Motorcycle Men
Motorcycle Men
Episode 477 - Talking with Larry Marshall about his Route 66 Trip
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Hello boys and girls,
Today we’re talking Route 66 — the Mother Road — and not just any ride, but the 100th anniversary run. Joining me is Larry Marshall of The V‑Twin Blog, who just completed a self‑guided Chicago‑to‑LA adventure with two fellow YouTube creators. We’re diving into the roads, the sights, the people, and the moments that made this ride unforgettable. So settle in, grab your helmet, and let’s get rolling.”
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Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to the Motorcycle Men Podcast. I am Ted, your host, here in the V Twin Cafe in the Corner Booth, and we've got a special one for you today. Today, we're talking Route 66, the mother road. And not just any ride, but the 100th anniversary run. So joining me today is Larry Marshall from the VTwin blog, who just completed a self-guided Chicago to LA adventure with two fellow YouTubers and a bunch of other people. We're diving into the roads, the sites, the people, and the moments that made this ride unforgettable. But before we get into that, the Motorcycle Men podcast is brought to you by Scorpion Helmets. They're offering high-quality, innovative motorcycle helmets and technical apparel at an incredible value. So to learn more, get on over to scorpionusa.com. And Wild Ass Seats. You can improve your comfort and ability to stay in the saddle longer with a cushion from Wildass Seats. So if you're tired of those painful pressure points and fatigue, get on over to wild-ass.com and tell the real Craig Johnson your butt hurts and you want a cushion. And Viking Bags, a world leader in motorcycle luggage and one of the fastest growing companies in motorcycle parts. They have luggage for whatever you ride, whatever you need, and wherever you go. And as always, Tobacco Motorware for the best in casual riding gear for men and women. There is only one place you should be going, and that is Dave's pants at Tobacco Motorware. Visit them at tobacco motorware.com. That's tobaccomotorware.com. And our listeners will get 10% off your order when you use the code Motor Men. Your safety is worth it. So get in Dave's pants. Time now for that chat with Larry Marshall. Alright, and we're back. So we're here right now in the V Twin Cafe in the corner booth, and we're talking with our very good friend, Mr. Larry Marshall, who's who's just returned from his fantastic uh 100th anniversary Route 66 trip. Larry, welcome back to the show, man. Hey, thank you, Ted. How you doing, man? Yeah, hanging in there, bro. Just hanging in there. How about you? I mean, you must be so stoked right now.
SPEAKER_00I am I am coming down from a motorcycle high. Oh gosh, dude. And that's gonna have multiple meanings as he's talking. Yep. I can only imagine.
SPEAKER_01But damn, dude, so like uh with Route 66, I think is on anybody who rides a motorcycle, I have to believe that Route 66 is on every motorcyclist's bucket list. You know, and there are gazillion tour companies out there who do Route 66 tours and you know all that, and you know, it's it's a boatload of cash. We just talked about that, a lot of money involved. But you did well, you went it the different way. You did it all by yourself, um, sort of like sort of. Yes, sort of.
SPEAKER_00We it was um so all just kind of kind of kicking our. Yeah, let's kick it off.
SPEAKER_01Tell us what you what what made you say yes to doing a self-guided 100th anniversary Route 66 ride. And uh But you didn't do it alone, of course not. I did not.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, so so about six months ago, uh a friend of mine, uh, he goes by riding fish online, um, and another uh one guy I've met a couple times, um, who is now a friend, um, bearded bobber, okay, they're Indian motorcycle ambassadors, and so they decided to do something a little out there, um, a little crazy and wild. And they said, you know what, we're gonna do since Indian Motorcycle is 125 years old this year, okay, and um the Route 66 is 100 years old, they decided to put the two together for um and do a and do a guided or tour um called the Legends Never Die, Ride.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um and it's two two legends, Indian Motorcycling and uh Route 66. So they they just threw it out there, said, Hey, anybody who wants to come can come. Um it's and they did it. Um, there was a couple, it was a they were doing fundraising also for folds of honor. So we bought raffle tickets and you know, bought t-shirts and different things like that. Um, but yeah, so they threw it out there to anybody. And in fact, um, no, granted, it's Indian motorcycle, they're Indian motorcycle ambassadors, right? But it was like, hey, any bike you want, just you ride it, you come out, hang out with us. We don't care, Harley, Indian, um, Yamaha, it didn't matter, right? As long as the bike can make it. Right. And so um they they worked together and they planned out this 10-day ride across from Chicago to Santa Monica Pier. So it's starting in the end, yeah. So, and I know we were talking earlier, most companies, most companies are doing in like seven days or 17 days, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, or two weeks or whatever. Exactly. Um, but um because you know it's India motorcycles link.
SPEAKER_01Did I detect a little dig there?
SPEAKER_00We we knew we could do it in ten days, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I get it.
SPEAKER_00You know, I mean it's and let me let me phrase this correctly. Because it's American motorcycles, we knew we could do it in 10 days, right? These things are built for for ride across country. Um so uh yeah, so we all we all connected and and decided the day before we actually the takeoff date was Memorial Day, uh, 2026. And um, but we all met up the night before in Chicago at a hotel in Chicago. And um the kind of we called that day zero, the kickoff party.
SPEAKER_01Right. So we all met we all know what happens then.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And it's kind of it was kind of cool. So um a few of us rolled in from Minnesota. Um was like from southern Minnesota, some was from central Minnesota. We met up in Wisconsin um and rolled to Chicago. When we rolled into the parking lot in the at the hotel in Chicago, yeah, we started looking around. We didn't realize how big this was gonna be.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00And there were 80 bikes in the parking lot. No way, really? Yes, there were 80 bikes in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01And that was just that was just word of mouth broadcasting?
SPEAKER_00That was yep, just word of mouth. No, and uh it it got it was bigger than I think anybody expected. And um, and we knew it was gonna be epic that after that first, but on that first night when um the hotel, and I will not name the hotel, um, had to put up a sign that said, no, no, uh, I can't remember, I can't remember what the sign said. It was basically don't be rowdy because we were getting loud and having fun and rowdy. I mean, we weren't doing anything illegal, right? But we were just, you know, we were um having a good time.
SPEAKER_01You were having a good time is what you were doing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And and uh celebrated, just yeah, exactly. Just in being bikers or motorcyclers. Being motorcyclists, um, get ready to take off on a big trip. Yeah. And uh, and I will say this too, about the 80 bikes, only about maybe 10, if even that, were two up. So like there were um, and and I would also say this too, from a demographic standpoint. We had uh a lady who came over from Australia. Oh um, we had uh a group from Canada, we had a group from we had people from the East Coast, a group from Massachusetts. Um we had women writers, we had I think we had most nationalities represented. No kidding, like all races, ethnicities represented. It was it was insane.
SPEAKER_01So this was so this was just advertised just on social media and all that, and you got that many people involved. So well, also who I mean, as you know, who was the ride leader? Who led this whole thing?
SPEAKER_00So so technically the two ride leaders were were uh Bearded Bobber and uh riding fish. Okay, and so because they organized it, they led the ride. Um they and and I say technically because what we basically did is we said, okay, here's where we're gonna start today. We're gonna meet up at this point, and we're gonna end the day at this point.
SPEAKER_01So however, you get there is up to you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So you took off, and and that was the best way to do it because with 80 bikes, you don't, it's like hurting cats, right? You don't want to try to get everybody. Imagine Chicago, Chicago, uh, if you've ever been to Chicago, imagine Chicago freeways trying to accommodate 80 bikers, right? Yeah, man. And and all of us trying to stay together, it just wasn't gonna work. So wow, that's amazing, dude.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so in the planning of all this, I mean, how did how many how much time from the moment the idea first cropped up to departure day? How much planning time did you guys have?
SPEAKER_00I believe it was six months. Six months. Six or eight months, yeah. Wow, yeah, yeah. Um, I think the idea got spawned about eight months ago, and the planning really was hit heavy for the last six.
