El Dorado, Arkansas - May 5th, 2007
What a great weekend! Loaded up a backpack of only the
necessities I needed for 4 days on the road
and headed out on Vicious for her first trip!! Up to this points all the
rides have been local going to bike
night or work and back (30 miles one way). today I was setting out on a
266 mile one way trip to El Dorado
to meet up with Rendall and Billy for come beer, babes, bikes, bugs, and bands.
Saturday the bands were
scheduled to be playing all day long and duking it out for a prestigious first
place prize. A bike show
featuring peoples choice and placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd was going on
simultaneously.
The whole downtown area was cordoned off and beer was allowed
within those boundaries. The police
presence was felt but they were there enjoying themselves as well other than
having to wear the black
uniforms! They were hanging out around the bikes and chatting it up.
Something I hadn't seen before
was that there were convicts out there during the whole thing on work detail!
These were honorable
trustworthy men that were working off their dept to society though...not the
hardened criminal types.
So, we start our picture session before the show when Rendall
took us for some back road fun. A tour
to the new house, the local corner dogs that come to run down the fence line
when you honk your horn, and to
the Louisiana border just 20 miles down the road to buy up some Powerball
tickets!! Got a few myself. Did anyone
win? Guess I should check my numbers. Goldwing's on me boiz! LOL
First shot is when we parked in a lot on the Arkansas side of
the border and walked over. They have a helmet
law over there and I wasn't wearing mine this morning.
This trip I was shooting with a Kodak 35mm disposable camera
as I was expecting to get caught in the rain on the way home and
only had a backpack to take with me. Maybe I will figure out a luggage rack
later. Here is Vicious and in the distance the Louisiana
state Line (blue sign).
Next shot, Rendall has a seat on Vicious to take a feel of the seat height and placement. A bit short for him, but I built it to fit me!!
Here we are at the bike meet. It is early. This is the first
year they have included bikes with the show. They are
expecting about 50 bikes. When the day was done, they think more than 200 bikes
were present and I would guess that
there were about 70 in the show. Vicious was number 66.
Rendall knows so much ab0out the history of this town and the
buildings that remain. When we were sitting at the
Applebees the first night. he darn near knew everyone coming and going!! It is
refreshing to see someone
so excited about history and the people around the town. He is also an hilarious
host and we had so many
laughs this weekend. Its always great being around Rendall and hitting the
roads.
There were many nice off the showroom floor bikes there and a
few home variety bikes. I tried to get a
few shots of the nicer ones (competition lol).
You wanna ride that thing or play with it? LOL
Nice basic chopped bike. Simple is never overstated.
Then it was parade time before the bike show. All bikes take a
run around town and rev up their engines
and get the crowd into it. There is a smaller event on one side of the
town for the stuffier types and I think
this parade was more to aggravate them than anything LOL Here is Rendall
on his VTX1800.
I think this next shot was over the top of my head or over the shoulder. There's Billy on the right!
Billy and I wound up as number 2 and 3 bikes and then stopped
to block cross traffic. Here is a shot of
coming bike traffic.....
and going bike traffic.
And they kept coming.
Back at the show line up, I give Vicious a quick rub down, mostly to get the fork oil off of the front of the tank and engine.
and Yoazah!! Donna comes by and takes a seat for a photo
op!! Hot stuff right there! I promised her a ride later
but we never hooked up between the beers and the bs'ing.
This guy was wishing he could have brought his bike out!
Time for some mud bugs!! Mmmm Spicey!
Guess I didn't get many shots for the rest of the afternoon.
in between bands they ann0unced the winners
of the bike show. They went 1st place, then second, and then the guy says, and
this next winner comes to us from
a long ways away in Plano TX....that's when Rendall yells out (before the
announcer got to Plano TX) YOU GOT IT!!
High fives and up for the trophies and pics. I guess this shot might be in the
paper this week. 3rd Place is pretty
respectable for the company we had!! Second show and second time I got
3rd. I guess people really do like my vision!
Photo op back on the bike. The hired paper photographer was taking shots so we all got some on our cameras.
Here is a shot of Rendall and his cutie daughter Kortnie on Vicious.
And then the (local) Celebrity crawfish eating
contest!! Charlie the shiney head there was the County Rock Paper Scissors
champ for 2007!!
The girl next to him is Dusty and Drew (Double D's) some local Radio celeb's,
and a couple local business owners, the retired
coach for the South Arkansas University basketball team (not seen to the left).
Henry Frisbee front center there won hands down (and dirty!! Eeww!).
This was an all day event! After dark the beer stands shut
down, the last band played, a group of brothers out of Billy's home
town Fayetteville won the competition. They were playing in one of the the many
downtown clubs after hours. The atmosphere is
so relaxed here in El Dorado and the people are very approachable (if they don't
approach you first) and down to Earth.
This is one of the local cuties I got to know and party with til the wee
hours of the morning.
Billy and I didn't get back to our hotel rooms until 4a.m.!
What a blast and I would go back in a second. For now, got to get some
work
done and send some emails to a few of my new found friends!! Thanks
Rendall for the invite and the hospitality, and especially for
talking to your friends at the La Quinta and getting the great rates!!
Sunday Billy and I headed out and halfway back through
Arkansas I decided to go to OKC by way of the Talimena Skyway!
I had Monday off so had an extra couple days to ride. So instead of parting ways
at Texarkana, we headed north. Not to miss out
on a great ride opportunity, Billy decides to run halfway through the Skyway
with me. He should have some shots on his real
camera (digital) that I can add here later. We stopped at a great overlook and
enjoyed the cooler air and smoked our cigars before heading'
down the road. We parted ways bidding each other farewell until our next
run in a few weeks. The ride to OKC was great, taking
swooping sweeping curvy Oklahoma back roads. I came upon a storm and was
able to finagle my way through it without catching any heavy
downpours. Mostly road spray from soaked roads and vehicles in front of my
tossing the moisture up. I cruised at 85-90 most of the way.
This was a 400 mile day.
Monday I waited out another storm and headed back to Texas
about 2p.m. and never ran into rain. 200 miles to get home and I
wound up with approximately 900 miles for the weekend. Vicious performed
flawlessly and the growl coming from the pipes was
nice to hear cruising down the highway. Just a little more tweaking of the jet
needle and I think it will be perfect. I found I consistently
got 187 miles on the tank without switching to reserve before I stopped to
fill up.
Until next time, ride safe.
Gonz