Trikefest 2016

[Ghostv2]

Man, that really sucks. I drove past your Dakota but it didn't look like anyone was there so I kept going. I know Matt Taylor blew a tranny on the way in and mik6 blew a tranny on his tecate there. Too much blowing trannies for my liking. Kidding aside, I hope everything works out the rest of the trip

I had a turbo hose come off and had a of a time getting it to stay on. The 3rd time was the charm. Got home safe and tired, but not suprisingly I can't sleep. Wish it wasn't over

Yea I walked around and tried to live the homeless life for about 8 hours until my ride came with a car trailer. Went to goodwill, found a cool mug from the early 80's when Epcot first opened, went to Walmart to get some locks to lock my bikes up to my truck, and then bounced back and forth from sonic to a park like 2 miles down the road to sit without "loitering". Finally got picked up at like 9pm. ETA now says 6am, guess I'm not making it to work tomorrow.

Got some blisters from walking around in flip flops all day. The last Sunday of trikefest always sucks right? Some more than others I guess.

Even billy made it home before me, and he's all the way in north Florida eating armadillos probably by now.

[Ghostv2]

Made it home at about 7am. 24 hours since I left haspin the day before. Parked her in the Dakota graveyard. I had a lot of people offer to come back and figure any way possible to come and help me out and I appreciate it. But when your 7 hours from home that's a lot to ask of someone. I even had a cop stop when I was sitting in my truck and asked if I was coming from haspin acres, I said yea. How'd you even know about it? He goes everyone coming from this way is leaving from there, your from PA? Yea. He goes your nuts for driving all this way just to ride.

[ironchop]

Damn Ghost, that certainly sucks.

At the risk of sounding like a dick, I'll say at least it happened on the way home rather than the way there. Glad you finally made it home.

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[captainweezy]

Who won the zinger?

[jeswinehart]

Jim Smith (aka~ Coffin Maker)

[captainweezy]

Jim Smith (aka~ Coffin Maker)

Awesome!!!
First time in 6 years i have actually known the winner and is a lomg time trikefester! Congrates jimmy!!

[Atcrumm]

Here is Jim with the zinger

[Hunting Chip]

Here is Jim with the zinger

Thanks for posting the pic Sheldon. Me and my kids were really happy for him. There's gonna be one happy grandchild soon! Great to have gotten to know you guys the last 2 years...Jim and son, and You(Sheldon) and son...You guys have breathtaking trikes and are great people. My kids are still telling stories about Jim and the gang!

[Mickey Dunlap]

I met Jim this weekend, he I hit it off with our love for blinging out our projects with lots of polishing! lol

[hoosierlogger]

I can see it now, Jim will have all the paint stripped off of that motor and have it shining like a diamond in a goats ass.

[MRSOUND]

Joking or not he already said it will have chrome!

[Mickey Dunlap]

Chrome the plastic!

[El Camexican]

What a great experience my first Trikefest was! I was able to spend the better part of 9 days at Haspin with no Internet and very limited phone service which was just enough to make the odd call home, but not enough to have received more than a few work related calls the entire time. It was the longest vacation I’ve had since I was 11 years old.

I was made to feel welcome the moment I pulled up to the gate. There were only 5 people signed in for TF when I arrived and Dale Shively made the effort to come to the gate to welcome me like he’d known me for years and made sure I got to know Pete at the front desk. Soon after I unpacked I followed him to the Hall pits where we unloaded some fire wood and I got to meet Sandy Hall and the younger folks she was camped with.

The first night on the Hill was a little rough as my tent turned out to be smaller than my air mattress which in turn made the bottom of the tent rock like a banana after I’d stuffed it in there and I ended up sleeping in my truck mid-way through the night. Of the other Hill dwellers Jeswinehart arrived on Sunday and rolled in next to me and then Fabio who graciously welcomed me into his rolling crib and Howdy came in followed soon after by Captain Wheezy, Hoosierlogger and eventually the Stud over the course of the week and Matt and Mr. Sound were daily visitors. I believe there were about 48 trikers signed in by Sunday and the numbers grew each day after.

Never in my life have I been somewhere where everyone I met went out of their way to be so friendly and outgoing. No matter what camp I walked or rode by people were waving and calling me in to talk. No one was ever too busy, or in a rush to be on their way to somewhere else. Meeting the people I’d known on the site for so many years was a little like running into a movie star or a pro athlete in a hotel elevator, I get a sense of awe when I meet them in person. Very few people looked or spoke as I expected as I’m sure was the case when they met me for the first time

A week before the event I decided it would be a good idea to get an MX shirt made with my 3WW name on the back so as to encourage people from the site that I didn’t know to approach me. It paid off in spades on Saturday as I must have met 30 people that knew me from the site, but had never interacted with me on there. The most typical intro was “Hey, your that Camexican guy! I don’t post much, but I’ve read some of yours and…” I think one of the most memorable “shirt” encounters I had was with a guy whose camp site I’d pulled up to and had a great talk with him and then as I said goodbye and was walking away he saw my name on the shirt and called me back for what was another good talk chat as he didn’t know I was on the site till he noticed my name and that started a whole new conversation.

