Category: Feel Good Stuff

Shinya Kimura at the Harley Museum

By Joe Berk

Astute readers will remember our post on Shinya Kimura, an artist who works with metal and motorcycles to create motorcycle art.  I was both pleased and surprised to see one of his creations at the Harley Museum during our recent Milwaukee content safari.

“Spike,” Mr. Kimura’s custom Knucklehead, was in a Harley museum hall that focused on custom motorcycles, and even before I saw his name, I knew whose work it was.

I believe “Spike” is the very same motorcycle featured in this video:

The Shinya Kimura shop, located in Azusa, California (not far from CSC Motorcycles) is one of the more interesting places I’ve ever visited.  I think you would enjoy it, too, although it is not open to the public.  I was there on business reasons, and I captured some great photos.  If you have a chance, check out our earlier blog.

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Krabi, Thailand

By Mike Huber

After 5 weeks on Koh Tao it was time to move on to explore more of Thailand.  I was becoming complacent and really had a lot more to experience in Thailand before my visa expired.  Being comfortable in one place was a new feeling for me, and although it was a wonderful feeling it also meant that I wasn’t growing, which was a huge part of undertaking this journey. There was a lot of Thailand I hadn’t explored yet, but I wasn’t up for a flight.  So, after talking with others the city of Krabi kept coming up as a place of beauty.  So Krabi it was.

Krabi is a rather large city and after having recently spent two weeks in Bangkok, I was really done with large cities.  As with most cities you really cannot absorb the full culture there.  Yes, there are museums, temples, and other tourist attractions, but to fully feel the true heartbeat of a region you need to travel off the beaten path, which in most cases means meandering around the countryside.

Ao Nang is the “countryside” of Krabi, and although Ao Nang wasn’t that far off the beaten path, it was near the Andaman Sea.   There is easy access to ferries that could bring you to any number of islands quickly. This would make for a perfect base for a week in order to partake in island hopping day trips and even an overnight trip to Railay Beach.

Railay Beach wasn’t an island, but a remote peninsula that was only accessible by long tail boat.  Just a 15-minute boat ride and you were on what felt like on another planet.  The beach was beautiful with crystal clear waters around limestone mountains that popped out of the ocean in every direction.  There were monkeys running around and even parrots in the trees above me. The people here were on island time; there was no rush or hurry to do anything. Railay Beach was the perfect place to watch the sunset while drinking a cold Chang beer listening to a local play classic rock tunes in a smoky bar while people sat almost invisible in the far back on cushions enjoying their mushroom shakes with neon paintings glowing to guide the journeys they were on.  It was really a unique place, and for me to be saying that means a lot.

The remainder of the time in Krabi I spent on the beaten path joining in tours of the many islands.  The days were lazily spent snorkeling, sunning on the white sands, and embracing the emerald-green waters.  Ao Nang is yet another location on this trip where I seemed to continually extend my hotel stay day by day until I realized a week had passed and it was now time to move on to the next adventure.  My urge to leave was fueled by my new hobby of scuba diving.  Once again it didn’t take too long to decide my next destination: The Phi Phi Islands.

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A Stag Film?

By Joe Berk

For a guy who doesn’t collect knives, I sure seem to have a lot of them laying around.  The one you see above came to me as part of what is perhaps the greatest sales gimmick of all time:  The “$100 Ships Free!” offer.

You know, the MidwayUSA.com come on…orders over $100 ship free.  I ordered a Safariland 1¾-inch wide belt in a smaller size because I lost weight, I got down to the last belt buckle hole on my old Safariland belt, and my pants were still loose.  The new belt was $71 (a lot, I know, but it works well when carrying concealed and Safariland makes a very high quality item).  If I could kick the order over $100 the belt would ship free.  Shipping if I didn’t make the $100 hurdle was $15.  So this Uncle Henry knife popped up, and it was like getting the knife for half price, because it ordinarily cost just over $30.

Bam! Add to cart.  A no brainer, if ever there was one.

