dcom
07-06-2005, 07:38 PM
July 4th...
A day of celebrations, on a national and a personal level. 229 years ago, a bunch of old men sitting in a room in Philadelphia put their signatures on the document that declared our independence from tyranny and one year ago, I put my signature on a document that said I owned a new bike, the likes of which I'd been wanting since I was a teenager. I hadn't really thought about naming her because I'm not usually that clever to be able to think up a name but as a birthday present, I have given her the name of Smokey. And yes, I consider her a "she" (as I'm sure most of you do) because every time I see her, she puts a smile on my face, she turns heads wherever she goes, and I always get a thrill from riding her :). I chose the name because of several reasons. 1) The primary blue color of her paint job is called "Smokey Teal", 2) The gray pattern in the white paint under the blue was formed using the smoke from an acetylene torch, and 3) in the words of Jim Carey in The Mask, I think she's "sssssmokin'!" :) Not only did she turn 1 this weekend, her odometer also turned over 10K miles on a ride I took with the Stone Mountain HOG chapter (http://www.pbase.com/smhog/dmmr). In case you're wondering, there's a shot of me holding a bag of breakfast from McD's.
The ride was the 9th annual Dale Moorefield Memorial Ride, honoring the memory of a former police detective and member of the Atlanta HOG Chapter. The ride started at Granite Mountain HD in Conyers, GA, a town about 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta. From there we were going to the town of McDonough, about 20 miles away, and join a larger group for a 60-70 mile back roads ride, ending up in a little town called Bostwick for a BBQ lunch. Granite Mountain HD is about 50 miles from my house and they'd set the meeting time at 7:30AM which meant I had to get up at O'Dark:30 to get there. Fortunately, the weather was decent...overcast, some fog, VERY humid, but not raining. Having to leave so early and with visibility less than ideal and the sun not quite up, I decided it was a good time to use the new lights I had installed from a vendor (http://www.boogey.com/My%20Pictures/StephenJenkins%20left.jpg) at Bike Week in Myrtle Beach back in May. The picture is not my bike, but one from the company's website. They're a set of vivid blue LEDs that are mounted under the gas tank and inside the air cleaner that reflect off all the chrome in the engine compartment and bathe it with a glow that give the appearance of the engine being under water. It was funny to see some kids faces pressed up against the back window of a minivan, staring at it as they passed me.
Around 8:00AM, the 30 or so bikes from Stone Mountain HOG lined up and left for the 20 mile ride to McDonough. It was a pretty uneventful ride, mostly down one 4-lane road until we got to the town square in McDonough around 8:30AM, which is a typical small town in semi-rural GA. The square has an old city hall building, complete with clock tower, park benches, a couple of statues, and flags. Surrounding the square are small businesses, some of which have been there since the town was founded. Today, the square was decorated with American flags and bunting...that red, white, and blue stuff you see draped on parade grandstands and stadiums during the World Series. It was also covered with bikes. Our group was one of several that was participating in the ride that included the Atlanta HOG chapter, the Blue Knights (police bikers), and the some from a local Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA). All in all, there were about 250-300 bikes. One of the members of the CMA said a prayer and at 9:00am, we started the engines and headed out.
