Sunday, November 18, 2012

Riding home with our Far-Ranging Uralista

John Sharp, a member of our loosely knit group of sidecar riders (majority of which are proud Ural Riders), is home from a journey of over 19,000 miles and six months on the road with his 2007 Ural Patrol.

10 Ural Sidecar Rigs met up in Hudson, CO and joined up with John as he prepared to ride the last 30 miles or so to his home in Arvada, CO.

The word had gone out this past week, and Uralisti from all over the Denver Metro area and parts beyond  made plans to be there to welcome John home and ride with him the last few miles to his house and family.  The meeting point was a Loves Truck Stop in Hudson, CO.  We all gathered together in the Carl Jr's restaurant at the truck stop and chatted with John.

 Clockwise from left, Tammy, Jay, John Sharp, Randy, John, 
Nick, Roy, Tim and yours truly.

Soon it was time to pile outside to our gathered rigs and prepare for the journey to John's home.  Here's some pictures of quite the unique Ural Sidecar Rig.  It's Tammy's.  She and Randy own and run Unique Rides in Fort Collins, the sole Ural dealer in Colorado.  The rig is hand painted, a 2008 Tourist with not only a unique paint job but also it's outfitted with a 2WD Final Drive!




 Tammy and her Rig

 Here's the man of the hour's rig, loaded for travel and decorated
with stickers and signs detailing some of his travels.



 The Uralisti pose with John and his Rig.  Mike H, who came to meet John
on his BMW R1150RT, volunteered as photographer so I could
be in the shots.  Thanks very much Mike!

From left to right: Myself, Randy, Darrell, Tammy, Nick, Roy, John Sharp,
John, Jay and Tim.

It was a short but very windy ride down I-76 from Hudson, onto US270 to US36 and exiting at Sheridan Boulevard and shortly after that into John's neighborhood in Arvada.  I can tell you that Linda, his lovely wife was quite taken aback at the sight of ten Ural Sidecar Rigs crowding her driveway when she came out her door!
Danielle, John and Linda

 The Russian Rigs invade the Sharp's driveway.

 A view of John's other motorized pride and joy, a 1950 Indian Motorcycle


The view of John's rig most people saw before they passed him on the highway.

We all chatted for a bit with John and his family, but soon it was time to leave the Sharp's home and be off on our separate ways.  My thanks to my fellow Uralisti for coming out on their Sunday afternoon and helping to welcome home one of our own.  We're all looking forward to the stories to be told from John and the pictures from his travel.

Welcome home John!  Glad you're home safe.


6 comments:

Oz said...

What an awesome trip and great welcome home. Love the photos. I really envy John. I hope to take a similar trip in the future.

SonjaM said...

An epic journey comes to an end, and he made it home safely.
You guys gave him a great welcome.

And I must say, Tammy's rig has an awesome paint job. Who would have thunk that a hack can look pretty...

RichardM said...

That is a really nice paint job on Tammy's rig. But it looks too clean and I wouldn't want to take it anywhere off the beaten path.

redlegsrides said...

Thomas, thanks for the comments....I too hope to ride to Alaska someday.

SonjaM: "Who would have thunk that a hack can look pretty...". I know right? Hey, wait...! :)

RichardM: yeah, I wouldn't risk it off road.

RichardM said...

I just noticed the watermark on your photos. Have you been doing this for a while? And have you found cases when others have used your images?

redlegsrides said...

Actually, a very recent thing it's a feature available when using Picasa so why not use it.