Skeezix says I should listen to more country. Honest to God, I’ve tried. I just can’t stomach it. I love its simplicty, patriotism and sometimes even beat. But more often than not, you need to eat it with a big spoon because its so fucking corny. It’s almost embarrassing. Somewhere in my ego, I think I’m smarter than that. Skeezix certainly is smart, but good Lord, how many times can you wrap a song around a canned line, your truck, a tractor, or that your woman left you?
Now somehow I’ve managed to make a few exceptions, and the exceptions I truly Love. Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell and Maybe an Alabama song here or there. Here’s 2 more, and I’ll play the videos for you.
I love the Maveriks. Have a listen:
How in the world could you not just love that song? Great Riding song.
Dwight Yoakam is the 2nd Exception. I have no idea, because he reeks of twangy guitars and crying voice. I don’t know if it’s because dwight cut his teeth opening up for punk bands in the late 80s, or if his music just resonates with me because of songs like this: (I tend to think its the latter)
At 70 mph out in the nevada or Arizona desert, drinking water by the gallon and going over my week, how could that song not hit home? I own a whole lot of Dwight Yoakam. Can someone please tell me the difference?
All rides are good. Anything over 200 miles where you sleep somewhere new is memorable. Some are more memorable than most.
Early Friday afternoon I rode north to meet my brother Pat at Beryl Junction, about 50 miles away. He rode down from Salt Lake and it’d been a while since we’d ridden together. A few months. I was pretty glad to see him. I’ve said this before, but it’s pretty effortless to ride with him. We’ve settled into a good mixture of fun, beers, an occasional cigar, and busting each others chops. It’s always good company, and Pat is a rider to the core.
We rode the 50 miles to Caliente and stopped at the Knotty Pine for a brew and some burgers. We thought about staying in Caliente for the night, but decided to head on into Rachel Nevada, and I’m glad we did. We rode, Wyatt Earp Style. Great Fun.
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Rachel was great. we had supper there and a few more beers and The Little A’Le’Inn was a nice place to stay. Good Service, cheap prices and interesting people. We we smoked cuban cigars and drank 18 year old scotch as the sun set on the nevada desert. We crashed pretty early, watching Soylent Green on the VCR. Soylent Green, as you know, is people.
I gotta tell you, if you can’t have a good time riding to the UFO capital of the world on the edge of Area 51, smoking cuban cigars, 18 year old scotch and staying in a single wide trailer converted into a motel room watching Soylent Green…. well, your wick is wet. Have If you haven’t seen it, here’s a preview:
Chuck heston is the Shit. I swear the man does his own stunts, in a leisure suit no less! Charleton Heston is my president. I’m gonna be a dick and give you the spoiler right now. If you don’t want to know it, then don’t click this one:
Side note: There, I found the cure for a sore throat at 11 pm at night. A “Nuclear Bomb” is 3/4 shotglass of Tobasco sauce, and 1/4 shotglass of tequila. Instant cure.
The next morning we woke up, skipped breakfast and headed 50 miles to warm springs. Warm Springs Nevada i’ve been to a few times, but this time we checked out the hot springs and some of the old structures. Lots of ghosts there with some unknown stories. I’d still love to hear of someone who knows when warm springs was alive and kicking.
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From warm Springs we went into Tonopah and finally had cell service again, called our wives and had lunch, then moved onto Beatty.
Then we found Goldfield. I wished we’d spent more time there. At one time it was a town of 30,000 people as a Nevada Boom town from the turn of the 20th century. 400 people live there now, mostly because it’s still the county seat. Some neat old artifacts and really old buildings in great shape. I want to go back. Supposedly, the hotel is haunted, and we just drove right by it, not knowing.
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From there on, it was just hot. Well over 100, we opened up and made time. We still had to get to what was our loose destination, the Ghost town of Ryolite Nevada. We pulled in around 1:30 and gassed up, and found us a good bar to settle into to decide what was next. We decided to stay for the night. Our original plan was to ride to Mt Charleston, 100 miles away and tent for the night. We both realized that the 4th of july weekend would make it rough to get a camp spot. Besides, this was a pretty good bar! and there was 3 more next to it, and a hotel across the street where we could park the bikes and walk. We got a room, and then headed into Rhyolite.
Rhyolite Nevada is a ghost town I’d seen on the history channel a week earlier, and realizing it was not all that far away, wanted to go see it. We headed the 4 miles up the road to go check it out.
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Rhyolite started in 1904 when gold was discovered. by 1908 Rhyolite had 10,000 people, forty-five saloons, 3 of the most modern banks in the state, an opera house, a Stock Exchange, a slaughterhouse, two railroad depots, three public swimming pools and dozens of businesses. Rhyolite supported over 85 mining companies. It had power, piped water, telephones, sidewalks and entertainment.
By 1909, it had less than 1,000 people. By 1915, 20 people. by 1924 it’s last remaining resident died.
All that’s left is some of the most bitchen ruins I’ve ever seen. Including a house made up entirely of bottles, a full train depot, and crumbling buildings.
