After a quick dry off, a quick change and a small break in the weather we were back on the Harley's heading to Marborough (wet weather gear on). Astoundingly on the way in we rode through an area where large hail stones were piled up on the sides of the roads and the trees had been hit so hard small branches and leaves littered the roadway. We were very grateful we hadn't been caught in that!
Back at the rally the rain had eased a little and there were plenty of people about, it seems that there weren't too many takers for the organised ride that afternoon, people opting to keep the seats at the bar warm and attend a couple of seminars.
The seminars were presented by the dealership, one on customising Harleys and the other one on general maintenance. Not being very mechanically inclinded I found them both interesting. I also won a lucky door prize of a kilo of washing powder..... I hope it wasn't a hint!
There was also a "show and shine" where people polished their harleys up to be judged. Some very fine examples of customised paint, bits and pieces and bikes were there to see. At the end of the judging one of the contestants parked their spotless, pristine black roadking next to my filthy, bug encrusted, once white, Road King and I made a comment about feeling bad about the state of it in the proximity of such a fine, clean bike. That was met with some strange criticism about the choice of white as a colour that shows dirt....eh? Oh well... I had to let fly with a retort that dirt won't show on a bike that's not ridden....oooops.
We then went into the bar area and socialised a little. While there I confirmed with the local taxi service that it was possible to get transport between Maryborough and Talbot that evening and with that sorted we rode back to Talbot. Ironically there was a break in the rain so we opted not to wet weather gear up... we got rained on again.
Dried off, the taxi arrived and we returned to the Rally. The food was good, there was plenty to see and no shortage of things to drink. The band had been set up on the oval with a large temporary dance floor in front but sadly the weather kept most of the crowd in the grandstand until the alchohol levels increased sufficiently for a bunch of revellers not to care so much about getting wet while they danced.
There were some speeches and presentations, more drinks, more dancing, more food put on by the local rotary club and about 11pm it was time to call the taxi and head back to our accommodation for the night to get ready for tomorrow's Thunder Run.
