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From 19-22 Jul 07 over 30 sidecar rigs, motorcycles and their owners converged on a 60 acre field at a private farm just north of Peterborough, Ontario for the inaugUral CURD Rally. It was the first event of its kind in Canada and it was a smashing success! This is an eyewitness report of the rally as told by the CURD Head Cheese/Rally Master. | |||||
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Thursday 19 Jul It was a dismal start to the rally. Fellow CURDite and Ural enthusiast Cam Kenny met Angie (Official Consort/Snuglebuny to the Head Cheese), Hector The Wonder Dog and I in Kingston on a very rainy morning and, after the usual UDF sessions (jeez, even in the pouring rain they'll pester you with questions) we headed out on the 4hr journey to the rally site. I led the convoy on my '05 Tourist, Cam followed on his '05 Patrol while Angie and Hector motored along at the tail end in the comfort of her car. It rained hard for most of the trip, but gradually tapered off so that by the time we arrived at Ural Canada for a quick visit, the sun was shining and the roads were dry. We had a chat with the friendly staff there and headed on to the rally site, riding right smack into a vicious microburst just up the road. The wind and rain were so intense I had to pull over into a gas station and take refuge for a few minutes because I couldn't see the road in front. My eyes were red from the impact of all the raindrops and I was thoroughly soaked from head to toe... but for some strange reason I was still in a good mood. Must have been "acid rain", man, 'cause I was trippin'. The rain finally let up and the sun shone through once again, so we carried on to the rally site. We arrived without further incident and spent the better part of an hour just roaming about the huge field on our Urals (with a brief stop to investigate the Luxury Class Porta-Potties), like the couple of wayward Russian iron horses we were. Gerry (the owner of the field and CEO of Ural Canada - now you know how we managed to score such a prime location for the rally) and Mike from Ural Canada showed up and we walked about the site discussing the layout and planning the setup for the next day. Angie's Mom had graciously offered us a home cooked meal and her spare rooms to sleep in, so once we had a game plan in place we headed out to see her. The weather forecast was looking good for the remainder of the weekend, so we were confident we'd have a good turnout and went to bed early so as to be well rested for the setup tasks the next morning. | |||||
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Friday 20 Jul The day dawned bright and sunny and after a great brekkie courtesy of Angie's Mom, we went back to the rally site. My Ural was put to use as an outdoor laundry dryer as my riding gear was still damp from all the rain we rode through. Gerry met us with his tractor, towing the 35ft flatbed trailer that was to become the stage for the weekend's events. We set up the dining area canopies while Gerry mowed the grass and set up the bonfire pit. We took a "break" to get our tents set up, then went back to the campsite setup. We were almost finished when we heard an oddly familiar clattering sound coming down the road and looked over to the gate in time to see our first guests arrive; John Brons and his lovely wife on their Dnepr MT10/750 flathead hybrid. Shortly afterwards, Mike Baker from Belleville, Ontario, arrived on his beautiful BMW R75 sidecar rig. The rest of the afternoon was spent tending to the final site details and registering the trickle of riders who showed up ready to camp and party. By the time the sun went down we had a group of about 10 people gathered around the bonfire and we talked, laughed and drank beer well into the night. | |||||
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Saturday, 21 Jul <--- (click to view the next page) | |||||
