Sunday, June 16 / 2013

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there.   I awoke bright and early this morning, rested and feeling not too terribly bad.  My shoulders are sore and I just cannot see myself riding my quad today in the rally.  I will see if anyone is riding with either Chris or Jimmy in their side by sides and will see if I can hitch a ride as a passenger.  If not, I do not think I will go today.  That in itself is not a bad idea as I would love to just sit and do nothing and recover from my silliness of yesterday!!  Who in their right mind goes quadding after working a 12 hour night shift?

Jimmy O and John

As it turned out, I had my choice of rides as neither Jim or Chris had anyone riding with them so I guess I am headed off down the trails again today.  One good thing.....there is no rain!!  What!!!
Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday with bacon, sausage, eggs and toast but first there was some Tylenol needed again.  When are these "children" going to realize that too much alcohol leads to one feeling rather "under the weather" the next day.
Casey required a bit more than plain Tylenol this morning.  It was Tylenol 3 for him.  His back was really bothering him last night and again today.    I guess he is finding out just how much damage he has done to it and how riding his quad this year impacts those fractures.  Although they are healed now, I am afraid that this young  man is always going to have "issues" with his back.  The price one pays for poor judgement often has long reaching effects.

First refreshment stop - on Eddie's Trail.

We were soon loaded up and over at the community hall to get our tickets for the rally.  Then.....it was down the trail for us.  Despite the shitty weather over the last week, there were a fair number of quad registered.

Kimmy, Jill, Scotty , Jimmy and John at one of the many stops

As suspected, the trails were waterlogged and with the increased number of quads, that only made them worse.  I was sure glad I chose to be a passenger instead of riding my own.  My shoulders and wrists could not have handled today's ride.

Casey, Jace, Mike and Chris and part of Kylee.  I am not sure
who is standing beside Mike.

A puddle many could not pass up.  It was deep but many
were not deterred.

Kylee was in this puddle with his side by side and it was so deep
that his box in the back of it floated away.  Here his is getting
it back!!

This idiot has tipped!!   He was able to recover and drive it out.

Our group was fairly large and of course the kids just couldn't stay out of all the water puddles so John, Jimmy and I often rode on ahead of them and found ourselves waiting further down the trail.  They didn't take to long most times as we had many of the refreshments!!
At one stop, Mindy and her husband Frankie arrived with a quad in tow.  Mindy was quite hyper and mentioned that they had tipped over in a huge water puddle while towing this quad.  It was a good thing no one got hurt but she had to run down the trail to our guys and get them to help put their side by side back onto its wheels.  There was all kinds of excitement of this kind on the trail today.
At one point while waiting for the kids to catch up to us, we were passed by several quads on tow ropes.  For some reason, these riders just can not stay out of the water.  Water and motors often do not like each other as many found out today.
We eventually made it to the half way point of the rally and the wiener roast.  We waited for at least an hour before one of the kids finally arrived.  He wanted to make sure that the organizers where still going to be around for when the others arrived.  They had two quads on tow ropes by this time and were hungry!!  It was already close to 6:00 and we were only half way through the rally.
I suspected that this would be the end of the rally for many of our kids.
We met up with Dave, Shirley and Gary at this point.  Shirley's quad had been heating so they had decided to take the North Road back to town and forget about the rest of the rally.  It is no big deal for them as we can ride this trail anytime and hopefully the next time we do, it will be much drier!!
Realizing that the kids were not even going to make the wiener stop, we got back on the machines and headed back down the trail to meet up with them.  When we got to them, they had decided to just head down the grid towards home.  Jace's new machine was on a tow rope as the engine had quit while he was in some deep water so had sucked water into his engine (not a good thing).  He was using Kimmy's quad as a tow vehicle.  The huge big side by side Commander was also on a tow rope and since they had managed to get it to the grid, decided to leave it there and go get the truck and trailer to get it home,  It is just too much to tow unless it is another Commander doing the towing.

After the ride - a redneck car wash!!  This is the creek at Vimy!!
The water was rushing but had slowed down a lot since yesterday.

From here, we decided to head into Vimy which is just a short detour off the road.  It is here that the guys decided to get some of the mud off their machines and drove them into the water.  This actually worked well for the most part until Tyson went a bit too far in and almost lost his quad to the current.  It took four guys to save him and his quad but by the end of the whole ordeal, his quad was sparking clean!!

Full of mud but still smiling!!

Kyle is now nice and clean.  The guys had to go and save Tyson
as he had managed to almost lose his side by side in a deep part
of the creek and with the rushing water......well he was in trouble
before he knew it.  They managed to save him and the quad!! 

Excitement over - now lets get the hell out of this water!!

With some of the quads clean, it was time to head home.  There are two designated refreshment stops along the way so off we headed.  No one was concerned that we had only done half the rally which told me that the "boys" had their fill of water, mud and nonsense for the day!!
By the time we arrived home it was close to 8:00p.m.  Some of the guys had to head back to Saskatoon so were anxious to go.
I was so glad that I had our supper ready as all I had to do was re-heat the BBQ pulled pork I had cooked on Saturday and add mayonnaise to the potato salad.   In a matter of minutes it was ready and whoever was hungry ate.
Several of the guys left for Saskatoon and the rescue squad (for the Commander left in the bush) returned.  Soon everyone was fed and watered and ready to sit and relax around the campfire.
There was still no rain so John was able to start a fire and we all sat around it and enjoyed the heat and shared stories of our wild adventures of the day.  It was awesome and another day I wouldn't trade away for anything.