MMA State Rally 07

MMA (Modified Motorcycle Association) State Rally
May 25-28, 2007

A Report from the 'Webwench' with Pics from 'Snake Bite' & 'Teekay'

Memorial Day weekend finally arrives and we are jazzed for a 3-day weekend! Time to get away from the stress of work and the big city and head north for our 1^st summer camping trip at the MMA State Rally in Heber/Overgaard. We arrive just before dark on Friday and set up camp before we run out of daylight. The weather is brisk with not a bit of wind.… just awesome!

By 7pm the band, Brotherhood of Blues, starts to play and the sounds of the Blues drifts through the campgrounds. The music sounded so good you couldn’t help but want to go down to the event to get closer to the band. We were so impressed. Bless their hearts for being on stage until 11pm and freezing their butts off. A few of the band members resembled Eskimos all wrapped up for winter. Guess it was obvious who all the flatlanders were when the temps dropped. But we know from experience the first night is always the coldest and by day two you acclimate a bit and it don’t feel quite as cold…. or maybe it’s the higher volume of alcohol in your blood by the 2^nd day. Soon it was time to head back to camp and get some rest for day 2 of activities.

Saturday morning started out with a great breakfast buffet offered by ‘The Cabin’ for $7.50. It was an 'all you can eat' buffet with bacon, sausage, french toast, potatoes, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and a mountain of fresh fruit that just hit the spot. After breakfast many were out signing up for the morning poker run that would take them to Snowflake and a few other surrounding towns. A total of 40 people signed up. Teekay and Suzy were signed up and ready to head out. Teekay said there was a good 40-mile flat piece of road where some folks stated they blew out the cobwebs at around 110mph. Teekay was tempted but with the ole lady on the back he knew he shouldn’t go there.

As the afternoon neared, the poker run was coming in and it was now time for the afternoon activities. First on the list was the bike show, which was included with your entry as were all the activities. About 30 bikes in all entered and some were really quite nice. All the winners in each class were beaming as they received their plaques. One of our camp buddies, Eddie, won with his metric cruiser and you would have thought he won the lottery. Now he really had something to use to impress the elusive ‘Heber Beaver’. Eddie ended up with the new name after this event. He is now fondly known as ‘Camp Tramp’!

Later in the afternoon after the bike show it was time for an auction and the tattoo contest. I was out there chompin' at the bit to get involved in the auction. There just happened to be a really special stuffed rattlesnake that would have ended the world if I didn’t get it. After some haggling with one other person I won… it was one of the highlights of my weekend. Just what I need, more snakes!

With the days festivities over it was time to go to camp and cook up some grub. You could smell all the grills going throughout the campground. After a good meal most of us stayed around camp. You could hear the band really good and it was cool to hear some relaxing ‘Blues' at the campsite. We came with a group of 7 and what fun we had sitting around swapping stories. We shared stories of the road, our childhoods, scary stories, embarrassing moments and any other pub wisdom that happened to pop into our brains. Needless to say it was a weekend of ‘laugh til ya cry’. But you know they say laughter makes you live longer.

Sunday morning arrives and many of us woke up late…including me. Must have been because we were lucky enough to have our tents in the morning shade. The morning sun hitting your tent will run you out of it quick with the heat. When we’re camping we really have no concept of time. We were brewing camp coffee when all of sudden we were all surprised by the sound of gun shots, they actually about sent ‘Camp Tramp’ into orbit (a round of great laughter). He was OK after we told him it was the color guard doing a salute for Memorial Day. Also that morning was a service given by Pastor Cliff of the CMA.

Immediately following morning services, bike games were scheduled. By this time many campers had left and many more were in the process of packing up. There were very few entries because of this. What a shame, the bike games are always great entertainment for the crowd. Perhaps next year they will move the games to Saturday with all the other festivities. By 3pm the campground was very quiet and as night fell there were only 10 small groups of campers left. As you looked around you could see a small little campfire in every camp as folks did the same as we did… enjoying the last night of a truly fun filled weekend.

This year’s rally was great! Attendance at this year’s event was 310 people. MMA and their volunteers, as always, did a bang up job of putting this event together. Out of all the state rallies this was the year with absolutely perfect weather. No rain, no 60 mph wind, no dirt storms and no cicadas, what more can you ask for!