Well, what started off to be a marvelous day for riding ended up being a marvelous day for riding – I LOVE when that happens.. Everyone reading this knows exactly what I am talking about.. You wake up early because you know some of the greatest people on the planet are going to spend their whole day riding across Michigan with you.. Your wife, oh yea – she alone can make the day a really good day or a really BAD day, gets up and with a smile on her face says “have a GREAT day with all your riding buddies”. Of course, when that happens in the Woodsy home this usually means that I am being set up for something – of course, having been married to “C” for 25 years has taught me not to ask questions but to seize the opportunity to go and get dirty. This time being no different then other such occasions I found out what I had been set up for when I returned home that night – more on that later..
As I was saying, goodness sakes it was gorgeous out Tuesday morning as I walked to the garage to get a bike out.. I try to be fair to all my steeds when deciding who gets to be the lucky one and haul me around all day. This time I looked at Blipy sitting over in the corner of the garage hiding behind a 72 Chopped Honda I have been building and thought to my self, self (that’s me – Woodsy) – that cute little TTR225 hasn’t been out for a few days so I probably should at least charge the battery – I find this usually takes a good 6 hour ride to fully get both the bikes battery charged as well as mine soooo – Blipy it was!! Besides, Kadie had had her turn on Sunday so fair is fair!!
I tossed on my new pair of size 34 riding pants (that’s right guys – eat your hearts out :nener: and slid in to my boots.. Did a little jig on the concrete in the garage being just happy to be able to since last year this didn’t happen very much.. Besides, I am a naturally jovial type a guy anyway – especially when it came to biken.. My new blue jersey looked great until I put on my Monday Riders club jacket.. That red over all that blue just didn’t get it – oh well, it’s the club membership that counts right?
Pushed the starter on Blipy and she fired right up with a ROAR – NOT, TTR’s don’t ROAR – they “blumpity blump”. Man what a quiet bike..
I named Blipy Blipy because I was always told they are PIGS!! I was also always told that the new Honda XR650’s were called BRP’s (Big Red Pigs) and so I named my little TTR225 Blue LIttle PiggY – or Blipy.. Well, Blipy has earned a lot of my respect thru this past winter.. She is still a BLIPY but Blip proved to me over and over again that there weren’t no snowmobiles running that sled trail out back that could even come close to sticking with us once we got rolling. I went thru 11 sets of screws with her and NEVER had to kick start her (of course she hasn’t even got a kicker ) – just push the button and that little fourstroker would purrrr – nice for an invalid like myself. Yea, Blipy is all right in my book!
Blip and I took off out of the drive way, hooked a quick right thru my private trail and out to the power lines.. Crossed over to the gravel, pushed down the choke button and headed for ol Twisty.. Got up near Sweeter road and started to make that left turn on Sweeter but instead stayed on Maple Island as Blip seemed to be really enjoying the early sunlight on the pavement ahead.
The smell of the morning farm air and the steady thump of the little thumper forced my mind back to an earlier part of my life.. I thought about all the miles I had covered as a young man on a similar bike.. Back in my early days I covered most of the lower 48 on a Honda 350 Motosport.. I even had my little sister (can you say NAIEVE??) trained to say (Honda 350 Motosport) anytime I asked her what the best Motorcycle ever made was.. Having her do so proved very handy in settling arguments with my brain-dead buddies who rode those stupid early model two-strokes back in the early days.. A quick – I know, we will let my baby sister decide this debate – Hey Val – what is the bike ever made – “Honda 350 Motosport” would be the answer – then I would say – see you idiot, even a kid knows!! Always worked!!
When I woke up from my daydream I was approaching the entrance into Cedar. I pulled into the entrance 2-track, got to the top of the little hill and there was Larry putzying along a ways in front of me.. I opened up the little thumper and quietly snuck up on Larry. He was tucked down in his seat so I knew he couldn’t see me.. I held Blip pinned and ripped around Larry’s car on the drivers side – Larry had his window down enjoying the morning sunshine and probably daydreaming about how annoyed he had been when one of his old friends would solve an argument they were having by having his little sister respond with some canned verbal response. As I ripped passed his window and screamed, he jumped as high as his as the hard top on his car would allow him to and then yelled some barrage of language at me that I choose not to use. Good thing we are friends or I would have thought he was mad at me..
