The "Whiskey Dick" Scooter Rally

It was a pleasure this weekend past for my sometimes pillion rider, Susan, and me to spend some time with friends and the great folks at the “Whiskey Dick” scooter rally sponsored by the “Middle of Nowhere” scooter group in Stroudsburg, PA.  Though we weren’t official attendees spending the entire weekend there, we felt most welcome after I wrote to Adam, one of the head honchos in the Middle of Nowhere group, asking if we could spend some time visiting and he extended a gracious invitation for us to come down for as much of the rally as we wanted to include dinner on Saturday.

There are always plenty of curves at a scooter rally that are guaranteed to catch the eye and put a smile on one's face!

Although we spent a lot of our time with our friends, the Marshes and Mitkowskis, we also got to say hello to other scooter acquaintances and to meet some great new folks as well.  If you’ve never been to a scooter rally, it’s hard to describe one.  Everybody is very friendly, cordial, and welcoming.  When you shake hands with a person you’ve never met before it almost feels as if you’re with a long time friend who’s known you for years and is welcoming you back rather than greeting you for the very first time.

This is our friend, Carl, who first introduced me to the joys of riding in and being a part of a scooter group, with his son Carl IV.  He belongs to a wonderful family in which his parents, and his sister and brother-in-law, are also scooterists.  Carl and his wife, Megan, were married at the scooter rally that they hosted two summers ago, and it was our great honor to be present and to share in their joy.

There was no traditional gymkhana at the rally, though there were “races” of the sort where it seemed that nobody was genuinely competing while running the course, but simply having fun, and since fun is the point of the whole event, that was just fine.

Though not really competing in any way I could really make out, the riders in the "races" all seemed to be having a blast.  I've never run in a gymkhana nor any other kind of scooter reindeer games 'cause I figure that my athletic ineptness would show, even on a scooter. 

We were tired and needed to leave before the raffle was going to be held so we gave our tickets to our friend Jen and wished her luck ‘cause she was hoping to win a full face helmet which was known to be one of the prizes.  Imagine our thrill when we saw a picture of her wearing the helmet on Facebook along with her thanks to us for leaving her the tickets.  It always feels good to help a friend and we were most happy that she won! 

There isn’t much more to chatter about, so I’ll finish with a few favorite pictures from “Whiskey Dick.”

Some folks travel remarkable distances to be part of a scooter rally.  These guys really impressed me by coming down from Boston!  I'm not sure if they rode or towed their scooters, but either way they spent a good number of hours on the road to get here.

Scooterists represent a neat cross section of humanity, coming from all sorts of different backgrounds but blending together seamlessly in the spirit of shared interest and enjoyment.

 

Trish, on the left, celebrated her husband's and daughter's birthdays with us at the rally.  I'd post a picture of him too, but with where he had the party balloons, I'm not sure that he'd appreciated the recognition here.  That's Carl's wife, Megan beside Trish.

Here are Susan, Jen, Rich, and Barbara camped out to enjoy the "races" and visiting with other scooterists.

Eric on the left and Adam on the scooter were among the organizers of Whiskey Dick.  Congratulations, guys, on a job well done!

It's always a lot of fun at a rally to check out the various scooter makes and models that are represented and to get photos of the different rides on display.

There's Bill Viney, owner of  Scoot Carlisle in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, having some fun on his "horse."

Did I mention that there are always a lot of fun curves to check out at a scooter rally?  Oh, I believe I did.  Hehehe.

A great time was had by all, including this old geezer!

Our thanks to all involved for organizing a great event and for welcoming us to be a part of it!