We woke to another mild morning, not raining yet but we knew from yesterday that rain was likely to build during the day and it wasn't worth ignoring the severe weather warnings that were issued. We took our time over breakfast planning to arrive at Maryborough for the gathering of Harleys participating in the Thunder Run which would take us from Maryborough to Talbot, a right turn and through to Avoca.
With most of the bikes ready to go it was time for a big group photo and a presentation of monies raised during the event to the CFA, who also had a fire truck there ready to lead the thunder run off through the town. Soon it was time to go, not sure how many bikes were it it, I'd say 200 or so, but grouped together, all starting up making noise wasn't an issue!
We left the area the Rally was held in and rode down the main street of Maryborough cleanly thanks to some unofficial traffic control. People had come out for a look, lots of waving and cheering going on but we were soon out of the town and enjoying a big group ride through the country. We were in the middle of the group and for most of it there were Harley's as far as you could see forwards and backwards. Great Fun!
All too soon we arrived at Avoca and everyone stopped for a chat. Cuz Clay, Zanderhar and I weren't in the mood for a chat in the middle of a little town so we opted to leave for the Annual Yabby Festival at Talbot. We managed to arrive, have one beer, sample a Yabby Skewer and the rain started for the day, right on cue.
We went back to our digs for a little while and decided to head for Maryborough to look for a cafe to settle in to for the afternoon. Frankly we'd had a bit of a gutful of the weather and the thunderstorms were serious by that stage. We ended up in a massive, historic railway station at Maryborough with quite a very good cafe in it. Two courses, some coffee and two + hours later we left ready to go grocery shopping for some in house dining tonight on red chicken curry and ice creams. The rally was over for us, there was no sign of the weather clearing and we needed to dry out and pack ready for the 1100+ kilometre trip back home tomorrow. On the way back to the cottage we filled the bikes with fuel to save us some time in the morning.
After our near miss with the hail yesterday we were examining shelter options for the Harleys. While it would have been possible to get them inside the cottage thanks to some nice double french doors, we opted to build a small ramp up to the verandah, move some garden ornaments and rode the Harley's under cover. The side benefit was that if it was still raining in the morning we could pack the bikes under shelter and stay dry.
Clay decided some beer was in order and took on the weather on his bike wearing shorts and a singlet, he remarked that the locals didn't blink. We had a couple of beers, some gin and red wine and Clay cooked up a feast of curry that we devoured toute suite. We then had a crack at watching Transformers on DVD but none of us made it to the end, we had to be up just after 5am to get ready to leave for home tomorrow, 1100+ ks away.
