May 10, 2008, Day 1

We were on our way to Reno, Nevada to meet up with Mary Beth and the Wall Gang. As an added bonus, Stuart "Stu", my good friend from high school joined us at our home and made the first leg of the journey with us. It was a pleasant surprise when Stu showed up at my store, Oregon Tool and Supply, on Friday morning. We had only made it about 45 miles, and no Stuart. Joni stayed by the freeway to make sure Stu didn’t pass us as I doubled back. I saw him on the side of I-5 just finishing packing back up. His bike just went dead as he coasted to a stop. After a few quick checks he figured out that the power wire to the coil had broken off. After a quick splice, he was ready to go again. We continued with no other mishaps.

The next stop was for lunch in McLeod at Floyds Frosty freeze. Quite a down-home place in the small town. It warmed up around Susanville, California. Mary Beth was calling me quite often to ask, “Where are you and when will we ever see each other again?” We arrived to a very warm welcome in the parking lot of the Silver Legacy Motel\Casino. Steve, Headdog, Moore and his lovely wife Tammy, are to be our fearless leaders this time. Also present were more Michigan City Indiana Wall Gang. Good people. Gary, Tom, Rich (Spinner from last years spin on the highway just outside of DC), and Bruce (one of the chase truck drivers).

After settling into our room on the 23rd floor, we headed down to the casino to find the gang. They were at a blackjack table not doing so good. I contributed a bit to the cause before Joni, Stu and I left for dinner. We had a meal just like the T.V. commercial, where it was soooo small!! Oh well, we’ll try again later. I saw the last eight laps of Darlington on a big screen casino T.V. Kyle Busch did it again. He won’t be very popular for quite a while after last week, when he took out Dale Jr, at Richmond. At around 9:30 we left for our room and got a good night’s sleep.