Too funny Bret. Well it doesn't look like I'm going to able to make it. My wife made an apointment to talk to the Realtor about listing my house on Saturday, wish she had asked me first.

Well I'm still gonna be there! Will be there around 2:30 - 3:00.

Hey Pep, J picked up the Hoffman today, you'll have it early in the day to ride.

Wow, Randy best excuse ever. (jk) Well Tom, Nick, and Randy - know your bro's are thinking about you tomorrow as you each deal with what you had to do and we understand and support you 100%. I made the first two and missed the last two years and plan to be there bright and early.

I'll be up at 2:45am, out the door @ 3am to pick up snakebite at 3:30 then arrive at Psychos place around 4:30am. Ditch is cruising up from the ROC for the launch at 5am.

We're shooting to be down there around 10am fully caffeinated and ready to hang with the Militia.
Thanks for putting this together PEP!

Randy, best of luck with the game, that will be a great time!!!

I am having a heart attack that day!!!!!!!

But I will wait to go to the Hospital until Sunday as Pep's deal is tooooo AWESOME to miss.


Best weather to date:
Lake In The Hills, IL
Saturday Oct 20th
High 68-70 degrees F
Nothin' but the SUN!!!!!!!!

I bought beer and stogies (although I quit)....kinda.

Got 2 new bikes to show, one's for sale too!
Made a 30" bunnyhop on Tuesday!

Pep's is the place to be
See old BMX and drink some tea
Pep's is the place to go
Don't wipe out and break your nose!

(or finger or collarbone, etc....)

PEP, When you see the white panel van pull up its NOT alkita -

Its Indiana This is our first time to PEP's and were all looking forward to it.

We will be going thru Chicago around 10:00 if any one needs a ride or picked up call me :219-381-5135. We have pleanty of room. Were still looking for the couch to throw in the back!

How does it work for food and beer? Are you taking donations ?bring your own?

ALSO I AM LOOKING FOR 2 PADS , BLACK VINYLE SNAP V-BAR. & YELLOW VELCRO CAL LIGHT FRAME PAD. If any one has these bring them to the show It would make 2 of mine complete.

NICK - YOU BETTER BE THERE ! ! BRING THE BOY WITH ! !

Pics! Stories! Shennanigans! Hijinx! I want to see it all!

Snakebite has the shenanigans covered.

hi pep, just me comin myself again, couple of bikes, just finished one in honor of the event. might be around noon before i get there, need beer ? i will bring a case. reading all the posts, i think the cerveza department may be covered ! see ya tomorrow !

I'm ready. Load the kids' bikes in the a.m and were off like a prom dress! In the a.m. men

Yukon's loaded, bikes locked down, and 4 gallons of chili ready to go!!!! I should just leave now...I'm not going to get any sleep tonite!!!! See you cats in a few hours!!! Travel safely!

Why is it called Lake In The Hills? I don't see any lake, and there sure as heck ain't no hills!

See you all in the morning. I am sure I am forgetting something!

Bikes are loaded! See you guys around noon, probably. That is if the BMX Battle Van makes the trip!

Isn't Lake In The Hills one of those hoity-toity suburbs of Chicago?

Midwest Militia....your day has arrived! Make us proud!

Packing up right now. Derek, I will throw in the first aid kit!.

OK OK OK i will be there early this year due to JP Fred giving me crap via Phone i managed to call in sick with the hot apple quick steps BRETT is there going to be a George around peps this year

It wont be today!!!!







Hey thanks, I appreciate it!

West 20
East 17

glad I stayed home

looks like a great day in the midwest....theres always next year.....

Alright, all packed up and getting ready to head out in about half an hour!!!!!