The knife is a Schrade, part of their Uncle Henry line.  I don’t know if that means it’s good or not so good.  I couldn’t find anywhere on the knife that says it’s made in China, but I guessed that it was.  A quick Google check confirmed it.  That’s not a bad thing, though.  The knife appears to be well made.  A lot of things that are made in China are good.

The Uncle Henry knife came with a sheath and a tiny sharpening stone in another piggy-backed sheath (the idea being that you’ll always have a way to sharpen your knife), not that I’ll ever use the sharpening stone.   The stone is small enough that I could see myself slicing my hand open trying to hold it.

The Stagalon grip material is some sort of plastic that is supposed to look like, you know, stag.  That’s okay by me.  For just over $30, I wasn’t expecting real stag.  I wasn’t expecting the Stagalon to look as good as it does, either.  That was a nice surprise.  Stagalon. I guess I could make a video of the knife and call it a stag film.  Maybe just saying stag film will result in a lot of hits.  Do they still call them stag films these days, or is that no longer politically correct?.  Isn’t that terminology kind of insulting to all the deer out there sweating out this hunting season?  Anyway, to get back to Stagalon, the handle doesn’t quite match the look and feel of real stag, but it is kind of cool and it is nice.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my Uncle Henry Stagalon knife, other than look at it for awhile and write a blog about it.  If I was a camper I suppose I could wear it in the woods, but I don’t camp much these days (in my golden years, I find I like motels a lot better).   No, this knife will go on the shelf, along with a bunch of other “$100 Ships Free!” knives.   It is kind of cool, though.

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A.J. Baime’s WSJ Enfield Piece

By Joe Berk

A.J. Baime writes a weekly “My Ride” column for the Wall Street Journal.  It’s something I greatly enjoy.   The stories are always interesting.  Most of the time, the Baime columns are about cars.  This week’s piece was about a motorcycle; to be specific, a 650 Royal Enfield twin.  That’s a marvelous motorcycle.  I know.  I ride one.  Mine is the orange one you see above.

Marc Forgione on his Royal Enfield 650 INT in New York City.

This week’s story was about a chef (Marc Forgione), a man who owns three restaurants in New York City.  Mr. Forgione appropriately concluded that a motorcycle is a great way to navigate New York City’s traffic and parking challenges.   I think that’s pretty cool.   New York law does not allow splitting lanes, but my guess is that Forgione is a well-known guy and local police officers look the other way (Lord knows they have enough real crime on their beats).  Lane splitting is legal here in California and I do it all the time. It really makes a difference in getting through congested areas; it was a way of life for us in Colombia and China.

Mr. Baime, our compliments on your Wall Street Journal column, and especially on the one you wrote for yesterday’s edition.

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The Sopranos: The Final Scene

By Joe Berk

Very few (if any) final scenes have sparked as much discussion and controversy as the final Sopranos scene.  Tony Soprano and his family are meeting for dinner at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, New Jersey, the fictional mob wars between the New York and New Jersey families have ended, and we think all is well.  Their favorite local restaurant is Holsten’s, which Tony mentions in the series.  Is it a real place?

Absolutely.  And it’s good.  We found Holsten’s and had lunch there (it’s at 1063 Broad Street in Bloomfield, New Jersey), and I was surprised.  The place has to be the most famous small local restaurant in the world, and you’d think with the kind of publicity they’ve had, they wouldn’t be very good.  People from literally all over the world (more on that in a minute) find their way to Holsten’s.  But it is good.  Very good, in fact.  More on that in a minute, too.

I was able to park directly in front of Holsten’s, and as I was getting out, I noticed a young couple scrambling to cross the street and get into the restaurant.  I had an idea why, so I slowed down a bit.

Okay, to make what I’m going to show you make sense, I need to tell you a bit about that last scene up front.  In the photo below, there are three Holsten’s locations you need to know about.   The photo below shows them as you enter the restaurant.

