The Lake Chelan Rally

6 members of the Roving Gamblers met up at 10 am Friday morning June 17th to head out to the annual Lake Chelan Motorcycle Rally at Manson, Washington. The sun was out the the sky was blue as we headed west out of Spokane. We hadn't gone very far before we had to stop for Marsha Khalar to pick up the side panel that had blown off of her Goldwing trike. Fortunately it landed in grass and was not damaged and we were back on the road fairly soon.

We stopped for lunch at Coulee City and began to peel off layers of clothing before heading over the hill to Lake Chelan. By the time we arrived in Manson the temperature was up near 90 degrees and shade was also on our minds when we opted to go ahead and camp at the Wapato Lake Campground instead of staying at the free area at the rally which also did not offer any showers or electricity. The camp ground was peaceful and cool and the managers were biker friendly.

After we set up camp we all headed back to the rally grounds at the Mill Bay Casino in Manson. There was already a pretty big crowd and lots of vendors lining each side of the bike rodeo area.

Butch and Gil survey the crowd deciding which way to head first.

We wandered around the midway for a while and Butch spotted a nice candy apple red shorty helmet that he wanted, but we looked for about half an hour and couldnt find a small size so I could have a matching one so we figured we wouldn't buy one unless we could get both, but after wandering around a bit more, having a beer in the beer garden and listening to the live music on stage we decided to take one more quick look at that same booth before dinner. To our joy we found that they had scrounged up a small size and we got our new lids after all!

The casino dining room was packed because of the All you can eat Seafood buffet so we wound up having to split up to eat, but the prime rib was delicious and we all went back to camp stuffed. We figured we would hit the sack fairly early to rest up for a big day on Saturday.

Dave was having a hard time waking up so he and Billie and Marsha stayed behind in camp and Butch and I and Lenny and Gil went on down to Scotty's cafe for breakfast. We lucked out and it turned out that the Cossacks were going to perform almost in front of where we had parked the bikes.

The Cossacks were to perform at noon, so we just hung around town for a while and visited with our old friend Dave Eadie, the oldest member of the Cossack Stunt Team. Dave has been performing for 32 of his 64 years...over half of his life!

The Cossacks entertained the crowd with their spectacular stunts to the joy and amazement of the entire crowd

We ran into Ron and Jenniffer down town during the Cossack performance. They had come over just for the day. That made a total of 8 gamblers who made it to the rally.

After the Cossacks performed Lenny wanted to go up to the Drags in Mansfield, but Gil and Butch and I opted to stay in town and go back to the rally and watch the bike rodeo. When we got there we found Billie and Marsha at the rally grounds and found out that Billie's Turquoise trike wouldnt start when they came out from breakfast in Chelan and they had to push it into a storage facility and leave it there. Dave had to stay in Chelan because he had ridden behind Billie on her trike to breakfast so Gil had to go back to Chelan and get Dave and bring him back to the rally. Billie rode behind Marsha on her trike for the rest of the weekend because Dave isn't used to riding 2 up.

Those of us who were in Manson at the rally went back to camp about 5 for a brief rest before dinner and waited for Lenny to get back from the drags. He got in about 5 pm and wanted to go back into Chelan to the Deepwater Brew Pub for Bar b Q'd ribs. Billie and Dave and Marsha had just snacked so they weren't hungry, but Butch and Gil and I went with Lenny to eat. We had a great view of Lake Chelan from the dining area of the pub.

After that Lenny went back to the rally because he had bought doorprize tickets and they were drawing the tickets at 7pm. The rest of us went back to camp and hung around. A couple we had met at the sidecar rally showed up about 9 pm to use the campground showers and we visited with them for a while and invited them to come to the 2 rivers camp out.

About 10 pm a bunch of cars full of college age partiers showed up and started loud music and shouting. By about 11 we were starting to worry that they would not let us get any sleep so I walked to the office to ask the manager to quiet them down but she was gone to the rally! I went over to the revelers camp and politely asked them to turn down the music a little because we all had to get up early the next day and they said they would but as soon as I went back to camp they started right back up again and proceeded to get louder and louder and continued fighting, shouting, drinking and playing loud music til 3 in the morning. ( so much for the peace and quiet!) These guys were way louder than any noise we ever made at outpost! All the campers in the rv park were pissed about it so when we got up at 7 am Butch took Lenny's air horn over and blasted it 3 long times right at the noise makers tents and yelled " TIME TO GET UP!" they all came scrambling out of their tents bleary eyed ...some tossing their cookies as they packed. The rest of the campers in the rv park were snickering. Pay back's a bitch. We all loaded up and got out of camp by about 9 and went to Chelan. We WERE all going to eat at the Apple Cup but it was lined up back to the street to get in. Billie and Dave had no choice since they had to wait for Billie's son Chuck to arrive with the truck and trailer to haul her trike home, so they and Marsha stayed there and ate. Lenny and Gil and Butch and I went on over the hill to Mansfield for breakfast. ( we were the only ones being served and the food was excellent!)

When we got to Coulee City we decided to go home a different way and rode up the Columbia River to Grand Coulee and then over to Davenport. I got some great photos of the Columbia River canyon as we rode.

We stopped in Electric City for a break and let the dark clouds pass over the highway before we headed on out and managed to keep out of the rain all the way home. We only had a smattering of sprinkles near Mansfield and a few 5 miles from home but other than that we didnt get wet. We got home about 3:30 p.m.

Chuck didn't get to Chelan with Billie's trailer til about 1 pm. and they all went north to Pateros so that they wouldnt have to pull the trailer up the steep hill. By going north they managed to get themselves right under the rainclouds and they had rain almost all the way home. Billie stayed dry as she was in the cab with her son but Dave and Marsha had to ride in the rain. They all got back home about 8 pm.

Email: sharonjagger@artwizzerd.com