Gophers and Cheese

The Bearded Lady lives on... well, in slideshow form.  Once again, I took all the photos I've posted here on the blog for the six years I attended the Bearded Lady Motorcycle Freakshow (up to the very last one) and put them into video slideshows.  You can find them all on  my YouTube channel  in the Bearded Lady playlist .  It's about an hour and 15 minutes of total runtime.  There's no audio, so play your own music, grab a beer, put on a fake beard (if you don't already have one) and a dress, and relive the freak show!

I took all the photos I've posted here on the blog, from the very first Full Tilt in 2011 to this year (2025), and put each year into its own video slideshow.  You can find them all on my YouTube channel and they are organized into a convenient Full Tilt Boogie playlist  to easily find and play them.  By simply clicking Play, you can relive every year of Full Tilt with total running time over 4 hours!  There's no audio, so just put on your own music, crack open a beer, sit back, and enjoy!

Do blogs and websites require too much clicking and scrolling?  Do you tire of watching videos with moving people & objects and having people yell at you to "smash that like button and subscribe"?  Would you prefer to relive the golden age of digital photo frames like it was the early 2000s?  Do you want that digital photo frame to be filled with cool motorcycles and vans?  Do you yearn for a little peace & quiet, or maybe just want to listen to your own music instead of some royalty-free and/or AI-generated knock-off?  Well, get on board the ambient slideshow train!  Hear me out...

Almost 2 months ago, on October 4th (10-4), Twin City Vans took a cruise along the river between Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We met up in Point Douglas Park on the Minnesota side before crossing into Prescott and heading south on the Wisconsin side.  It was a beautiful day, and we got a good turnout of members and friends.

The last bike night of the season at  Forgotten Star  was hosted by  The Litas Twin Cities  on October 7th.  The days may be shorter now but the weather was nice and dry so the resulting turnout was strong.  I brought the Evil Monkey, my Honda Z50 that's now sporting a new 125cc Lifan motor.

The Evil Monkey got a fresh upgrade!  I've had my 1976 Honda Z50 for nearly 10 years.  It came with the original 50cc motor that I bumped up to 88cc with a big bore kit quite a few years ago.  I've had a brand new Lifan 125cc (4-speed auto) motor sitting around that I was planning to use for another project.  I decided that I'm probably not getting to that other project for a while so I might as well put the motor to good use.

The second-to-last bike night of the season at  Forgotten Star  was hosted by  The Litas Twin Cities  on September 2nd.  Cooler weather and some threats of rain may have kept some people home, but the turnout was still quite strong and it was a fun time as always.

I missed the first two Heavy Thursdays of the year but was glad to catch the last one at 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis.

August ended up being another very nice night for bike night at Forgotten Star , hosted by The Litas Twin Cities .

One last giant photo-filled blogpost from Full Tilt Boogie 2025 is about to begin.  With the bike show and most of the bike games out of the way, the bands started up.  Way too many people started leaving at this point.  The bands were great and played well into the night.  If you didn't stay and camp, you messed up.  Maybe next year???  First up was " The Region's Premiere Van Halen Cover Band ".  Yes, that's the band's full name.  These guys rock and are really fun.

Full Tilt Boogie coverage continues... It wasn't my first bike rodeo so it wasn't my first time seeing a weenie bite competition, but it's always entertaining and really fun to watch.  More on that in a minute...

I have a lot more photos from Full Tilt Boogie to share so let's get after it.  Vitzy Boys had Time Slip and the Highland Acre Shaker there.

Full Tilt Boogie 2025 coverage continues with bike games.  The benefit of having all the grass and lawn area was that a few biker rodeo-type games could be played.  I somewhat regret not throwing a bike in the back of the van to participate but after a week at the Van Nats, I wanted to keep things simple.  Custom belt buckles, knives, and other awards were at stake for the games and bike show.  First up was plank ride.

One week after the Van Nationals (see blogposts here ), I was back in the van and headed to Full Tilt Boogie .  This year, it changed venues again.  For 2025, it moved to the Gas-Lite, which is just across the border from Red Wing, MN in Wisconsin (which is the "cheese" in "Gophers and Cheese").  I hadn't been there for an event since the SCVR Chili Feed, many years ago (2011 - see blogposts  here ).

We've made it to the last post from the 52nd Annual National Truck-In , the Van Nationals.  Picking up where I left off, we continue with the long line of vans heading out of the fairgrounds for the lake cruise and downtown public show.

We've made it to the last day of the 52nd Annual Van Nationals , Saturday July 12th.  The big things happening on Saturday were a lake cruise followed by a public van show in downtown Albert Lea as well as awards and the last band on the main stage, Uncle Chunk.  I worked gate most of the day and had to pack up my V-A-N-S signs and R/C ramps so I couldn't go on the cruise.  I ended up missing awards too and only caught a few songs by Uncle Chunk (no photos though - just had a couple of beers and enjoyed the moment).  What I did take a ton of photos of was the line up and departure for the lake cruise that morning.  If you went on that cruise, there's a very good chance I got a photo of your van and maybe even you driving it.

Here's the 3rd and last set of photos from Friday at the 52nd Annual National Truck-In , but only because there were a lot of things I didn't get photos of (if you can believe that).  We'll start with Red Desert on the DSV stage.

Continuing coverage of the Show & Shine field at the 52nd Annual Van Nats ...

Friday was a really big day at the 52nd Annual National Truck-In with both Show & Shine and Bright & Shine on the schedule along with more bands and other events.  A large rain system stayed just to the south leaving the sky full of clouds but mostly rain-free.  There was a lot of talk about how we might handle Show & Shine if it rained, but I'm really glad it worked out.  While I was pretty sure I wouldn't be taking home any awards, I still very much wanted to show my van so I got it out there on the show field in the Dodge section.

Thursday evening at the 52nd Annual Van Nationals was all about the bands.  Yesterday I posted photos of Beast Eagle and Year of the Cobra .  Next up in the DSV building was Rifflord !