Hogs for Hokies Road Trip and Band Gig

 

I attended the 6th Annual Hogs for Hokies Spirit Ride in remembrance of the 32 members of the Virginia Tech community who were slain during the campus shooting. It is organized by an engineering alum from the class of '82 in an effort to raise funds to be donated to the 32 named scholarship endowments. 

 

 

Steve's bike before 'The Incident'. Some novice rider cut him off and he laid it down in a grassy ravine. 

 

The Hokie Hog. Photo doesn't do it justice.

 Some pics from the initial roundup outside the Hooters in Manassas for Breakfast. I'd have liked to have just stayed there...for the breakfast :)

 

My actual camera I think finally had enough charge. Initially they were cameraphone pics.

 We took some scenic backroads pretty much all the way down until we got onto a junction for 64 which took us to 81. I really want to get the actual route as it made for a very nice drive.

 I got some good practice with convoy driving. It was especially important with motorcyclists as they can stop much faster than I can. I was also helping to protect the rear so that inattentive motorists didn't run into the back of the group. There was also a group of motorcyclists in the role of "Road Guard" that would speed ahead to block intersections and on-ramps to shield the convoy- including us three trucks in the rear. Then they would come back up from the rear and cycle back up to the front. I had to keep a special eye out for them as well. All of my convoy theorizing and planning paid off. I received several compliments for my attentiveness and responsiveness on the road.

 This was the next stop down before we got onto 64.

Just past where 64 runs into 81 to head south, the group stopped at this Harley dealership, the Shenandoah one. I was glad to be able to stay with the group to get some lunch and hang out a bit. Sean had a lot of anxiety about me not getting down to Blacksburg in time to set up. In actuality, when I left the dealership, I was 40 miles or so ahead of him and Dave. They definitely could have ridden down along with the group and then split off as I had suggested all along to do.

The ride was fun, but it was some real risk. There were at least 5 different 'wrecks' that occurred along the way. No injuries to report; just some bruised egos and battered fairings.

 On the trip to the Grand Canyon, I had wanted to get this shot when we stopped at Tech. Feeling no particular rush and being at least 40 minutes ahead of Sean and Dave, I went ahead and stopped this time around for the photo.

 We set up our tents, generator and equipment to get ready to greet the convoy when they road onto the Drillfield.

 During our sound check, I decided to play a little air guitar.

 Not sure what that's about.

 I made up our band name. Sean got a banner made. At first, we were like, "Why dude?" because we change our name every 3 weeks. But this one, I think will stick...for as long as we still have the banner anyway.

 So we went to bars afterwards. And the guys were like, "are you seriously going to keep wearing that hard hat?" Well me and that hard hat were a hit.

 Here's a fan.

 A couple more fans...and one Dallas cowboy fan and hater in the lower left side of the picture.

 

 Allie was impressed with my beer selection at Hokie House and was inspired by our crawl. She crawled with us for a while.

 I was able to retrace my steps back to the truck the next morning by following context clues from the prior night's stumblings.

 

PKs. This is where it all started. Once I saw this, I knew my truck wasn't too much further away in the lot where we left it.