As you enter Holsten’s, there’s a long lunch counter and booths at the back of the restaurant. Arrow B points to where the likely hitman initially sat. Arrow A points to the small hallway that leads to the restrooms, where the shot that took out Tony was fired from. Arrow C points to the booth where Tony sat, enjoying his onion rings, when he got whacked.

That young couple racing to get into the restaurant?  I was right.  They were hustling to grab the booth all the way in the back, where Tony, Carmela, and AJ sat.  In the Sopranos scene, Tony was flipping through the mini-jukebox on the table.  Today it’s the only table in the restaurant that has that little jukebox.  They used to be at every table in any New Jersey diner.  Notice the sign denoting the booth, too.

We sat one booth up from the Sopranos’ booth and we started talking to the young couple I mentioned above.  They were doing the same thing we were: hitting locations that appear in different Sopranos episodes.   Sue told them we were from California.   They told us they were from (get this) Poland!  Yep, they flew all the way from Poland to do what we were doing.  These folks were serious Sopranos fans.  Check out his tattoos:

This is beyond being a mere fan, I think.
Impressive. Christopher, Tony, Silvio, and Pauly. And before you ask: Yes, I know these are fictional characters.

You no doubt realize by now that I am a serious Sopranos fan. But I don’t have any tattoos denoting any of the characters in The Sopranos, and I have no plans to get any.

We had a lunch, and (as mentioned above), it was surprisingly good.  I had a tuna melt.  We ordered a plate of onion rings.  Just minutes before he got whacked, Tony Soprano said they were the best onion rings in the state.  I’ve sampled a lot of onion rings in New Jersey, and I think he was right.

The menu was simple. Our lunch selections were excellent. The people from Poland thought so, too.

We left feeling pretty good.  I grabbed one more shot with my cell phone.

A parting shot: The Holsten’s storefront.

About that last scene:  The audience never does find out exactly what happened.  Tony looks up as Meadow (his daughter) is entering the restaurant, and the screen and the sound suddenly go to a silent black.  Most people thought their TVs had gone out.  I did.  Then the credits start rolling by, and we realized that one of the best series ever, all six seasons of it, were over.  It was brilliant.

Take a look, remembering the locations I pointed out in that photo above.

The Sopranos ExNotes Wrap Up (for now)

Well, sort of.  I’m not entirely done with The Sopranos. This is the fourth (or maybe fifth) one of our blogs on The Sopranos, and I don’t have any more planned until the next trip back to the Garden State.  About that “maybe fifth” business:  One of The Sopranos episodes takes place in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.  I rode the Pine Barrens when I did the piece on Jerry Dowgin’s Honda 305 Scrambler (rest in peace, Jerry).  The Sopranos episode didn’t actually take place in the Pine Barrens, as anybody knows who’s ever been there (it was filmed in a forest somewhere in New York, and they didn’t even have pine trees).  Parts of that episode were funny as hell, though, as you can see in this clip:

The other three Sopranos blogs we’ve done recently are:

Please let us know if you enjoyed our Sopranos sojourn.  Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

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The Harley-Davidson Museum

By Joe Berk

I’ve been a motorcycle guy nearly all my life and I’ve owned several motorcycles.  Only two of them were Harleys; the first was beautiful but terrible in many ways (a ’79 Electra Glide Classic).  The second was beautiful and it was a great machine (a ’92 Heritage Softail).  I think Harley’s styling on past models has been awesome.  Bottom line? I’m not a Harley fanatic and I’m not a hater.  It’s not likely I’d ever buy another Harley, unless I came across a cheap XR-1000 (and that’s probably not in the cards).  All that said, I can tell you that the Harley-Davidson Museum is the best motorcycle museum (and maybe the best anything museum) I’ve ever visited (and I’ve visited a lot of them).

First, a bit of logistics about the Museum and our upcoming blogs.   We were in Milwaukee specifically to visit the Museum along with a few other Milwaukee highlights.  The Harley Museum is too much to take in with just a single visit, and it is definitely too much to cover in a single blog.  Our Milwaukee schedule allowed only one Harley Museum visit, but I’ll cover it in three or four blogs.  This is the first.

