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Title: Good Friends.... Great times!
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Blog Entry: Alternate Title : Gene's midlife crisis brings unexpected blessings!     When I first joined Motorcycle Syndicate 4 months ago I had no idea what I was getting myself into.   All I knew is that Gene had stumbled upon this site about a month earlier and had started taking the computer away from me every night chatting in some chat room.   Motorcycle Syndicate was all he could talk about.   He kept trying to tell me stories about rockstar did this, black hills did that, red 69 said this and zebralady sent him the cutest comment.   I figured ok well he has finally embarked upon his mid-life crisis and this is how it’s gonna start…chatting with biker chicks and next thing you know he’s gonna want to get himself a bike. (Sure enough the bike was the next thing on the agenda!)   I finally got up enough curiosity that I decided to check the site out so I logged on one day.   What I realized is that Gene had stumbled upon the greatest group of people anyone could ever hope to find.   So I did the only thing I could do… I joined up too.    Then I got a laptop so Gene and I could chat at the same time. The first couple of times we were both in the chat room it caused quite a bit of confusion.   Then we got our new computer in and gave Dave our old one and the confusion only grew.   (Baffled was more baffled than ever! hahaha!)  We found that we’d been blessed to discover new friends we felt like we’d known forever.   The only way we would have felt more accepted and at home would have been with our own families.   Next thing you know everyone was saying something about having a get together sometime in the summer.   Then somehow (and I haven’t yet figured out how it happened) I got volunteered… no nominated… ehh more like stuck with the task of setting a date, location and organizing everything.   (Oh yippee! )   A few weeks passed as I check out first one location and then another and suggested more than a few dates.   How bout we just do it in coordination with Little Sturgis?   Everybody is gonna be there anyhow.   No, that won’t do, too much going on… ok so back to the drawing board.   Finally (after exhaustive attempts at getting someone else to help me decide where to go and what date to set) I finally threw up my hands and said “Ahh, heck we’ll do it June 21 st at Paris Landing State Park whoever comes comes!” (I never claimed to be a patient person.)   A few chats later and plans started rolling.   I sent out messages to those who I hadn’t caught in chat.   Some just couldn’t make the trip cause it was too long to make others had something else going on.   We found out that date was rockstar’s birthday and she was bummed she couldn’t make it.   Then tacman came in chat and things really started to roll.   Skip forward to last week.   I’d emailed out a couple of maps and directions given everyone mine and Gene’s cell phone numbers (just in case) and was trying to start planning our own trip up there.   I was looking forward to the weekend and dreading it at the same time.   I’m a hermit and not much on groups so as much as I dearly treasured my newfound friends I was still unsure about the whole event.   I’d laid down the ground rule that it was a “bring your own bail money” weekend so all I had to do was sit back and stay sober enough so I would be credible in claiming I didn’t know these people if they started getting out of hand.   No problem there I don’t drink much anyhow.   Thursday evening I’ve got my list made and we’re packing things in the van Gene is fussing about me going to bed early. Our cats are giving us funny looks because they know something is up but we’re packing a different bag so we can’t be leaving the house.   Bedtime comes and Gene is snoring and I finish watching one more late night show before forcing myself to bed.   Next morning I’m up and Gene’s got a cup of coffee ready and then he brings out the camouflage bag… now the cats know we’re leaving and we finish the last minute packing among looks of disdain.   Finally everything is in the van and off we head to Paris .   We got to the campground about 9:45 and Jammer pulls in right behind us with his son and grill in tow.   Barely get the grill unloaded and the campsite paid for and here comes the first of our group!   We proceeded with setting up camp.   That was a comedy of errors watching 4 men attempt to put up our big tent.     Then we sit back and started waiting and watching for others to arrive.   Some found us without too much problems others had to be literally chased down.   But by about 6 o’clock we had a total of 18 people there and one still to come in after midnight.   Not bad for our first get together we all agreed. We did get a good break on the campsites considering the site we picked out was pretty big the park supervisor agreed to just let us put a few more tents up on it.   Between 2 campsites we ended up with 8 tents.   I know people thought we were trying to start our own village.     We had a blast.   You’d have thought we’d all known each other forever the way we all carried on.   I won’t go into every little detail because I’m saving some of those stories for future blackmail purposes but suffice it to say it was definitely an adventure I’d do again! The weather was beautiful despite the forecast of rain we barely got a good sprinkling.   Everyone seemed to be impressed with the park and the general Tennessee hospitality and it made me feel good to know they were enjoying their visit.   The only thing wrong with the entire weekend was that it was way too short.   6:30 am Sunday morning Baff fired up his bike for a warm up getting ready to hit the road going home.   With the 600 mile trip ahead of him I couldn’t blame him though I hated he had to leave so soon.   Zeb and her friend indyguy were the next to leave us and the rest gathered at the restaurant for breakfast before they all left out.   Gene got a few pics of them as they were pulling out of the parking lot and then we went back to pack up the campsite.   I now understood how my mom used to feel when all the kids had been home for the weekend and the last one left.   The campsite had become the loneliest place in the world with everyone gone.   Gene, Dave and I took our time and packed things up.   We got the chance to thank the park supervisor one last time for being so nice and giving us such a great break and then we headed on back to Dresden .   We have laughed all week long when a memory would strike us about something that had happened or been said.   I’ve loved getting to see everyone else’s pictures and reading everyone’s blogs.   We had our camera there but like baff we got too caught up just enjoying the brother/sisterhood to think about snapping pics.   I still got a couple of good blackmail shots though so it’s all good.   I’m looking forward to next time and even though its been requested we move to a “non-communist” state (pfft! ) I’m even looking forward to the adventure of trying to plan it all again… but not as much as I’m looking forward to seeing all my wonderful friends again.   I hope we have even more folks show up for the next one too.   There’s always room for more in our family! Until we meet again dear friends, take care and keep in touch… it costs too much to hire a pi to track your tails down! LOL     Love to all, Shell