Thanksgiving tends to drag by evening... After the kids are off to bed or wherever, the games worth watching on TV are over, and you're glad the republican relatives have finally left. And you haven't the energy left to do anything useful, like wrench on or even wash the car/bike/whatever. So you come back to dailykos, hoping for some relaxing reading- but nothing too serious.
That's why thanksgiving evening is the perfect time for our first annual Gearhead Get Together on Kos, a perfect time for gearheads to kick back, bench race, and even BS.
Well, I did warn you about bench racing, some of which may even rise to the level of BS, which is a gearhead literary art unto itself. Well, tomorrow night I'll be liveblogging the legendary annual democratic lawn sign speed tests in the tri-state area where Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota meet. In this underpopulated backwater we've got I-29, a straight as an arrow 4 lane jobs project that's better than Bonneville, hundreds of miles of deserted two lanes, several miles long tangents of well maintained railroad tracks, excellent but unstaffed airports, and 10 mile long lakes that still haven't frozen over. Our headquarters will be the tiny town of Starbuck, home of a lot of seniors that go to bed early and a police force with a slow old squad car that does likewise. Starbuck is located in Pope County, which has no jail; it's squads and deputies are tired from shuttling their criminals back and forth to other county's jails. We don't expect to be bothered by the police, and we don't intend to cause them any bother.
Oh, A little bit of history is in order here... The annual democratic lawn sign speed test began a few election cycles back when local democrats wondered how they could keep their lawn signs from getting blown down by those same relentless prairie winds that spin wind turbines so well. Not having enough wind on the thanksgiving weekend we decided to research the problem, like normal resourceful gearheads we simply simulated the wind by mounting a lawn sign on a fast motorcycle and racing along at the fastest expected wind speed during the campaign season. After a few test runs (well, being gearheads we actually made more than a few) we had developed lawn signs that would stay up in triple digits winds.
But the demands of competitive campaigning kept getting tougher- pretty soon we were putting campaign signs on Corvettes and motorcycles with sidecars and running them in parades. The parades were no problem, but the quick trips between parades were becoming a challenge- it ain't easy keeping a lawn sign on a bike traveling at triple digit speeds in triple digit winds. The signs got bigger too, first growing to 2 foot by 4 foot and now we're even seeing 4 by 8s. Pushing a 4 by 8 sign down the road requires some serious horsepower.
The number and variety of entrants keeps increasing too- it's grown from motorcycles and sidecars to sports cars and high powered pickups pushing 4 by 8 signs. We've always had an active bicycle class too. But last year's entries we're unbelievable, with campaign tour buses and even a train. We've had inquiries from hydro boat racers, pilots, and a few more railroaders this year... who knows who may show up with what. Responding to popular demand, we're also providing a "rally" competition on Hogback Road for the gearheads with Evos and WRCs and such... Who knows, maybe Kos himself will show up with his Subie!
About now you're probably thinking this is all BS. No, it ain't BS, it's bench racing! Heck, maybe I'll even throw a lawnsign on the bike and see if a BMW 650 twin with a sidecar and a big lawn sign can go fast enough to get a ticket in South Dakota.
So gearhead Kossacks, bring your best tall tales of gearhead epic performances here tomorrow night. I'll throw up the diary while we take a break after the day runs and before the night runs start after the old ladies park their Buicks and clear the roads for the night. And if we keep the diary alive long enough, I'll liveblog the night runs. Wonder if the cell wireless cards will still work at over 100 mph?