Sticking to the logistics for a moment, the Museum is easy to get to.  Plug it into Waze and you’ll drive right up to their front door.  There’s plenty of parking, and we snagged a handicap parking spot right at their front door (my handicap tag is the silver lining to a 2009 motorcycle accident).  We visited the Museum on a weekday, so it was not too crowded.  I’m guessing that’s not the case on the weekends.

Admission is reasonable at $24 per person; for us it was a little less because we qualify for the geezer discount (that knocks it down to $20 per person).  Knowing Harley’s customer base, I think a lot of folks get in for $20.

The interior lighting was subdued.  Flash photography is allowed, but it’s hard to get decent photos with flash.  Nearly everything you see here is with ambient lighting.  I had to crank up the Nikon’s ISO, so you may see some graininess in my photos.  Mea culpa.

The Museum has three floors, and the building is huge.  There are several permanent exhibits and a few special exhibits (ones that change from time to time).   The exhibits (both permanent and special) include:

      • Motorcycle Galleries.
      • Mama Tried.
      • Mi Papi.
      • The Engine Room.
      • The Archives.
      • Military Motorcycles.
      • Clubs and Competition.
      • The Tank Wall.
      • Art and Engineering.

Motorcycle Galleries

The Motorcycle Galleries are on the first and second floors, and they dominate the Museum.  The Motorcycle Galleries is an appropriate name. The first part is a 180-foot, three-motorcycle-wide display of motorcycles from Harley’s first 50 years, starting with their very first model.  The second part features later Harleys.

It was a well assembled exhibit and the motorcycles are beautiful.  As I walked the line and took in the motorcycles, I realized I had seen more than a few of these bikes in books.  Seeing them in person was special.

Mama Tried

Mama Tried was a custom bike exhibit, containing all sorts of custom Harleys (not the wigged-out choppers you see at the motorcycle shows).  I’m not sure what the name (Mama Tried) is supposed to mean, but I thought the exhibit was good.  I was liked seeing the Knucklehead customized by Shinya Kimura, whom we’ve written about before.

Mi Papi Has A Motorcycle

You may remember that Joe Gresh wrote an ExNotes review a few years ago about the Spanish language kid’s book, Mi Papi Has A Motorcycle.  The book impressed Gresh; apparently, it had the same effect on the Museum staff.  There’s an entire hall with large storyboards taken from the book.

The Engine Room

The Engine Room was enlightening.  I always found the history and names of Harley engines confusing.  VL, UL, flatheads, you know…what do all those designations actually mean?  I’m a mechanical engineer and I never could follow it all.  The Engine Room made it all clear.  We’ll have a future blog on it.  This was one of the best parts of the Harley Museum.

The Archives

The Archives were something I’d read about before.  An elevator takes you to the third floor.  The archives are not open to the public, but you can peer in through a double wire fence.  One of Elvis Presley’s motorcycles was near the fence.

Military Motorcycles

The Military Motorcycles exhibit features the Harleys used in World War II and it was the best exhibit of its type I’ve ever seen.  This is a topic I’ve been interested in for a l0ng time, going back to before I wrote The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles.  There will be a separate blog on this exhibit.  It was awesome.

Clubs and Competition

The Clubs and Competition exhibit features a board track with vintage race bikes and projected images of motorcycle racers (and accompanying engine sounds), vintage Harley hill climbers, and Joe Petrali’s land speed record Knucklehead.  The Petrali streamliner was awesome.

The Tank Wall

The Tank Wall and the tank exhibits were intriguing.  I’ve seen photos of it many times, but to see it in person had more of an impact.  To me, the tanks and the engine are what make a Harley.  It’s well done.  I felt like a kid in a candy store more in this part of the Museum than anywhere else.