Waiting in the lot were, as I said, some of the greatest people on the planet – I thought.. As I approached I became aware that this had also been a pipe dream. Instead of the greatest I ended up with the usual shady critters that I normally do.. Dog Gone it Big easy, I thought you just might be there!! Like I said, I end up seeing TROUBLE MAKER Young Ted, SMART MOUTH LT, and SARCASTIC Bob all standing there waiting for their turn to pick on me!! Then, after I came to a stop, Larry comes in and try’s to run over me with his car – obviously still not impressed with my little surprise out on the road..
I whispered to Blipy that if she wanted to go home this would be a good time to break down.. She didn’t so I took this as an indicator that she could tolerate these guys for a day.. I was still skeptical as far as personally goes but I always say that if my bike says its ok it usually is – bikes are a good judge of character!
After duking it out with Young Ted and almost getting knocked out by that rascal (still an amazing right hook he has there), we made all the usual small talk – my wife is mad about this, I forgot water, I sure hope you are right about the snow being gone – all that kind of stuff and we headed atta way – cross country (opps, I mean D/Sing)..
BUT, before we did Bobs XR400 decided it wanted to have some fits and not start. Having been around a few of these more stubborn types of bikes I wasn’t surprised. We all took our hats back off and started the routine of ripping Bobs bike apart. Before I could get the piston out of it Larry checked for spark and discovered there wasn’t any.. I suggested it was probably the valve train causing it to have no spark and suggested we at least rip the head off and see what the cam journals looked like. The terror on Bobs face told me that he wasn’t in any mood for starting big and working back to small things but preferred Larry’s idea of bypassing the kill switch first.. Bummer too because I was in the mood to rebuild a Honda.
After we got Bobs bike started (I still cant remember if I retightened those motor mounts –hmmm) we headed out.. Riding the slowest bike I took up the rear so as not to slow anyone down our get run over.
We did the South loop entrance out of the parking lot and then headed towards the North loop off from it. Crossed Ryerson, rode to the sled trail section of the trail and then took it North. Made a short trip up past M-120 and continued up across Skeels road and road two tracks up thru the Pine Point area. I really enjoy this ride because once you get off the pounded out single track and start D/Sing the whoops are history.. Ahhhhhh, nothing like a legal bike.
Speaking about that, Blipy has a plate on her. I found out that she had come with a title that had no ORV designation on it so I spent some time at the local rip off office – opps, I meant to say, Sec of State office on Monday and got her plate (along with another bike and two cars it only cost me 250 bucks, not as bad as I thought it would be as I didn’t use the extra shirt I brought along in case they liked the one I was wearing). She looks pretty cool with her little homemade tail light (made from the taillight off a 87 Ford Van), BRAND NEW BLUE PLATE and an 05 ORV sticker right behind the plate (man that orange sure clashes with blue!!). Back to the story..
I got a little tired of eating Bobs dust so I blew past him on the single track (twernt no out running that XR400 on the road) and went forward to taste a little of Teds dust.. Yep, tasted the same! I rode a long ways following the Master Of The Trail, examined his every move trying to pick up pointers on how to survive in this sport into ones late 70’s.. I noticed some interesting things that he does that might be worth pointing out – those of you who have no interest of riding into your 70’s can just skip this portion of the story and go on to the next paragraph).. Ted has a way of “using the force” while he is riding. Don’t laugh here because I am not being funny. I am a Star Wars buff and I think Ted is related to Obi wan or something. I started to pass him once and I swear he was sleeping!! Of course we all know this isn’t possible so he had to be using the force cause NO ONE can navigate tight single track with their eyes closed at speed and live into their 70’s!! I told Larry about it later and he said “yea, the man has nine lives” I said “you know – maybe that’s it – maybe he has invisible cat whiskers or something….). Now, we all know that Star Wars is not true (you did know that didn’t you? Or are you one of those people that believed my little sister??). I, Woodsy, have come to a conclusive scientific theory about Ted after watching him ride MANY miles!! He has all the trails in the country MEMORIZED!! Think about it!! This is the only explanation possible.. He rides these trails like he is on rails!! Him and that dog gone INCA are like attached or something. Ted can go to sleep and INCA takes care of him!