People offered me chances to ride trikes I’d never seen before and food and drink were passed around freely. Fabio gave me a place to sleep, Jswinehart cooked most every meal and Howdy was the camp maintenance man when not playing Super Dad. I don’t know what I contributed to the Hill. At first it was shade and ice, but that got blown away and melted LOL. I tried to keep the place clean as well, but everyone was doing a super job of picking up what the revelers had left the night before.

The people I met prior to Thursday were the most memorable as things were still pretty low paced at that time. The late night runs to the Shoe Tree, Bra Tree and the Backbone with John, Ben, Mike, Billy, Cheyenne, Tim, Nick, Bill, Curt, Johnathan, Josh and many, many others were a blast. At some point I overheard someone say “Why do we have to move?” as we were preparing to go from the Shoe Tree to the Backbone. At the time I wondered the same thing, but in retrospect it was a perfect way to break up the cliques that had formed and change the conversations so that everyone could meet everyone.
Brilliant plan . I wish I could remember all the given and board names of the people I met. There were so many and all were great to talk to.

I believe it was Thursday night that the barrel races were held. The ground was rutted by runoff and the right hand side of the course was next to a mud bog trench, perfect! LOL! After watching a few very brave and skilled riders swing their 2 stroke trikes around the course I worked up the nerve to run another utility trike that had pulled up. As expected he finished way ahead of me as I fought the large low pressure rear tires of my trike around the cones. I would have called it a night after that first run, but Keister offered to run me again on his Polaris with oil reservoir shots to follow. How could I turn that down? Watching Sandy Hall rip around that course on her Zinger was almost as entertaining as watching her son run it and she made sure that whoever she ran had fun doing it regardless of how much faster she was. Watching the guy on the beautiful slammed air cooled 250R whip it around was something else.

Friday things went into high gear. The MX races were on and people were pouring in. I’d never raced on an MX track in my life, but was suddenly up for two of them in the same hour. I managed to get my right foot punched with a wheel at the start of the first race and land on my face during the second race, but no bones were broken, so I’m pretty thrilled about that. I also finished the first race with the farthest trike jump of my life and possibly the ugliest landing too. If anyone has a clip of that I’d love to see it as my volunteer camera guy kept the best shots in his cup that morning WINK. By night time my eyes were trying to stay shut every time I blinked, so I crashed early and stayed off the trails.

Saturday was the photo, drags, parade and awards, busy, busy, busy! I’d planned to cook for the camp that night and ended up making burgers by the light of the moon. The drags were a blast even though I didn’t get far. It was a little disappointing to be the only Yamaha in the mod class, but I was happy to get the jetting sorted out and not get blown out of the water. Finding out the track was about 30% shorter than I had been running it all week long added an “OMG” element in the morning as I rushed back to the camp to drop the gearing after the riders meeting, but now I know what to expect in the future. Tim K. came by on his KTM that afternoon and we went for a short trail ride on the bikes that afternoon. The awards were given out right in front of our camp, so all I had to do to get ready was turn my chair 180 degrees. I was given a plaque for distance traveled and the geriatric race and won a jar of Joe’s donated honey. Billy even nominated me for a rookie of the year. A special (and fast!) young man won that plaque, but I was honored to be up there with all the other first timers that were called. Everyone was a winner just for coming to TF.

That evening I could see the crowd was getting younger and more party oriented. More vehicles without lights, more quads & side by sides and more young drunken faces. I’m old enough to know when to stay home so that’s just what I did during the herk & jerk. I enjoyed my last night with Jeswinehart, Howdy’s crew and a few others as the sounds and smells of the herk & jerk wafted over the pond and into the camp.

As I walked to John’s rig for my last sleep at Haspin I remember thinking to myself “Is that it? Did a week just pass by in what seemed like only a few hours?” While the thought of getting home to the family was motivating, the thought of leaving the place and people that I had spent the week with was saddening. There wasn’t one person I wish I’d spent less time with, or one event, or ride I wished hadn’t lasted so long.

Sunday I was up at 7:30 and Jeswinehart already had the coffee made. We were joined by a few other early risers and then it was time to say goodbye I took one last slow lap around the park in my truck and waved goodbye to all who were up before pulling out of the gate and seeing Billy packing up and waving to him. Then as though it was planned, the last person I saw and waved goodbye to was Dale, the same person who first welcomed me to TF 9 days earlier.

Thank you to everyone who made this an awesome week, I sure hope I can make it back soon.

Nico

[ironchop]

Awesome commentary. I hope you go back next year.

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[Louis Mielke]

I want to chime in that for anyone reading who isn't familiar, Haspin Acres is a offroad ATV park, and while during Trikefest we typically represent the largest group, the park still has regular patrons. Many of the trucks and quads are not affiliated with us but we still have to share the park with them. Just an FYI>