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Saturday, April 23, 2016

East Meets West Up North

This meet up has been a few years in the works.

By now most of you that read this blog have seen on the Adventures of ScooterBob's blog that Troubadour and I met up with ToadMama and her husband Mike while they are on the west coast visiting family.

We attempted this adventure previously, but a freak Oregon snow storm kept us from heading north.

Luckily, the stars were aligned and our spring unseasonably warm this year.  I took yesterday off work and we left the house about 9:30 am heading north to Centralia, Washington to meet at the McMennamins Olympic Club.  It is a 3-hour drive up I-5 from our house providing traffic through Portland isn't too obnoxious, and a 2-hour drive from where ToadMama was staying.  Not only was it fairly centrally located but the Pub menu online looked quite varied as well. View menu HERE.

Traffic slowed down to a stop near Wilsonville south of Portland.  Luckily the map/gps app on Troubadour's phone let us know that due to the traffic slow-down on I-5, we'd be better off taking the  I-205 around Portland.  Good choice.

We arrived without incident and within minutes the four of us were seated in a booth perusing the menus and chatting like old friends.  

(Trobairitz-Troubadour-ToadMama with ScooterBob)
(Thank you Mike for taking the picture)
We were stunned when ToadMama brought forth ScooterBob. While I knew Robert had sent it on to the next participant, I had no idea it was going to ToadMama, or that she'd bring it all the way from Virginia.  

Alas, I forgot my camera.  What kind of blogger heads to a meet-up and forgets their camera? Um, unfortunately, I do.  My new cell phone is new enough to me that I am not comfortable with the camera yet so ToadMama graciously said I could pilfer her photos for this post and even emailed them to me.  You rock!

(Trobairitz-Troubadour - ScooterBob hanging out with veggie burgers and fish tacos - and beer)
(Photo by ToadMama)
We had a terrific time getting to know ToadMama and Mike and hope to visit with them again soon.  While I don't always post as often as I'd like to or should, I am continually grateful to this blog and the blogs of others.  Without them I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, and good people just make the world a better place.

(ToadMama and Mike)
Thank you Kathy and Mike for making the trip to Centralia to meet-up and have lunch and also for the cool Virginia is for Lovers swag. Look for those to show up in a riding post later this summer.

- Au Revoir

"When you meet someone for the first time, that's not the whole book. That's just the first page." - Brody Armstrong (Australian musician)
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29 comments:

  1. It's always a good time when you finally get to meet fellow moto-bloggers.

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    1. Yes, yes it is. I only wished we travelled a bit more so we could meet even more moto-bloggers. We do a pretty good job of meting any that come near Oregon though.

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  2. I had heard rumors of this upcoming meet up! And meeting other motto-bloggers has been one of the best outcomes of blogging. Something that I had never expected.

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    1. I agree, one of the best outcomes of blogging and unexpected.

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  3. So much fun to meet a fellow blogger (I know, because I met you!!). Love the photos and love your new hairdo!

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    1. It was fun meeting up. Any plans to come back to Oregon to do another half marathon?

      I chuckled, my new hairdo is 15 months old. I chopped it all off last January, just haven't posted many pictures of it. Kathy thought it was new too.

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    2. Going to Seattle and to Vancouver this year, but I see that Corvallis has a half marathon in April...maybe I need to come out there next year and do it!

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    3. That would be awesome. We'd love to have you in Corvallis!

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  4. Too cool! Thanks for sharing your meet-up, including the photos that ToadMama shared with you.

    Phew... It's good that someone remembered a camera. ;-)

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    1. You are welcome. Yes it is good she remembered her camera. I didn't realize I'd forgotten until we were almost there.

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  5. Replies
    1. All smiles, until we hit Portland traffic coming home. Then some bad words were said. We might have been smiling while saying them though.

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  6. It's always nice to meet other bloggers and chat. Motorcycles brings people together from all sorts of back grounds and you can talk for hours as complete strangers. Brilliant.

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    1. Usually when it comes to meeting other moto-bloggers we find motorcycles aren't the only thing we have in common. Funny how it works that way. And we never have quite enough time to chat, it goes by too quick.

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  7. Replies
    1. Yes. My boss kept either group texting me or trying to send a photo to my dumb phone and it completely screwed it up. I was having to take the battery out every day to get it to work so I finally caved and bought a refurbished iPhone 4s about 2 weeks ago. Same as what Brad purchased a few months ago. It is nice to have a working cell phone again.

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    2. Let's see. New haircut… New phone… It must be time for a new bike!

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    3. But I've had this haircut for over a year....... we are still looking at bikes and perusing Craigslist and debating. I have a hard time letting go of the money when the Gladius is already paid for.

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  8. Thanks to both parties for making the effort. Meeting likeminded people is the spice of life. Glad you're all bloggers, otherwise you guys, we, Bob and oh so many others would have never met...

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    1. I agree, blogging makes the world a little smaller. It really brings like-minded people closer together.

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  9. Just now reading this while relaxing on MY sofa with my dog. 😄

    I'm so glad we were finally able to meet up. You've had that do for 15 months!?! Jeez. I still think it looks great, even if it isn't new.

    You picked a great spot. Hopefully we will meet again in person one day. You rock!

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    1. I bet your puppy dogs are so happy to have you two home. I am sure you missed them too.

      Yes I cut my hair last January (2015) I haven't posted many pics of it as I am still not really sure I like it compared to my long hair, but it is so easy to take care of now it will be hard if I ever decide to grow it out again.

      And we do need to meet up again. I am sure we will at some point!!

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  10. These meet ups are the essence of Bob's spirit. He was passionate about meeting fellow bloggers. His passion carries on with the Scooterbob experiment. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this get together.

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    1. I agree David. He was such a social person he would be happy to know how he keeps bringing folks together.

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  11. Yep, meeting fellow riders who blog is one of the bigger bennies of this kind of avocation.

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  12. The ScooterBob idea is so cool! :-)

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