Born on the Bayou

CCR is from Berkley, CA.  They know nothing of the swamps or the creatures that come from them.  New Orleans is pretty much the swampy-est city I've ever been to.  The similarities are never ending.  The local inhabitants are spooky as hell, the stench isn't going away, and at night is when the ooogadie-boogadies come out.  Chauncey and I decided to take a trip and visit my friend Kierstin.  She lives in the Lower 9th ward which is a lot like a 3rd World country, but with more drinking.  We were going to be in town for Halloween Weekend.

 We slept in a tent in the back yard of Kierstin's house with the lovely dog turds and beer bottles.  The house was a step below crust lord layer, but only because they had to pay rent.  There were about 20 people living in the house at the time so it was pretty hectic.  Most of the roomies were nice, but to some our gear wasn't crusty enough.  I think Chauncey fit right in though.

We went in the morning to the French Quarter.  It was about a 4 mile walk, but along the way we met a nice old lady who told us stories about smoking hash in Greece and going to prison.  We helped her get her cat into her car and she was nice enough to tell us some more stories as she drove us to the Quarter.  Some of them were off the wall.  Apparently her friend had been to hell and back and written a book.  From what we've gathered the abortion doctors and the gays got it the worst, and Broseph Stallin is still laughing about all the people he killed.  It was a very eventful 3 miles.

   The next day Kierstin took us out the the swamp.  Chauncey wanted to kill some alligators since he had recently become a fan of the t.v. show "Swamp People".  We probably saw about 8 alligators in all. At first we were convinced they were fake, but after one flinched when we hit it with a stick we were believers.

After a few hours and some snacks it was time to watch the Ol' Timey bands preform at St.Roch's Tavern.  Stumps The Clown among others put on a pretty good show.  Chauncey and I decided to use alternative transportation.  We only had one bike and that only meant one thing...nut to but.

 It was fun to see people playing saws and washboards and gettin down with a kazoo.  Once that wound down it was time for the Bounce Dance Party.  Bounce is the specific beat that the swampy women with armpit hair love to shake their asses to.  It was totally amazing to see the crust punks and hot-jams team united in a clothed orgy.  There were tons of amazing costumes as well.  Chauncey's luscious hair was very sought after from the punk rock womens.  However he was slightly confused by the large quantities of hair they had on their under arms, but once you put a few drinks in Chauncey he doesn't complain about it really.  We had to ride 2 up back from the bar.  Chauncey was too inebriated to be homophobic and I was able to rest my tooshy comfortably upon his testicles.  We decided we'd sleep in the neighbors back yard this night to avoid the harshly judgmental crust lord gear police.  We awoke in the morning and said our goodbyes and headed home.

Oak Trees and Black Metal

Kierstin

Orb Weaver/Wizard 

Swampy Swamp Swamp

Dance Party

Neon Jesus 

      

The American Motor Drome Co. : The Wall of Death

Chauncey and I had the pleasure to help some really cool dudes set up The Wall of Death.  The original thrill show.  Dromes have been around since the 20's.  These guys are keeping a tradition alive and its amazing to see how this stuff all comes together.   

The walls are made of 16 ft. lengths of Douglass Fir.  The wood doesn't have any knots on it.  This makes for a wicked smooth ride.  

The walls are lifted off the truck and into place.  Wally, Mikey, Jeremiah, Charlie, Chauncey, and Myself set this bad boy up in a matter of hours.  The other dudes did most of the work, but Chauncey and I were still sore as shit for days after.      

Jeremiah is part monkey.

Break time.

We set up the circus tent.  They've been doing all this the same way since the 20's.  Nothing too complicated, but it takes some manpower. 

Charlie paints all the signs.  They are wicked and it apparently keeps him out of trouble.

These are the whips.  Old Harley's and an Indian.  Its pretty amazing to watch these guys ride.  

Finished product. 

They don't make parts anymore for bikes this old.  People have to fabricate parts if something breaks or buy 2 or 3 and then mix and match the parts until you get it to run.  Sometimes people find old schematic drawings and fabricate the parts themselves from scratch.  

KC:CO:UT:AZ

As we came into the foothills of the Rockies things began to grow.  Everything was 10 times the size of anything I'd ever seen before.  The rocks the trees the river.  It was all giant.

This was the team.  We were missing Brandon because he stayed back with Taichi to get him on his way home.  Taichi actually ended up going on much more of an adventure than we did.  He was gone for almost a month and pretty much accidentally ended up in New York for a few weeks.  

The Rockies and The Bros

I had never seen anything like this.  The mountains were majestic.  It was breathtaking to ride through.    

The temperature swings were crazy.  It would go from 95 degrees to 55 in about a quarter mile.  The thin air also made our bikes run like soggy bread.  Passing cars became a matter of life and death sometimes, but I guess it always is.  Brandon tried to lay down the hammer and whip around a car, but due to the amazingly low oxygen content his bake denied the request.  So Brandon gave the car next to him the look of: "If you move I die".  He split the oncoming car in the middle and slowly putted past to safety.   

We stopped in a few places to ponder existence.  Duane is particularly good at pondering.  I think he is wondering how hot it will be in the desert.   

So my bike only being a 500cc made it incredibly easy to put slung around the road by the winds.  It was my first cross country trip and really my first long trip on a motorcycle.  The winds and sand were pretty miserable.  Not to mention the heat.   

Here's the choppers.  We tried to do it all professional like with the line up.  

The Grand Canyon was a sight.  However the wonderful state park service charged us $12 to look at it.  I know they need funding to keep it up, but a mandatory charge seems a little scary.  

Here's these observation deck and a little part of the canyon.  

Duane pondering again.

My feet.

The drop.

Note the wicked hairstyle.  You only get that look from bathing in the river and using the bug guts in your hair to give it that extra volume. 

Forever Young.

Tally-Deega

We went to Talladega National Forest a while back.  A bunch of us wend down for the opening of a new skatepark in Greensboro, AL.  It was a lot of fun.