This past weekend a bunch of The Miss-Fires rallied with some of our favorite fellas to head out to Strange Days Motorcycle show/meet-up/camp-out/live music festival/swap meet in Vernon, NJ. It was Brandon’s (Death or Victory) first ride since his unfortunate wreck 16 weeks ago to the day – a wreck that left him with a broken femur and a totaled bike. We all met up at his garage and waited while he did some last minute adjustments to his “new” 1985 Harley FXR.
We hit the road and ran directly into some pretty rough Manhattan traffic. We did our best to stick together and made it though the Holland Tunnel with everyone except for our girl Rachael and her friend (never got his name!) It was a hot and humid ride so we took a quick break to gas up and hydrate before navigating some fun scenic back roads of New Jersey.
It was a great ride until we turned a corner and basically ran directly into a scary situation. We had found Rachael and her friend, but under the worst circumstances. She had taken a turn a tad too wide and wound up in the woods off the side of the road. Aside from being a bit shaken and muddy, she was FINE (huge miracle). Her Sportster, on the other hand, was a bit dinged up. She lost her plate and her clutch lever. We all hung around while John, Scott, Brandon and some of the rest of the crew worked on rigging her lever well enough so that she could ride it to a nearby dealership to have it fixed.
We hit the road and headed to our first destination, the Chatterbox Drive-In Diner. We just happened to roll in during their weekly car show. The “mayor” of the car show wasn’t too thrilled that our bikes were taking up their precious parking spaces, so we ate and drank our rootbeer floats as quickly as possible and got the hell out of there before we overstayed our welcome.
At this point a few of us who needed to get back to the city (my dog has a small bladder) broke off and took the scenic route back – through Bear Mountain.
The rest of the crew – I’d say at least 20 people – made it to Strange Days and partied into the night.
Let’s do it again for the Gypsy Run! Save the date, September 12-14…Be there!
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