Speaking about INCA. I noticed this funny looking device (pic included later) mounted on the front of INCA. At first glance it appeared to be something professionally made – like something used in an Enduro Race or something.. As the day wore on I got more and more curious about this obvious time keeping device. On the way home we stopped at a gas station and I almost asked Ted what the device was but thought better about doing so as the last time I asked Ted a question like that he put me in a wrestling hold and stabbed me in the back with a stick.. I later found out that Ted had mounted a GLS on the front of his bike.. I know, you think that is a typo and I meant to put GPS down but NO – Ted spent the BIG BUCKS and invested into a BRAND NEW DIRECTIONAL DEVICE called the GLS!! More on this later.
We worked our way up to Bitely thru my favorite section of the MCCCT. This is the area where my Deer hunting story that I promised to tell 2big4AKDX this year when we do our “Get Lost For 3 Days Ride With Woodsy” took place. Going around Nichols Lake on the two tracks I had to jump a big hole. This is important info so please remember it..
Before we flew thru my favorite section on the MCCCT I passed Ted so Blipy and I could duke it out with LT and Larry in the tight stuff. Amazingly that little TTR ran real good against Larry’s CR250 and Randy’s WR426 in the tight stuff! Of course, there are no whoops in the area and a good thing because that is one thing the Blipy simply doesn’t do well – wayyyyyy to soft (although we did double a few just for kicks!!). We broke thru the single track, jumped across 11 mile and headed around Nichols Lake. I stopped in the trail and told Larry about jumping the hole and we headed toward Bitely for lunch.
About halfway to town Larry’s CR decided that 90 miles on a tank of gas wasn’t reasonable so it died. Randy is a typical born leader – he never looks back so he and Ted just disappeared into the future while I debated with myself whether getting Larry into town was more important then having lunch – well, what the heck, I am on a diet anyway so I turned around..
Larry and Bob were discussing how to hook a bungee cord to tow Larry’s bike when I suggested me pushing against Larry’s foot peg with my foot and getting him into town that way.. I waved at the cop that went by as I was doing so and he waved back – hmmmmm, must have some pretty understanding cops up there?? As we were going along we discovered that we could converse really well being so close together. Our conversation went like this..
Larry: This doesn’t mean were are going together or anything right?
Woodsy: I thought we were engaged?
Larry: Tell you what, if something happens I will go right.
Woodsy: Sounds like a good idea. I will go left (I was pushing on his left peg).
Larry: Ouch
Woodsy: GO RIGHT – GO RIGHT.
Larry: HOKY SMOKES!!
Woodsy: OH NO!!!
Larry: Lets not do that again!!
Woodsy: I got a better idea – be right back (walks off into forest)..
After I came out to the woods with a long stick I got to watch as Larry was trying to hang onto Bobs Fender bag while Bob tried to pull him. This was about the same time when the thought ran through my mind that – oh yea, its amazing what you can see and experience if you just pass up on a lunch once in a while..
Bobs bag was making cool little ripping noises as they passed me standing on the side of the road with a stick in my hand. I told Larry that it would probably only stay on for about another 50 feet and that town was at least 5 miles away so I failed to see the real value of their solution to the crises.. This was one of those times that Larry looked at me and said “you know Scott, nobody likes a Smart Alec” (using a more colorful word then “alec”.
I told Larry that I bet I could pull him with the stick. It took a little convincing to get Bob to hand push Larry on his CR so I could drive past and Larry could grab ahold of the stick while he and I were in motion.. It worked great and we made it into town just fine. The only damage to any of us was that I noticed that when I went to put the Burger into my mouth at lunch that my arm was longer by about 9 inches from pulling Larry and the burger went passed my face hitting the wall behind me.. Once I figured out how to feed myself with a longer reach I was fine.
