Sorry for the late report, but the whole wife having surgery to donate a kidney and subsequently having to play Mr. Mom meant this was on the back burner. Spoiler alert: wife is doing well and back home; getting better every day.
As you may have heard, the weather was pretty miserable. I was on my 2004 R1150GS Adventure (convinced I might be on the oldest bike there - spoiler: I wasn’t, but it was close). One of my friends was on his 2017 R1200GS and our third friend was in his 2016 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. We rode/drove up to North Carolina from Florida in one day though intermittent rain all day long. We arrived at the grounds about a half hour before sunset.
There was some confusion at the camping areas. We all had Experience package tickets and there was a camping area dedicated to Experience package people, but they wanted us to head to the Moto camp. However, we didn’t want to split up from our friend. They kept trying to push us over there though and finally a guy said “look, we are running out of space here so it would help if you guys all went over. Your friend in the Jeep can go with you to the Moto camp because you are all together.”
Not entirely convinced we headed to the Moto camp where there were several people all telling us the Jeep couldn’t come despite giving them the name and radio freq of the guy who said he could. Eventually we were all let through and made it to the Moto camp. We headed over to check in and ended up having to set up camp in the dark anyway, boo.
The next day, Friday, IT RAINED ... ALL FREAKING DAY. And it was cold. The place became a total mud pit. I was signed up for several of the Moto skills sessions and didn’t go to a single one; and I don’t feel bad about it at all. I had no need to slide around in the mud falling over all day. Another spoiler: they pretty much cancelled anything even remotely advanced for Moto training anyway due to the mud so I didn’t actually miss any training. I don’t need practice riding around on a flat field.
However, there were lots of courses I couldn’t attend because of the riding skills sessions that were now available to me. And I went to a lot of them. I went to a mix of Moto and vehicle classes ranging from bike and vehicle set ups, trailer towing (since I have the Sylvansport Go), digital mapping, picking up bikes, tire repair (bikes and cars), Overlanding with kids, aux battery power systems ... lots and lots of classes.
I also cruised the vendors quite a bit and found some very cool ones that I wanted to check out more or look up their websites. Specific ones that caught my eye were GoTreads, which are made in America, lifetime warranty, foldable, traction boards for $119. My friend in the Jeep bought a set and they are super high on my list. I was also impressed with the ARB Jack, Blue Ridge Overland Gear, Overland Power Solutions, and Adventure Tool Company just to name a few. I was actually disappointed by Dometic as their “show deal” was more expensive than what the Amazon prices were and about $150-200 in value (with accessories factored in) compared to the ARB deals on fridges of similar size. Not that I was buying a fridge to bring back on my GS!
Saturday and Sunday were really cold and the mud was unreal, but I still had fun the entire time. I am 42 and have been going off road in trucks, SUVs or my motorcycle for about 20 years. I was rather happy to realize I actually know quite a bit about this off roading and camping thing, but also still picked up some great bits of info and ideas.
I ended up leaving Sunday afternoon because the forecast for Monday was brutal: very cold with rain starting at 5 am. I didn’t want to have to pack up camp in the rain and ride all day in the rain. I made it to Atlanta on Sunday and then had 5 more hours to go on Monday to get to Pensacola. Monday was not intermittent rain; it was torrential downpour the entire day. I have ridden in rain before but I never rode for so long in such force before. It never stopped, but it did waiver in strength. After 3.5 hours even my trusty Aerostich and Hippo Hands started to get water inside. Luckily I was far enough south by then that I wasn’t freezing.
Rumor is that there were some upset vendors and day pass guests. The mud closed off the local parking and the shuttle system wasn’t very good, supposedly. The most recentl email newsletter said they are going to plan for an all weather location next year with plenty of on site parking. So I’m guessing it isn’t going to be at REEB Ranch again.
Here are some more pictures:
