At the end of July, beginning of August we were lucky enough to spend a bit of time here in AZ. with our dear friend Mario, and that's MAR E O, not MARY O as those of us from the northeast commonly say. I had just gotten hired on to host the downtown Broken Spoke Saloon in Sturgis for the 70th anniversary of the rally. Once I knew I had the gig, there was much to be determined about the logistics of it all. How would I get there, what did I need while I was there etc. Now understand that since I have ridden a bike, the dream was always to make it to Sturgis and I had countless chances to go. But here is this one thing, I would never go unless I RODE IT ALL THE WAY! The problem was that I lived in Jersey and that would have taken 3 weeks on the road to do it right and I could never afford that time off. Now I live in Arizona and it's a hop skip and a jump away, sort of. So I had to ride right? Wrong! I had so much to bring up there and I just couldn't take the chance on my 63 year old bike breaking from running wide open for that distance and having a slated in stone appearance time. I decided that I would trailer both my knucklehead and Brother Adam's bad ass Trump chop. The original idea was to truck to Colorado, pick up Adam's dad who he has never had a chance to really put on any miles with and roll into Sturgis on two wheels together. As luck would have it, his dad refused. In retrospect, probably a good decision. I had about 300 shirts that I needed to move to make the trip worth it financially so we had no choice, they were loaded into the truck with all our camping gear and shamefully, we trucked in. I have this stupid big landscape trailer that when I pull it, I get about 9 miles per gallon on flat highway and we were going through the mountains. While visiting with Mario and his wonderful wife Pat, I noticed that he had a "real" bike trailer in the garage, one of those stand up kinds. I asked if I could borrow it and being the true friend he is, said yes! That's it, we are ready to roll, it's all perfect, it couldn't be any better right? Famous last words, I know!
So we loaded up all our shit and with $114 in pocket we set out on our trip 1/3 of the way across the good ol' USA, onward and upward to Sturgis, the Mecca of Motorcycling. Like many of us these days, times have been brutal. My wife, although an absolutely amazing realtor was earning shit because the market was just horrible. It seemed that no matter how much money we earned we were always coming up just shy of having enough to cover what we needed. Being sick and having a horrible disease like MS is insanely expensive and no matter the cost, no matter the loss no matter what, Diane's meds always come first and foremost. In a true act of friendship, Brother Adam said, "dude, you got to get there", I will cover the cost of the fuel! This guy rocks! We started out real early in the A.M. and all seemed great with the exception of the fenders on the trailer. For some reason, although they were mounted to the axle itself, they shook wildly back and forth. We spent two thirds of the entire drive staring in the mirrors just waiting for them to sheer off. Unlike a "watched pot that never boils" apparently, if you stare at fenders long enough, they actually do sheer off! As we rolled into Las Vegas, N.M., we heard this horrible sound. It was the right fender. It had broken about 70% off and had pretty much got sucked into and under the wheel. OH FUCK! We managed to cut the wires for the lights, remove what was left of the mount and pull the fender. As luck would have it, THE POLICE WERE KIND ENOUGH to immediately give us their full attention, how thoughtful of them. Well, I guess we passed the sniff test and they pointed us to a welding shop.
We made it to the rally and managed to do it in one piece. Now as the rally rocked on, it was time for Brother Adam to head home via airplane. The trip home was on me and me alone. I was totally cool with that. As you may know already, Sturgis was a huge success for me and I got to meet people that have become friends for life. I had to return to the Spoke County Line Campground to pick up Adam's Trump and re pack all the shit that I had brought with me. Luckily I was about 200 shirts lighter. Upon re-loading the trailer, I noticed a hair line crack in the paint on the other fender, ut oh! I just had a horrible feeling about it, so I wrapped it with a ratchet strap and put it through the bikes and attached it to the trailer loops. An ounce of prevention right?
I made it home without any more incidents thankfully. Now I have this trailer that has literally fallen apart on the trip and I have till April to return it as Mario won't be back in AZ until then....... or so I thought. Luckily having that trailer in the end was a blessing because I was able to help out so many other friends who had broken down, had bad wrecks and move couches as well. Now here is the hitch in the ole giddy up. That April trip actually turned out to be NOW! As luck would have it, NO, I had not fixed the trailer yet, oh boy, I am screwed. Now my friends, Mario's friends, our mutual friends managed to arrive earlier than Mario. So being a good friend, I invited them over and promised to make them a nice dinner. After all, what are friends for right? If you can't feed your friends what good are you? Luckily, the meal was a great one and left all who enjoyed it fit, fat and full. I recieved fantastic compliments and it made it all worth while. After dinner and as they were about to hop on some bad ass scoots, yes even Byker Jym's borrowed Purple Swift, I had mentioned to Lil Ben about how bad I felt that I still had the trailer, hadn't fixed it and I would now be the jerkoff that borrowed, broke and didn't return a friends trailer. SOME FRIEND I AM! In the spirit of true friendship, Lil Ben says "rather than riding down to Tucson, I will stay back and we will fix it before Mario arrives". Really? You would do that? Awesome! The next day comes and Mario's flight arrives at 5:30 p.m. We roll out to Phoenix to Brother Adam's shop to pick up the fender to shoot over to another friends to weld it all up and even plan to fix the shit I didn't break, after all, it's the very least I can do right? As luck would have it, we finished the trailer and pulled out of the yard at, yes, you guessed it 5:34 p.m. We hauled ass back to my house to pick up the spare tire that I forgot and fed Lil Ben again. I loaded up the tire, the lil woman and raced to Queen Creek. I pulled onto the property, rolled the trailer up the mountain of a driveway, pushed it into the garage and went back for the tire from the truck just as Mario pulled into the driveway. I literally got it there moments before he would ever know that I was a complete asshole. Then again, I am sure he already knew that before this. Everyone swore they would never tell him about my delay in the return and I am grateful for that and their friendship but I won't ever lie to a friend.
So then, Mario, here is my confession. Lil Ben, thank you for bailing my ass out. Adam, we couldn't have done any of this without your shop, your tools and your big ass foot. Jym, thank you for having a magical beard and Chris thanks for saying such good things about my cooking, it warms my heart. Mario, I must also say that I am sorry your Rigatoni was sort of dry by the time it got to you.
WITHOUT ALL OF YOU, MY FRIENDS, I WOULD BE NOTHING! Not a single day goes by that I don't realize just that!
Till we see each other on the road somewhere, I am and will remain, your friend Jack Shit!
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