At this point in the story it is pertinent that you remember the “me hitting the hole incident – if you have forgotten this please start over and reread thru the text until you read about this!! We enter the Bailey bar/Grill. Randy is almost finished eating and never did ask where we went or what happened (like I said – typical leader!!). Larry sat down across from Randy at the far end of the table. I bent over at the other end of the table and moaned loudly like I was in pain. I told Larry that I had blinked my back on that hole that I had hit and I was in pain.. I could see the look of distain on Ted’s face because – despite his constant picking on me he REALLY does care about my health (a true weakness – I always look for weaknesses to exploit – it’s a flaw in my character!!). Larry looked at Ted and said yea, he hit a big hole and really messed himself up (Larry had NO idea where this was all going and played perfectly into the web I weaving).. As I moaned and sat down I looked at Ted with despair in my eyes and said “shoot – I left the gas on out on my bike – would you mind shutting it off for me Ted??
As soon as Ted walked out the door I smiled and told the guys to follow me up by the door cause it was Ted’s birthday and we should sing Happy birthday to him.. Randy slowly took a bite of his sandwich and said “I thought you hurt your back” (PROVING that not all leaders have gray matter between their ears).. I had to TOTALLY convince Randy by jumping up and down that I was just kidding about my injury and only wanted to get Ted out so we could surprise him!! Of course Randy, being the skeptic that he is, was still not convinced that I wasn’t just trying to steal his sandwich so he had to finish it first (man he is sensitive – he has NEVER forgotten that time up by the Mackinaw Bridge that I tricked him into thinking his car was on fire and I ate his dinner – I even told him I was sorry!!).
By the time Ted came back inside I had everyone in the bar/restaurant ready to sing. As soon as Young Ted walked in we blasted his eardrums with the best “Happy Birthday Song” that you have ever heard!! First he was shocked – then he smiled with joy and then he glared at me as I pointed my finger at him and said – GOT CHA YA TROUBLE MAKER!!!
After laughing off the prank I pulled on Ted and finishing another fine meal together we decided to get back at it.. Ted and I danced a jig as we were the last one out of the place – prophecy being fulfilled once again!! We hit the trail with full tummies, smiling faces and ready to enjoy some more of the great Michigan woods!!
My short story is being continued on the next page because is just a little to long for this section - thats a first for ol Woodsy!!
The first pic here is of the updated “Woodsy Delight” banner on Ted’s van.. I noticed the addition right away and just had to have my picture taken pointing at the little squirrel in the corner!!
The second pic is of me choking Ted in a final attempt to get him to let me cook the squirrel he had pinned up there.. No avail!
As I was saying, goodness sakes it was gorgeous out Tuesday morning as I walked to the garage to get a bike out.. I try to be fair to all my steeds when deciding who gets to be the lucky one and haul me around all day. This time I looked at Blipy sitting over in the corner of the garage hiding behind a 72 Chopped Honda I have been building and thought to my self, self (that’s me – Woodsy) – that cute little TTR225 hasn’t been out for a few days so I probably should at least charge the battery – I find this usually takes a good 6 hour ride to fully get both the bikes battery charged as well as mine soooo – Blipy it was!! Besides, Kadie had had her turn on Sunday so fair is fair!!
I tossed on my new pair of size 34 riding pants (that’s right guys – eat your hearts out :nener: and slid in to my boots.. Did a little jig on the concrete in the garage being just happy to be able to since last year this didn’t happen very much.. Besides, I am a naturally jovial type a guy anyway – especially when it came to biken.. My new blue jersey looked great until I put on my Monday Riders club jacket.. That red over all that blue just didn’t get it – oh well, it’s the club membership that counts right?
Pushed the starter on Blipy and she fired right up with a ROAR – NOT, TTR’s don’t ROAR – they “blumpity blump”. Man what a quiet bike..
I named Blipy Blipy because I was always told they are PIGS!! I was also always told that the new Honda XR650’s were called BRP’s (Big Red Pigs) and so I named my little TTR225 Blue LIttle PiggY – or Blipy.. Well, Blipy has earned a lot of my respect thru this past winter.. She is still a BLIPY but Blip proved to me over and over again that there weren’t no snowmobiles running that sled trail out back that could even come close to sticking with us once we got rolling. I went thru 11 sets of screws with her and NEVER had to kick start her (of course she hasn’t even got a kicker ) – just push the button and that little fourstroker would purrrr – nice for an invalid like myself. Yea, Blipy is all right in my book!