Art and Engineering

The Museum has a relatively new Art and Engineering exhibit, which is intended to show how art combines with engineering at Harley-Davidson.  I was disappointed, especially because it was one of the main reasons I visited.   I felt it was superficial and that it was basically a Harley-Davidson commercial, with almost nothing beyond a very light explanation of how Harley engineering is influenced by art.  I get it; they go from sketches to clay mockups to metal, and they select colors along the way.  Got it.  They use CAD.  Got it.  Willie G is a wonderful human being, and so was an earlier designer/stylist named Brooks Stevens.  Got it.  I kind of knew all of that before I got on the airplane to go to Milwaukee (except for the part about Brooks Stevens; that was new to me).

When the motorcycling world discovered Willie G 50 years ago (in the days of the Super Glide, the XLCR Cafe Racer, the Electra Glide Classic, the Low Rider, etc.) there were lots of stories about how Harley went to motorcycle events and studied how riders customized their motorcycles.  That was good stuff and those were good creativity inputs, but there was none of that in this exhibit.  I was hoping to understand how Harley selected the style and the performance parameters for the new Sportster (a nice-looking motorcycle) and the Pan America (an ugly motorcycle, but all ADV bikes are), and maybe gain some insights into where Harley might go in the future.  There was none of that.

I’m probably not a fair judge in this area.  I taught engineering for 27 years at Cal Poly Pomona, I’ve had motorcycle engineering assignments related to Harley and other companies, and I wrote a book about engineering creativity.   To be fair to Harley, they weren’t targeting retired engineering professors when they created the Art and Engineering exhibit.  The exhibit had nice visuals, but for me it was devoid of any meaningful content.  That said, we took in nine exhibits at the Harley Museum and only this one didn’t measure up to what I expected.  The rest were all outstanding, and 8 out of 9 wins is a pretty good score in anybody’s book.

So there you have it:  My Harley-Davidson Museum impressions.  Sue and I had a good time.  We were there for about three hours, but it would have been easy to spend the entire day.  My disappointment in the Art and Engineering exhibit notwithstanding, I strongly recommend that anyone who rides or has even a passing interest in the American icon that is Harley-Davidson visit the Museum.  It’s a bucket list destination.  I’m glad I went.

At the tail end of our path through the Harley Museum, there’s an area with current model Harleys where you can sit on the bikes and take pictures.  A nice guy from the Czech Republic offered to take a picture of Susie and me with my cell phone. It looks good.  Our smiles are real.

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ExNotes Review: The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam

By Joe Berk

This is the first of several book reviews to follow in the next few weeks.  The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam is the true story of the second wave of Tuskegee Airmen.  The first wave included the Black aviators who flew combat missions in World War II.  There have been movies made about those men and their accomplishments are well known.  The second wave refers to Tuskegee airmen trained to be helicopter pilots by the famed Alfred Anderson, who trained the first wave for World War II.  Their exploits and the paths they blazed are not nearly as well known.

I happened on to The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam as a result of visiting one of the pilots featured in the book, a man who was my first boss when I was in the Army in Korea.

The story is fascinating on many levels, not the least of which is the story of the author, Dr. Joe Ponds.  He was one of the more or less (that’s where the “m.o.l.” comes from) 600 Black helicopter pilots in Vietnam who flew Huey and Cobra gunships during that war.  The book begins with the author’s end in sight:  A cancer diagnosis with only a few months left to live.

What do you do with what is essentially a death sentence diagnosis?  Dr. Joe Ponds decided to tell the story of the Black helicopter pilots who flew in Vietnam.  Theirs was not an easy path.  They faced institutionalized racism and discrimination in both civilian and Army life.  These men managed to overcome limits imposed by others and they became U.S. Army aviators.

