Laughlin 2003 Run to Laughlin
Our adventure starts as they mostly do with frantic packing, screaming kids and endless check listing double-checking and what ifs from my spouse. Jeans check, boots check, leathers..check, oops almost forgot the bike. Thursday morning we start out on my aging motorcycle which is well past legal drinking age in California, with my thirteen year old daughter riding on the back and my spouse of sixteen years following dutifully in the family truckster with my seven year old Dennis the Menace lookalike son and two less than ecstatic dogs.
We swung by our local motorcycle emporium only to see a gone to Laughlin sign and a twenty-two foot burnout. Thats ok I stopped by to get the essentials days ago, shirts, sweatshirts and stickers with the new Freedom Cycles logo. I guess we can get motor oil, spare fuses and plugs on the way. We start out of Orange County on the 91 which at noon had light traffic including several fellow motorcyclists it was a little chilly causing me to wonder where that sweatshirt was. I followed a small group of saved bikers up to the Cajon pass where it was getting really cold, now where is that damned sweatshirt!
We made it to Barstow where we stopped for gas for the third time (my bike has a small tank) and asked the spouse for the gas card I thought you had it oops the gas card is still in Anaheim Hills where we stopped for gas oil and snacks. We broke into the T-shirt and patches money and fueled our caravan and proceeded into the desert heat at somewhat over the posted limit, why did I have to put that damn sweatshirt on anyway! More bikes on the road by now and by the time we hit I40 it was more bikes than cars I was passed by a purple road glide and a soft tail and some time later I passed a tow truck with a purple road glide followed by a couple riding on a softtail (I wonder if they remembered to bring their sweatshirts).
While waiting in line to buy gas (not cheap) in Ludlow I ran into Carlos a concrete worker from San Jose whom had ridden down on a 2001 Bourget rigid and was by this time down to only 3rd and 5th gear with just over one hundred miles left to gohe didnt need a sweatshirt to sweat! The family and I agreed to follow along just in case he didnt make it so we followed on my two hundred dollar bike (the wrong brand) that still had all five gears. A major law enforcement agency had an impressive presence on interstate 40 they brought everybody and their dogs (drug sniffing?). we went up route 95 via the river road cut off due to the fact that to get rolling Carlos had to duck walk his bike to a speed that his 3rd gear would catch without stalling (rather humorous actually if you are not the one doing the duck walking). I kept my response to a slight guffaw out of respect for a fellow bikers troubles. We did discuss the merits of trailering but testosterone put that decision off for at least another year.
We finally limped (literally) into Laughlin and left Carlos at his hotel with an agreement to meet for dinner on Friday, the motorcycle gremlins must have jumped ship because I made it almost to the bullhead city bridge and my electrical system died. After impressing those around me with my grasp of the more colorful words in the English language I found the bike would fire up again and I limped into Bullhead city and the palatial accommodations of my dear mother in laws trailer.
Friday started nice with weather in the 80s I rode over early and stood in line with a bunch of people who were waiting to test ride Harleys I spent most of the day taking those free rides that will eventually end up costing me twenty grand, and watching the local law enforcement making sure that the public nudity statutes werent violated by the hundreds of young women and not so young women on casino drive. The crowds were down from last year, the beer lines only went around the block and you actually had room to breathe in the vendor areas as you walk around looking at the newest things in biking, new trailers, new wheels, new performance mods, and some of the oldest things in biking, women in chaps and thongs, bikini tops, and less. It seemed like all there were having a great time.
Saturday I took my wife on a run to Las Vegas after finding that the electrical problem with my bike was a fifty cent fuse and not a three hundred dollar ignition module. Before leaving town we dropped by the Brembo booth to see some friends and then stopped off at the Harley test ride booth and went for an eight mile test ride on a new Electra glide ultra then we went back to my twenty two year old bike and proceeded to smash bugs all the way to Vegas (now my wife wants me to buy an Electra Glide).
We attended an interpretive dance show at the UNLV campus. We went to a late dinner with the professor (a childhood friend of my wife) and mounted up for the return trip an 1130 pm due to the fact that there were no rooms to be had in Vegas at a price that did not include financing options. It was a beautiful ride with the moon shining blue on the distant hills and, the wind in our faces it was time to put on those sweatshirts again. During a fuel stop in the desert metropolis of searchlight my wife remarked that she understands the whole wearing leather thing now as she sipped hot coffee thru chattering teeth.
One other lesson my wife learned is how you can get dehydrated on a ride in the desert, as we had to spend eight hours Sunday in the ER while she absorbed two bags of IV fluid. We met two Germans on holiday riding rented Harleys who wrecked their rented bikes, another biker who was allergic to bee stings and caught one at eighty and had to get a shot, and one fellow who when bitten by an unknown desert creature cut the wound open and sucked the poison out.he needed stitches and a tetanus shot. I had to leave the bike at my mother in laws to drive the family trickster to bring my wife two kids and two panting slobbering dogs back to Orange County on Monday.
This is by no means a complete picture of the event but merely the account of one man getting away from it all leaving behind pagers cell phones and computers to enjoy the camaraderie and freedom of the open road!?!?!?
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