Blip and I took off out of the drive way, hooked a quick right thru my private trail and out to the power lines.. Crossed over to the gravel, pushed down the choke button and headed for ol Twisty.. Got up near Sweeter road and started to make that left turn on Sweeter but instead stayed on Maple Island as Blip seemed to be really enjoying the early sunlight on the pavement ahead.
The smell of the morning farm air and the steady thump of the little thumper forced my mind back to an earlier part of my life.. I thought about all the miles I had covered as a young man on a similar bike.. Back in my early days I covered most of the lower 48 on a Honda 350 Motosport.. I even had my little sister (can you say NAIEVE??) trained to say (Honda 350 Motosport) anytime I asked her what the best Motorcycle ever made was.. Having her do so proved very handy in settling arguments with my brain-dead buddies who rode those stupid early model two-strokes back in the early days.. A quick – I know, we will let my baby sister decide this debate – Hey Val – what is the bike ever made – “Honda 350 Motosport” would be the answer – then I would say – see you idiot, even a kid knows!! Always worked!!
When I woke up from my daydream I was approaching the entrance into Cedar. I pulled into the entrance 2-track, got to the top of the little hill and there was Larry putzying along a ways in front of me.. I opened up the little thumper and quietly snuck up on Larry. He was tucked down in his seat so I knew he couldn’t see me.. I held Blip pinned and ripped around Larry’s car on the drivers side – Larry had his window down enjoying the morning sunshine and probably daydreaming about how annoyed he had been when one of his old friends would solve an argument they were having by having his little sister respond with some canned verbal response. As I ripped passed his window and screamed, he jumped as high as his as the hard top on his car would allow him to and then yelled some barrage of language at me that I choose not to use. Good thing we are friends or I would have thought he was mad at me..
Waiting in the lot were, as I said, some of the greatest people on the planet – I thought.. As I approached I became aware that this had also been a pipe dream. Instead of the greatest I ended up with the usual shady critters that I normally do.. Dog Gone it Big easy, I thought you just might be there!! Like I said, I end up seeing TROUBLE MAKER Young Ted, SMART MOUTH LT, and SARCASTIC Bob all standing there waiting for their turn to pick on me!! Then, after I came to a stop, Larry comes in and try’s to run over me with his car – obviously still not impressed with my little surprise out on the road..
I whispered to Blipy that if she wanted to go home this would be a good time to break down.. She didn’t so I took this as an indicator that she could tolerate these guys for a day.. I was still skeptical as far as personally goes but I always say that if my bike says its ok it usually is – bikes are a good judge of character!
After duking it out with Young Ted and almost getting knocked out by that rascal (still an amazing right hook he has there), we made all the usual small talk – my wife is mad about this, I forgot water, I sure hope you are right about the snow being gone – all that kind of stuff and we headed atta way – cross country (opps, I mean D/Sing)..
BUT, before we did Bobs XR400 decided it wanted to have some fits and not start. Having been around a few of these more stubborn types of bikes I wasn’t surprised. We all took our hats back off and started the routine of ripping Bobs bike apart. Before I could get the piston out of it Larry checked for spark and discovered there wasn’t any.. I suggested it was probably the valve train causing it to have no spark and suggested we at least rip the head off and see what the cam journals looked like. The terror on Bobs face told me that he wasn’t in any mood for starting big and working back to small things but preferred Larry’s idea of bypassing the kill switch first.. Bummer too because I was in the mood to rebuild a Honda.
After we got Bobs bike started (I still cant remember if I retightened those motor mounts –hmmm) we headed out.. Riding the slowest bike I took up the rear so as not to slow anyone down our get run over.
We did the South loop entrance out of the parking lot and then headed towards the North loop off from it. Crossed Ryerson, rode to the sled trail section of the trail and then took it North. Made a short trip up past M-120 and continued up across Skeels road and road two tracks up thru the Pine Point area. I really enjoy this ride because once you get off the pounded out single track and start D/Sing the whoops are history.. Ahhhhhh, nothing like a legal bike.