SPEAKER_01So that's and that, you know, for me, for uh a guy like me, I like to plan at least a year in advance, you know. Uh I like to be prepared. But uh a lot of but some people who may have only heard about it a few months in advance, that was boom, boom, boom, you know, get get ready and get going.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. I'll I'll even tell you this. Uh, this is one of the one of the cooler stories. Um, so there was a guy, um Ed, and he's one of the few names I will mention. Um, just because he was so he was that guy, like in a in a great way. He was like the nicest guy. I literally sent my wife a message, a picture of him and I, and saying I just got a new best friend. Um, just so this older guy, he is from Washington State. Yeah. Ed rides a lot. And Ed was down in I think Phoenix, Arizona, on a just riding, and he stopped at a gas station, saw another guy with an Indian. They talked for like two minutes, and Ed mentioned the ride to this guy. Um, flash forward four months, and uh the guy at the gas station is talking to someone at on opening on day zero in the parking lot. And he's like, Yeah, I met this guy at this gas station, and yada yada yada. He told me about this ride. I said, Yeah, you know, that sounds like a good idea. I think I might go. And he started planning it and showed up and he goes, I can't, I don't remember the guy's name. Only talked for a minute. And uh, as he's talking, he goes, Wait a minute, that's him over there, but it was Ed. Um, so that's kind of how it spread, right? It was just people talking, man. Um, it was social, like you said earlier, it was social media, it was um Instagram, it was Facebook, and it just grew and people just it was pretty organic. Yeah, uh, people just wanted to ride. And I think it as you also said earlier, it checked a lot of it checked a bucket list for a lot of people. Oh, absolutely. Um yeah, so so yeah, that's that was date zero.
SPEAKER_01But now, as far as goes for the planning, did you guys divide up the responsibilities of the planning stuff, the lodging, filming, the blah, blah, blah? And what were the biggest decisions you guys had to make before rolling out of Chicago?
SPEAKER_00So I was part of very little planning. Um, it was mostly Fred and I'm sorry, uh, writing fish and spirited bobber. And if you heard me say Fred and Jeff, that's writing fish is Fred and Jeff is Spirited Bobber. So uh I might make the mistake and swap those out here and there. Um but they did all the planning. Um, they also worked with uh a website or a uh uh podcast called Throttle and Iron, and Throttle and Iron helped just put a um every day they put a link to where where the ride was going, how many miles, okay, um, and where the stops were. So um and then they used the and in fact it's funny because I heard this on one of your podcasts recently, they used the Route 66 app. There you go, yeah. And so uh they used that to plan out most of the ride. So it I don't want to discount what they did, but it was I think it was pretty straightforward. Oh, good. Um, it was just a matter of picking hotels, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then everybody was responsible for making their own bookings, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. Um, but we tried to all book at the same hotel. Okay, but what we also said too is or what people said too is if you can't afford the hotel, there's other options right in the area. Um, so do it based on your budget, yeah. And also, people didn't have to come on the whole ride. Like if you were from Texas and you didn't want to drive up to Chicago, you could meet us in Texas and do part of the ride with us too. Yeah, so so that's it, it was it was cool, man. It was that that the planning part was really awesome. Um, it was it was done great. Um I can say this that if if if you were upset about the planning, you had nobody to blame but yourself because the plan was very full. It was a skeleton, yeah. It was a skeleton plan. Yeah, it was a big it was outline, and you did what you wanted to do. Right.
SPEAKER_01All right, so take us back to day one. Now, so what was it like leaving Chicago and hitting that first stretch of Route 66 and realizing you're officially riding a century-old piece of you know, we'll guess we'll call it American history?
SPEAKER_00So day one was was really cool, it was really interesting. Um we we all took off about the same time. Um, some people actually went to the official sign for Route 66, which fun fact, has moved. I've heard that how you move a sign to mark where a road started is beyond me, right? Um so some people went to the old sign, some people went to the new sign. Uh, some people like myself went to an uh somebody's house because I had the wrong address for the sign. I sure did. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Excuse me, can I help you? Isn't this the beginning of 66? No, you're in the wrong place, dummy.
SPEAKER_00I'm in this neighborhood and I'm like, wait a minute, this is a I know Chicago. I went to school in Southern Illinois. I used to work for a company in Chicago. Yeah, I'm like, this is wrong, man. I'm in the wrong place. By the time I realized I was in the wrong place, I was like, it's too late to get to the sign. Um so I just I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts, got a donut, chilled, and then uh went back to the hotel, and we all rolled to the our deep the dealership, which was which was we were considering the official start point, which is uh Route 66 Indian Motorcycle.
SPEAKER_01Right, okay. Um that was the official start.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. All right. So we all gathered there, um, hung out for about an hour, hour and a half, um, kind of just got ready, and then we rolled out. And what time did you roll out? I think about 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's that's fair.
SPEAKER_00Um and I say I think because Ted, in all honesty, like most of this is a blur. Because you can imagine it. When you when you hit the road, like, and you have such a good time, all the days start to blend in. Yeah, yeah. Um and and uh so let's see, the uh there actually is an official start time. 11 o'clock was the official start time. Yeah. So in the first day was uh 300, uh actually I got it 320 miles. So we went from Chicago. Yeah, and it was it was cool. It was we got to see, and I sent you the pictures of the Michelin man, or the muffler man, I'm sorry. Yeah, uh, we got to see a couple muffler men. Uh we uh we stopped, had lunch, we hung out, so we took our time and we didn't we wound up getting from Chicago, Illinois to Troy, Illinois, um, which is about 320 miles. We wound up getting to Troy, Illinois, about 730, 8 o'clock.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and we all were in hotel. One hotel was we were across two hotels primarily, and they were literally right across the street from me. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01So when you guys rolled out, did you did you have this when you rolled out from the dealership, you had 80 bikes, everybody all lined up, and off you went.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Wow, that's awesome. It was it was cool. It was real cool. Um, in fact, if you the the social media page for Route 66 Indian Motorcycle, the guy actually did a they have a they had a videographer, he did a video, yeah, had a drone, had his had his camera or his foot photography camera. So there's actually a a short, Instagram short or something like that of us rolling out.
SPEAKER_01I'll have to find that and check that out. That sounds pretty cool. It is pretty impressive, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Damn.
SPEAKER_01Now, where were you in the group?
SPEAKER_00Were you like were you number three in the group, or did you Oh, oh brother, I'll I always when it's a large group, I stay in the back, man. Yeah. Um, and and I'll explain that a little bit later, too. There's multiple reasons why I stay in the back, but um, I I don't enjoy the rubber band effect of being in the middle. Oh, I understand completely. And and uh there are points where Eric floats in and out, so I have I kind of have to stay in the back. So I'll tell that I'll tell that story a little bit later.
SPEAKER_01Now, as you moved through Illinois and into Missouri, what sections of the original alignment stood out or did you do, whether because you know, because of the pavement was different or the scenery. What was the um that that wow factor, you know, that Route 66 feeling that hit you there?
SPEAKER_00So I think the biggest wow factor was just the the little towns, right? Yeah um the fact that when you think of Route 66, or when I thought of Route 66, I thought the movie cars, just be honest with you, right? That's kind of what I think. Oh man, you're not kidding, man, dude. And what you realize is it's just and and I say just, but I don't mean like minimize it, it's it's just these cool little towns, man. It's it's like small town America, yeah. Um so like we had like the muffler man, um, that one was in I'm looking at the location now. So yeah, uh Wilmington, Illinois, right? Now I've never heard of Wilmington, Illinois, right? But you know, they had a cool muffler man, the spaceship, the guy with the spaceship helmet that yeah, probably everybody's seen in a photo. Um and they're just so welcoming. Like there were no towns that we went to in any part of the country, yeah, on Route 66 that weren't like, hey, how you guys doing? You know, wanted to talk to us, share a story. Um, as we talk about Oklahoma, I'll I'll tell you about um one of the places we went, just just amazing. Yeah, um, we got a almost we almost had documentary type information from someone. Um, but yeah, these little towns, man, they're just cool. It's it's they're they're touristy, yeah, but they're not for anybody who's been disturbed, they're not walled drug touristy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00Where they they aren't trying to sell you a million things, they're just trying to keep their town running.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh, you're talking about the Gemini Giants. It just dawned on me. The Gemini Giant, yes, that's right. Because I'm actually looking at the map while we're talking, and and I could see the Gemini Giant, they got it. Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? It's right somewhere here, anyway. But yeah, I got that. I was like, wow, you know, I would love oh man, I would love to see that in person.
