Meeting Irondad, the Legend

When I first started Blogging the intent was to showcase the scenery of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, which I have defined in my mind as BC, WA & OR. Photography had always been my hobby ever since the early days when I was one of the school photographers. Belonging to car clubs we often went away for the weekends in various places on both sides of the border. I like driving vacations and it is more about the journey and the less travelled roads rather than a specific destination. When I had my Jeep and Pick up truck, we would travel on many gravel roads all over the province. Vacation planning would be to scour over maps trying to make a route on unfamiliar roads.

On many of our travels to out of the way places I would encounter many situations, meet locals and make friends with strangers. And so it is with the blogging community to which I have become attached. Our community is comprised of many individuals scattered all over the country and even in other parts of the world. It is like discovering new places to see and many people to meet.

During my initiation stages I would often frequent some of the more highly rated blogs. I don't want to leave anyone out so I will just say that "Musings of an Intrepid Commuter" was one of those that I would monitor daily but didn't consider myself worthy enough to actually post a comment. Like my hero, I would dote on his every word and read with interest his posts regarding handling your motorcycle proficiently. Whether it be cornering, braking, or go where you look.


(FJR on the left, vistors on the right)

There seems to be a great concentration of Bloggers in the Corvallis/Albany area which is not that far away from Home and it was my thought that perhaps, ONE DAY our paths would cross. Recently our paths did cross. It was during our IMBC2010 in Bend. It would be my chance to finally meet this man of STEEL, 7 ft tall, Ironman and Guru of motorcycle training. The top honcho of Team Oregon. The number ONE, the CEO, the BUCK stops here . . .

Irondad was in Klamath Falls and the plan was for him to transmit a text message to me when he arrived at his hotel. Our group was a mere 3 miles away taking a walk by the river when I thought I felt the earth shake. I didn't know what to make of this but when the text message arrived, I knew that HE had arrived.

We made our way over to his hotel to use as our command centre. As I rode past his bike and saw the personalized licence plate, I knew that he "was in the building" . He lives and breathes motorcycles and I didn't want him to evaluate my shaky riding technique so I parked on the other side of the parking lot so he wouldn't notice, but he was standing outside on his balcony and saw everything. He has an Eagle's eye and nothing escapes his powers of observation


(Irondad with Stacy)

I came up the stairs and we introduced ourselves. We had chosen this weekend to meet in Bend as it was the same weekend as the BMW MOA motorcycle rally being held in Redmond and there were many bikes in the lot below



There were other makes as well but most were BMW's. Dan (Irondad) has become quite proficient in his photography and likes to excercise his camera


(Irondad, behind the scenes)

He tried to dispell his Guru status by telling us that tonight he was just one of us, but in the end he took the premiere spot, in front of the class in the commanding position, with us students looking on



During the next few hours we were talking sort of like in a classroom setting. It had been suggested a few times about going somewhere for dinner, or perhaps even ordering in but time was slipping by and soon RichardM had to go back to Corvallis

and Stacy and Stacey had to leave for their campsite before it got too dark



We decided to gather somewhere for dinner and chose a restaurant near our hotel . I was lucky to grab the empty chair opposite Irondad which the others had thankfully left vacant for me.


(Dan, Ron & Kari)

We had a leisurely chat before and after dinner trying to get to know each other better

I should have ordered something sensible like Irondad did



Like a healthy soup and sandwich combo which included a pie for dessert instead of my cholesteral chocking sandwich loaded up with gravy



It was a nice "first time" and I hope we get a chance to meet again. We would not see him again for breakfast as he had to leave early to meet a friend in the area. I am sure that he is a very busy person. Between motorcycle training on the weekends and working his job, he has little time to be social. We are glad he managed to take a brief time out to meet us all in Bend.

I was also a little apprehensive about his bringing up the rear on our group ride back to Corvallis on Sunday for then he would know what little riding skills we possess