Twine Ball Run

Ok so last Summer I had the idea of all the members of Chopcult.com meeting in the middle of the the country and just having a good time. After being rejected by most of the proposed towns in the middle state Kansas the ever persistent Bulldog found some folks in Osborne, Kansas and somehow,
for some reason they decided to let us do our thing in the middle of a dirt track! perfect. I didn't know at the time but i guess it divided the tiny town. some of the local business owners and local bike enthusiasts along with people just looking for something new to do were all for it while others where very against a bunch of raggety dirty rowdy bikers coming into their sleepy town. i suppose they were expecting us to rape pillage a plunder. but alas all was well as hard as they tried the Osborne constables couldn't find any infraction large or small to haul any of the chop cult brothern away for. Cade and I left that Wednesday morning right after he got off graveyard shift and rode all the way into Laramie that night we hit rain so instead of a tent we opted for the cozy cabins at the KOA.


Thursday We woke up to a chilly but promising morning not a cloud in sight and we decided to get some miles tacked on and ride into Cheyenne before breakfast where for some reason we had the hardest damn time getting to the Village Inn in which i got my bike high centered trying to hop through parking lots. on arrive at Village Inn we were trying to put down the calories and caffeine when the couple behind us got into an arrangement which quickly escalated into a full on domestic depute which ended with the woman hitting the man and leaving him right then and there. From what we could gather they were also traveling haha wow. cade has video if anyones interested. we got into Nebraska and just kept riding we did see a very entertaining transient if he wasn't so large and didn't have a dog and my bike wasn't so small and loaded down i totally would have gave him a ride. One thing i did notice about Nebraska is every town has some random crazy museum and a Sapp Bros. cafe. trying to pull in motorists i suppose.
That night we got into Hastings NE which we decided was a rad little town we mobbed around it a bit and camped at a sketchy campground which was evidently at one point a KOA but they had there franchise revoked. awesome. but right next to it was a corn field full of lightning bugs and i seriously just watched them for most of the night partially because i had never seen them and partially because i couldn't stand the humidity. I got up real early the next morning because if the excitement and the humidity and watched the sunrise cade wouldn't get up so i just threw rocks at his tent for awhile.


Before leaving Hastings we ate at this place i spotted the night before it was called the OK Cafe. It was neat, tons of antiques all over the place and such i had a Belgium waffle that tasted like a friggn ice cream cone it was stellar. across the room we overheard yet another argument between a couple this time it was with an old man talking rather loud and a woman who must have had throat cancer because she had to use one of those electronic buzz box things you hold to your neck to speak and from what i could tell it was all over three dollars. everyone in the joint was trying to suppress laughs..i felt bad.

On the way out of town we were on mainstreet, Cade almost hit a baby duck and we had an easy rider moment when get not shit got stuck in the middle of a parade haha no jail or jack nicholson though. after that it was just cool back highways through Kansas.
tons of old barns and windmills and weather veins just like you'd expect. what i didn't expect is the brick paved streets.

Around noon we rolled into Osborne it was the strangest feeling that we were really there and this thing we've just been talking about was really going to happen. We found the fair grounds and i was honestly thinking we'd be late but turns out when we got there only the Great Mr. Bulldog was present. Cade and i set up camp and we waited and waited and waited at five o'clock not another soul. I was getting very worried that we were the only dipshits dumb enough to ride into the the middle of nowhere for a dusty field then at about six fifteen we heard thunder in the distance, but it was steady constant and it was growing louder and louder and louder which was very appropriate because it was the Lords of Loud from Ponca city. when they showed up i was wondering what i had created they were a wild rowdy bunch thirsty for beer and chaos. later i found out they are probably the coolest guys on the planet then after that the bikes just kept rolling in. Bulldog tapped a keg and it began. it didn't take long for it to kick off the brew was flowing and so was the party. things were set aflame, wood, tires, human legs (you heard me) it was all a blast.
I was however begining to think the Biltwell fellas weren't going to show but this thought was interupted by Meat, a local man blasting around the dirt track in his old itasca Motorhome little did he know that the Itasca would become famous in all of chopperdom from that moment on saturday night with much pestering and persistence Pink hat Wes would finally convince meat to drive it around the track with about thirty drunk guys in it and four or five on top clinging to the luggage rack. later friday night the Biltwell Crew finally arrived and the party was started fueled by the keg the giant Biltwell Cooler full of more libations and Mcgoo's encouragement for fun and mayhem until sunrise.

Saturday morning we all pulled ourselves out of our sleeping bags/patches of grass/claim on the bleachers and invaded one of the few resturants in town. the locals didn't really know what to think.
after breakfast we all gathered for the ride that Bulldog had all figured out to Cawker city to see the actual twine ball and into Marquette kansas to a motorcycle museum and back to Osborne.













































We got about twenty miles into the ride and most of everyone decided to split back to base and go swimming at the city pool (it was kids day and they said the pool looked like a BP oil spill when all the grimey bikers were done with it) they later visited the twine ball without us.

While myself Cade, Bill Bryant from Biltwell, Panhead Joel (who looks just like Hugh Lorri),James "Zebco" from Denver. Jason Craze from eternal combustion and his wife Lori, Chris from trouble leather Bulldog and few others rode the loongggg asss ride to Marquette. this rad little town that revolves around motorcycles we ate lunch at a cool biker bar went through an amazing museum and then we were told there was a shop down the street full of old triumphs totally worth the ride. It was an honor to ride with all of those cats. after we got back the festivities began and all the locals who decided since we didn't burn it down stadium the first night they'd come check it out. tripling the number of attendance. we started of with the bike show and give aways sponsored by Biltwell and Eternal Combustion (those guys are so rad) all of this MC'd by yours truly and then more drinkin and debauchery commenced and a great time was had by all.














































































too many photos and stories but lets just say i'll never forget it.


So the next morning everyone got up pretty early after such a crazy night and we all said our goodbyes and parted ways. We were heading for Denver to meet up with Justin and Jess and that happened to be where Zebco was from and since he came up solo we invited him to ride with us. it was a pretty uneventful ride other than a baby dear jumped in front of meand i stopped two feet before hitting him. Zebco parted ways with us about 20 miles out of denver. Then a little later we met Jess and Justin downtown on they're bitchen 70's styled chop. We took them to dinner they took us to there awesome little place and we just hung out. They're good people i hope to one day return the favor. The next day we went to breakfast and Cade and I hit the road. the ride from Fort Collins to Laramie was a fricken fun great scenery. then to I_80...not so much. my dad told us to take a short cut which got me turned around confused and ended up taking much longer we ended up riding through logan canyon in the dark which sucks. especially riding a solid 12 hours. and boom we were home. 2500 miles or something. best week of my life.