White caps on Lake Topaz. Trees bending in the wind. The sky shortly turned black, and there were a few large rain drops. The storm only lasted a few minutes, and it was a perfect evening after that. This will be the last set of pictures for the rally. A HUGE thanks to Don (VSP) for all the work he does in promoting and helping with the rally. He's THE man! And to Nitelite, Linday, Laura, and Brian (not here this year) for all the good door prizes and the presentation. For Jazzhound's brat cook out, and to all those that helped Don in any way. It was another great VROC rally! Tomorrow I'll be posting a new blog site for the trip to the Aztec Rally

W

Jim, Cat, and Jazzhound

The "goodie table" is full, and Linda and Laura are busy selling last minute tickets. Getting close to time for the drawings. Howard and his family have done this for every one of the rallies, and they have it down so it all goes smoothly.

Don did his usual fine job of planning and promoting the HSVROC rally for the NORCAL group and visitors. He's sitting here with KC and Mike.

Jerry (Slammer) with a mouth full of Brat, and Jazzhound cooking more. That's TC in the background.

Cranky, always looks so sofisticated!

Jazzhound donated and cooked Brats, with all the trimming for anyone that wanted them. Big, fat, and dripping with flavor!

Tiny, VSP, and Josh. Don really isn't all that short, the other guys are just BIG!

There were donations from businesses, other VROC'ers, and ROK. As always, Howard, Linda, and Laura did a fine job of collecting and running the drawing. Cranky won the 50/50, the rest went to Breast Cancer Research. It was a small group, but they took in around $500 today selling tickets. Here we have Mike, Skid, Howard (Nitelite), Cat, Jim, Linda, Dave, and Laura.

Josh and NV Rabbi are the only ones I know at this table, but they are VROC members. Sorry I didn't get acquainted, but I think they had been out riding most of the time.

Don (VSP), KC, Duke, Tiny and Carl

Nitelite is putting batteries in Sandy's new flashlight. Cat and Jim watch.

Sunrise on the 21 of June, 2008. The longest day of the year! From now on, winter will be knocking at our door :-(. The large, longer, sort of yellow building is the unit of the Lodge where most of the VROC people are. This picture was taken by Josh, one of our newest VROC riders!

Saturday morning rides. This group is heading out for some passes, and to ride the "giggle road".

Pennmaker from Washington, and Josh from the Nor Cal Coast pose at Sagehen Summit.

Lake in the High Sierra's. Storm clouds are building. We had VERY strong winds, and a few rain drops at the Lodge around 4 PM. It lasted about an hour and moved on. It's warm and nice again now.

I remember Skid's post of last week that said "Friends don't let friends blog naked". I can assure you, he has his pants on!

Two little squirrels in the Motel lawn.

Skid burned out a headlight bulb, so yesterday he picked up a pair of them. I help with one, then left him on his own. Having neglected to tell him some sort of important information, the 2 minute job took a little longer. I was up in the room blogging. He was in the hot sun..But, from now on, he'll always remember "the flat spot is UP"

Slots, Slammer, Skid, and Carl are out enjoying some early morning sun.

Linda (Mrs. Nitelite) is busy selling tickets for the raffle/split the pot drawing that will be held tonight. Tickets are for door prizes as well as a 50/50 drawing of all the cash the comes in. Half to a lucky winner, half to the cancer foundation.

Sandy snapping some scenery

Lichens on rocks are everywhere. There is a lot of color in these Alpine Meadows near the top of the Pass.

Almost to the top of Moniter Pass. We stopped for pictures, and to enjoy the cooler weather of the high elevation.

The town of Genoa is interesting. There was some re-enactment going on in the museum, with cannons blasting, etc. It was pretty hot, so we decided to stop in see the oldest Bar in Nevada again. What a treat!

It's about 90 degrees, but Sandy is still wearing her full protection. She's taking a break in the shade before heading on in to the bar. She and Skid had Sasparilla, but since they don't make it in "diet", I had to have a coke.