With a group that big, it was an escorted ride, meaning we didn't stop for nuthin' :) The county and city police departments rode with us, stopping traffic at intersections and making sure we didn't get split up. Cars would pull over even on the other side of the road, as if we were a big funeral procession that demanded respect. If you've never been in a large group ride, it's really a sight to see, especially in your mirror. I was about 1/2 way back, and looking in the mirror, the headlights made it appear that I was in the middle of a long, shimmering, jeweled snake that stretched at least 1/2 mile behind me. The weather held out, although the humidity was close to 100%, the temps stayed in the upper 70s or low 80s keeping it comfortable, but very sticky. After being out about 30 minutes, I noticed others ahead of me using hand signals to point out a road hazard and as I approached it, I did my part to point to what used to be a possum that was now just a wet, fuzzy smear in the middle of our lane. Now, if you've never been riding down here in the south in July, you really can't believe the "fragrance" that a wet, week-old Possum pizza can give off. Well, maybe you can, but this had to be the stinkiest roadkill I'd ever encountered. It was all I could do to keep from "barking at the ants". It was the kind of stink that stays with you for several breaths. :vomit:
The ride took us past farms, lakes, old wooden bridges, houses where families were out firing up their grills, kids playing in sprinklers, you know, the typical things you picture about small-town America on a Fourth Of July. Everyone we passed stopped what they were doing and waved, some even honked their horns and we waved or honked right back. About 10:30AM, we pulled into the little town of Bostwick, GA, the end point for the ride. Bostwick is a typical small farming community that holds a BBQ on July 4th for everybody in town and the addition of 300-400 bikers every year pretty much doubles the population of the town. The BBQ is held on a large, tree-covered front lawn of the house that sits across from the main intersection in the center of town. They set up rows of tables and chairs and the local BBQ restaurant caters the event where, for one price, you get a big serving of pulled pork, a ladel of Brunswick Stew, apple sauce, two pieces of white bread, sweet pickles, your choice of desert (brownie, cookies, or pound cake), and a big cup of ice tea made in a big galvanized tub filled with ice, a gallon of tea concentrate, and cut with water from the home owner's garden hose. Can it get more American than that? I ended up sitting across from a this nice older lady who tried to give me a brief history of the town after learning this was my first time to the Bostwick BBQ. She was saying stuff like "Yep, my granddaddy built that there house over there, 'n my momma's 2nd cousin lives right down that'a road over yonder in that yeller house, 'n my brother's uncle is the fire chief". I just smiled and nodded.
You'd have thought such a place would have a parade with the local high school marching band, the local winner of the Miss Whatever contest, the oldest veteran riding in an antique Ford or something but lunch was pretty much it for the day. Being at least 2 hours from home, I decided it would be best to just find the closest interstate and call it a day. Overall, it was a very fitting 1st birthday celebration for me and Smokey, and one that I'll never forget.
A day of celebrations, on a national and a personal level. 229 years ago, a bunch of old men sitting in a room in Philadelphia put their signatures on the document that declared our independence from tyranny and one year ago, I put my signature on a document that said I owned a new bike, the likes of which I'd been wanting since I was a teenager. I hadn't really thought about naming her because I'm not usually that clever to be able to think up a name but as a birthday present, I have given her the name of Smokey. And yes, I consider her a "she" (as I'm sure most of you do) because every time I see her, she puts a smile on my face, she turns heads wherever she goes, and I always get a thrill from riding her :). I chose the name because of several reasons. 1) The primary blue color of her paint job is called "Smokey Teal", 2) The gray pattern in the white paint under the blue was formed using the smoke from an acetylene torch, and 3) in the words of Jim Carey in The Mask, I think she's "sssssmokin'!" :) Not only did she turn 1 this weekend, her odometer also turned over 10K miles on a ride I took with the Stone Mountain HOG chapter (http://www.pbase.com/smhog/dmmr). In case you're wondering, there's a shot of me holding a bag of breakfast from McD's.
The ride was the 9th annual Dale Moorefield Memorial Ride, honoring the memory of a former police detective and member of the Atlanta HOG Chapter. The ride started at Granite Mountain HD in Conyers, GA, a town about 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta. From there we were going to the town of McDonough, about 20 miles away, and join a larger group for a 60-70 mile back roads ride, ending up in a little town called Bostwick for a BBQ lunch. Granite Mountain HD is about 50 miles from my house and they'd set the meeting time at 7:30AM which meant I had to get up at O'Dark:30 to get there. Fortunately, the weather was decent...overcast, some fog, VERY humid, but not raining. Having to leave so early and with visibility less than ideal and the sun not quite up, I decided it was a good time to use the new lights I had installed from a vendor (http://www.boogey.com/My%20Pictures/StephenJenkins%20left.jpg) at Bike Week in Myrtle Beach back in May. The picture is not my bike, but one from the company's website. They're a set of vivid blue LEDs that are mounted under the gas tank and inside the air cleaner that reflect off all the chrome in the engine compartment and bathe it with a glow that give the appearance of the engine being under water. It was funny to see some kids faces pressed up against the back window of a minivan, staring at it as they passed me.
