Report of Social Ride to Railway Hotel at Elaine
Sunday 23rd September 2007
Departing from Mooroolbark at 8.00 a.m. with blue sky, sun out and no wind this surely was going to be a great social ride to Elaine!!!
Meeting point was at Westgate Shell at 9.00 a.m. for a 9.30 a.m. departure, we found the Westgate Shell to be a very busy place being the meeting point for various clubs both car and motorcycle, parking was at a premium.
The following members met at the departure point Richo, Danny, Neil, Taxi, Bob, Jean, Dean, Terri, Chris, Sharyn, Dave and Viv.
Blue sky and sun gone, cold and windy at Shell Westgate.
Whilst waiting to depart the blue sky and sun had gone and a cold wind had blown up, we finally departed at 9.45 a.m. for we waited a little longer just in case others were running late.
Dean was the lead rider with the Tom Tom, it was mentioned back roads but No Mention of gravel roads so off we went and within 20 minutes first gravel road, then another and another.
We have evidence of dust on Richo's bike, can you see it?
The back roads were a mixture of good sweeping corners along with narrow stretches with gavel on the corners, we rode up and down some very steep roads in and around Ballan, morning coffee break was at Ballan.
Taxi took over as lead rider just before Ballan and then continued to lead for the rest of the ride, arriving at the Railway Hotel at Elaine we found our host Ian outside with his Red Duke to greet us.
Our hosts Ian and Barbara.
Well the ride to Elaine can be described as Windy, Dusty, Bumpy and Richo may have been a bit Grumpy with the dust!!!!
After a couple of drinks to wash the dust away we all enjoyed a great roast lamb, baked spuds, gravy and salad which was very well priced at $12 per head, Ian and Barbara were our hosts will put on a roast or BBQ for groups if you make a booking in advance.
Bob made a special presentation to Chris during our lunch break, it was a Kawa 1400 Emergency Break Down Kit (this follows Chris running out of fuel last Thursday) it contained a funnel, mobile phone, shortbread biscuit and a small bottle of fuel, following this presentation Dean made an announcement that he had stolen something from Chris's bike last Thursday which would have contributed to Sharyn having to bring fuel out to Chris at 11.00 p.m., he presented Chris with a coke bottle covered in aluminum representing the lost fuel cell.
Chris has no excuses for running out of fuel now!!!!!
After a good laugh at the presentations to Chris (running out of fuel just will not go away) it was time to depart for home, Taxi lead the ride back to Ballarat with most then continuing down the Freeway to Melbourne, Chris and Sharyn turned off at "The Tap Brewery - (Pedro's special abode!!)" and head off for a ride home via Daylesford, found what is called "A Collectors Dream" at Daylesford it is named "The Mill Markets" full of Antiques & Collectables with 200 plus stallholders and 40,000 items for sale with a cafe, highly recommended at stop at "The Mill Markets" and plan a 2 hour stop to see every thing.
Another day fun day with good friends and laughs.
Reported by CW