Speaking about that, Blipy has a plate on her. I found out that she had come with a title that had no ORV designation on it so I spent some time at the local rip off office – opps, I meant to say, Sec of State office on Monday and got her plate (along with another bike and two cars it only cost me 250 bucks, not as bad as I thought it would be as I didn’t use the extra shirt I brought along in case they liked the one I was wearing). She looks pretty cool with her little homemade tail light (made from the taillight off a 87 Ford Van), BRAND NEW BLUE PLATE and an 05 ORV sticker right behind the plate (man that orange sure clashes with blue!!). Back to the story..
I got a little tired of eating Bobs dust so I blew past him on the single track (twernt no out running that XR400 on the road) and went forward to taste a little of Teds dust.. Yep, tasted the same! I rode a long ways following the Master Of The Trail, examined his every move trying to pick up pointers on how to survive in this sport into ones late 70’s.. I noticed some interesting things that he does that might be worth pointing out – those of you who have no interest of riding into your 70’s can just skip this portion of the story and go on to the next paragraph).. Ted has a way of “using the force” while he is riding. Don’t laugh here because I am not being funny. I am a Star Wars buff and I think Ted is related to Obi wan or something. I started to pass him once and I swear he was sleeping!! Of course we all know this isn’t possible so he had to be using the force cause NO ONE can navigate tight single track with their eyes closed at speed and live into their 70’s!! I told Larry about it later and he said “yea, the man has nine lives” I said “you know – maybe that’s it – maybe he has invisible cat whiskers or something….). Now, we all know that Star Wars is not true (you did know that didn’t you? Or are you one of those people that believed my little sister??). I, Woodsy, have come to a conclusive scientific theory about Ted after watching him ride MANY miles!! He has all the trails in the country MEMORIZED!! Think about it!! This is the only explanation possible.. He rides these trails like he is on rails!! Him and that dog gone INCA are like attached or something. Ted can go to sleep and INCA takes care of him!
Speaking about INCA. I noticed this funny looking device (pic included later) mounted on the front of INCA. At first glance it appeared to be something professionally made – like something used in an Enduro Race or something.. As the day wore on I got more and more curious about this obvious time keeping device. On the way home we stopped at a gas station and I almost asked Ted what the device was but thought better about doing so as the last time I asked Ted a question like that he put me in a wrestling hold and stabbed me in the back with a stick.. I later found out that Ted had mounted a GLS on the front of his bike.. I know, you think that is a typo and I meant to put GPS down but NO – Ted spent the BIG BUCKS and invested into a BRAND NEW DIRECTIONAL DEVICE called the GLS!! More on this later.
We worked our way up to Bitely thru my favorite section of the MCCCT. This is the area where my Deer hunting story that I promised to tell 2big4AKDX this year when we do our “Get Lost For 3 Days Ride With Woodsy” took place. Going around Nichols Lake on the two tracks I had to jump a big hole. This is important info so please remember it..
Before we flew thru my favorite section on the MCCCT I passed Ted so Blipy and I could duke it out with LT and Larry in the tight stuff. Amazingly that little TTR ran real good against Larry’s CR250 and Randy’s WR426 in the tight stuff! Of course, there are no whoops in the area and a good thing because that is one thing the Blipy simply doesn’t do well – wayyyyyy to soft (although we did double a few just for kicks!!). We broke thru the single track, jumped across 11 mile and headed around Nichols Lake. I stopped in the trail and told Larry about jumping the hole and we headed toward Bitely for lunch.
About halfway to town Larry’s CR decided that 90 miles on a tank of gas wasn’t reasonable so it died. Randy is a typical born leader – he never looks back so he and Ted just disappeared into the future while I debated with myself whether getting Larry into town was more important then having lunch – well, what the heck, I am on a diet anyway so I turned around..
Larry and Bob were discussing how to hook a bungee cord to tow Larry’s bike when I suggested me pushing against Larry’s foot peg with my foot and getting him into town that way.. I waved at the cop that went by as I was doing so and he waved back – hmmmmm, must have some pretty understanding cops up there?? As we were going along we discovered that we could converse really well being so close together. Our conversation went like this..
