I left on Tuesday October 20th around 8:30am. The skies were a brilliant blue, the sun was shining bright and the temperature a crisp 48 degrees. The entire ride down was pretty uneventful I ran into the usual heavy traffic in Maryland on I95. I kept the CB radio going most of the trip, chatting with truckers. From Virginia on down I ran with the fastest trucks out there and we were running between 70 and 85 MPH. In North Carolina it rained like mad, although just about the time I was ready to pull over and don some rain gear it stopped. I had planned on running all the way down... but 12 1/2 hours and 771 miles into the ride I stopped in Brunswick, GA (just north of the Florida line) for some fuel and decided to spend the night. Wednesday morning I ate at the local Waffle House and rode the 3 hours down to Daytona having to endure only a minor sprinkle or two and dodge hundreds of cars and trucks pulling scooter trailers. The city was already alive with bikers although Main Street was not yet shut down to cars (little did I know... they never would shut it down to cars). I attempted to check into my room, but it wasn't available yet so, I went to the Iron Horse for a beer, then rode up to Orlando to see Stephanie and Paul at Iron Horse Rentals. Back in Daytona, I had a beer at the Boot Hill, said my hellos to the crew there and went over to the Adam's Mark to check in. I had rented a suite on the 14th floor overlooking the ocean as I was entertaining clients as well as I needed the room for the party I was throwing on Thursday night. I decided to ride south on A1A and my friend Gary Swenson paged me to meet him back in Daytona for dinner and to meet his partner Ron Grant. We had a great dinner and decided to park the scooter back at the hotel and cab it over to the Shark's Lounge for a LONG evening of Tits and Ass. We spent way too much money but what the hell. Thursday morning I decided to work Main Street with the camera, even though it was 80 degrees I have never seen so much new leather... all the YUP's had on their new leather coats and chaps, of course they had their brand new Harley-Davidson patches sewn on the appropriate places. Thursday night was the party, yeeee haaa!!! I met some great people especially JoAnn from Crazy Horse Painting, we hit it off right away even though when she came into the party I asked, "who are you." The highlight of the night was when JoAnn and I spent quite a bit of time talking to Arlen and Corey Ness, although Arlen told me that my custom pan, will not work as planned.... oh well, back to the drawing board. After the party we all went to Froggy's and Peter (who was totally shit-faced) from ThunderWay Productions decided he needed to get his nipple pierced... ouch. I never heard how he felt the next morning. Friday was an extremely windy day, I worked Main Street again, went to the Rat's Hole show, JoAnn took a disappointing 4th and 5th, and then rode until it was time to go to Boondocks to eat. We were supposed to attend the EasyRiders Party... but a rain shower and too much beer kept us from attending. Back at the hotel though all the people from the party were in the lobby bar, so we networked and drank. I hooked up with Paul Garson, West Coast Editor for VQ magazine and his friend Denise, Paul wants me to do some studio work for him, (who says drinking can't be profitable). Saturday was riding day, I rode south, north and west, then went to Main Street to party with my friends. JoAnn took a 2nd place in the Radical Softail category at the Easyiders Boardwalk Show (Congrats JoAnn). Sunday I blew out of town about 9:00am, at the I95/I295 split I saw a biker bite it... I don't think he made it. Everything was going along smooth, I was chatting with truckers and just humming along. Then in NC the trucker I was following swerved hard to the left and I ran over what I thought was a log at first, though it kinda squished when I ran over it. He asked me if I was okay and I said "Yeah... what the hell was that?" He said, "a gator... was it alive?" I said, "If it was... it isn't now... I ran right over it's back." The gator appeared to be about 4 feet long, though I couldn't really tell, the Ultra took it like a speed bump. I stopped at the next gas station to check for damage... but all I could find was blood and guts on the underside of the bike and the exhaust... god what a smell!!!! I decided to spend the night in some po' dunk little town in Virginia, 661 miles in about 12 hours, then head on home the next day. Biketoberfest is growing like crazy, it's still not as big as "Bike Week" but it's getting there. If you actually ride your scooter there you might be a bit of an outcast... but what the hell. It's a great excuse to party!!!
