Concours Owners Group National 1999

Devils Head Resort and Merry Mac's Campground served as the Headquarters for the 99 National in Merrimac, Wisconsin.  After at short but worthy diversion over US 250 from Morgantown to Wheeling, West Virginia (an absolute MUST on a bike), we settled in for the night near Richmond, Indiana.   We arrived on Sunday July 25, after a short ferry ride with other Coggers to the kind of weather we had left back in Baltimore; stinking hot and blindingly humid.  We set up camp at Merry Mac's in the area they had set aside for us; thoughtfully, right next to active railroad tracks.

Sunday evening brought us thundershowers of amazing proportions.  They came with that low growling wind that can scare the Hell out of you if you're from the Midwest.   Monday morning, after a mediocre $16 breakfast at the lodge (ouch), Rick teed up in the COG 99 National Golf Championship in a light drizzle.  Playing with Caryl Reaver and Paul N's group, Rick blistered the first few holes. The weather broke later that morning to near perfect conditions.  Rick won the Championship with a gross 91, net 70, 3-under; go Rick!

At this point, the Connies were starting to accumulate;  to the point where the 97's segregated themselves out, just to be different.  Checked in to the rally, and finally met Steve Pronto, Rallymeister (is it just us, or does Steve bear a strong resemblance to Rick Riccolo, Pete on "2 Guys, a Girl..." on ABC?).  Saw Russell, Martha, John and Guy arriving as we pulled off the Resort's lot (small world).  After a brief lunch, Rick headed out on the "Desoto Loop" run, trying to get back to the site in time to cook dinner.  Here are some pics from the Desoto Loop.

Tuesday, we arose to the sound of the Track Day participants roaring out of camp, real early.  Rick got out shortly after the racers to do the "LaCrosse Loop" and be back in time to do Taliesin, the home of Frank Lloyd Wright.  As Rick was out early, and the route had pre-planned lunch stopovers, Benny hopped over to Minnesota because we've never been there before.   Below are pics from the "LaCrosse Loop".

After returning, we jumped into the Urban Assault Vehicle and headed towards Taliesin.    Guess who's pulling off the lot... Russell, Martha, John and Guy; now this is getting weird.  Everywhere we go, Connies; you'd think there was a rally somewhere.   It turns out, we had missed the last tour of the day by 5 minutes.  Jean nominated "Natural Bridge State Park" as a replacement stopover; there was a Connie here too...they're everywhere, worse than roaches.  After a mosquito infested hike to the bridge, we opted for dinner at "The Schoolhouse" Restaurant near the Resort.  Take a wild guess who was leaving as we got there....Correct, only Guy had stopped for a 6 of his favorite beverage after dinner.  Rick got to play Donkey Kong, Jr for the first time in ten years or so.  Interesting place, good food too. That evening, Neville unloaded his Connie in the dark; not an exercise to be taken by the inexperienced.

Wednesday, Banquet Day.  Yippee!  Jean and Rick elected to do the "Argyle Route" after breakfast.  One-third into the ride and the sky is turning really ugly.  Now we're not real worried because the raingear is in Benny.   However, our site was left "wide open" so back to camp we go, racing the rain drops the whole way.  We close up camp as the thunder is growling in the distance, and son-of-a-gun, the rain bypasses us to the south; go figure.  Lunch time took us to Baraboo where "butter burgers" became the sustinence of choice.   Quick lap around the Lake and onto the Resort to see what kind of trouble was available. 

There were Connies everywhere, of all shapes and sizes (that's just an expression) with every possible modification you could think of; we think we saw an expresso maker on one of the custom jobs.  Benny slid into a spot between a 95 and a silver dammit 86.  The hotel had set aside a special area to wash our bikes, but he figured all the dead bugs (ala the Horkster) gave Benny some character as the only real mods Benny's sporting are generic footpegs.

Paul served as the main photographer for the group shots; Rick acted as the assistant.   They found a nice hill just off the 10th fairway (it'd take a serious hook to get there) for the group shot.   Steve tracked down a silver dammit and a Barney bike for the shot.  Here are two shots that seem to come out the best (group2; group3).  As you can tell there were a ton of Coggers at the rally.  Paul counted 130 Concs at banquet time.   Misstress Louise's merchandise moved very well.  By dinner all that was left were some patches and a pair of tubesocks.  Ted Simon was our guest speaker.  He overcame all types of obstacles to go around the world on a Triumph in the early 70's, but was almost overrun by the technology of the 90's.   Between the frizzy wireless mics and the finicky slide projector; it was a wonder he survived. 

Fourteen additional Security Squad members were recruited; as it was put "What does it take to get into the Squad?"  "2 and a quarter."   "US only, please."

Jean had never seen three of the Great Lakes before, so our return route was planned to take us along Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron.  As we stayed on the US side, we got to do the Mighty Mac.  The Upper Peninsula portion was well worth the effort.  

All in all, a fun trip.  We can't wait to go back and do the Superior Circle Route; figure on a week to do it right.  Thanx COG, you done good!  We're already looking forward to next year.

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