Frenchy's Rant

Off to Aspen for my yearly winter paid vacation, also known as the Winter X Games. I plan to spend my birthday (which is Sunday) getting comfortably numb at McStorlie’s Pub. A yearly tradition that would be a shame to break.

Blogging at Winter X might be difficult, but I will try to steal an internet connection. (another yearly tradition that would be a shame to break.)

Next to the invention of gravity by Thomas Edison in 1776, global warming has to be the best thing to happen ever!

Today is January 20th, and it is warm enough in Rhode Island to take Stormbringer on a lunch date. I backed my old friend out of the shed, and after a few sputters, the motorcycle came to life with a satisfying roar.

We cruised into Connecticut, past farms and rolling hills, and a few… llamas? Yeah that’s what I think they were. We ended up at the Vanilla Bean, a semi-famous motorcycle hangout.

I joined three other hardy riders for lunch. We had chili, and talked of the upcoming riding season. I told them of my plans to ride to Cabo, they told me of their plans to ride to Vancouver. We had a great lunch, swapped stories and lies, and had a few laughs.

The ride back ended up taking two hours, because I got “lost”. Stormbringer was clearly happy to be roused from hibernation, and didn’t want to return to the cave.

Yes, it is supposed to snow on Monday, so the global warming invention clearly needs a little tweaking. Hopefully in a few more years riding in Rhode Island in January will be a common thing, polar ice caps be damned!

After RAW on Monday night, most of our crew was sitting on the bus. Our utilities were still missing. With a long ride ahead, it didn’t take long for the grumbling to start.

“What the hell are we waiting for?”

“I dunno. Let me find out.”

Grabbing a nearby radio, “Team Utility, what’s the hold up?”

The answer crackled back. “Still looking for two missing yellow jackets.”

“Great.” Two of our ‘yellow jackets’, strong plastic cable troughs, were missing. Even though they are bright yellow, finding them in the arena could take a LONG time.

Fifteen minutes later, “Team Utility” returned to the bus laughing. They’d searched the whole arena for the missing troughs with no luck. Finally, they asked building security if they might have any idea where our misplaced yellow jackets were.

“Yellow jackets? Oh yeah…y’all need to go see Sarge. He’ll know where they are.”

They found Sarge at the building security office. He told them to wait a second, then shuffled off into the back room.

Sarge returned with a puzzled look, and said, “Not sure why you want ’em, but here’s two fo’ y’all.”

In his hand were two extra large, bright yellow ‘Florence Civic Center Arena Security’ jackets.

Team utility called it a night.

This has to be the best name for a restaurant ever. Just say that name out loud a few times…

Not to be outdone, right across the street from Fuck It is…

Opened my suitcase this morning, and realized that I’ve committed the second worst travel error possible.

Yup, I am “Shirt-less in Seattle”. I guess I never bothered to pack any shirts. Looks like I will have a nice collection of new gift shop swag when this trip is over.

But, it could be worse. I could have committed the number one travel error.

Then I would have been Brief-less in Seattle.