Larry: This doesn’t mean were are going together or anything right?
Woodsy: I thought we were engaged?
Larry: Tell you what, if something happens I will go right.
Woodsy: Sounds like a good idea. I will go left (I was pushing on his left peg).
Larry: Ouch
Woodsy: GO RIGHT – GO RIGHT.
Larry: HOKY SMOKES!!
Woodsy: OH NO!!!
Larry: Lets not do that again!!
Woodsy: I got a better idea – be right back (walks off into forest)..
After I came out to the woods with a long stick I got to watch as Larry was trying to hang onto Bobs Fender bag while Bob tried to pull him. This was about the same time when the thought ran through my mind that – oh yea, its amazing what you can see and experience if you just pass up on a lunch once in a while..
Bobs bag was making cool little ripping noises as they passed me standing on the side of the road with a stick in my hand. I told Larry that it would probably only stay on for about another 50 feet and that town was at least 5 miles away so I failed to see the real value of their solution to the crises.. This was one of those times that Larry looked at me and said “you know Scott, nobody likes a Smart Alec” (using a more colorful word then “alec”.
I told Larry that I bet I could pull him with the stick. It took a little convincing to get Bob to hand push Larry on his CR so I could drive past and Larry could grab ahold of the stick while he and I were in motion.. It worked great and we made it into town just fine. The only damage to any of us was that I noticed that when I went to put the Burger into my mouth at lunch that my arm was longer by about 9 inches from pulling Larry and the burger went passed my face hitting the wall behind me.. Once I figured out how to feed myself with a longer reach I was fine.
At this point in the story it is pertinent that you remember the “me hitting the hole incident – if you have forgotten this please start over and reread thru the text until you read about this!! We enter the Bailey bar/Grill. Randy is almost finished eating and never did ask where we went or what happened (like I said – typical leader!!). Larry sat down across from Randy at the far end of the table. I bent over at the other end of the table and moaned loudly like I was in pain. I told Larry that I had blinked my back on that hole that I had hit and I was in pain.. I could see the look of distain on Ted’s face because – despite his constant picking on me he REALLY does care about my health (a true weakness – I always look for weaknesses to exploit – it’s a flaw in my character!!). Larry looked at Ted and said yea, he hit a big hole and really messed himself up (Larry had NO idea where this was all going and played perfectly into the web I weaving).. As I moaned and sat down I looked at Ted with despair in my eyes and said “shoot – I left the gas on out on my bike – would you mind shutting it off for me Ted??
As soon as Ted walked out the door I smiled and told the guys to follow me up by the door cause it was Ted’s birthday and we should sing Happy birthday to him.. Randy slowly took a bite of his sandwich and said “I thought you hurt your back” (PROVING that not all leaders have gray matter between their ears).. I had to TOTALLY convince Randy by jumping up and down that I was just kidding about my injury and only wanted to get Ted out so we could surprise him!! Of course Randy, being the skeptic that he is, was still not convinced that I wasn’t just trying to steal his sandwich so he had to finish it first (man he is sensitive – he has NEVER forgotten that time up by the Mackinaw Bridge that I tricked him into thinking his car was on fire and I ate his dinner – I even told him I was sorry!!).
By the time Ted came back inside I had everyone in the bar/restaurant ready to sing. As soon as Young Ted walked in we blasted his eardrums with the best “Happy Birthday Song” that you have ever heard!! First he was shocked – then he smiled with joy and then he glared at me as I pointed my finger at him and said – GOT CHA YA TROUBLE MAKER!!!
After laughing off the prank I pulled on Ted and finishing another fine meal together we decided to get back at it.. Ted and I danced a jig as we were the last one out of the place – prophecy being fulfilled once again!! We hit the trail with full tummies, smiling faces and ready to enjoy some more of the great Michigan woods!!
My short story is being continued on the next page because is just a little to long for this section - thats a first for ol Woodsy!!
The first pic here is of the updated “Woodsy Delight” banner on Ted’s van.. I noticed the addition right away and just had to have my picture taken pointing at the little squirrel in the corner!!
The second pic is of me choking Ted in a final attempt to get him to let me cook the squirrel he had pinned up there.. No avail!
