Viva Vegas

For four days, from 2/25 - 2/28, I went to Las Vegas for the High Rollers Scooter Rally. It's the biggest rally I've ever attended. Picking a handful of photos for the blog from all the ones I took is the hard part.

It's more than 400 miles from Tucson to Vegas, so we decided to trailer some scooters up there. I got together with some friends from the GGR Scooter Club and we shared the trailer and a hotel room for the rally. The drive up was enjoyable as I got to spend some time getting to know some folks that I had never really talked to before.

In the trailer is Bald John, president of GGR. On the ramp is Smiley and that is his Rattler 110 being unloaded. John K. who rides with the Sky Island Riders and is a member of GGR was also along. At the base of the ramp is Grumpy. He's from GGR in California and mets us in Vegas.

In this pic is the reflection of the scooter parking area as seen from our hotel room at the Golden Gate Hotel located at the end of the "Fremont Street Experience."

This is the same parking lot from a different view point. This is taken Friday afternoon. There were a lot more scooters there on Saturday, but I was busy enjoying the festivities and didn't get back up into the parking garage.

There were a lot of scooters, but this was my favorite. It's a Heinkel Tourist and it's in beautiful shape. This is the scooter featured in the book "I See by my Outfit" by Peter S. Beagle.

Another view of the Heinkel.

There were scooters with weapons and gas masks. They are probably preparing for the zombie apocalypse, which a common concern amongst scooter folk, but I'm not sure why.

Some beautiful Lambrettas brought down from Washington state. They were telling us in the hotel that their truck broke down en route, so they sold it to the tow truck driver, rental a u-haul and drove the rest of the way. Now THAT'S dedication to a rally.

Friday night two of the attendee's got married! I can't remember their names, but they seemed like a nice couple. It was a great time.

Here's a pic of their scooter "limo."

Saturday morning was cold and blustery. John and I decided to find something indoors to do. We found the Pinball Hall of Fame! It really took me back to my childhood. If there was an arcade nearby, I would be there.

Another row of machines. All of them are functioning and are playable.

Saturday afternoon at the Golden Gate parking lot.

Sunday morning was a group ride out to Red Rock Canyon. I was riding in the middle of the pack. This, obviously, is a pic looking forward......

This is looking back. I think there were 30-40 scooters along on this ride. It was a blast.

At a fuel stop, there was a group of crotch rocket riders. They really enjoyed coming over and looking at all the scoots. We had one sidecar rig with us, with the obligatory dog. The bikers loved that.

red Rock Canyon is beautiful. It reminded me of Sedona, AZ or the mountains about Albuquerque, NM. Pictured is John K. accompanied by our two scooters: my black Stella and his red Stella Fireball.

For the most part, we road through the park in groups of 2 and 3. Quite a few of us did stop at this plateau for some pics.

Stella and I stopped for a couple of pics.

At one point, John and I saw these Bighorn Sheep. What a treat.

At the end of the ride through the park, we stopped to get the group back together. Naturally, there a little bit of screwing around while we waited.

Once the group was back together, we went screaming through town for the gymkhana and concourse. There were more scooters there, including this beautiful Honda Gyro.

Some of the scooters gathered at Fred's Bar.

A pic of a scooter going over the jump on the gymkhana.

I'm not really a fan of Las Vegas, but I love scooters and scooter people. That made the trip worthwhile. I'm not sure if I'll being going back again next year or not, but I did have a good time this year.

Below is a youtube video done by Scooter Space. It gives you a good idea of the flavor of the rally. You can see my Stella at 0:33 in the video.

More Book Stuff

Well, I had surgery on both feet last week in an attempt to remedy the chronic plantar fasciitis which I've had for many years,The upside (other than curing my foot pain) was that I would have time to catch up on some reading and other quiet activities and that I would have time to get out and put in some serious scootering. (More on that later.)

It took me only a couple of days to finish "I See by My Outfit." I'm not going to write an extensive review, but it was good. As I mentioned before, the book is not so much about the scooters, but they do play important roles, heck, they even have names: "Jenny" and "Couchette" I think the book is a good read for those into their scooters.

The photo above is a Heinkel Scooter, like Jenny in the book.

In my last post, I mentioned a passage and before I quit talking about this book and move to the next, I'd like to mention another. As our Hero is riding along, "Jenny" dies on him. I don't know if you've ever had your scooter ever die unexpectedly, but I found what he says about the experience to be particularly true. Check it out: "The silence of an engine that has just cut out under you is one of the most chilling quietnesses I know. Drive a scooter for even a little while, and she becomes strangely yourself, yourself grown swift and powerful and untiring In turn, you feel what she feels - a quirk in the wind,a difference in the road surface, the ride or fall of the land - and her sounds become like the noises of your own body, her vulnerability becomes your own."

A "chilling quietness." I really like that description. I've coasted to a stop before, usually wondering if my scooter is okay, long before I worry about how I will get home or to work.

Another book that I got for Christmas (also from my wife) at first may seem to have nothing to do with scooters. Some people will see the connection right away, however. My wife saw that it fits my quirky personality. It's called "The Complete Blokes & Sheds - Behind the corrugated-iron curtains of Australia's sheds." My wife immediately got it for me because I love barns, pictures of barns, stories of barns, etc, etc. However, I love to tinker on my scooter and I'm beginning to rack up some extra parts and tools which are scooter related. After reading stories and seeing photos of blokes and their sheds, I'm ready to get one of my own.

I found the photo above on a Google image search for "Australia" and "shed." I also happens to be a picture from the book. The book talks a lot about the relationship between a man and his shed. Here is an excerpt from a section called "In Praise of Disorder." "The shed is an outbreak of dirt and chaos in what is otherwise a serenely ordered world.... there's a powerful need for a safety valve that allows the pressure of organisation, appearances and expectation to be released."

Here the part I like the best. "It the potential of what can happen in a shed that really matters, not what actually takes place." One of the author's opinions is that while many women have a place like this where they can retreat to in order to create, think or retreat like a sewing or craft room, many men have no such place. This, then, is where the shed comes in.

I grew up on a farm, where we had the "shop." In it, my grandfather used the welder, torch and wondrous tools of his own fabrication to repair farm implements, fashion toys or even to make more tools that were needed for a specific task. As I sit here, I can smell the melange or oil, arc welder smoke and wet earth that existed in the shop.
I do not possess the knowledge or skills of my grandfather, but I think I would like someplace to work on my scooters besides the driveway. A while back, a fellow on Modern Buddy put up one of those 10'X12' Tuff Sheds and then finished it with scooters in mind. One view of it is pictured above. (See the entire post at: http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11262&highlight=garage )

So, now I'm pondering the possibility of adding a shed to my scooter collection.

I mentioned earlier, that while I was off on sick leave for 2 weeks I had

planned on doing some serious scootering (Yes, I know I supposed to

be resting with my feet up, but riding is restful, right?) At any rate, by

the time I'm feeling good enough to go out and ride for several hours

at a time, we are now in the midst of a huge, multi-day winter storm.

I know this is the desert and we need all the rain we can get, but at the

same time I'm on leave and free to ride to my heart's content???

Give me a break.

Ride on,

Howard

ps - What is up with the formatting on this thing? Look at the previous paragraph.