Around 8:00AM, the 30 or so bikes from Stone Mountain HOG lined up and left for the 20 mile ride to McDonough. It was a pretty uneventful ride, mostly down one 4-lane road until we got to the town square in McDonough around 8:30AM, which is a typical small town in semi-rural GA. The square has an old city hall building, complete with clock tower, park benches, a couple of statues, and flags. Surrounding the square are small businesses, some of which have been there since the town was founded. Today, the square was decorated with American flags and bunting...that red, white, and blue stuff you see draped on parade grandstands and stadiums during the World Series. It was also covered with bikes. Our group was one of several that was participating in the ride that included the Atlanta HOG chapter, the Blue Knights (police bikers), and the some from a local Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA). All in all, there were about 250-300 bikes. One of the members of the CMA said a prayer and at 9:00am, we started the engines and headed out.
With a group that big, it was an escorted ride, meaning we didn't stop for nuthin' :) The county and city police departments rode with us, stopping traffic at intersections and making sure we didn't get split up. Cars would pull over even on the other side of the road, as if we were a big funeral procession that demanded respect. If you've never been in a large group ride, it's really a sight to see, especially in your mirror. I was about 1/2 way back, and looking in the mirror, the headlights made it appear that I was in the middle of a long, shimmering, jeweled snake that stretched at least 1/2 mile behind me. The weather held out, although the humidity was close to 100%, the temps stayed in the upper 70s or low 80s keeping it comfortable, but very sticky. After being out about 30 minutes, I noticed others ahead of me using hand signals to point out a road hazard and as I approached it, I did my part to point to what used to be a possum that was now just a wet, fuzzy smear in the middle of our lane. Now, if you've never been riding down here in the south in July, you really can't believe the "fragrance" that a wet, week-old Possum pizza can give off. Well, maybe you can, but this had to be the stinkiest roadkill I'd ever encountered. It was all I could do to keep from "barking at the ants". It was the kind of stink that stays with you for several breaths. :vomit:
The ride took us past farms, lakes, old wooden bridges, houses where families were out firing up their grills, kids playing in sprinklers, you know, the typical things you picture about small-town America on a Fourth Of July. Everyone we passed stopped what they were doing and waved, some even honked their horns and we waved or honked right back. About 10:30AM, we pulled into the little town of Bostwick, GA, the end point for the ride. Bostwick is a typical small farming community that holds a BBQ on July 4th for everybody in town and the addition of 300-400 bikers every year pretty much doubles the population of the town. The BBQ is held on a large, tree-covered front lawn of the house that sits across from the main intersection in the center of town. They set up rows of tables and chairs and the local BBQ restaurant caters the event where, for one price, you get a big serving of pulled pork, a ladel of Brunswick Stew, apple sauce, two pieces of white bread, sweet pickles, your choice of desert (brownie, cookies, or pound cake), and a big cup of ice tea made in a big galvanized tub filled with ice, a gallon of tea concentrate, and cut with water from the home owner's garden hose. Can it get more American than that? I ended up sitting across from a this nice older lady who tried to give me a brief history of the town after learning this was my first time to the Bostwick BBQ. She was saying stuff like "Yep, my granddaddy built that there house over there, 'n my momma's 2nd cousin lives right down that'a road over yonder in that yeller house, 'n my brother's uncle is the fire chief". I just smiled and nodded.
You'd have thought such a place would have a parade with the local high school marching band, the local winner of the Miss Whatever contest, the oldest veteran riding in an antique Ford or something but lunch was pretty much it for the day. Being at least 2 hours from home, I decided it would be best to just find the closest interstate and call it a day. Overall, it was a very fitting 1st birthday celebration for me and Smokey, and one that I'll never forget.