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By JB “Papa” Brostrom, MWAi – We walked out to our bikes with the dreaded “slight drizzle”. The good news is we have only 1.5 miles to reach our first destination. Pam and Terry Kerbs were wonderful hosts. First words out of their mouths: “Don’t feed the dog! Last year she was sick for three days!” Perhaps Paco did get a little carried away last year. It was wonderful to walk into their operation and see the office adorned with Jillian Fund posters and numerous Jillian Fund purple elephants scattered around. We have seen quite a bit of this, which reinforces our appreciation for what the industry is doing with the Jillian Fund. In fact we received a press release that MT Business Technology in Ohio today donated $40,000.00 (no typos here). Wow!

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It is no secret that both Pam and Terry Kerbs lean a bit right politically. While waiting for Pam to return with some breakfast snacks Slaw began a rather eloquent leftish rant in response to some poking from Gordito. Slaw is facing toward the back of the room. Mid rant he noticed the Patriots Pack’s focus moved from Slaw to looking behind him. Slaw immediately knew Terry had entered the room. Terry drew a sly smile and asked Paco if Slaw was a “Demoncrat”. To his credit he immediately placed his hand on Slaw’s shoulder to let him know it’s all good… you’re wrong but it’s all good.

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Gordito had a scheduled call at 9:30am. Paco needed to get to Richmond, VA by 5:00 for his own conference call. Added to the mixture was drizzly weather about to get worse. We made the executive decision to split the squad. Papa, Paco, Slaw, Bert, and Lone Star donned raingear and prepared to depart. Before doing so Pan and Terry Kerbs presented a wonderful donation to the Jillian Fund… I should shout something about Rocky Top here!


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Gordito and GQ stayed at the AOS office so Gordito could make his call. The first five roared off and headed East on I 40. It was wet so we proceeded with caution. About the time we merged onto I 81 north towards Virginia the rain became very intermittent and the road dried up.

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Back in Knoxville the drizzle turned into a downpour. It’s good we got out of Knoxville when we did. The two stragglers even entertained the idea of renting a truck to haul their steeds. It is good they didn’t because the repercussion would have been catastrophic. Endless years of hazing would ensue.

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The 5 stopped for fuel about 140 miles out of Knoxville and doffed our raingear. Fuel, bio stop, and hydration and we quickly got back on the road. The sun appeared and the steam began to rise. We had a rather uneventful 140 miles to the next stop. This would be fuel, bio, hydration and Burger King. The lady at the Shell station told Papa that you just cross over the highway and make a left. Go to miles and Burger Kin is on the left. Papa followed directions. At about 1.5 miles doubt began to creep. We were on a small county road and entering a town with a few red brick buildings left standing. Too late to ride directly into the parking area a small Burger King/Exon sign was spotted. We all made our way across the street and parked. We walked into the Burger King the size of your living room and older than your great uncles! Papa and Paco stood at the empty ordering counter for several minutes before Papa called out: Anybody home!? A low slow voice returned. “Ya, I be right with y’all.” It seems we ruined his day by forcing him to cook burgers… at Burger King of all places. There was nothing pre-made. The good news is that our order was cooked “fresh”. The bad news is that the reverse of Speedy Gonzales was cooking. We needed the rest anyway. We all consumed our transfats and saddled up to make our way into Richmond. We had another 60 miles north before turning due east on I 64 for the longest 100 miles in the history of the world. It was beautiful though as you cross the great Shenandoah Valley. It was a hard ride as we pushed it for 460 miles so that Paco had time to shower and make his scheduled call. Along the way Gordito must have been lonely. He was 90 miles behind so the com system was out of the question. Instead he called Papa twice.

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We arrived at our hotel in Richmond without incident. We’re always grateful to say that. It was decided to reconvene in the lobby at 7:00ish and meet up with Mr. James D’Emidio. Gordito and GQ arrived in time to make the lobby connection. There was a story that included a slight limp from GQ and an almost incident with the blueberry liquid on board that he received from “his guy”.

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We walked across the parking lot, through the D’Emidio hotel (Hyatt isn’t good enough for El Hefe’ ). Once through the D’Emidio hotel we walked through an outdoor live band party. We found our Italian restaurant. Eating with a D’Emidio and a Stramaglio we needed an Italiano restaurant. What!? No bleu cheese stuffed olives? Well we’re here anyway. The poor server had no chance taking our cocktail order as greygoose was ordered in three variants. Only two were delivered as ordered. This type of suffering builds character.

At the end of the meal the check was presented. D’Emidio and Stramaglio had earlier agreed to split the check 50/50. (By the way gentlemen, thank you). D’Emidio made some wisecrack about the acceptance of Canadian currency. He was shot down without humor. The server grabbed the two credit cards and left. She returned a short time later and presented each of them with their half. D’Emidio looked to his right to find Stramaglio calculating the top on his $169.00 half. D’Emidio looked down at his half having to calculate the tip on this $203.00 half. Perhaps it had to do with the Canadian currency exchange rate!? Much laughter ensued.

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We walked back toward the hotel but were captured by the party dancing in the courtyard. Several of the hardcore basketball fans retired to the adjoining bar to have an after dinner drink while watching the Warriors vs Thunder. All were asked for their order. Papa declined the offer. Slaw cracked… want a Shirley Temple?! Papa: “Yes, of course that is what I want.” 5 minutes later the world’s largest Shirley Temple, with cherries, was delivered… and photographed!

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We had a long hard day of riding and decided to retire early as we have two dealer visits in the morning, a Harley dealership visit, and then on to DC! We need to stop at the dealership to repair Paco’s asseurism and perhaps cure it forever. We also need to prepare for Hurricane Maureen. Another good reason to attend to Paco’s seating position. NOAA has tracked the storm’s path and it is expected to arrive DC late afternoon. There are a couple of other storm clouds arriving DC tomorrow… not to mention 900,000 of our motorcycle friends.

It was another big day for Patriots Pack but even better, it was a big day for the Gillian Fund!