Just got home from work and getting the car loaded on the trailer. Been thinking about you guys all day. Hope you are having a great time.

hey all. i guess i may be the first one back. nice to see everyone today, and as a quick side bar to randy, glad your boys team won !! as fun as these events are you were definitely where you should have been. big thanks to the host with the most again. seriously pep. you are the man. thanks so much again for unselfishly opening your home to all of us, and for feeding us as well. your haro was well deserving of the accolades it received, as well as were many of the bikes at this years terriffic turnout ! great to see the long haulers from the mn. faction there, nice to have met and talked with you guys ! great weather to boot. stopped at my friend steves (motox2000) on the way home, he just finished his latest build, a 1992 ninja zx-7 i traded him (for a bike of course !), and it was as nice as his bmx builds (rode pretty great too !) hope to see many of you in a few months in indiana, have a great winter and holiday season. hope to be talking with a few of you soon. craig/vettefan.

I just got home myself, and I must agree with everything vettefan had to say. Pep you ROCK! I also want to give a special thanks to Pep's family and neighbors for putting up with us blocking driveways, unloading bikes, and scarfing down food and drink all day.

It was SO great to see some familiar faces and meeting some new ones. I tend not to feel too comfortable in large gatherings, but everyone I spoke with today was GREAT!

I just want to say THANKS again, and I look forward to seeing everyone again in the future.

-Karl.

PS: Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. There were ALOT of cool bikes there, too.

An awesome showing for sure...I'd say easily 60+ bikes, cool new faces to meet, good food, lotsa beers and weather that you just do not have in October. Was just all around good.

Made some new friends with the Faction. Awesome crew they had. Haunted house was awesome with about 30 bikes there. people were looking at us as much as we were looking at the house. crazy

bunny hop contest was owned by willinois 31"....not too bad for an old man. So many killer bikes, area211's collection was sick, Nick and all the Champions....another nice stable.

Just wanted to thank everyone for showing up, havin a good time & being very respectful to my house & family.

some funny moments too....once it got dark & everyone started riding my kids toys....it got festive. Terence, I hope flying over the bars did not hurt ya bro....

good times. please post pics as I had absolutely no time to take any.

pep

PEP, IT WAS A GREAT DAY ! Thanks again for having us, The Haunted house made the trip for my son he had a blast ! I think he has a crush on that little girl who was there thats all he talked about on the ride home......

Steven thanks for the FREE goodies ,Elf Dude the bike rack will get more use today alone than you could all year It is going to a good home Thank You to every one who made the day a great one.

If any of you guys are every out my way PLEASE stop by and check out the track my family has spent a lot of endless hours on and I KNOW ALL OF YOU WOULD LOVE IT.... WWW.FREEDOMBMX.NET


ED

Wow, what a great time! Great to see old freinds and make new ones, I'm not even going to try and name names for fear of forgetting someone. I had missed the last couple years and the event continues to get bigger and better every year. Big shout out to Grandma and Grandpa and all their help this year as well. As mentioned in posts above Pep and Jen's hospitality is much appreciated. DJ jazzy jeff we missed you. The annual night ride to the Haunted house was cool with some pint sized groms in the mix, Pep - your boy is going to be a bigger hellion than you were. After a really fun time at Peps, the Faction and I went where only foklore could speak of and we checked out Steven Beven's basement and lived to tell about it. Thanks for those $20 bars and the lemonade After some midnight bartering the deals were sealed and I left the Faction at the I-90 tollboth heading West rolling into the driveway around 02:15. Thanks again Pep!

Good times and people at PEPs!!!

I had a great time seeing friends and meeting new ones. Thanks for the compliment PEP, and thanks for hosting a cool gathering!

Special congrats to PEP on his best of show HARO ... and Willinois' 31" of big air ... and Otto for his first jump ever (although I don't think he really got any air).

I've uploaded my pictures at this link (http://gallery.mac.com/area211) . I think there's some cool shots scattered about. I apologize in advance if I missed anyone's bikes or something somebody wanted to see again. Click on the last gallery (the compromising shot of mikkopeters). There are multiple pages of pics... be sure not to miss the Willinois bunny hop shots!

Enjoy.

Wish I was there guys.Looks like a good time.Damn Brett not bad for an old guy lol.

