NEXXT 2016

NEXXT Stands for "North East XX Tour". Ray's bike is a Honda CBR 1100XX, known as a Blackbird. They are a long discontinued and rare Sport Touring motorcycle that has attracted a very serious hard core group of enthusiasts who meet regularly to exchange ideas and tips on how to best customize and personalize their special machines.

And to party.

This year one of their meetings happens to coincide with our trip, so we have joined the group at The Rodeway Inn in Towanda Pennsylvania. It was like walking onto a Drop Zone. Everybody seemed pretty normal at first, just a group of people sharing a common interest. Then the bar opened, the drinking started, and the T shirts came out. By the time the free dinner of smoked ribs was done jugs of moonshine were being passed around, and shortly after that they started organizing the cooler races. The hotel parking lot is quite steep and empties onto a busy street which raises the entertainment value. There aren't enough coolers to go around so they're having to run several elimination heats to narrow the field. I drew a long straw so I'm going to be in the 4th round. I promised Cassandra I would drive carefully, I made no promises about cooler races. The guy who's organizing things swears the local Cops are on board and are going to be closing the street for us. I did see him talking to the cops the first time they came here tonight so maybe he's telling the truth.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the shirt, I'm not sure I even want to risk taking it through customs.

And I'm going to wear this where?

Not even for gardening.