SPEAKER_00They're it's really cool. Yeah, it's it's amazing. Um, and then every it's kind of it's really cool too because every place you go has like their their own Route 66. It's the same logo, but they have their the name of their city or their town or their state, yeah. Um, so you can identify where you're at just by taking a picture.
unknownOh man.
SPEAKER_01How surprised when you saw when you first saw that roadside oddity, the Gemini Giant, when you first saw that, what ran through your mind that like wow, I'm actually on Route 66? Did that hit you like that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it it did. It did. It hit me, it kind of hit me like a waterfall, man. It was like, I'm doing this. And um, and I don't think I've even mentioned this. Route sixty six has been a goal of mine for twenty plus years. Um it it's something, and I'm gonna not get overly emotional. It was something I remember my dad talking about. Like he was just he mentioned Route 66.
SPEAKER_01Did he do it? Did your dad Drive Route 66?
SPEAKER_00He never did. No. Oh. My dad was an adventurer at heart. Oh, right. But yeah, he he was uh he didn't he didn't get out as much as he he he should have. Oh so I'm it's kind of cool. I'm doing all the things I think my dad would want me to hear. Oh, that's awesome. I want to hear about. So yeah, I'm gonna leave it at that because there's you'll you'll understand later. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Holding on that part, uh talking about more about that.
SPEAKER_01But you met a so you met a lot of people along the way, right? Riders, local people, business owners. Oh and also super fans. I'm sure you met a lot of people who were traveling by car and whatever. So who were some of the characters that made the early part of the trip really memorable for you? And and and if there were any stories that may have stuck with you. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00So there are a couple there were a couple people on the ride that just I got we you you kind of gravitate towards, yeah, and you hang with most of the ride. But then there was then there are also people who you're like, what? Wait, huh? So okay. And I'm I'm not gonna use this person's name because if they hear this, they're probably gonna be pissed off. But there was one guy, he don't know exactly who he is, right? There was one guy who we saw him and we're he was on our ride, right? He was on day one and two of our ride, and he we saw him and we're like, and I'm I remember that I can't swear on the show. You can you can I'm like I'm like this motherfucker ain't wearing shoes after and so I looked at I look at riding fish and I'm like dude, what's with the what's with uh Frank Flintstone over there? And he he goes, he goes, yeah, so that dude never wears shoes. He's from the east coast, he never wears shoes. And I'm like, wait a minute, he's riding with us. How's he not wearing shoes? He goes, yeah, he rides barefoot. I'm like, how the hell you ride a motorcycle barefoot, but apparently he does, and so that first night that we were in Troy, Illinois, um he he he got he was sitting on that on the curb working on a computer and he had his feet up and East Coast guy, white as could be, right? Yeah, his feet were tar black. Oh my god. Tar black. I'm like, what in the hell?
SPEAKER_01But see, it's not necessarily the people you meet in town, it's the people you ride with. Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So the yeah, so this dude was he was he was he was built different. Did he go do the whole ride with you? No. So it turns out he got a little he got a little slobber knocker, got stuck in the elevator at the hotel, that set him off. He got pissed off uh for a couple other things and wound up leaving that night to head back home to the East Coast, the upper east coast. And uh he yeah, so we didn't see him at all uh anymore on the trip, but it was just like that was the first, like that was my first real touch of oh, we're in for a doozy of a ride, right? You gotta do this barefoot. And and here's the funny part of the story, right? He came with a couple other guys, he came with a group, uh, and um, and it was so Indian. I'm sorry, Harley has the hog group. Yeah, Indian has the IMRG Indian motorcycle riders group. Okay, the guys that he came with, one of the guys was head of the his the IMRG that the barefoot guy was in. And the story the guy told the the guy that was head of Dave. I'll you can I can use Dave's name. Dave said, Yeah, I'm head of the IMRG group, and the barefoot guy was my safety officer.
SPEAKER_02It's riding barefoot, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And he goes after we goes, dude, I can't have you be my safety officer anymore because you're riding barefoot. You can't tell people that this is the right equipment you should wear when you're not wearing shoes. You're not wearing shoes, man. So I mean, you know, that was so that's day, that's the end of day one, right? So it just keeps getting better, right? Yeah, um, so so day two, we we shoot in the morning, we shoot from Troy, Illinois, which is right across the river from St. Louis. Yeah, Missouri. Yeah, yeah. So we shoot over to Missouri, St. Louis, we take a picture at the Ark. Um, I'm not once again, I'm not gonna mention anybody's name, but there is this walking bridge that zigzags up, and if you go out to the top of the walking bridge, you can actually take a group photo where it looks like you're standing in front of the arch.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00So one of the guys in our group said, uh, and it's a park that you're at. Um, and one of the guys in the group said, I'm just gonna take my bike up here. And so he rode his bike up the walkway, up the zigzag walkway, so that 40, 50 of us could take a picture, or maybe it's closer to 60 of us, took a picture at the top of this walkway. And as he's doing this, we're looking, and in the distance we can see the security guard uh from his booth, and he's picking his head out the door, right? And he's got his phone up to his ear, and he keeps picking his head out the door and his phone up to his ear. And we can only imagine that he was like, uh, yes, sir, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03He's calling somebody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. There's 60 bikers up here, and they rode a motorcycle up here, and I don't think I can handle them. I need backup.
SPEAKER_01Oh man. But as far as goes through like like some of the businesses that you that you guys, I'm sure you hit a lot of mom and pop shops along the way, right? Yes, going through there. Definitely. And was that a different feeling from everything else you come across?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So um I'll skip ahead to when we hit um Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was just gonna ask you about that. As you moved uh from Illinois and into Missouri, then you actually guys, you guys hit Oklahoma and Texas. Now they got their they got their own flavor of Route 66 down there, as I understand.
SPEAKER_02Uh yes, they do.
SPEAKER_01Uh give me some standout moments in those states, the roads, roadside attractions, the towns, and how did the dynamic between you and your guys, everybody, go together.
