While this was a convenient location for Waffl6 and pete1163, it was two-hour Ural ride from me.
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BORING PART ABOUT MY BIKE
SO, I set out to depart at 6am for our eight o'clock rendezvous, taking the 2001 Patrol 650 on it's first major excursion while in my ownership. To hedge my bets against calamity, I installed the trailer hitch on my truck and prepared my trailer, in case I needed to call the missus for a rescue. Of course, in doing this, I ensured that there would be no mechanical drama and there was not.
Leaving so early, the sun had not yet risen, so this would be my first night ride on the Patrol. Of course, when I fired the bike up, it had no headlight, running lights, or speedometer lights, so I shut 'er down, strapped an LED head-lamp to my forehead, and removed the bike's headlight. I took pliers and squeezed the electrical contacts on each of the wires connected to the ignition switch, which did the trick!
I've installed a CHT gauge and a tachometer on the Patrol, but I have not yet installed the illumination kit in the CHT gauge and I have not been able to get the tachometer light to work. The speedometer had the typical faint blue-green glow, through which I could see the needle "wave", but could not make out any speed reference numerals. Since this bike's speedometer is so wildly inaccurate, I installed a bicycle speedometer, which has a light on the display, but each time I depressed the button to check my speed, the damned thing switch to another screen showing my "rate" (?) and how many calories I've burned (
). SO, basically, I just had to guess how fast I was going until the sun came up.I've become spoiled by the GPS navigation I have on the Mobile Chernobyl. For this ride, I just looked at the route on Google Maps, memorized a road or two ahead, then at a traffic light or roadside stop, pulled out the smartphone to memorize the next two moves. It worked pretty well. I only missed one turn.
RESUME RIDE REPORT HERE
The roads in and out of Clifton, Virginia were great! Smooth asphalt snaking through hilly woods with gorgeous houses tucked here and there. The town is small and quaint, which made finding the event easy.
Upon arrival, I cruised through the gauntlet of two-wheelers on "main" street, scanning for another Ural, when I spotted pete1163 and his Green 2006 Patrol in a side lot, parked in front of a caboose. Shortly after my arrival, Waffl6 showed up.
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As always, the Urals were a hit. Plenty of fellow motorcyclists had to come over and check 'em out. To add a bit of flair to the display, I kept my Patrol parked on it's side, which amused the spectators.
Eventually, additional Uralista showed up, with a total of seven Urals making an appearance! (Only six at any one time, though)
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The event was great, with a nice variety of bikes to see. I wish I had taken more pictures of them. There seemed to me to be a disproportionate amount of Ducati bikes represented. One that caught my eye was an old bevel gear driven cam Duck with a window that allowed you to see the gears in action. I should've snapped a pic. It was way cool.
Shortly before this event, I became aware of another event I the local area that I decided to check out during the ride home. Fortunately, a few of the other Uralista were already planning to attend, so we had a little four-Ural convoy to the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles' 2019 Open House. It was better than I imagined!
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They had a considerable amount of armor from different countries and different eras, with volunteers in period uniforms. There were cavalry mounted on horses, there were firearms displays, there was a Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tank being worked on; it was great!
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More images in next post...
Back home and under construction.
Enjoy what comes ahead, every day is a gift. 
Phantom desease? Hopefully there is not something like a Tomcat desease 
