A Visit with the Half Ashlars

Stickman's
November 15-17, 2007
Road Trip to Nashville

Stickman's Ride Report

I waited for the cold front coming through the southeast to pass and take all the rain with it, before leaving to visit the Half Ashlars
this week.

I left not early enough on Thursday morning. The ride up was nice with beautiful clear blue skies. I didn't give the cold front a single thought until the sun started going down. I was getting a little case of hypothermia by the time I reached highway 440 East in Nashville.
Normally, I would not be anxious to get to a Starbucks but tonight I was looking forward to finding the Starbucks near Bears house.

Bear showed up as I was waiting for my order and we sit outside long enough to smoke a cigarette and get some hot coffee in my stomach and then headed on over to Bears' house. I got a warm welcome from Cheryl, Shannon, RJ, Ben and even baby JT seemed to like me. Shannon cooked us up some soft tacos and we sat around and talked about "the club" while watching a movie. It got down to 37 degrees shortly after my arrival.

Now, while we are on "the club" topic, as most of you know, I will at one point or another end up in trouble for something I've said or done or didn't do. Or for that matter, sometimes I catch heat for something another brother did or didn't do. The bottom line with me is that I like to ride, I like the fellowship with all the Free Masons and I'm not real serious minded about a whole lot of stuff. I'm reminded many times about how I should consider what I say or do due to the fact that I am a national officer. It was at that point that Bear decided that it would be better if I were to step down from that position. I thought we agreed that I was to resign when I got back home. Nevermind giving me a chance to get back home to do it. It's done, Problem solved.

Friday morning we got up and ate a great breakfast compliments of Cheryl. It contained all the ingredients I would need later to christen the clubhouse.

Bear and I got to the the Half Ashlars clubhouse just before noon. Plain Wayne was there and welcomed us with open arms. I got the grand tour and took a few pictures. Wayne presented me with a Half Ashlar patch. It was too early to party so I rode with Bear to see his Chiropractor who was kind enough to treat me as well. Afterwards we grabbed lunch and hung out back at the clubhouse where an open house was planned for the evening. Bear sewed my Half Ashlar patch on my vest while we were waiting for members to show up.

The afternoon was spent greeting club members. Snot dropped by in his work truck and promised to comeback later. Mo, Jason, Cowhead, Tony, a potential new candidate was there and Wayne's lady Theresa bought some pies over for us to snack on.

A meeting was held and Wayne suggested a charity be started for a local couple with two children who has fallen on hard times. Everyone agreed and a donation bucket was established.

Wayne's friend Ritchie worked on the DSL cable at the computer. Pretty soon, the Half Ashlars will be computer ready onsite.

The later it got, the more we partied. The clubhouse was fresh out of Jack Daniels and I was resigned to drinking beer. That is until Chilly showed up with a bottle of Makers Mark around 9 o'clock. Now it was time to get serious. We took a few more pictures and continued to party. Spanky showed up in between shifts at work.

Bear bundled up and headed out around midnight. I stayed and partied on.

One of Mt. Juliet finest, Officer Onion aka Pork Chop drove up in his squad car late in the evening to harrass the crowd. All in good fun of course. Snot said something to him and the next thing I notice is Snot in handcuffs. They were on tight too. Onion let him suffer for a while before turning him loose. I am always impressed to see a uniformed officer in the middle of the merriment, even though he does stick out like a sore thumb.

Wayne was kicking everyones butt at the Foosball table. Some good games were played and a small tournament was held which ended in a tie. It had been decades since I've played but I had a blast.

It was early a.m. and the Makers Mark was gone when we finally closed the clubhouse down. I was too inebriated to ride so I took Chilly up on his offer to stay at his place. We sat around for a while and had another drink and called it a night.

I woke up around 0900 and coaxed Chilly into making a pot of coffee.
We drank a couple of cups and I hit the road to Bears house to retrieve my gear for the return trip. I was feeling rough! Very rough!!

Cheryl was just leaving for work when I got there so I was able to thank her again for the hospitality. Bear was just getting up so I tried to keep it low keyed, said my goodbye and got in the wind with a pretty good little headache.

I tried to ride at least 100 miles before making a pit stop but couldn't do it, I was dehydrated and needed water. After about 300 miles, my headache finally subsided.

The ride home was uneventful and took about 10 hours.

Thanks to all the brothers that made my trip worthwhile.