SPEAKER_00So it was it was all pretty smooth. In fact, when we hit uh when we left St. Louis and went to and we and we went to Springfield, that was the oh, okay, I got a story about Springfield. But every night, literally every night there's a story, right? Okay. So we go from from Toy Illinois, um, Route 66 to all that, and we stop in Springfield, Missouri for the night. And at this point, we're still at about 60 bikes. Um, we dropped a few, picked up a couple, right? Um, people on the way. So we're out in front of our hotel. All the bikes are parked either on there under the awning or in the um parking lot. Okay. And this dude, so first night we deal with the barefoot guy, right? That's part of our group. The next night we got one of the Springfield, Missouri locals.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, he had no shirt, no shoes, just shorts. And he had walked out of the hotel, and you could totally tell he was tweaking on something, right? He's fully tattooed, and I'm not saying that you're tattooed, you're tweaking, but he was like, Hey, ooh, nice bites. He's shaking, right? He's giggling. Um, he's like, Oh, those are nice bites, uh. And he goes, and he looks at he looks at riding fish and he says, What nationality are you? And he keeps guessing these nationalities of Fred finally, or Riding Fish finally goes, Um, part Irish. He goes, Oh, does that mean you want to fight? And we're like, I don't think the dude realized, right? That there were 60 other bikers around him. They had he goes, and he goes, and Fred goes, Well, no, I don't I don't want to fight, man. I'm I'm cool. He goes, Well, if you need anything, I got I got all the drugs. Oh, obviously you do, sir, because you're on all of them right now. Okay, we can tell. He gets in a car that somebody else is driving in the parking lot, and he's talking and he gets she jumps back on. He goes, Yeah, my girl, she'll do anything you want. Drugs, sex, whatever you need. She'll get from like, whoa, whoa, bro, it ain't that kind of party. Oh man. So the whole the security, I'm sorry, the front desk girl from the hotel comes out and she's like stressed. She's worried. She's like, Is everything is he bothering you? And I and I look at her and I go, You got 60 dikers here. You don't even need to call the cops. We'll make sure that this situation's handled. And she was a young kid, she was maybe 20 in early 20s.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She all of a sudden got this big smile on her face and just stood there and just watched us interact with this guy and just basically shoved him off, right? We didn't put our hands on him, but we made it known that um that's not the kind of party you're doing there, right? Yeah, you're you're you don't belong here. I hate to sound super violent, but like if if somebody needed to be, let's just call it unlifed, that was the you were this was the group that could do it, right?
SPEAKER_01You're yeah, yeah, you're you're you're picking the wrong fight here. Yes. I mean, really, yes. Oh man. Uh what'd you guys do for food?
SPEAKER_00I meant I wanted to find out what yeah. So we we pretty much ate all our all for the most part on our own.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um we just grabbed food, you know, here and there. We would stop it. We kind of had a couple organized restaurant stops. Oh, okay. All right. But what we quickly realized is that because we're such a large group, yeah, you can't. Most of the restaurants can accommodate us. Right.
SPEAKER_01So I can only imagine that phone call. Hey, I got 60 people I'd like to bring. Right? Right. Oh, and by the way, we're all bikers, we have no manners.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01Uh Oklahoma and Texas. Uh what was your favorite? I guess you get you can't really pick a favorite, can you?
SPEAKER_00No, you can't. You can't. Oh, I would say for different reasons they were both about the same, but I got I got a funny story about Oklahoma. Yeah. Um, so we all get so we all get together in Oklahoma, or we're we're all gonna meet at this dealership in Oklahoma. Like we actually got reorganized after we left. Um, there's a place called Pops, um, which is a soda soda shop.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00And um it it's it's really cool. It it must have, they must have 500 sodas, different types of sorts. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01Um is that where you got that Route 66 soda that you showed in your pictures? Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And uh so we left there and we're gonna head to Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Indian Motorcycle Dealership.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So um we're we're on the freeway, but we're about to get on the freeway. I'm I'm in the back as usual. Okay. And uh and a friend of mine, Kevin, it's Kevin and I in the back. And I looked at Kevin over to Kevin, I look behind, I look at my rear view and I looked at Kevin, I go, Kevin, there's a cop right behind us. Now we're once again, we're 60 plus feet. And he goes, Okay, and we're about to take a turn onto the freeway, a left turn on a signal on the freeway. And you know, you know, bikers, right? When we're in a large group, there is no traffic signal that we care about.
SPEAKER_01Pretty much, right?
SPEAKER_00So all of a sudden, everybody starts taking a left turn on a red arrow to get on the freeway, and everybody takes off. Kevin's hocking his horn, like, don't go, and then he goes. I'm like, okay, that's fine. I start going ahead, and the cop flips on its lights, and I'm like, I'm just gonna take this hit for the team, right? Yeah, and so so I slow down, I go about 50 feet and I slow down, and I the cop pulls up next to me and go, Hey, how you doing, buddy? Are we are we good? He goes, No, we're not good. Um, what's wrong? He goes, I should I should call ahead and have all you guys arrested for for uh illegal turns or um uh whatever he said, you know, we failed to yield or whatever we did, right? Yeah, and uh I'm like no no no no no no I go we're we're a big group of riding Route 66, we're doing it for charity. Um, you know, it's all good. And I start explaining everything, right, to this cop, like what we're doing, and not because I'm a snitch, that's not why, but because on the corner of my eye, I'm watching the group take off and I'm trying to delay as long as I can so that they can get to where they need to get, because I didn't make the illegal turn, right? So I'm cool, but I'm trying to delay so that they can get away while I hold the cop up, and so I I spent like two or three minutes talking to this cop, right? And finally I'm like, you know, hey, I I'm sorry, you know, we'll we're gonna we'll make sure that as we pass Oklahoma, we're not doing anything outrageous and crazy. Um, we'll we'll be cool. He goes, Fine, okay. By this time, man, they were two or three minutes ahead. Um, we weren't typically doing the post-to speed limit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but no, come on. You guys were law-abiding, I know that.
SPEAKER_00Especially like if we were going through the towns, we definitely were. Oh, yeah, yeah. But if we were freeway, yeah, we was it was did you guys hit a lot? Did you guys hit a lot of freeways? We unfortunately, yes, we had to. Um because they're just pictures that just weren't open anymore. Oh no, we really yeah, so we did a lot of we did a fair amount of I-40. I'd say it was about 50-50. Um the I-40 versus Route 66. But uh, so anyway, we uh I caught up to the group at Oklahoma City and at the Oklahoma City Indian dealership, and they're like, Oh yeah, we figured Larry was we we were we didn't know where you were, but we figured you had gotten stopped, and and I'm like, Yeah. Um and and for people who have listened to the podcast before, Eric had come out the previous night, right? So Eric had they had people have been introduced to Eric, and Eric came out to play, and I said, you know, you guys, next time you probably shouldn't let me be the guy who talks the cop down, right? I'll put on, I had to change, I totally had to change modes, man, just to talk the cop down.
SPEAKER_01And uh well, for those that don't know, Eric is Larry's alter ego, yes, inebriated alter ego.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, right? So in and let's just say as we traveled across the country, there are certain states where different types of inebriation are legal. Um so Missouri was one of those states, and we weren't far from Missouri, so the previous night I had Missouri inebriated myself. Oh yeah, so they got to see uh Eric uh in full swing gear. Yeah, yeah. So they're like, wait a minute, you talked down the cops? I'm like, yeah, man, it was it was it was a hard moment for me. So yeah, so that was that was Oklahoma City, man.
SPEAKER_01Oh now go for Oklahoma, didn't you I think it's in Oklahoma, isn't that where the sidewalk highway is? That that's where the uh Route 66 is half paved.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Did you guys ride that? We did. I didn't. I think the group from Canada did because the group from Canada they tried to ride as much as the original Route 66 as possible. Okay. Um, something I skipped about Missouri to uh Oklahoma was there was a point where I I I split off from the group because I wanted to just have a scenic day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so another guy, he split off with me. Um and so we're riding actually the real Route 66 most of the way, right? Like literally, we're riding the road and it and we're riding on whatever road at 40 or whatever main street it was, and we'd see a sign that said scenic byway, Route 66, and we turned and it was maybe three blocks, right? But we'd go like around the park, and it was Route 66, and we'd be back on our road. Oh man. But there was one point where we went, and I'm still trying to figure out how this how this was Route 66. It was behind a strip mall, and we go behind a strip mall, and the road, the road is behind the strip mall, Route 66 is, and there is a casket-sized pothole that I hit, and I could feel like the front part of my bike just dipped and popped up, and I felt my bag start to get wiggly. And I'm like, you know, I'm gonna try to avoid the original non-maintained Route 66 as much as I can. Wow. When I say casket size, I mean you could have laid, I could have laid in that pothole, like, or that that group, whatever it was. Yeah, it was huge.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know the Route 66 has been realigned so many times over the decades. And in fact, I can I can tell you a story. There's uh there was one uh it was a it was a restaurant, I believe, but I can't remember what state it was in, but they realigned the road from one and the storefront, the restaurant storefront faced Route 66. But they realigned it and moved the the road alignment went behind the building. So what they had to do was they had to make the back of the building the front, so they switched things around. So they've done that so many times.