The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam covers seven major topics:

    • A brief history of discrimination in America and efforts to overcome it.
    • Dr. Pond’s experiences in gaining a officer’s commission in the US Army, and then becoming a helicopter pilot.
    • A discussion of the different types of helicopters flown in Vietnam.
    • A review of the kinds of helicopter missions in Vietnam.
    • Stories from several Black aviators featured in the book.  All were interesting, especially the ones who flew medevac helicopters.  Those helicopters flew with no armament whatsoever, and they were literally sitting (or hovering) ducks when they flew in to retrieve wounded soldiers.
    • A list of the approximately 600 Black aviators who served in Vietnam.
    • A chapter describing how Dr. Ponds’ cancer went into remission and his subsequent activities on several fronts, including mentoring young people, counseling, helping first responders cope with post-traumatic stress syndrome, motivational speaking, and more.

The 600 m.o.l. Black Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam was a great read.  I know you’ll enjoy it.

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Rescue Diver Certification

By Mike Huber

With an open schedule and in need of some routine I took it upon myself to enroll in a Rescue Diver Certification Course.  With still being in Thailand and continuing to dive while learning every mistake not to make it only made sense to become more proficient if not for myself, then for the fellow divers around me.

Returning to Koh Tao Thailand seemed the perfect place to take this course.  With so many dive shops on the island and being unsure who to use for this next level class I did what I always do.  I went to a bar and chatted other divers up.  One shop that seemed to always be spoken highly of was Scuba Shack.  It was not only a great decision to choose them for their professionalism, but it was right next door to where I was staying on Sairee Beach.

There are several requirements prior to beginning the rescue diver course. One is having an advanced scuba certification which allows you to dive to a depth of 30 meters and further educates you on proper buoyancy while underwater.  Having just taken this a month prior helped me as the fundamentals were still fresh in my head.  The second was to obtain an updated First Responder course.  This part of the class was half a day and entailed covering CPR, proper bandage application, and procedures on how to help others in numerous types of emergency situations from car accidents to everyday incidents you may come across anywhere on land.  Once that was completed and I passed the online course, the real challenge began.  Scuba rescue operations while at sea include incidents well below the water’s surface.

The water rescue portion was what I was really itching to learn.  It was a challenging experience both mentally and physically.  Many of the scenarios involved how to identify and treat divers who are exhausted, panicked, or unconscious.  Another major prop I will give Scuba Shack is the actors in these scenarios did a fabulous job (I think I may still have a lump on my head from rescuing the panicked diver).  The most work was in having to rescue an unconscious diver underwater.  This included how to bring them safely to the surface, how to bring them to the boat while they are yelling for help, and providing rescue breaths every 5 seconds (including doing wo while taking both your gear and their gear off).  It was humbling how much work and focus it took to perform these tasks with precision. My partner, Naz and I managed to successfully perform these tasks both solo and as a team.

Upon completing our final skills test (which was an underwater navigation search and rescue), we both relaxed on the boat celebrating with some coffee and fresh fruit when we heard several people screaming for help in the water.  It was the final exam. Naz and I had to rescue three divers needing help.  We had to prioritize each one and work as a team to safely rescue them all in order of priority.  We performed this successfully.

We both passed our course, and our confidence and diving abilities greatly increased from attending this class. Naz is currently in the Dive Master Program with Scuba Shack on Koh Tao.  She will be an excellent dive master.  My travels are continuing; I’m currently examining a map and selecting the next country I’ll visit.

I want to thank all the wonderful people at Scuba Shack and our instructor Sita on the great experiences during this class and on our fun dives we performed several times each week.

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The Sopranos: Asbury Park

By Joe Berk

Asbury Park, New Jersey, is another Sopranos location.   In the series, several episodes depict Tony Soprano’s dreams.  It’s a well-worn cinematic technique, but David Chase (The Sopranos writer) did it well.  In the Asbury Park scene, Tony has been diagnosed with cancer and he pours gasoline over himself and self immolates in front of his minions.  Tony’s a good guy, you see, and he wants to short circuit his suffering and spare his friends the hospital visits associated with his impending lengthy illness.

In the video above, the building that spans the boardwalk is the Asbury Park Convention Center.   You can see it and the boardwalk, along with the beach (what we in New Jersey call “the shaw,” as in “Let’s go down the shaw…”) in the photo above this blog.

