Last weekend was the 30th Annual Open House at J & P Cycles in Anamosa, IA. I wasn't sure what to expect since this was my first open house I'd attended there. Friday morning Dan and I rolled out of Des Moines at about 11:30. Even though the heat index was in the upper 90's it wasn't too bad when you were moving down the road at 80 mph. Traffic was pretty tight on Interstate 80 heading east and we had two near misses, once with a Toyota car and once with a big ol' semi. Dan is one awesome pilot of our ZP...he held his own as we rumbled along the shoulder trying to get Mr. Toyota's attention so he wouldn't kill us. After we got by that I was crossing myself and saying Hail Marys like they were going outta style. Geesh...dumb ass didn't even look. We backed off from the semi when I noticed his turn signal go on as we were just beginning to go around him. I gave him a friendly little wave when he finally got back over and we were able to get past. We stopped in Williamsburg to regroup and I suggested that we head on off on Highway 151 through the Amana Colonies. It was a much better trip after that because there wasn't a lot of traffic.
We stopped off at J & P Cycles on our way to my sister and her families place in Dyersville. There wasn't much going on there besides people setting up for the big weekend. It was estimated that there were going to be about 20,000 people in attendance. WOW! I took a few photos of things I thought were cool.
We got to Margo, Tim, and Sydney's place about 45 minutes later and hung out with them for the evening. My niece is 15 months old now and cute as a bug. I should have taken a pix of her so you could see but I know you'll take my word for it. I'm not bias at all! HA!
Saturday we were up and headed out to the J & P Open House. Glad we got there early because it ended up being very hot and there were sooooo many people. It was great though. John and Jill Parham really appreciate their customers. There was free food, free soda, and free water. They were even walking around greeting their guests. It was a real family affair and surprisingly there was no alcohol that I could see. I met the guys from Throttler Magazine and they were super cool...again...no pix. WOW! lol I met Rick Fairless and Michele Smith. I told Michele how much I missed her on American Thunder. She told me that she could have stayed on but not as the host. I can see why she left. She really did make that show. And I do have to say...that biker chick is a Hottie. She was dressed so freaking awesome! It was funny watching men get their picture taken with her. It reminded me of my experience with Billy Lane and not being able to talk. I just had to laugh. Michele has a website
http://www.michelesmith.tv/ which I'm sure the guys will all like. I told her about my blog and she wrote down the addy. Don't know if she'll look at it but I'll believe she has already! lol
Rick Fairless was as cool as he always is. I got his autograph a few years back at the Easyrider Bike Show in Kansas City. I told Rick about my blog and he told me to send him a link to it. Cool! Rick is having a huge bike show and parts expo in Dallas at the Dallas Market Center on April 10 - 11, 2010. If you are interested in attending the event visit
http://www.rickfairlessbikeshow.com/ or call 952-746-7786. The Strokers Dallas website is
http://www.strokersdallas.com/. I took a photo of my favorite Fairless creation. It's the Janis bike...love Janis Joplin. Peace Baby!
We went inside of J & P a few times to cool off and on one venture into the store I was greeted by the Motorcycle Monster. The look on my face is priceless...I'm being jabbed in the head by one of his spikes and he's also telling Dan that I'm pretty cute and then tells me to ditch Dan and hook up with him later. Too funny!
I've made a slide show of the other photos that Dan and I took of our adventures at J & P Cycles. We watched a stunt show where the guy was doing stunts on a sportster. Amazing. There are a couple pictures of Jason Britton the stunt rider in the slideshow too. The Daytona Harley Davidson Drill team was there and did some incredible drills on their big old baggers. WOW! Visit http://www.daytonaharleydavidsondrillteam.com/ if you would like to learn more about them. And the rest of the photos are bikes, bikes and more bikes.
We headed back to Dyersville for lunch and then loaded up The Ketels' family Suburban and headed over to Lake Delhi to stay at Tim's parent's cabin. It was lots of fun. Drank a lot of margaritas and I finally got to sit by a bonfire! I was soooooooo excited. I got a pix of my sister and Dan both enjoying beers.
