| Newsletter Nov. 9 , 2002 Shamokin, Pa |
| Hi Folks, Its been a long nite as I struggle to stay in bed till my normal 2:00am wake up call by my trusty alarm clock. Finally the buzzer rattles me to my senses & tells me its time to fire up the Speedball Express & begin the 200+ miles up the interstate highways to our usual meeting place at Motel 6 in Frackville, Pa. & gobble down a hot breakfeast at Granny's. The time goes by fast as the Speedball Express almost pilots itself towards the hills of Pa. . Before long I am seated at a high back chair in Granny's along with a few other fellow Speedballs consuming a steak & egg breakfeast that will fuel this AARP body as I chase the youngsters across the mountains during the course of the day. HA! HA! Knowing full well that a SBO ride takes LOTS of energy , my fellow Speedballs eat just as hearty! Once our hot breakfeasts are eaten, we fire up our rigs & head for the K-mart in Shamokin, Pa. to join the remainder of the participants of todays Great Adventure. After arriving at K-mart, we unload our ORV's & get ourselves & ORV's ready to test the stamina of each & every member & the reliability of each members ORV to the MAX!!! HE! HE! Todays ride will have NINE Speedballs , riding everything from a KTM dirt bike to a highly modified 502EX quad. No sooner do we leave the parking lot then the mad scramble for the front trail positions begin in earnest! Once across Rt. # 61 the pace goes from FAST to FASTER & before long everything is a BLURR as the trees blend into just a maze of colors as the ORV's dive HARD into each & every curve in an attempt to thwart some other Speedball from taking a faster line & sneaking closer to the front! HA! HA! THIS IS FUN!!!!! The next few miles FLY by as the speed increases as everyone near the front pushes harder & HARDER & gets closer to the EDGE~~~~!! Mike is leading the way on his Raptor, with Jim & the 502ex hot on his ass! Just a few quad lenghts behind Jin , is Speedy on his juiced up Grizzly keeping pace with the sport quads , but leaving just a little extra room incase I need to make a panic stop. It takes a little longer to stop a 600+ lb. 4x4 than a 400 lb. sport quad, when traveling at WARP SPEED along these tight & twisty trails. As we enter this one particularly sharp left hand turn , I peer through the trees watching for Jim & the 502ex to exit , before I commit the Grizzly & myself . NO Jim exiting , so I slow down to semi-warp speed & ease off the thumb throttle & attempt to locate the 502ex on the trail ahead. As I dive into the apex of the turn , there is Jim about 20 feet off the trail on the right , wedged between some unlucky saplings that will never achieve full growth after being mowed over by a wayward 502ex! HA! HA! Once Jim is determined to be OK , Speedy Racer drops the hammer & takes over second place for the moment! HE! HE! The positions will always be changing during the course of the day as the mayhem takes its toll on men & machines . As we approach Kulpmont, Pa. , the rear portion of our group becomes disconnected from the lead pack & so we pull over & await for the others to catch up. |