Frenchy's Rant

It all started in a bar. Seems like it always does start that way, with a Guinness in hand, map spread across a table.

“What if we rode to…. How far is it from…. Take a week off, or ride, work, then ride some more?” This is how our rides to Scotland, Baja and across the Unites States were conceived. No matter how complex or ridiculous, the logistics of the planned ride always seem to make sense around the fourth pint or so. Around the fifth the deal is sealed, and we’ve planned another riding adventure, this one a three part epic.

Since The Great Nova Scotia Expedition, my usual riding buddy Abi bought a brand new motorcycle, a Kawasaki Concours 14.


Seems Fireball, his well-traveled BMW Rockster will be spending the remainder of it’s days semi-retired in Florida.

The problem? Abi’s new Concours was parked in his garage deep in the wilds of Florida. Rain Cloud Follows, my Yamaha FJR was parked in the Kingdom of Rhode Island, probably being rained on.

According to our late night, alcohol fueled plan, we’ll both ride out separately, meet in Knoxville, then ride back across the country to California, so the bikes can spend the winter in a warm climate with great roads. (As I said, these ride plans are almost always Guinness powered, thus not always easy to follow.)

With our most recent ride, The Great Nova Scotia Expedition, my beautiful and patient girlfriend Fiona used up all her vacation time, so she wouldn’t be able to come along for part one. She’ll fly out and meet me for Part Two, Baltimore to Knoxville.

What all this babble really means is the first part of this three part epic, heading from the Kingdom of Rhode Island to Washington DC will be the rarest of rare rides for me, solo. Why Washington DC? Simple. RAW, the WWE show that I work on is live from the Verizon Center on Monday, so I have a free hotel room for a few days during work. That’s great, but the best part for me would be riding unencumbered I was free to pick the longest, most interesting route with the best roads I could figure out.

At first, I loved the idea. Riding alone, I could stop wherever I want, whenever I want. Every single lighthouse between Rhode Island and Washington DC? Sure. Nobody would complain! Ride late? No problem! Eat plenty of meat for dinner? Yes! Go out for cocktails after a long day’s ride, even if there’s a Red Sox game on? Why not?

But, while the positives are numerous, the more I thought about it, riding alone just seemed… oh, I dunno… wrong. Might be boring or something. So I did what any rider would do in this situation, I posted a ‘Riding Buddy Wanted’ message on my favorite motorcycling forum, Toyrider.com

I got a bunch of replies from a bunch of goofballs, but nothing really serious panned out. Looked like Part One of this ride would be solo after all.

The day before I left, I received what seemed to be the perfect response. It was eerie. At first I thought it was Abi goofing on me, this guy seemed so similar. A native of Trinidad, just like Abi, this guy wanted to break in his new touring bike, which just so happened to be an FJR. Bizarre. He also had just enough time off to do Part One with me. Weirdest of all, he was also a Red Sox fan. Oh well, nobody’s perfect.

Honestly, all that info sounded good, almost too good, but it was the pictures that he included that convinced me that this was the guy to make the trip with me:

Part One of this epic ride, titled The Misadventures of MiniAbi can be found here.

I entered a few of my pictures in a contest at Parade.com

If you have a second, click on the links below to vote for them, even though they suck. Voting is easy, just click on the little ‘Vote’ bubble below the picture, and remember, vote early and often!!

Cape Cod Sunset

Fishing Town

The Big One

Newport Bridge

Well, I’m off riding somewhere… Probably in Connecti-flaart by now, my new friend by my side… or someplace… Check the SPOT tracking link for exact coordinates if you really care. The ride story will be posted here soon as I write it, and it should be a good one, much better than the fluffinutter that is this post.

In the meantime, I have another insatiable craving to confess to. Yes, I’m not only addicted to Bejeweled, I’ve got another need. No, it’s not motorcycles, either, that habit is pretty obvious I think. My other other addiction?

Drums.

That’s right, I have a drum dependency. Need proof? Look!

My Dumbset

The Dummy Behind The Dumbset

I can’t help myself. Before there’s an intervention, I’m actually off to find a Drummer’s Anonymous meeting right now. Less fluff posts coming soon.

Heading out in the morning for another adventure, this time riding to Washington DC and Hershey. It’s the start of a multi-part ride, the details of which are so mind numbingly complex that I’ll save them for the inevitable yawn-inspiring ride reports. Suffice to say that sometime in September, Rain Cloud Follows and I will end up back in sunny California, if all goes as planned.

Fiona will be joining me next week in Baltimore for Part Deux of this long, strange trip. Abi will be meeting me in Knoxville for Part Trois (Anybody know French? Is that right? Trois? I can’t remember from high school French class… that’s right… Frenchy doesn’t speak French. Go figure!) Anyway, what all this means is tomorrow I will be hopping on Rain Cloud Follows and aiming for our nation’s capitol. I would be making this trip alone, but at the last minute, I found a friend that graciously decided to come along for the ride. It’s his first long ride, so we’ll all find out how that goes together.

If anyone cares, I will have the SPOT tracker activated, so that Big Brother, the CIA, and even the Faithful Fifteen can track me and my new friend as we roll down to DC. Here is the SPOT Tracker link if you honestly have nothing better to do.

Since Dark Meat Snack – the lighthouse hater – won’t be annoying me and pouting this time, I plan to stop at a bunch of lighthouses in Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland on the way. That is, if my new friend is up for it. I think he will be.

Pictures, lies, fictional updates and other moronic drivel will be posted as time and free internet access allows.

Check out Dark Meat Snack, one half of the musical sensation The Cardboard Warriors, in the new WWE backstage audio uniform.

Actually, he found some gaff tape in the same colors as stage manager Warren’s shirt and for the rest of the day Abi was Warren’s Dark Meat Shadow. Yes, he is at ‘work.’ But this temporary insanity is understandable. We all tend to lose our collective minds on the third day of a Pay-Per-View week.