We left TWO and went to Marietta where we checked to the Officer Quarters at Naval Air Station Atlanta. The place I would get my training was a civilian training facility near the base. The Navy didn't have enough C-130s to justify their own facility or squadron.
Debbi and Scott got on an airplane and headed to Ireland where they would visit some friends.
Since training was Monday - Friday that meant I had weekends off. I took advantage of that and reserved a room at TWO for the next couple of weekends. I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to ride some of my favorite roads
One of the problems with writing this thread is that many of my memories are muddled or I just can't remember some stuff at all. This period of time as well as the next few years are some of the worst as far as my memories go. What I have been doing is trying to fit in the pics I have found with what I remember. For example. Those weekends at TWO while I was in training are mostly blank. I do remember really enjoying my time during those weekends. I spent some time at my favorite place and rode some of my favorite roads
There are a couple of things I do remember. Remember how Frank had recently had a crash and was in a cast and Sling? Well on one of those weekends Frank was already back out riding
He Had ridden to TWO on his Honda scooter. His rational was that it was a scooter so he wasn't really riding
Another part of this whole time was that I was officially homeless! People would ask me where I was from and I'd say: "I'm from right here." It was a little weird.
Towards the end of my training Debbi and Scott came back from Ireland and headed off to spend some time with relatives. I think they went to Florida to her parents. When I finished my training I started on a really long ride. I started off by heading up to Richmond Kentucky to attend a Rider rally. This rally was put on by Rider magazine. I'm pretty sure this was the second one I went to. The main attraction for me was that all the major manufacturers had demo rides there. I took advantage of that by spending a whole day riding bikes by Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, BMW and Harley
One demo ride I really remember was on a Yamaha XT600. The demo rides were all escorted group rides except for Harley. Yamaha grouped their bikes by type. So Cruisers and touring bikes together and sport bikes together. The XT was grouped with the sportbikes. I was amazed how well it handled on the curvy roads we rode. I felt like I could have passed all those sportbikes
I didn't end up buying an XT600 but it planted a seed
At one of those rider rallies I met Larry Grodsky, the guy who wrote the safety column for Rider magazine. I had an interesting conversation with him. It would not be the last time I met him.
At this rally I met up with another HSTA member from Michigan. His name was Pedro, he was 6-8 and rode a Kawasaki ZX-7
He rode down from Michigan and after the rally we rode down to TWO.
My next destination was another HSTA rally in Seneca South Carolina. The name of this rally was SCRAP; South Carolina Rally and Party. More on this in my next post. I even have some pics