Friday, July 19, 2013

2013 Blogger to Blogger Tour - R&R

Yesterday was day two for me in State College, and day one for Bob.

Bob needed some downtime following his trans-continental sprint.

Having enjoyed a restful night's sleep, Karen, Bob and I fired up our bikes and headed out for the 20 minute ride to meet Steve Williams and Paul Ruby for breakfast at The Corner Room in State College.

With Bob along this time, the blah-blah fest quickly went from moto to photo. Karen and I sometimes felt like poetry majors at an engineering conference. At one point Karen leaned in and said, sotto voce "Are they still speaking English?".

Just like a bunch of cowboys shooting up a saloon, all of a sudden there were cameras popping shots all over the place. No one was safe, nothing was sacred! I fear a picture of me in an extremely unflattering pose is bound to surface in the bloggosphere at any moment. My heavens I think I saw actual visual puns at work, and what certainly looked to me like photographic multi-cross, double-reflection work that may have come close to straining the fabric of space and time. If they hadn't eventually holstered their weapons, I might be writing this from a whole other dimension.

When the festivities were over we all went our separate ways.

With a good night's sleep and a full belly, Bob seemed fully recovered from his run across the continent because he took upon himself impromptu traffic duties.
Karen headed to Bellefonte to pay a parking ticket she got the previous day. A whopping $5.00. Makes one wonder if the city is losing money on the whole deal, what with salaries, servicing the meters, printing tickets, chasing scofflaws, and collecting the fines.

Bob and I headed to Kissell Motorsports for Bob's oil change.

The good folks at Kissell had their hands full and couldn't promise they would be able to squeeze the oil change in. I gave them my number to call if it turned out they could do it. That meant we got to spend quality time in the KOA pool, behaving like kids.

It happened that later in the afternoon and early evening it was time for Pistons and Pints, the eclectic moto gathering that Steve has been known to frequent. At breakfast we made semi-serious plans to attend.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Kissell's called late in the afternoon. They could squeeze Bob in after all. He and I hightailed it down to the shop. With the oil change done, we had to get back to the KOA to rejoin Karen who had no clue where we disappeared to. On the ride back, the skies turned ominously black all around us. I was convinced we were in for a downpour.

It was all enough to put the kabosh on Pistons and Pints for us. It was a real shame because Paul and Steve were there and I'm fairly certain the crazy Canucks would have been feted, had we shown up.

Steve and Paul called and we said our farewells, thanking them for their incredibly warm hospitality. Steve then said he was riding up to the Bellefonte KOA for one last visit. Many more photos were taken, and photography tips and tricks were exchanged between Bob and Steve. It was a really nice way to cap the evening, and the State College leg of our 2013 Blogger-to-Blogger Tour.

4 comments:

Trobairitz said...

I have been among Bobskoot when he gets his photo lingo flying. Just nod your head and wait for your name.

SonjaM said...

Sounds like you had some good old fashioned boys talk... Did you leave out the more delicate content on purpose?

I'm with Brandy on this, I would wait until it's over, and nod approvingly and hopefully with the right timing ;-)

David Masse said...

Trobairitz, that's good advice. But if you wait, your turn never comes. It will though if you cough out the right word even if it doesn't make any sense in the context. Words to use are "dichroic", "enlarger", and "fixer".

David Masse said...

Sonja, this was a classy bunch of guys. Not a single four letter word, mysoginist comment, or word of bathroom humour was uttered. Disappointing, I know.

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