in motion.

'oldguy'

From here, following oldguy up Yarnell Hill.  From here, we head toward Prescott & the hotel.

The parking lot begins to fill, then the 'shoot the breeze' sessions begin again.

From here, time to clean up a bit, then go into Prescott's "Whiskey Row" for dinner.

The Palace - Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

The Palace - Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

The Palace - Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

The Palace - Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

The Palace - Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

Whiskey Row - Prescott AZ

From here, back to the room.  We left for home the next day, due to a bit of tire damage.

There seems to really be a couple of different perspectives on "rallies". Note I'm using this term in the generic sense.
There's a difference between rallies in the east and rallies in the west. It's not unique to Goldwing riders, Honda riders, or anything else that I am able to tell. Riders in the east have more opportunities for the fellowship more than the riding. Thus, more organized action - again, a lot of the same or similar actions from GWRRA, Star clubs, etc.
It does seem to be different in the west - after all, if you have to go 500 miles to get to a rally location, it's now a commitment to do it. Eighty miles? Maybe you just show up early on a Saturday, and sleep in your own bed later that night.
Thus, it seems to be more organized and structured in the east (or for riders originally from the east), less organized in the west - generally speaking.
Everyone is looking for a mini version of Sturgis or Americade with these sorts of loosely organized events. But then, many will complain about it being too big!
In recent times, many motorcycle-specific web forums would be the conduit that organized all of these activities. Over time, comes changes, and with those changes, that group of people that were involved in doing these things have moved on to the greener pastures of other social media avenues.
So, the 'big' rallies will continue to get tens of thousands of motorcycles all in one place, but many times, these smaller events simply fail to occur because of the effort it can take to arrange.
It was at this point I got a bit sour on 'organized' events. I mean, it's sure a lot easier just to say meet everyone at a given place at a given time. We're all adults, so it shouldn't be that hard for people to make their minds up that they'll be there, much like the Death Valley get-together is run. There does seem to be a subset of people that want to just have things 'handed' to them.

We'll see...

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