On the Asbury Park boardwalk, approaching the Convention Center.

In a later scene during Tony’s dream, Tony shoots Pauly Walnuts inside the Convention Center during a card game.  Throughout the series, Tony’s relationship with Pauly is complicated.  Pauly is probably Tony’s most loyal minion (along with Silvio Dante), but Pauly is constantly getting on Tony’s nerves.  The character development The Sopranos is very well done; it is one of many areas in which the show shines.   You probably can tell I am a Sopranos fanboy.  I am what I am.

Inside the Asbury Park Convention Center. The red arrow denotes where Tony (in his dream) shot Pauly.

The coin-operated binoculars you see in the video are no longer on the boardwalk, but they were there when I was a kid and I remember wishing I had the coins and the height to be able to see through them.  The benches you see in the video (on the boardwalk, facing the Atlantic) are still there.

Inside the Convention Center. It was built in 1929. I don’t think it is still used for conventions.  It would be cool if it did.
On the south side of the Convention Center, looking east at the Atlantic Ocean. In The Many Saints of Newark (a recently released prequel to the Sopranos), Dickie Moltisante (Tony’s childhood hero), murdered his girlfriend (and former stepmother) in the Atlantic at this spot. It’s a complicated plot.
Looking north along the Asbury Park boardwalk (on the northern side of the Convention Center, which was just behind me when I took this photo).

On the day I visited Asbury Park, contractors were erecting a stage right on the beach for a Bruce Springsteen concert the next day.    General admission tickets were $350; select seating tickets went as high as $4,000.  These were not scalper prices; these are the prices that were published for the event.  I learned this talking to a young lady inside the Convention Center.  I still have my New Jersey accent, and just for grins, I told her I went to high school with Bruce.  I didn’t, but I was having fun.

On the north side of the Convention Center, looking south. That stage to the left is where the Springsteen concert was going to be.

“Really?” she said.  I am Bruce Springsteen’s age, and young people are easily fooled.  I think she believed me.

“What was he like?” she asked, wide eyed.

“Truth be told, he was a first-class pain in the ass,” I answered. “Even in those days, he wanted everyone to call him ‘The Boss.’  It was weird, but we humored the guy.”  Her mouth opened in amazement. She was buying my line, but it wasn’t true.  There’s only one boss, and his name is Tony Soprano.

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Ride Oklahoma!

By Joe Berk

Unless you have visited Oklahoma or you live there, you probably wouldn’t think of Oklahoma as a motorcycling paradise.  But trust me, it is.  And finding the best rides in Oklahoma is easy, thanks to Oklahoma’s Tourism and Recreation Department.  Sue and I are always looking for interesting travel destinations, and as a guy who writes travel pieces for Motorcycle Classics magazine, my antenna goes up when I hear about great roads and great destinations.   Several years ago when I was working for CSC Motorcycles, we attended the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show.  In the vendor display area, Sue found a booth manned by the Oklahoma tourism folks.

One thing led to another, we received a package of travel information that would choke a brontosaurus, and shortly after that we were in Oklahoma.  I have a friend who retired in Tulsa, we visited a bit, and we hit a bunch of great destinations in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and the surrounding areas.  I wrote several blogs about our visit, and several Motorcycle Classics Destinations articles.   These are the blogs:

But even with the above, we barely scratched the surface of what Oklahoma offers.   The materials the good folks in Oklahoma mailed to us included the Oklahoma Motorcycle Guide.   It suggests several rides, complete with maps and two or three pages on each ride.  The Oklahoma Motorcycle Guide is impressive.

A few suggested Oklahoma rides. Click on this image a couple times to enlarge it.

Imagine that:  One of our states issuing a motorcycle travel guide!   More good news?  It’s free, the latest version includes even more rides than does the version I received several years ago, and you can download it immediately at this link:  Oklahoma Motorcycle Guide Free Download

Trust me on this:  If you’ve been looking for your good next place to ride, Oklahoma needs to be on your list.

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