Minneapolis, Motorcycles, and Mucho Fun

I know the weekend isn’t over yet, but it’s been so wonderful that I had to go ahead and talk about it now! We still have a Super Bowl party to go to, but that’s nothing compared to the fun I had yesterday.

We and 40 other crazy motorcycle riders boarded the bus to Minneapolis Motorcycle Show at 6:00 in the morning. It was so cold there was ice on the inside of the windows, but we were warm. Especially since I brought a blanket, which someone offered me $20 bucks for. Hahaha. No, my blankie.

After 2 stops and 6 ½ hours we were standing in the Convention Center, eating a corn dog and waiting to meet Newt of Newt’s Muse. I was so excited, and a little nervous, too, I’ll admit. I knew she was going to be as wonderful as her blog, but I hoped I wasn’t a disappointment. I really have to work on that confidence thing. Anyway, I knew her immediately.

You know how some people get all worked up about communicating online and how dangerous it can be because you never know if the person you’ll meet is like the person you read? Well, some people to need to chill out. Newt is exactly like her blog: beautiful, funny, colorful, warm, and full of love and energy.

And she is such a good sport. There aren’t many people who would come down to a motorcycle show in 2-degree weather to meet someone she’s only talked to through comments and emails. A show that was overwhelmingly overstimulating, to boot, with it’s blazing lights, shiny chrome, ear-piercing music, and the deafening roar of 3 motorcycles riding around in a giant round gerbil cage and just next door to that, others jumping off a ramp to do stunts in the air. Lordy! It was exhausting. But we followed Al around and talked about different things, when we could hear each other over the din, and watched Al sit a on a few bikes, trying on boots and helmets—he had such a good time. And the leather! There was lots of leather. Al found a leather thong for me, but I nixed that idea. I would wear the tank top with the flames on it, but a leather thong? That’s just not right.

After walking the whole show, we finally found tables and chairs, so Newt and I sat and chatted while Al went around again. Did I mention he had a good time? And he was having a terrible allergy attack, so it must have been fun; otherwise he wouldn’t have gone around again.

Did I mention that Newt is wonderful? And what a good time I had? And how cool it was to go up to a place I’ve never been, meet someone new, and just feel so good that your instinct were right on this time. I’m the kind of person who makes plans for things, then dreads it and stresses out, hoping I don’t end up saying or doing something really stupid, then when I get back, going over the whole event, trying to decide if I was OK. Did I babble to much? Was I boring? I’ll tell ya, with all those colors and lights of the show, and all the leather, and Newt’s natural bubbliness, I was feeling pretty plain vanilla. But I know that’s just me, so I didn’t let it bother me. Too much.

But I wasn’t stressed about this trip and I wasn’t dreading it; I was excited about it. And it turned out great. And I told her she should come down to Omaha, it’s an easy drive. And my hubby did the sweetest thing, he said, “Yeah, y’all come down any time. You’re welcome any time.” I just gave him a big hug before we got back on the bus because he’s usually so quite and reserve and doesn’t “warm up” very quickly. And he has no idea whose blogs I read because he doesn’t read any of them. Even mine!

So, all too soon it was time to head home. The bus was warm and movies were on. We watched Long Way Round, which is Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman’s trip around the world on BMW motorcycles. That’s a great documentary, by the way. They had some amazing adventures.

We’re back home, being heathens and sleeping in late, drinking coffee, and Al is blowing his nose, poor dear, because he’s still having allergy problems. And we’re talking about going back to Minnesota because we’d really like to see more of it from the outside of a bus. And there are a lot of bookstores, coffee shops, and yarn shops in Minneapolis/St. Paul. There's still a lot of fun to be had.

Oh, BTW. Have ya noticed that the steroids have kicked in? Yeah. Little hyper :-)