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We stopped and had a beer in the heat, and tripped out over the history and archetecture of a city who’s time had long since passed. It’s amazing to see that in only 100 years a town can disappear. Monolith’s to the history of man.
We took a dirt road deeper into Rhyolite to check out the old jail. When we pulled up, a woman approached us and explained she was making a movie and asked if she could use one of our bikes. I said no. I did not know this woman, and quite honestly, noone sits on my bike but me unless I know them pretty well. Pat was much more open and talked me into letting them use it in their movie.
So a girl got out of her car, walked up to my bike, and started taking off her clothes. It got pretty interesting, and I found that I was hasty in saying no so quickly. I’m a happily married man who is loyal to my wife. This was also not what I thought I’d find at Rhyolite. They were 5 kids from UCLA making a movie about a muslim woman. I started up the bike so they could get the full effect. I will say this, they have good taste in motorcycles. Fast women I think, can sense speed.
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We shook hands, got a picture or two and headed back to the bar to have dinner.
Beatty nevada was a pretty cool town for a town of 1100 people. We found a good spot that served a mean sandwitch, the right kind of beer, and listened to a classic rock band play songs directly from my Ipod and had a great time. Even the fireworks in beatty we’re pretty good. You could sense the town pride.
We staggered back to the motel and crashed. Pat headed out around 7 to make the long ride back to Salt Lake. Thats another nice thing about riding with my brother – we don’t get get butt hurt — either one of us — if we split off to do our thing. We’re both pretty self-contained. I realized he had to go, and he realized I was probably a bit hung over and was 3 hours from home. Around 9 I headed out of town, and made it home.
Great ride. Quite honestly, the whole weekend was great. Maybe my favorite ride I’ve done. Always wanted to stay in Rachel, and being with my bro just made it fun.
Got this in my Email today:
Dear MrZip,
You are receiving this e-mail because of your application for a ride
certification. This note is to let you know that your ride has been
approved and although your ride documents may take a few more weeks to
arrive, your membership has also been approved and entered into the
Iron Butt Association’s member database.
I’ve had the flu all week. I’ve felt like shit. Was originally planning to go with my brother Pat through Nevada to test our our tents and do some riding, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m still not anywhere near 100% and it was raining in Salt Lake we blew that off and made big plans to hit route 66 up next week.
4th of july weekend. Pat will come down thursday night to St George, then friday morning the 4th we’ll blitz to kingman and show him some of my favorite places on route 66 toward Albuqerque. I’m pretty stoked. Pat is my brother, he’s blood, and he’s a damn good friend. We get each other, and we ride like banshees.
More to come….
Ever since I first saw the movie Rocky with my parents in 1975, its been my favorite movie. Not the rocky sequels, and the jokes that its become, but the movie Rocky. I remember driving home with my mother and father from salt lake at 8 years old and basking in the emotion that this movie made me feel. To this day, I still remember the feeling, sitting in back of our station wagon on the way home and how I felt. I felt determined. I got in the fight on the playground the very next day… haha, its funny thinking back on that now.
Sylvester Stallone in my eyes has earned his knocks. He was a starving actor with an idea for a movie back in 1974 and wrote a script for a movie while living out of his car and wondering where he’d eat next. He was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars for the script if he walked away and didn’t act in it. Think of that: You’re starving, and offered six figures in a world you’re not sure you can make it in. He didn’t take it. He stuck by his guns, and took less to act in his own creation. The movie was rocky. To me, the movie is a testament to the underdogs of the world and their dreams. He didn’t want to win, he just wanted to go the distance, and he did. You might laugh, but the original rocky brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it. It’s a man making his way through the world. A man with a whole world of fears and doubts and naysayers, yet he gets in the ring and powers it out. Powerful.
So I’m watching Rocky Balboa tonight on Cable. You may think the movie was a joke by a guy trying to cash in on his franchise, but you can’t say Stallone, who is not the brightest bulb in the package doesn’t understand EXACTLY what he’s saying here:
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. Nobody’s gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
– Rocky Balboa
No matter where you are in the world: Take your punch. Take all of them. Then, move foward.
You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.
This was sent to my inbox today. I rather liked it. SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!
Sherriff Joe
Oh, there’s MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.
The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.
I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, an d fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 – $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.
Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he’s in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn’t doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border He’s kind of a ‘Git-R Dun’ kind of Sheriff.
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO
HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ‘ Tent City Jail’:
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but ‘G’ movies.
He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn’t Get
Sued For Discrimination.
He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.
When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It’s Gonna Be While They Are Working ON My Chain Gangs.
He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.
When the inmates complained, he told them, ‘This Isn’t The Ritz/Carlton…… If You Don’t Like It, Don’t Come Back.’
More On The Arizona Sheriff:
With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts.
On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.
Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.
‘It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,’ Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. ‘It’s Inhumane.’
Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear p ink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: ‘It’s 120 Degrees In Iraq And our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear, But They Didn’t Commit Any Crimes,So Shut Your Mouths!’
Way To Go, Sheriff!
Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes – not live in luxury until it’s time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can’t afford to have for themselves..
