5.30am arrives on Friday 18th September 2010 an i arise a little excited about the trip that we have been planning for well over 2 years. 6.30 and the Hogs arrive exactly as planned. We greet, give the lovely Mrs Dumpy (if you cant beat them ...) a kiss farewell and of we go (I couldn't say farewell to junior dumpy as she had gone a concert and stayed at a mates house the night before).
We arrive at Heathrow T3 and by 8.30 we are all checked in and ready to go, unfortunately the plane doesn't leave until 11.50, so what are we to do?
9.10am and first pint in hand with the breaky on order, all good.
The flight was just long and horrible, will somebody please hurry up and invent a teleportation pod and do away with long haul flights, i hate flying! It was all pretty uneventful and we arrive in L.A. knackered but happy with the idea that we are all that bit closer to meeting our transport for the week, something i cant wait for.
After a quick meal, a few more beers we head of to bed. The next day arrives and as paddy as already reported (by the way this is probably the first semi accurate information he has written and of course that is slightly exaggerated)we ate our fill of breakfast. Now I had managed to lose 22lbs prior to this trip, and i think that all went back on in a single sitting, but it was good, very good.
7.30am and Ty from Laidlaws Harley Davidson (spelt correctly this time) came to collect us from the hotel. We load up his truck with all the bags and in true team style the 4 of them jumped a board with no room for me and off they went. I had to wait for the 2nd trip.
5 minutes later (I could have walked really) and i am at the dealership and there it is. a Black 2009 Heritage softtail Classic with a post-it note stuck to headlamp that reads 'Matthew Partridge', its all mine for the week and its gorgeous!
We get the paper work done all smooth and I suddenly Realise that i am s******* my self. The bike is about £18,000 worth, its not mine, I have only ever ridden one on a test drive, we need to be on the wrong side of the road and the last bike i owned .. well lets just say it ended in tears! I am crapping my self but so excited its un-true, and as i look around i can see that every one else is feeling the same.
We get loaded up, have a couple of practise laps around the car park and we are off!
Straight onto the Motorway (freeway for the locals) in quite heavy traffic.
The bike is an absolute dream to ride and very comfortable. Ginger hog leads the way and all is fine. 240 miles later and we arrive in Vegas, extremely hot, knackered and if i am honest glad that the first leg is out the way. 15 minutes later and we are at the pool with a beer in hand. The following couple of hours led to a couple on incidence that i wont go into detail on suffice to say I haven't laughed so much for years!
We scrubbed up and went out in for a nose about and some food.
The place is like Blackpool on acid, massive lights and scanterly glad women every where (I hated it Jools honest). We went to a place called Margaritaville (classy sounding hey!) then a wander around The strip. I wanted to go a recreate the closing scene from Oceans 11 at the Belagio, but unfortunately about a 100,000 other people had the same idea!
I am glad i have seen Las Vegas but i am not sure i would want to rush back.
It is now around 1am and I am sat in a hotel room in San Fransisco (will get to that later) so I am signing of for now.
excellent to hear your'e still alive "Dumpy" and "living the dream"...you know, the one you've been boring everyone with for the last few months....keep on living it & write some more plus some pickies eh??
ReplyDeleteColin