2009-11-23 Pinks RTE, 2009 dash n' dine

...Hunter S. Thompson lives on

Hunter S. Thompson would have loved this ride.

True Gonzo, hooligan riding in the land of Lost Angels following King Richard and his Merry Men on powerful road rockets in a splendid display of darkness, bright lights, traffic and cars, of splitting lanes, parking in red zones, of the wonderment and silliness that only La-La Land at night can provide. Serious fun with high speed antics, sweat, new friends just met, of excessive food consumption, wanting to bail out yet to thrilled not too. Of buildings reaching to the sky at midnight, of burping forever trying to digest the big Outlaw burger, then piling it on even higher with Chili Cheese Dawgs at Pinks. Of neon lights etched to memory cells twitching the morning eternal.

Yes, Gonzo would have loved this ride.

It started simply enough, Dean 'Crooked Man' Tanji posts up about a RTE to Pinks, in HollyWeird. I've never been there. Lived in LaLa land for 23 years in a prior life, never been to most of the boni listed. Then Jerry "I'm so White" creates a low stress 12 hour rally around the Bite the Weenie and calls it Yanking the Weenie..

Oh Lordie, here we go. Rider number 16 is on the boil.

So I open up Mapquest, Google Maps, Mapsource, and try to figure a route. How the hell do these guyz do it? I over-engineer, over-stink the whole process, get completely fed up and bail out at the earliest Candy Butt Association opportunity, e.g. FairyLaner offers up 'Ride to my house, we'll catch a couple of boni, have dinner in-between, then head to Pinks!'

Purrfect, I'm in!

So, the day of the event, I follow James Buerliegh's event schedule, wake up bright and early and 0900, get on the bike and down the road at a god-awful 0915.

Hmmm, Breakfast!

Gotta learn the problems of the world early if to solve them by Pinks, eh?

I love the flag of our country, I salute each time I ride by one..

Called Duff from here, my Zumo/BlueTooth/Microphone thingie wasn't so I had to use the cellie naked, <gasp>

Duff said 'go up the road a bit, I'll see you in 45', sure 'nuff, but before I go...

I love doggies

While waiting for Duff, I attempt to fix the errant cell phone / zumo / starcomm problem. End up blowing a fuse, yanking cables instead of weeinies, and having a miserable time.

Duff comes to the rescue, mentions something about ghetto.. little did the white boy know...

On the road, fearless Duff leading the way..

Santa Bab town, TWN's old haunt..

Duff in action

Skooter arrives at King Richard's, aka FairLaners, after first stopping 2 houses up.... Uhh, Skooter, see the other FJR's 2 houses down?

Leaving out, FairLaner sez "Let's get the Watts Tower bonus." Me thinks that ain't such a grand idea..
Being that we be but 6 white boyz and all. But Johnny80's, all 6'19" and all sez, 'what the hell, they can't take all of us down!'

I quickly eval the situation and realize that FairLaner would be the goat in this potential sandwich and feel instantly better, the food chain, pecking order and all in place is favorable for my survival. Go Gonzo, GO!
[sorry, photo erased, it showed address and house and I don't show such info unless ok'd by the owner, it's a privacy thing and al]

Anybody you know?

So off to Watt's Towers we go, 6 white boyz in the dead of night, and I'm so happy I went. The hood was less tough than the area I lived in Inglewood during the 80's. No problems, except for the possible encounter with a couple of gang bangha's in the cross walk, but even that was mellow, hell, no one got shot, no fireams were drawn, no cuss words spoken

'Tell Richard to keep his fucking mouth shut when in Watts' was a direct quote from my loverly!

The towers..

SkooterG

Richard

From there it was total blur of speed, splitting lanes, bike jogging and positioning in LA Traffic. Johhny80's did a great job of running sweep, and I let the other riders cling to mamma RickTard as if the lead duck would somehow leave them stranded in ghetto town, alone, in the dark, and lost. LOL, I had GPS and each bonus way pointed, so I cared less. Besides, I'm big, I'm tough, hey, the radio is playing 'La Woman' and 'driving down your freeways, cops in cars, the ghetto bars, never saw a woman so alone, so aloone!' and on through the night the 6 intrepid FJR warriors rode outta Watts to Play Del Rey, white boyz town, where we feasted at Outlaws, good burgers n' booze.

Tres amigos leave the burger joint..

From here on out it's all a blur. La Brea Tar Pits, something about Caldwell's Mobiles, deep into the belly of the beast we road.

At this point, like a bad acid trip, I'm just along for the ride. Each green light is an 1/8th mile sprint splitting, not sharing, but SPLITTING cagers, parking in red zones (hey, King Richard said I could), off the bikes, take a foto, on the bike, race another 1/8th, off the bike, hey, why am I sweating like an August pig in Creston, oh jeesh it's 75F here in the belly of the beast, and I have all my gear on and me n' Johhny80's are living sweating proof at how good CyclePort liners are at keeping one warm,just sayin'..

The neon lights were eclectic, electric, the mood charged. I really wanted a true street fighter ride about now, it was soo much fun blasting yellows and even reds, shredding across cross walks, I felt like 6 middle aged ruffians Ruffianizing LA and tearing this beasts soft fat poly-saturerated underbelly out from groin and using it for bacon fat.

Yeah, we bad.

The only thing missing was a hit of acid and some good whiskey, ahh, the younger days that never were..

And on to Grauman's Chinese, what with weirdo peeps everywhere. RenoJohn would have felt right at homo on the range, pole gazer that he is..

Old Michael was on scent..

Kalediscope scenes, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds playing on Sirius radio..

Hollywood, dah dah dee dah, Hollywood!
Where the freaks are the riding is fine,
Hollywood, dah dah dee dah, Hollywood!

And off to Tommy's, some kind of burger stand that's been in LA forever. Some of our finer riders were so eXcited to be at Tommy's that they rear-ended Fairlaner, of course, that's not the first buggering' he's been through, just sayin'..

The damage done.. see anything?

Johhny80's was fascinated by the archetecutre, as was I, this house right next to Tommy's

and of course, merge left, eh?

Leaving Tommies,the mad dash around deep downtown LA, the tall buildings bigger than what we have in Creston, seemingly touching the sky and beyond. Wow, take it all in, break out the camera, oh damn, green light, time for the 800 yard mad dash, shit, the light, yellow/red, intersection clear, run it! WTF? Where's the camera? Oh, good, hanging by the tether, oh lookie at the building! Repeat, go Gonzo, neon lights and belly of the beast, hey, I'm actually enjoying this debauchery of lawlessness, this city shit of who cares, who knows, and what goes; it's all quite surreal, then next thing I know, we're at Pinks, biting weenies, laughing and enjoying stories by the the true LD riders, not CBA members like me, lol.

Pink scenes..

Mr. Tanji to you..

TurboDave, my Hero, seriously, no joke.

..to be continued

LOL, the menu

Famous stars eat here too..

KaitsDad and Kait! Two very nice folks, this was her first 'long ride' of about 40 miles.

03SilverBullet, Steve, and ?? Oh I'm soo sorry I don't remember..

Dean Tanji and Tom Melchild,

Say goodnight to Pinks, my first ever, and what a fun ride, full of, as RenoJohn would say 'silliness' and good times.

Thanks to FairLaner for the fun ride, and to KaitsDad and family for putting me up overnight; truly a fun ride, one I'll remember until at least next week

Hugs n Kisses