Editor’s note: Many years after Steve’s decision to keep his Valkyrie he still has it along with a new Gold Wing. His devotion to this almost twenty year old family member prompted this loopy piece. Advances in modern motorcycle technology mean that motorbikes are living longer than ever before. This raises important end-of-road-life issues, as […]

Is there anything a man don’t stand to lose When the devil wants to take it all away Cherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze ‘Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today – chorus from the Grateful Dead’s Mexicali Blues The road had thought differently about the bikers’ plans […]

Their bikes had been grooving and gliding the past two days. They had made good time and covered beaucoup miles across the southwest desert emptiness. If the bikes had been their dancing partners, they would have said that they were cutting a rug like they used to say back in the 1920s. None of them […]

During the previous day’s wanderings, they had another near out-of-gas experience in the west Texas outback along US 380. It seems that these desert Bible-belt, God-fearing folks don’t operate their gasoline stations on the Lord’s Day. Their engines-off coasting into a Rotan Texas gasoline and quickie mart station occasioned several new candidate nicknames for Augustus […]

Editor’s note: Plain everyday observation and recording of yesterday’s long ago road roam came in dribs and drabs in the author’s journal over many years. Most was a kind of reporting, actually a remembering of the ‘seeing,’ ‘hearing’ and ‘feeling’ from that one night. It was carefully transcribed on found scraps of paper whenever the […]