Saturday, the 6th of May was the first annual Doug Bennett Memorial
ride. Doug was a Vmaxer and a member of the Southwest Region, (USA),
VMOA. Doug unfortunately was killed while riding a motorcycle in
Phoenix late last year. The reason for the ride however is not the
real topic of this post ... other than to be mindful of what you are
doing when you are out there.
Every once and a while you have to step back .. sit down and think
about where you are, what you are doing and put things back in
perspective. I am sure that most of us ... no matter where we live
have at least one place to ride that is so off the main stream that
you really have an opportunity to enjoy the ride and not be so
completely pre-occupied with survival or the proximity of the closest
automobile. Saturday was such a ride for us and if I counted correctly
it included a herd of about 15 bikes and with double ups approximately
20 people.
There are a bunch of old towns and communities in Arizona just like
there are everywhere .. There are a lot of ghost towns, old mining
camps and some places that have been dead for the majority of the last
century but the people don't know it or just don't care.
One of the places we ended up in was a town named Jerome. Jerome has a
reputation with the AMA as it attempted to legislate a ban on all
motorcycles from their main street, (and there is only one road in and
one road out anyhow). Upon our arrival into town we cruised down the
main street .... so narrow it could only accommodate parking on one
side and still allow traffic to pass, (in one direction). After
parking ... Jerry Ferguson, (yes .. the VMOA President .. sigh ... ),
jumped on his bike to go find the local hotel where the majority were
intending to stay for the night. This was important because there were
only a couple of rooms in the hotel that had a separate bath or
plumbing. By the time Jerry returned the local sheriff was right
behind him. The sheriff asked who the "leader" was and upon
determining that it was Jerry, (with plenty of help from the rest of
us), ... took his license and registration. The sheriff informed us
that we were "OK" .. but if we made any excessive noise, burnt rubber,
caused a disturbance or created a general nuisance that he would write
Jerry a "big" ticket. The sheriff with his "star" pinned on his gun
belt, (I suppose because no one would take him seriously otherwise ...
seeing a pointed "star" pinned to his shirt), informed us of what the
town would stand for and that they did have a jail. There weren't any
other run-ins with the sheriff for the balance of the day but it was
obvious that 20 people arriving in town all at the same time created a
stressful situation for them and is not one they are normally prepared
to handle.
I guess from time to time you think you have seen it all ... towns
that still require checking side arms, (not that uncommon actually); a
fond memory of a run down motel somewhere between Las Vegas and
Barstow with a big sign that read "We now have showers !!" ... and
well .. you know what I mean. So .. what was the point to all this
"bandwidth" ??? It was to encourage all of you, (if you haven't been
doing so already), to get your bikes in shape and get you butts out
there and find all the little Jeromes in the world ... I suspect that
long before the middle of this century or certainly within the
confines of your lifetime that they really will completely disappear
... never to be seen again .... (no ... there weren't any gas
stations in this town).
Please ride safely and stay alive ... its a lot of fun sometimes ...
campbell
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