The back mirror came around the horn from Scottland in 1840, and then by covered wagon over the mountains from San Francisco. Mark Twain was a regular customer here, and Presidents Ulysses Grant and Teddy Roosevelt also stopped in for a few drinks. Every Govenor of Nevada has been in here for a drink, as well as many famous actors, politians and buisnesmen..The list is a mile long. The mirrow was made using diamond dust in the backing, and is still in good condition. If you Google "Genoa Bar" you'll get a lot of info about this place

There are lots of interesting things on the walls

In the past, there were a lot of bra's that ladies had donated to decorate the walls. When Raquel Welch visited, she was asked to leave her's. She agreed, but said if she left hers, all the others would have to come down. So....they were all taken down and put into the safe where they all still are. Raquel's was black with a leopard pattern, now it's all covered with dust and cob webs, and hangs from these antlers.

This safe contains all the bras that were hanging on the walls before Raquel Welch left hers. They say you can look inside, but if you do, you're required to donate some undies to add to those already in the safe.

This lady was tending bar. She knew a lot about the history of the place. There is a Poker Run happening today for bikes and cars, this is a check point. They are expecting a big crowd, but we were the only ones there at the time. When we were ready to leave, the people were flocking in.

Last picture of the old Bar. I could do a whole blog of just the details of this building, it's history and contents. But this was enough. Here's a page for more info on the town. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/genoa.html

After returning to the room, we checked our mail, and I went out to start the bike packing for the trip tomorrow.. Found this sign. I'm not POSITIVE who did it, but there is a nice back Harley Bagger in the lot, California plate...and I think it belongs to someone with the initials T.P. This would be my first guess.

Sherm and Sandy in front of the General Store at the Topaz Lodge. Skid took the photo. We were on our way to spend our "free" money you get when you check into a room, and use our dinner coupons too. It was a good day, fun ride!

Jest, Laura, Linda, and Nitelite. Dinner overlooking Topaz Lake.

Josh from Gualla, CA, is the only one camping so far. He took this picture from the County Campground at Sunrise on Friday. This is about a mile from the Lodge.

Early Friday morning. Everyone is making their plans for the day. A couple of rides, some will go on their own, and sight seeing in the area. This is something you don't see often...That bike does clean up well . We had 10 people on our little 158 mile ride of perfect roads, great food and snacks, and fine people to share it with!

Phil and Cranky getting ready to "chow down" in Heidi's. Turned out to be one of the best places!

Carl, Ed, and Dave. Having a little warm up snack before lunch!

Skid had the Country Toast for breakfast. It was French toast, covered with sliced of country ham, then cheese on top of that, and covered with sausage gravy...He said it was wonderful!

Josh and KC Getting ready to enjoy their lite breakfasts.

OK, I think that's all 10 of us that were on this ride today. Skid and Sandy and some good chow!

We didn't realize we had climber this much. It was a very good road, nice surface, lots of sharp curves and long sweepers. This was the 2nd of the 3 passes we went over on the ride today. Guess that's why Don calls this the High Sierra VROC Rally.

The Pass is almost 9000 feet on the road, so the tops of these little hills are really getting up there.

Sandy is getting some counseling from the old story teller, Mark Twain.

There was a Rune Rally going on in Reno. 12 Rune's were here in Virgina City. There sure were some beautiful bikes! Nice people too. A couple of them came over to look at KC's Black and Red Mean Streak..it's very pretty bike too.

It was hard finding parking places in Virginia City. There were Harley's everywhere, a HOG event was going on somewhere close.

This place had a large BBQ pit outside, but it was too early in the day for it to be fired up. Must be good, there were a lot of people going in to eat. Probably the owners bike.

Entry way to one of the old stores in Virginia City.

Cranky, Skid, Sandy, KC, Josh, Carl, and Ed. Yes, we went inside and had WONDERFUL Ice Cream cones. The Sugar Free Butter Pecan was almost as good as the real thing!

One of several full candy cases inside the Ice Cream Store.