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Published: October 7th 2010
Jim And His Bike
Neat picture for an Air Force Vet.After we arrived at Jim's house and I said my hellos to his wife Sherry and my nephew, Josh, we headed into town to check out the fest. The main part of the rally is on Dickson Street. Fayetteville is a college town. This is the home of the University of Arkansas, the Razorbacks. Dickson Street has lots of bars. Just what every college town needs.
The place was rocking and rolling with hundreds of motorcycles parked along the street and thousands of people walking around. A lot of the bars had bands playing and you could hear them as you walked along. We checked out a couple of the motorcycle vendors on the street, of which there were beaucoup. We then headed down to the beer tent where the main stage was located. There were lots of BBQ vendors there and we ordered a pulled pork sandwich Memphis style, which means they put coleslaw on the sandwich. It was delicious and we got a couple beers and sat down to enjoy the music. The band that was playing was a local band named Earl and Them. Earl was a great lead guitarist and they had a really good singer,
too. Jim and Sherry introduced me to a friend of theirs, Bobby, who was on the board of the rally. Bobby was a good old friendly guy and went out of his way to get Jim and me couple of free beers. They also had a Jagermeister tent there, so Jim and I had to give that a try as well.
The next band was another local band named Oreo Blue. Their lead guitarist could play some mean Jimi Hendrix! It was getting a little late and we decided to head home. Sherry found Bobby again and he had his car parked right by the main stage and offered to take us to our parking spot a few blocks away. We sure got the VIP treatment from Bobby! I sure was bushed by now. It was a long day, riding the bike about 350 miles and then partying until 12:30--not bad for an old man.
The next day, Saturday, turned out to be the last day of the rally which started on Wednesday. Jim had a friend, Brian and his buddy, Fletch in town. They rode in from Kansas City Friday night. Brian and Jim used to
work together. On Saturday morning we rode out to meet them where thay were staying. Jim then led the 4 of us on a nice ride into the country, stopping at a roadside park in the community of Brentwood. The park is run by another of Jim's scouting pals, Rodney. They were raising money to maintain the park by selling BBQ. So of course we had to have a sandwich there. We then rode back into town and dropped off Brian and Fletch near Dickson Street before heading back to Jim's house.
That afternoon, Jim, Sherry, Josh and I headed back down to Dickson Street. The place seemed even more crowded than the day before. We heard they broke the record for attendance, estimating over 400,000 people. There may have been as many as 200,000 bikes there! Pretty big crowd for a town of about 58,000. One of the nice things about BBB is that it is a fund raiser for the local charities. Today was shopping day for us so we cruised all the vendor tents, which number in the hundreds. Along the way we did a lot of people watching and checked out a lot of unique
bikes. After hours of walking around, it was time for dinner.
We took a break from barbecue and Jim and Sherry suggested a little Italian restaurant, Geraldi's. The food was excellent. Jim told me about the owner who had a lot of interesting stories in his life. He had many careers until he decided late in life to open a restaurant. He now has over 35 of them spread out in many small towns. He opens each one himself, teaches the people his recipes, how to run it and then turns it over to a manager who gets an equity position. It sure sounds like a good formula because the place is very successful.
Sunday, Jim and I headed downtown to see if we could pick up a bargain since the rally officially ended the night before. There were ony a couple vendors left, but we did manage to find a couple deals. That evening, Jim and Sherry planned a cookout at their house. The whole family came over; Sherry's Mom, Pat, who lives in a nearby town and was looking great, son Jim and his girlfriend, Shannon, daughter Jennifer and her fiance, Ryan. Jim slaved over
57 Chevy Trike
Wasn't fast enough to get a good picture. the barbecue grill on his deck making some veggie kabobs, steaks and tilapia. Everything was fantastic. We had a nice time together. It was really great to see everyone together. It's been 2 years since I've seen them all. That's when Jan and I rode the bike down for BBB 2008. After dinner, Jim got his guitar out and he and Jimmy jammed for a couple hours. Both Jims play really well, particularly young Jim. He had quite a repertoire of great songs. It got a bit cool out so we went in to watch the Bear/Giant game. Wow, what a stinker that was! It put me to sleep in the recliner and I'm sorry to say I didn't get to say goodbye to all of them, but it sure made for a great visit.
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Fisch
non-member comment
wtf
does this mean you are back and gone again??????