SPEAKER_00I can picture that building in my head, actually.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I yeah. So you you may have passed that in several, you know, because that apparently that was very common on roots.
SPEAKER_00I think it's called Highway in Oklahoma. Um because that was one of the places we stopped at. And the lady, the the owners there were amazing. Like the the lady that owned the place or the co-owner, her parents started started the restaurant. Um she gave us a full like 20-minute speech about how the restaurant and the hotel next to it started.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and in in on a full serious moment, those are the stories, those are the parts of Route 66 people have to stop and see. Yes, absolutely, yes. You gotta stop and talk to the locals. The side story, the the the story before that story is uh the that was the day we split off. I split off everyone was right with just with just me and another guy. We're riding through Oklahoma, um, the first part of Oklahoma, and we there's uh actually once again, cops pull up behind us. Yeah, we're like, uh-oh. And and the guy that I'm writing with is Latino. And I'm like, this is this is gonna be bad because black dude and Latino do in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, and two local shirts pull up, right? Well, right as we were going to the restaurant highway, the highway cafe, it's called, we're going there um to meet up with everybody. And right before we turn off, or right before we get to Highway Cafe, the cops turn off and they head the other direction. I'm like, oh, that was that was kind of weird, but you know, not really thinking much of it, until we see a car flying down the freeway on the opposite direction, like a passenger car. It's flying, and two cops are behind them, and they're it's a police chase. We find out because the guys came. There was some a group that came in after this and said, Hey, did you see the cops throw down the road strips? The the so they had thrown down those strips to to puncture tires. Yeah. Um, so apparently it was a big police chase. The cops throw down top punk the strips to puncture the tires, and then somebody else came in and said, Yeah, we I saw all I saw was carnage. I saw cops like getting an ambulance bandaging up cops and a car flipped over. So yeah, so yeah, right, everything happens on Route 66. It's it's wow, that's crazy, man. It's not just the boring boring is the wrong word, it's not just the traditional, yeah, you know, old school Main Street fruit, uh, main route mother. Motor road, yeah. It's it's it's just cool, man. It's this is why I was saying it's an adventure, it was totally an adventure for me. Um, but yeah, so uh as we're talking in uh Texas too. Texas, Texas was awesome. Um, we stopped in Amarillo, Texas, and um yeah, actually, I think we only stopped in Amarillo, Texas. We didn't even stay in the state of Texas. Didn't you guys go through uh Oklahoma City? We did, yeah, that's where I got I got stopped by the cops. Yep. Oh no So yeah, we went from Oklahoma, we went from Oklahoma City. We just do went through uh the very top of Texas, and then the next day we stopped in um I'm gonna go through this name, but Tucum Carm Carmi, Kari, New Mexico.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, I know I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I can't say it either. Yeah, it is right here. Tuca, yeah, it's right, it's right. Tucamari, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02I think that's okay.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Tucum Kari, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We'll we'll call it that.
SPEAKER_02We'll call it that.
SPEAKER_00And uh so between those though, I I had actually had an opportunity in Springfield and in Amarillo, Texas, to go to my first Bucky's. Um gas station. Which also I'll say everyone should go. If you haven't had a chance, check out a Bucky's if there's one in your area, or if there's one on your road, it's really cool.
SPEAKER_01Everything from beef jerky to Christmas lights.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. Yes. It was the first gas station I've ever been to that they actually provided shopping carts. Yeah, yeah. Like this is this is stuff. And uh the brisket there, we I actually had a brisket sandwich from there. Amazing. It was amazing. But that's my that's my plug for Bucky's that's I'm sponsored on PayPal.
SPEAKER_01Now you're going through no wait, you're going through Texas, right? Yeah. And at what point does the scenery change from green pastures and fields and hills to flat kind of desert stuff?
SPEAKER_00Probably right about Amarillo, Texas. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And was it was it gradual or was it like snap? Boom.
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to think. I think it must have been gradual because I did it didn't really hit me until it hit me that we were in like almost the desert. But I I I want to tell you a cool story about about the ride and the people in in Amarella, Texas. So um there's a guy that was on a trip, uh, Jason is his name, and Jason, um, who I found out like a day before we were all leaving, is like lives like five minutes from me here in Minnesota. Oh, really? So yeah, so that was that's pretty cool. So we're gonna hang out multiple times now. But uh Jason, his daughter is graduating from high school while he's on this trip. Oh, what Jason did, yeah. So Jason, when we got to, and I'm looking here, when we got to Elk City, Oklahoma, Jason kept riding and went to Amarillo, Texas. He parked his bike at the airport, jumped on a plane, flew back to Minnesota to go to his daughter's high school graduation. The next morning he got up, flew back to Amarillo, Texas, got his bike, and caught up with us in New Mexico.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's funny, man.
SPEAKER_00Like, that's hardcore, man. That's you're not kidding. When I talk about it, it's expensive. It was, right? But when you talk about the people that you meet and that are on this, that went on this ride, yeah, yeah. That's the that's the people, right? Um, that's that dedication, that's that camaraderie that you establish. And uh I don't think I've said again on this podcast, but um one of the things I said our closing night is I said I just made 80 new best friends. And I truly meant that. Yeah, like there are people there that um I'll never forget, and I'll I'll have long-lasting connections with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, dude. So like now you're gonna now you hit New Mexico and the scenery changes dramatically. Yes, yeah, I bet there was um there were stretches probably that you probably slowed down and you know, one of those like stop and take a breath kind of things and really soak in the scale of everything, right?
SPEAKER_00So, so when we hit New Mexico, um we I think it's where it it was less about Route 66 and more about the scenery, and just like you said, soaking it all in. And when you start seeing the different colored rock formations, right? The layered rock formations, and we went to, and I'll send you a picture um and a video after this, and if you want to post, I I'll post it on my uh page as well. Yeah, yeah. But we went to this the we went to the spot because a lot of the people on the ride were from New Mexico. Um and Albuquerque and Albuquerque did a they hosted us great, their local chapter hosted a scrape. We're actually on the news in Albuquerque as well. Um let Eric do any interviews, so I was a little pissed off about that. But uh, so one of the locals said, Hey, I'm gonna take you a little bit out of the way, and we went to the ice cave. And right, so what the ice cave is it's a volcano, it was it's a volcanic, uh former volcanic area, right? So it's got a whole bunch of lava rock around it, but then there's this cave, and if you you go like maybe uh hundred yards down into the cave, there's like it's frozen, so you can see like ice forming on the walls. Now, 100 yards above, it's 90 degrees, but when you're in this cave, there's like frozen water, there's icicles forming. It's just it's the coolest thing, yeah. Um, and and Ted, I'll I'll I'll shoot you a message that if you want to provide it in your show notes. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if anybody's even talked about this for Route 66 or or the ride, um, but it was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Like, truly, it was it was insane. Um, and it literally was like 32 30 32 degrees in there.
SPEAKER_02Holy crazy.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and and and it was about, I think the elevation was about 8,000, 7,500 to 8,000 feet. Um so I I mentioned that because you had to walk down, which is fine. You walk back up the steps, yeah. Like you got to top of steps, you're like, oh you couldn't, you you truly couldn't breathe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll tell you what, for people who who are from the lower elevations, like we are here in North Carolina, if you're like coastal, or even if anywhere else where you're only like you know 50 feet above sea level, whatever, when you get up to elevation like that, seven, eight thousand feet, anything you do, if you exert yourself in any way, shape, or form, you're out of breath. I don't care how good of a shape you're in. That's it's so weird too because you're not tired.
SPEAKER_00Right. You're just out of breath. Yeah. I felt like I could do anything, but I couldn't breathe.
