Phat Pac Spring 2012 Romp & Rumble

You may ask what is the Phat Pac. Well...the name was coined by Joe Badecki, one of our members, referrring to Frank Papotto. Frank was one of those guys that when he walked into a room, all the women would gasp for air. You know the kind, James Bond, Tom Cruise, Tom Selleck. None of us can ever remember him having a wrinkle in his suit or a crease in anything! He always looked like he came off the cover of a men's fashion magazine. We accused him of ironing his boxers. The rest of us.... well we are just normal guys, or not so normal as the case may be, that just wish we looked like "Frankie", as he was known. I say "was known" as he died a few years back in a freak golf cart accident. The P-H-A-T Pac gots it name because he was so "Physically Hot And Tempting" to any female that ever met him. Yes, we do have a sense of humor and we have never forgotten those early motorcycle rides he went on with us. The Phat Pac name has stuck and we are all proud to have known Frankie and honor him with the name. Photo: Left to Right: Gerry Guidice, Joe Badecki, Frankie Papotto and Me.

Since the early days more than 7 years ago, we have traveled many thousands of miles together and seen more of the USA than most travel agents. We still eagerly await a new adventure and love to get together to plan where to go next. There is an expression that says "life is not a dress reherasal". We firmly believe that is true. Each of our trips has been structured to make memories to last a lifetime. This week we will be taking a short 4 day trip up through New England with stops at the Baseball Hall of Fame, The Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, Vermont, The U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Ramapo College Poker Run on Sunday. It will be a tune up for our big trip of the year in September. That trip will be a "fly & ride" for all but me. I will be doing a cross country trip and meet the group out in San Francisco. We will explore Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The Phat Pac has 4 members now, with Rich Berman joining us during that first year. We all had the pleasure of working together at Commerce/TD bank and have a love for motorcycle touring. More importantly, we just love to get together, laugh and enjoy each others friendship. These are not friends in the normal sense of the word. These are those rare people you meet in life that you would trust your life to and consider as family. When you ride tens of thousands of miles in close proximity with the same 4 guys in all kinds of weather and all kinds of terrain from the blinding heat of Death Valley to the High altitudes of Pikes Peak and snowy mountain passes of the Rockies, you are doing just that. Each maneuver needs to be predictable, and you need to trust that those around you are alert and in tune with their motorcycles. It is truly poetry in motion when you have that trust and have had those experiences together. Just ask any of us about the time we got caught in a snow storm at 11,000 feet in Brian's Head Pass in Utah. Ummmmm.... I will take responsibility for that one. The group consists of Joe Badecki riding a yellow Goldwing, Gerry Guidice on his Harley Classic (or possibly his new Cobalt Blue Goldwing), Rich Berman on his black BMW R1200Gs and me on my trusty red BMW R1200GS. Here is a picture of the motley crew from a prior trip. I hope you will enjoy following our adventure and enjoy the blog. I will be carrying a SPOT Satellite locating device that will log our position on Google Earth every 10 minutes while we are riding. I hope the pictures we upload each day and the accoounts of the ride here will help share our experiences with you. The ride begins Thursday May 17, 2012. Enjoy! The Phat Pac Left to right: Gerry Guidice, Rich Berman, Joe Badecki, Bruce McKelvy (Colorado June 2006)

I will be carrying my satellite tranceiver on this trip. It will log our position on Google Early every 10 minutes while riding. Click on this link to access it. If it does not work you may need to cut and paste it into your browser. I am still working out the bugs of putting this in a blog page: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0I8urWhOYax6u5yaUgA2qQ3ZzTbqRyZbT