Ride Notice - COTU South - Group Gather Wytheville VA

Ride Warning
When: May 13-15
Where: Motel 6, Wytheville, VA and its surroundings
What: COTU South

- gesundheit, now what was that again?
COTU South

- wtf is a COTU South?

COTU, meaning Center Of The Universe, was a spring ride based in southeast OH, usually held the weekend after Mother's day. It was started by Alan Wilson and friends on the VFR big List in 2000. He started it as a counter point to the September WDGAH (We Don't Give A Hoot) rides in the northeast. Alan passed away several year ago, but the gatherings continued under the aegis of Mike Solace until a hiccup last year interrupted the string. It was never a large or highly organized rally, and the past few years that it has been held has seen the numbers dwindle further. The universe is a big place, I figure western VA is close enough to still be within the center ring and the dates are the same so I'm maintaining the COTU association with the "South" qualifier.

Anyway, the intent is to gather Friday night in the parking, kick tires, drink adult beverages and tell lies.
Saturday - form up into small groups or go off and explore on your own during the day. I'll post up some suggested routes for Saturday's ride later (see note).
Saturday night we'll gather for more tire kicking, lies, eating, and drinking.
I'm NOT going to try to set up a group dinner:
A - you can only hear what your immediate dining companions are saying anyway
B - I'm lazy and I don't want the hassle.
I will say though that the Peking Restaurant across the road is where I plan on eating Saturday. Good food, walking distance from the motel, they serve alcohol. Done.
Sunday - go back where you came from.

There is no formal sign-up list, but let me know if you're coming if you would, just cause I'd like to know and if you do make it, stop by and say hello Friday or Saturday evening. I'll be easy find, I'll be hanging out near my red VFR
Actually, I'll drape a blanket with souvenir patches on it.

Make your own room reservations. Stay at one of the nicer places in town if you want, but the tire kicking part will be at the Motel 6 and they'll give you a discount off of their already low rates if you tell them you're part of the VFR group. I've stayed there a few times in the past, most recently at Thanksgiving, and it's a decent place.
per night, w/tax:
Single - $35.95
Double - $41.95
phone - 276-228-7988
There may or may not be an extra charge for internet access at that time of 2.99/night (they're in the process of expanding it to all rooms and making free).
There is a Bob Evan's next door to the motel.
There is a Shoney's across the road.
So breakfast should be easy to manage, the motel does coffee in the morning, that's all.

Just show up and meet some folks who either have, had, or knew someone who has or had a VFR of any ilk (we're not fussy) and ride some of the best roads in the east!

Note (See):
As far as Saturday's ride goes, this is not a mass parade, to me a group of 3-4 is ideal, but if you find 9 others that all want to clump together for the day, that's great, have fun. If you come down solo, there should be others around that you can join up with. But no one is playing social director, it's up to you make whatever arrangements you'd like. The forums should provide ample opportunity to do that and if not, you ought to be able to make some kind of connection Friday evening. If you just show up Saturday morning expecting to tag on to a group, that might work, but on the other hand it might be a group of close buddies who know each other's riding style and they may be less than fully welcoming to take you along on such short notice.

Let's Ride,
Greg

 

I've posted up four day ride loops using Wytheville as a starting point on VFRD.
Here's the link.

Ride Notice - COTU South - Group Gather Wytheville VA - VFR Discussion