Rob

HUGE thank you to Pep and his family for taking us all in yesterday...it was my first time at the gathering and i had a GREAT time...For all of you that missed it, cancel work and do whatever you can to make it out...you truly have to be there

Also, I'd like to give a HUGE thanks to everyone that answered all of my restoration questions...I have a lot of them being new to the hobby of collecting and restoring...everyone was offering me suggestions on my spindle for my cranks and answering all my questions, no matter how big or how small...I really appreciate it, you guys are the experts and I hope to be as knowledgable as all of you one day...

Again, thanks to Pep, the faction for coming down to see us, and everyone for making my first visit to Pep's a memorable experience...I'll definately be back next year!

Mike

I enjoyed everyone again! I am real sore today (getting too old for this).

Big thanks to so many but specially Pep, Pep's wife and Pep's parents. I will have a link to some photo's later.

Thanks to Bven & Georg too. You guys are always way to generous. To our Photo Journalist Area211 & Pat for making the AWESOME B-hop trophy AGAIN!

And now I want to move to Minnesota! You guys are on the edge!
Does cold weather kill brain cells?

Link to my photos:


Willinois Pep's 2007 Photo's

Thanks agian PEP another great event BIG turn out this time I think every year it just gets better. Thanks to your Parent sfor helping out, and your wife for putting up with us being there.Congrats again on the finish of her INDY Marathon. Good to see all the faces old and new. Did the Faction make it home in one peice? After the Chili I dont think I would have wanted to be in that car for the ride home! I guess will have to wait for the next event

Hey everyone! PEP, you totally rock. Thank you for making us feel so welcomed at the gathering.
Great food, I met a TON of great people and saw all kinds of mind blowing bikes.
It was fun to see my OG buddies, Brett and Morey- Jim, you crack me up. The trip to Steven's place was awesome! I looked at my phone at 2:15 and thought "I can't believe that I have been up for 24 hours!" I can't believe how much beer we drank!
This was a great roadtrip and I have to thank Greg for getting the ball rolling, Ditch for taking the wheel this morning and Rod for being such a good bro. You guys are the sheet!
A few pics:
Ditch on my Hoffman- he still shreds!


George!


The happy couple:


Greg rocks.






Talking shop:


Me and my bro Morey...


Best of show:

A couple more pics:




Scanning the scene


Rod, shortly after our return from 28 hours of BMX and hanging out:


Look what rode shotgun:


Big ol' thank you from the MN Faction! Midwest Militia ROCKS.


Last couple things- Greg, sorry that the car smelled like a dump. It will go away after a few days...
Couple words of advice. Don't eat the patty melt at the TA and don't believe yahoo maps.

Brett- thanks for the pumpking beer!

PEP, thank you so much for the hospitality. I had a blast. The food,the bikes,the weather and most of all the people just too cool. Thank you again and we will be back.

Steven, what can i say, Thank you for letting us come over and look at all of your parts. I had fun playing lets make a deal with you and rod. Thanks for the lemonade and the directions.

Vettefan, nice meeting you and i will drop you a line per our conversation about the levers(got em)

Bret, I'll pm ya my email.

Area211, next time we'll talk some more about the profile mini. Nice to meet ya.

To the rest of the guys in attendance thank you for welcoming us like you did. Rockfords gonna be a blast.

Oh ya i almost forgot, Morey take them $20 bars and shove em up your a@@. Just kidding, it was cool meeting you, Black patterson baby.

Not much of a photographer but these caught my eye

Mikkos poopy bike

vettefans sting

jim's pattersons

hutchounds xl24bling

Stevenbvens race incs nos

Area211s minis

PEPS master

Poopy bike!

Alright. First off I gotta thank my bro Pep and family for hosting yet another truly great gathering! The people, bikes, weather, just everything was super, I had a great time! Nice seeing everyone again and meeting a couple new VBMX members.

Brett, your bunnyhop skills never cease to amaze me! 31" is up there for a big old guy like yourself, and the bunnyhop over the bike, the bars even, my hat is off to you my friend!!!

Morey, my friend, I still think you and Brett are long lost twins! Good seeing you again! Oh and no skunky beer next year, OK?