SPEAKER_03It was nowhere.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just it's it's crazy. I I that's the first time really experiencing that. Um, but yeah, that ice cave was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01Wow. You know, I would oh uh that's something I would love to see. Uh yeah. As far as as far as it goes for like so now you're going through Mexico and Arizona. Yeah. How about quirky stuff? Like diners, neon signs, abandoned motels, whatever. What did you hit the classic stops?
SPEAKER_00We did. There was a spot, I'm looking through my pictures here. Um, okay, it was in Grants, New Mexico. Uh Grants, New Mexico has a section of Main Street where it's all the neon lights. And I think we maybe caught it at the wrong time because we only saw like three places with full-on neon lights. Um, but it was still pretty cool. It was it was like going back in time. Like in you could tell it was 50s, 60s, they had like hotels were fully lit up with neon lights. Um Grants New Mexico.
SPEAKER_01Grants, New Mexico.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I have to look that up. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see it. Yeah, Grants, New Mexico. Okay. Small town. You know, I kind of imagined it being like radiator springs in cars. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Similar to that. Similar to that, yes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that must be cool, man. Oh, geez.
SPEAKER_00One other thing I want to bring up, I I'm going back backwards, sorry. That's all right.
SPEAKER_03Texas.
SPEAKER_00So we went to we some of the things we did in Texas, we went to Cadillac Ranch. Okay, cool. Yeah. Was really cool. There's also a Volkswagen ranch that doesn't get talked about as much, and it's not anywhere near as busy. Right. Um, so you can go to that. And then, and this is the highlight of Texas for us. One of our guys on the trip decided he was gonna do there's a place called the Big Texan. Okay, if you ever watched like Man versus Food, any of those food shows, right? There they have the challenge of the 72-ounce steak. Oh man. And one of our guys said, I'm gonna do it. So we were like, man, because so the way it worked is if you couldn't, if you ate the whole steak, it was free. And oh, it's actually steak and a potato and salad and something else.
SPEAKER_01So you gotta clear your plate, basically.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um, let's see, steak, potato, and I think maybe some shrimps. I think shrimp, yeah, some shrimp. Um you had to clear your whole plate. We said, hey man, if you don't do it, we'll pay. Like we you just that that's that's also that's a gamer thing, right? Right. My man had to he had to sign a waiver. You had to sit at you have to sit at a table that's kind of on a stage, yeah. You cannot be with their group, right? People can't come up to the can't go on the stage, they can't talk. I mean, you can they can talk to you, but if you're talking to him, he's if he's talking, he's not chewing. Right. So he got he he did it for a good 40 minutes and then had to tap out, but he got two-thirds of that stage and and finished his big and he's not he wasn't a big guy, like he probably your size, Ted. He, you know, and he he he was crushing it, and then he just had to tap out. But that was one of the cool things. That was like those little quirky things that we did yeah throughout throughout the trip, man. It's just to make it more memorable.
SPEAKER_01Sure, my gosh. Oh 72-ounce steak. Oh my god. Yes. Uh were there any parts in uh New Mexico that stood out for you mostly?
SPEAKER_00Uh besides the ice, uh, besides the ice cave, um okay. Here comes an Eric story. Yeah, here comes an Eric story. So so I realized that New Mexico was a marijuana legal state.
SPEAKER_01Oh crap.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so I'm like, hey, what the heck, man? Um so as we're riding, we get to our hotel in Grants, right? It's actually still daylight, and uh riding fish and I are rooming together the whole the whole trip.
SPEAKER_01That sounds like a disaster already, isn't it? It was. It was a good time.
SPEAKER_00So I literally, we get to the hotel, we share the parking lot with the with a dispensary. I as I'm putting the kickstand down, I look to riding station, I go, hey man, we good? He goes, yeah, we're good. My kickstand is barely down, and I'm walking over to I don't even turn around, I'm walking right into the dispensary. Because like because, and truth be told, like, um riding with a large group, like it gets my nerves kind of up. I I get a little anxious, like I don't want to see people crash or anything like that, yeah. Which is why I ride towards the back. Yeah. Um, it just because I can watch everything and I can react to whatever's happening. And man, I walked in that dispensary and I was just I was like, let me get a vape pen. And uh so I got a vape pen and sat in the hotel parking lot just with everybody else, everybody's drinking. I'm smoking on my vape pen, just relaxing, man. Got super hungry, you know, hungry, happy. I was I was cool.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's nice.
SPEAKER_00Um but I didn't here's the funny part though, I didn't realize how strong the vape pen was. Okay, so yeah. So the next morning I get up and I'm still still a little bit high, right? And uh, but not to the point where I shouldn't be riding.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00But it's like I'm just it's I'm super chill, like super chill. And so we take off, and New Mexico is great because you once you go from the rocks, the rocky parts of New Mexico, you go into like mountainous, mountainous areas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, because I'm looking at the uh I'm actually looking at street view uh of of of in the town uh and grants. There's not a lot there, but you can see mountains surrounding the entire place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty awesome. And uh so about 10, 20 minutes into the ride, all of a sudden, it is funny because my friend Kevin is behind me and he described it way better than I could have. He goes, Where I saw you kind of veer off the road, then all of a sudden you snap back, and for the next 60 miles, man, you were straight as an arrow. And I go, Yeah. Um, Eric left my body. Like, I can't literally Eric was like, All right, peace out, and he left, right? And he left me on the bike, and I'm like, whoa, okay, I'm good now. So Eric, Eric is that real casual, he does the speed limit kind of rider, right? Larry is like, let's get there. And so all of a sudden I'm I'm cranking, you know, 8590 on the bike. And uh yeah, but yeah, so good times, man. That was that was that was that was my uh one of my Eric stories. That that's probably the the one I can share that won't get me fired from a gun.
SPEAKER_01And there's not a lot, I'm looking at grants, man. There's not a lot there. Where the hell did you guys stay? We stayed in a best western right off the freeway. Oh, okay. So oh, so you guys were so you're at that point you were on you did a lot of Route uh I-40 there, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah. So, and and we knew that from Grants it wasn't gonna be like in Grants, it wasn't gonna be in uh uh crazy good, like very super super adventurous route 66 running. So we we went off off the route a little bit. Um the one other thing after we left, so between Grants, New Mexico, um we so we went between Grants, New Mexico and Winslow, Arizona. And one other really cool, and this is probably I would say outside of connecting with family, yeah like I actually met up with family throughout a couple of my nephews throughout the trip. Okay um outside of that, the coolest thing I saw, or coolest adventure I had, even cooler than the ice cave, was um we uh once again a couple of us split off from the group, and we decided we were gonna try to do more Route 66 than Freeway. So um, and here's what you find again. Route 66, as much as it's advertised, it's there, it's not. So we hit we ran into a road close, a close road. So we decided to take a detour around, right? And um, as I've heard some of your stories, we we went off roading a little bit, and so we wound up traveling on gravel for like three miles, right? Well, about three miles in, and I'm and I'm for sure gonna send you this video. About three miles in, we passed like kind of a farm, but not really a farm. Yeah, and we see these horses, and we're used to seeing horses on this trip because they're you know, everybody has horses, cows, sheep, whatever, donkeys. Um, and we're not thinking anything of it. And as we're rolling, we realize the horses are running towards us, and like, oh, that's cool. Then we realize there's no fence. I'm like, holy smokes! So we're literally riding, and wild horses are running next to us. One of the coolest things I've ever seen on done on a motorcycle, man.
SPEAKER_01Man, that must be so cool.
SPEAKER_00It was absolutely insane. And like I said, I actually had it was one of the few times I had my camera on, so I actually got a recording of it. It's not the greatest recording, but you could see in the distance these horses coming up to us, and then when they realize that we're not other horses, they kind of back off. But it was just it was just really cool. Man, that must have been so cool. Wow, and it and we wouldn't have seen it if we hadn't taken it, if we hadn't gotten detour. Like, it's one of those things where we just happened on it, and it was it was awesome, awesome.
