Rudee got off a little early Thursday and we were able to load up and get on the road by 3:30. We were heading for the Indiana GWRRA rally "Spring Wing Warm-Up 2009" in Greensburg Indiana. I was able to get hooked up and pulled out of the KOA with out incident this time :-).
Traffic was not too bad heading east on I-74 thru Indianapolis and on to St Paul Indiana where we exited to follow the signs to our new home for the week end. We followed the blue camping signs to Hidden Paradise Campground. I turned into the entrance and the gravel drive got narrower and narrower the further back we drove. We continued winding our way back thru the trees and finally found the office and entrance gate. There was no parking area at the office so I had to block the road while we checked in. We paid for our 3 nights and I hopped into a golf cart with one of the office workers who was taking me back to show me the sites. She was pretty worried about the size of my truck. They had just had a heavy rain and were worried I would sink into the ground in my big old heavy truck.
Several of our goldwing friends were already there and set up. The sites were all grass and the ground was a little soft but I felt like I would be fine so back to the office we went. The campground is large and there are a lot of seasonal and construction workers staying there. We drove the rig back to the sites and I pulled in and proceeded to start spinning wheels. I went ahead and shut the truck down since we were pretty close to being where we wanted and we were almost level so that's where we stayed. We set up and unloaded the bike and we joined 4 other couples and rode into Greensburg to check out the rally site in anticipation of opening day. We stopped for supper at Chili's and the 10 of us had a great time.
Friday morning Rudee and I and were up early and went into St. Paul to a little cafe' for breakfast. We like to stop at the little "Mom and Pop" type places when we can. We enjoyed a good breakfast and headed to the rally.
We had pre-registered (and paid) for admission so all we had to do was pick up our packets that had our arm bands that got us in and out of the gate and some other goodies. We walked around the fairgrounds and looked thru the vendor area. There were lots of bikers camping at the fairgrounds in motorcycle pop ups and tents. We all decided not to stay there because the electric outlets for the campers were only 20amp and were few and far between. The fairgrounds was also pretty small and since we had 9 fairly large rigs we felt it would be better to stay somewhere we were sure we could all fit. I was sure we had made a good decision after seeing the camping area at the rally.
There are lots of things to do at a motorcycle rally but our favorite is to ride and see the countryside. We decided to go one of the rides that the local chapter had set up. This one was a little different than just lines on a map though. The ride was called a scavenger hunt but was more like the reality TV show "The Amazing Race". We started with a card that had written directions to a destination and once there we had to answer a question about the area (with clues provided) and then we would get another "clue" with directions to our next stop. We went to a truck stop then an historic Mill, an Amish restaurant and finally back to the fairgrounds. We were not really racing for the fastest time but we did have to check out when we started and back in when we got back. The ride took us 3 hours and 53 minutes including a lunch stop at the truck stop and desert at the Amish place.
Friday evening a large group of us went to a Mexican place and had a ball telling lies and eating a great meal. We all came back and had a nice camp fire at the campground. Saturday should bring more rides and more rally events. I'll keep you posted.
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