Ahhhhhhh, The Faction! Man did I have a great time hanging with you cats! Non-stop good time guys, you can come down and hang with the Militia anytime! I will even have to plan on coming to a Faction gathering, has to be a great time! Anyone who wasn't there late, missed some funny stuff. Between Rod, Mikko and Brett riding Peps kids toys and Mikko peeing just a little bit in his pants, oh man, non-stop laughter! You guys need to bring more beer so you don't have to drink that crap Morey brought!

Oh and one last thing. Hey Ditch, don't forget, at the end of the day, it's night!!!

Dang, I forgot I said that. Bustin' me up all over again!

Did you see those crappy welds on Mikko's forks? Hey is that a turd or something? Get a picture of me with it anyhow.

Terrance. How ya doing? That was a pretty nasty spill. Glad you smiled through it, but your not riding my bike anymore LOL!


Just a couple of low but memorable moments.

Oh yeah, forgot about Terrance! I hope you are feeling alright T, I bet a little sore though. I suppose he took my place for the "bail" action, since I'm still sitting out with back problems.

I love it

Terance has to laugh it off or he might cry LOL nasty spill man hope to see you at the Indy show. I want to thank everyone PEP wonderful food man i didnt get a chance to say goodbye to everyone including you But i wouldnt miss it for the world STEVE it only took me 1 and a half hours to get home traffic was behind me. ED hope the bike rack gets lots of use gotta give back to the kids. FRED Thanks for the hookup you didnt have to, BRETT Thanks for the pumpkin beer(s) taste great as usual GEORGE thanks for making the cheese dip was awesome hope you all enjoyed it was Great to see all you guys again never a dull moment with Willinois around. Craig good to see you Faction you guys rule great to have a chance to sit down with you guys and shoot the breeze. To the big man who made the chilli good stuff maynard. And JIM MOREY cant forget ole JIM i am counting the days until that frame is mine Gotta seal the deal man.


See you all in august for my show including you PEP

Holy crap, that pic of Willinois rocks. I can't believe the bar was that high. Impressive.

I agree- the cheese dip/chili rocked!!!

MAN my Puma's look crispy!!!

ill have video up this week.

Pat, your youtube video is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is great balance my friend!

Ok, I'll jump in and post some pics...

First up, Mikko trying to find Pep's whilst cursing Yahoo maps...

After a quick call to Pep, we finally made it there! Bikes and Bro's were in full effect!


24 Quad

Sweet Blue 'Goose....

Then night fell (along with Terrance!.....Sorry dude, reminded me of the MN bbq...I took a couple diggers that day!) and it was time for a BS sesh of legendary proportions! Pumpkin ale was flowing, Pep hooked me up with some more chili (seriously dude...that stuff was amazing! PM me the recipe!), and we went to the most off-the-hook haunted house I've ever seen....

The 3 Drinkateers...

Rodley, making sure no Paulander goes to waste!

After one last group pic (note: I'm the only sober person in this pic, I believe....)and a trip to Steven Bven's basement bunker, We were on our way back to MN!

SHHHHH...dont wake the kids!


Thanks to Pep for hosting the unruly bunch of us....The Faction had a blast!
Thanks to Psycho for driving, lets not do that again for awhile, though!

Ha ha!!!!
Those are great pics! Thanks for reading that sleepy time story to us Ditch. I was sleeping like a baby!
And for the record, Ditch piloted the first leg of the trip outta PEPS!
What a cool group- all you guys a welcome to join us for our fall BBQ!

once again...big thanks to pep and his family for letting us take over the backyard....this year was by far the biggest that ive been to...although there were a couple familiar faces that werent there, being in the presence of the Minnesota Faction more than made up for it.

Brett...congrats on the 31" (you WISH thats what she said...lol)

Video is now up on youtube...i made a separate thread about it.

see you guys next year.

Pep, Thanks for your hospitality. I had a blast man! A great group of guys. I think that really says it all...

PEP Thanks for hosting.I am sorry for the long delay in posting I have been swamped at work.
I had a great time.It was great seeing everyone and meeting some new friends.
I was talking with someone,I forgot who but they where looking for a red skyway mag.I do have one so please contact me.
Can't wait till the next one.Thanks again.