SPEAKER_01Now, was that actually a part of Route 66? The original?
SPEAKER_00No, so the horses part what the road that we were trying to get on was, but it cut off. Like it they were doing construction. Okay, yeah, so that section route since this was off was was closed off due to construction. So we like I said we deturned around it and bam, we saw wild horses running, or they were running next to us.
SPEAKER_01So now you're in Arizona. Yeah, did you guys go through the the any of the reservations? I don't I don't know if it's you did, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, went through I think three or two or three of them at least.
SPEAKER_01Um is that a different vibe when you're riding through the through them or no?
SPEAKER_00No, you don't even notice, honestly.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Um the only thing you'll see is there'll be a couple souvenir shots that are Native American souvenir shots, but it it you can't tell the difference. Wow.
SPEAKER_01But the scenery must have blown you away though in Arizona now, right?
SPEAKER_00It it did. And we also did, um I know I wrote this down. We did the um oh, what's that road called? Shoot, there's a certain road in Arizona. Um I wish I could, I thought I wrote it down. Let's see. Pizza Sidewider, the Arizona Sidewider. Okay. Um has a um, I think it's like 190 turns in this in the stretch. So yeah, it goes to Otman, Arizona. Um, where if people have probably heard if they've been following us, this is Otman, Arizona is where the donkeys just walk around the house.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the road that leads to Otman is this cool, it's a bunch of switchbacks, and uh just that was awesome too. That was that was unbelievable scenery. Awesome little awesome little town, except for I am not a fan of donkeys at all. Like zero. Like, I the only donkey I like is is the one that's wrecked. That's it.
SPEAKER_03I don't like donkeys, right?
SPEAKER_00And uh but yeah, that road, if I would highly recommend that Arizona Side Rider to anybody, yeah, anybody who's who's doing Route 66. It's it's I think officially part of Route 66, but just do not detour it, just take it. You you if you're not a super experienced rider, you're gonna have to take it slower. Um, what I did is some of the guys in my group uh born as experience with it, or as experienced riders, yeah. So I'd actually I was in the back again. Um not Eric this time, but I was in the back again. And uh what I would do is I'd stop for like two to three minutes on the side of the road. Yeah and then and then catch and then hit the rope pretty hard to take off and catch up to everybody.
SPEAKER_01Now that was uh we said it was Winona, but when you got into Flagstaff, I it looks to me like from what I photographs I've seen is that the terrain and the scenery around Flagstaff is just insane.
SPEAKER_00Man, I don't remember Flagstaff, which is really messed up. Oh really? I remember the science work. I think we just pretty much passed, I think we passed through Flagstaff. Um we stopped in the places I remember in Arizona were Oatman, Winslow, which is a really cool little town. Yeah, yeah. Um, and Kingsman, Arizona. Or Kingman, Arizona. Yeah. Um, those three are the ones that really stuck out in my brain. Um but Flagstaff, I I think probably because it's more of a it's more of a straight-up touristy area.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um I I don't I don't remember it really at all. It kind of probably just blends in.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. All right. So you're going you're going through Arizona, you finish, you you're in out of it. Now did you pass through you didn't pass through Nevada at that point though, did you?
SPEAKER_00No, no, not at that point. That was on the way home. But we did hit the in Arizona and California, we hit the Nova Mojave Desert.
SPEAKER_01That must have been wicked, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Why you say it like that?
SPEAKER_00Well, fun fact um, did you know that the military trains in the Mojave Desert to get uh uh troops ready for Afghanistan? I did not know that. It's the same train, yeah. Sim similar. So when we were passing through uh the Mojave Desert, it hit uh 111.
unknownOh, dude.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Worse than that 106 up in Sturges we had two years ago, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, yes. Um, and so this is where the story that the trip took a little bit of a turn for me. Um I start having after we left the Mojave Desert, and we were we were gonna end up in Redlands, um, which I'm gonna talk about Redlands in a second, but um one of the couple cool things that happened throughout the Mojave Desert. Number one, or funny thing. Number one, um, a lot of people want to go to Joshua Tree, which I think is that in California or is that in Arizona? I thought that was in California. Okay, yes, okay, you're right. Um as we were okay, so in the Mojave Desert, the heat was really, really, it was intense, absolutely intense. Um, like, in fact, some people it was funny because people were making comments that like they weren't peeing. Like you you didn't have to go to the bathroom, but you were sweating because we were drinking bottles of water like crazy. And people were sweating, but you didn't pee um because it was so hot in the Mojave. Um we so we as we after we got to the Mojave Desert, my bike was starting to act everything that's smelling a little funny. We're like, what the heck? Um, we get out, we get out of the Mojave Desert and start heading towards Redlands, California. And my bike starts doing the same thing it did in Sturgis that year. I talked about where the dash just the display starts freaking out, yeah. Yeah, turns out that I fried another, I fried my fuses again. But this time I've I found out later it was a it was actually a uh exposed um wire.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And my under my uh under my front fender because on the Indians the head, some of the head, some of the headdresses light up, and I got a special made head lit-up headdress, and the wire got exposed. I think it was from the day on grave that I drove into and drove out of. Um the tire started to rub. But so anyway, um uh so I had electrical issues, they got resolved later on in the trip. Um, and I'll talk about that a little bit more too. But and I'm I'm totally running. Am I over Ted? Over what? Like time, are we? No, go on, as long as you go on, man. Because there's there's a lot of good stories, right? So this was kind of funny. So once again, my buddy Kevin, Kevin and I, man, we became good friends. And Kevin, it's funny because Kevin actually looks a little bit like Kevin Hart, um, the comedian. So it is real name is Kevin, but Kevin's Kevin's hilarious, he's like not on purpose hilarious, he's just a funny guy. And uh, so Kevin and I we stopped in the Mojave, like all as a big group, we stop in the Mojave Desert. And people are like, hey, we want to go to Joshua Tree. And at this time we had passed in California. If we want to go to Joshua Tree, I'm like, and and they're like, Where are you wanna go? I go, For real, if it's hotter, no, I'm good. I'm not trying to go hotter than I am now, and I like the heat, right? But 111 on a bike, no, and Joshua Tree was like 115. Like, I'm I'm good, right? Damn. So Kevin decides, Kevin goes with the group, and so so they go into the national Joshua Tree National Forest. I don't, we get we all get back to the hotel, and I'm like, Kevin, so how was it? How was Joshua Tree? And he goes, Well, it's not one tree. I go, wait a minute, it's not neither him or I knew the Joshua tree is actually a type of tree. We thought it was one tree that you just went and girls saw, right? So he shows me a picture of all the Joshua trees, and I'm like, oh, wait a minute, I saw those same trees from the road, and they're basically like part cactus park tree. Yeah. Um, and so we're just like, I'm like, damn it, what the cat so we were laughing, and everybody laughed at us because we didn't know what Joshua Tree was. We're like, uh first of all, we're not trying to go to the desert and see a tree. Kevin took the opportunity to do it, and then I saw the same tree from the road. So it'll be it, right? But yeah, so so yeah, so all this to all the people who are listening, if you think Dasha Tree is one tree, it's a type of tree. Don't make the mistake that I did.
SPEAKER_01Did you guys go through um I know that was back in uh New Mexico, but did you go through uh uh uh Roswell?
SPEAKER_00No, we I we passed it, but we didn't go through it. Okay. I saw I saw the I saw the road sign. I thought about too, because I'm a big UFO kind of guy. I like I like that stuff. I'm science nerd.
SPEAKER_01So did you have a did you have any any any the any urge to go detour and head up to uh Grand Canyon while you were in that area?
SPEAKER_00I did. I did. Um doesn't look like it's too far away. Yeah, well the heat actually the heat played a big part, and knowing and tell the bike wasn't functioning on all cylinders, literally, it wasn't functioning on all cylinders. Uh I was like, yeah, I'm gonna hold off. And it I have time to do these trips to go to the Grand Canyon. Now that I know the terrain, um, I'm probably more apt to go to hop out on the bike and and do a trip like that in the next couple two, three years. Right.
