Well, after coming back from Daytona I have a shit load of stories to tell, but Ill start with a basic synobsis. To the town of Ormond Beach FL- FUCK YOU, once again. I cant believe I was stupid enough to attempt to ride through your militarized zone again. I posted a while ago about last year when I got pulled over and ticketed twice within a 1/4 mile stretch. This time, my friends and I were leaving Jay Allens place at about 10 pm, completely sober. We turned out of the parking lot, made a u turn in a designated area, and proceeded at a snails pace up the road. The speed limit was about 45 mph, and we couldn’t have been doing over 30. We all kept the revs way down to be extra quite, and didn’t pass anyone. Next thing we know a black and white SUV comes careening up behind us lights blazing. They speed past me and then jam on the brakes to try to force me off the road, all while the driver is waiving his hand out the window doing some unrecognizable signals. We all pull over and get ticketed for the usual wrong pipes, wrong bars, wrong pants, etc. I don’t know what they are trying to do other than make people scared of the vendors in Ormond Beach. Jay Allen, who is a really cool guy, has the misfortune of having his bar, the Broken Spoke, located right in the thick of it. As a warning to all potential bike week visitors, DO NOT GO TO ORMOND BEACH, they hate you there. The area I mean is the strip between the I-95 exit (rossmeyer dealership), and the Daytona town line on RT 1. The rest of the areas in and around Daytona were fine.
On a better note, bike week was a blast overall. The Limpnikie lot was in full force, and had a kick ass bike show friday. All the bikes that showed up were real deal hand built choppers with the exception of one idiot who entered a Kawasaki KLR with plastic guns and rockets attached to it! no shit, it was some kind of low budget OCC rig he concocted…. weird. The willies show was cool as usual, and the entire lot did a ride to the Wild party on weds that ruled also. Big thanks to whoever put that party on! The food was good, and the location was great as usual. Dale, leo, Joe and I had a nice time watching some dude on a bagger dump it on the beach and then try to get it free (you can ride on the beach there).
I also got to see my friends from Vibes magazine in Japan, who once again made it all the way there from J-land. They took pics of all our bikes, and one day showed up on a vintage Cushman scooter of some kind. I don’t know where they got it because I can’t understand a word they say, but they let me ride it. sweet!
On the way home, after the air museum, we had a variety of problems. We got lost twice and wasted several hours in an attempt to use a shortcut through the Cape Charles/ Northampton peninsula. This is a random area off the Chesapeake Bay that cuts a few cities off our otherwise entirely I-95 trip. There is an insane bridge that links Norfolk to the end of the point that is an honest 20 miles long! Google it if you don’t believe me. Anyway, once across it we were faced with the most grim, post apocalyptic, bombed out redneck stretch of land I have ever seen in my life- and I have seen a lot of this country by road! Delapitated houses, gas stations without pumps, random burning garbage piles, crackheads, junker cars and a generally lawless feeling.
During our approx 5 hours there, we ran over some piece of metal debris (that we didn’t realize at the time) that ripped our trailer cord out of its plug. This cord provides the power to all the trailer lights as well as the power to the trailer brakes. I was so dazed and tired I didn’t realize this until about 200 miles later when I glanced in the rear view and just saw blackness. I stopped at a gas station and went to investigate only to find the plug had been dragging and was worn down to a nub! There was no way to fix it so we called it a night and stayed in some sketchy motel in New Jersey. The next day we just said fuck it and ran the gauntlet through big NYC rawdog.
This is us crossing the GWB. We made it home in one piece and now Im jamming for Sturgis! see you there!