SPEAKER_01There you go. That's cool. All right, so now here you are, you're in California, and you know, the the end is near. You're in this final push to Santa Monica. What was going through your head knowing that the end of the road was on the way?
SPEAKER_00So the first thing that was going through my head is my bike's not running right. Um I couldn't tell. So when I when I say it wasn't running right, I couldn't tell how fast I was, I my speedometer cut out, my uh oldometer cut out, um, my trip meter cut out, which is why I'm I'm like estimating to my best calculation how many miles I did. Um and I couldn't tell what year I was in. So I had to go from the Redlinks dealership, who they were so busy they couldn't get my bike in, to the Westminster slash Orange County Indian motorcycle dealership. Yeah, and this kind of this broke my heart a little bit um because the morning that I got I had to get the bike worked on or I I got in to get the bike worked on was the same morning everybody went to a place called Mells Drive In. Oh, yeah, okay, and then went to the pier. So if people are looking on the Legends Never Die, like if they're searching that on on uh social media, there's a bunch of pictures of people at route six at the Route 66 endpoint, and I'm not in any of them. Um, because I was at the dealership, um, which I am going to throw a shout out to that dealership. Amazing, absolutely amazing dealership. They hosted us. The the GM there, Don, is now, and I I mean this kind of like Ed, he's one of my new best friends.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Don was amazing. Um, fun fact, Don used to be the voice of the LA Rams, the stadium voice of the LA Rams. Okay, yeah. So just his him and his wife, Selena, are they were amazing people. The dealership took care of me. Um, they even gave me a very nice rate on um not only did I have to have my electrical fixed, but they also saw that I had uh my rear tire and my rear brakes were rolling. Oh wow. So they replaced that, and I got it all done for less than I should have paid. I'll put it that way. Awesome. Um, so yeah, great dealership, great people. Um but yeah, so I was a little, so I was a little sad, but one of the cooler things that I realized as I was riding out, um is so Minnesota, we just got lane splitting about this time last year. I think it may have been either June 1st or July 1st. We got we were able to lane splitting is now legal in Minnesota. Okay, it's been legal in California for a long time, right? And I think it's actually been an unwritten rule longer than that, right? So in Minnesota, we can go if the traffic is going under 25, 25 miles or under, we can lane split. If it goes over that, we have to we have to stay with the speed of traffic, and we can't go more than 15 over what the traffic is going.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I'm lane splitting and I'm trying to, I'm doing it the Minnesota way, and traffic starts going about 40, 45 miles an hour, and so I'm in the lane, and all of a sudden I see a cop on a not with a slide sign, just a police, police cop, uh a motorcycle cop. Lane split flies past me at 60, 65 miles an hour. What? Yes, and I'm like, okay, that's how they get down out here, and it's a different thing, right? Lane splitting me, people can't see my hands, but cars literally will get out of their way for you when they see you lane split. Really? Yeah, they've got it figured out. Um, for all the bad rap that California gets for pretty much everything, lane splitting on a motorcycle, I don't think I could live in California without a motorcycle because everywhere I would go would take me three times as long.
SPEAKER_01I bet. It's interesting because most of the time when you think about lane splitting uh in California or basically anywhere, you consider the kind of bike you have. You know, uh if it's a sport bike or or a naked bike, like that's one thing. But when you got a bagger, you start to think, well, I'm a little bit bigger than those guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they they still get out of your way, man. I was so not only was I on a bagger, but I was on a fully loaded, like that packed up bagger. Yeah, right? So and they were like, Yep, we got you, we'll get out of your way. And it was cool because people who didn't get out of your way, the car in front of them would move and they signal to the idiot that wasn't getting out of the way to get out of the way. So it was kind of like they helped you out. Oh, that's it. It was it was a cool buddy system, but yeah, so California on a motorcycle is not horrible, right? It's not as bad. I think people who aren't used to lane splitting or don't come from a state that lane splits, and they see California, they're like, Oh, that sucks. But live in a state that we can do it now, and then seeing California, yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I would like to see it in a lot of places, but I know some states that would not welcome that at all. And I can think of it. New York. New New York, New Jersey that would not welcome it at all. You know, yeah. That's a it's a very much a me first area, you know. Yes. Um you're closing in on uh uh Santa Monica, and you realize, you know, is this is there is this relief or more reflective?
SPEAKER_00I thought it was relief because I was getting tired, but it was really reflective. And um, and actually, what with so the night before we get we're we're doing the last leg. Yeah, um, we're sorry, my daughter's running a blender now.
SPEAKER_01That's great. I can't even hear it.
SPEAKER_00Uh the night before we're getting ready to roll out, roll out to California, right? So Fred and I, like I said, we roomed together. And this is this was my Fred's story. I asked him if I could tell this. So we had we had gone out, we had sat at the hotel, had um just chilling, hanging out. We stayed up late, just all talking and reflecting on the trip, right? So we're all super tired. Probably one o'clock in the morning. We're laying in our separate beds in the hotel, and all of a sudden, and I might be wrong, it might not have been California, but all of a sudden, I pop up because Fred yelled top of his lungs, you better get him! And I'm like, What the hell is going on? So, and Kevin, the guy I mentioned before, Kevin and Fred are really, really close friends. And so Kevin had been in our room earlier, and I'm like, I'm like, is he talking to Kevin? And I go, Fred, what are you doing, man? And now I hear his crystal. I'm like, Fred, wake up. I saw yell his name and he goes, What, what, what? Wait, who were you talking to? I go, what are you talking about? Who was I talking to? I go, dude, in the just out of the blue, you just showed, you better get he fell asleep. So he had to yeah, yeah, he was dreaming and he started talking in his sleep. And we still don't know what he was dreaming about, like, because he he couldn't figure out who he who we were supposed to get, but we were supposed to get somebody. But uh but anyway, so I I had to tell throw that story in there, but we're reflecting. My daughter's trying to be sneaking sneaky. You can stand up, kiddle. Anyway, we're uh we're we're reflecting on the trip, and um and I and I think this was actually the last night. So everybody had gone to the pier early in the morning, right? And we're just reflecting on the trip and talking, and I'm like, you know, I got I I part of me was like, let's just turn around, start heading back. Yeah, the trip, you know, the the pier is gonna be fine. I'll I'll miss it. But I had promised my speaking to my daughter, I'd promised my daughter I would get her some sand because she wanted sand from California, from the beach in California. So I'm like, yep, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go get go to the pier, get some sand. So um pay my $20 for parking.
unknown$20 for parking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for a motorcycle to park at the beach, and uh I go, I grab this baggie that I had put sand in it, and I start walking towards the pier. And I see the Route 66 side, and here I go, dang it. And I start, I actually start crying.
SPEAKER_01Ah, yeah, I can imagine, I can imagine, dude.
SPEAKER_00And so when you ask, was it reflection or relief? I started reflecting on all the people I had met, yeah, um, all the things I had done, right? And it hit me like I mentioned earlier my dad, all the stuff my dad had said he wanted to do and talked about. I'm like, my dad would be so proud of me. Wow, and I was crying so much I had to call my wife, yeah, because I didn't want to, I didn't want to be this grown-ass man standing in the middle of here, right? Everybody's happy, and they're like all the other people there, not not part of because the group has already done it, so I'm after the day after the group had done it, so I'm by myself, and I'm just I I had to call my wife because I'm like, I can't be that guy, that grown man standing here crying, and people are like, What's wrong with this idiot? Somebody call the cops, quick. Yeah, right? He's like, he's on drugs, like the guy with no shirt. Yeah, but yeah, so it was a super emotional emotional for me, man. It um yeah, and then so then literally, um, I cry, I call my wife, cry some more, um, you know, reflect on the fact that you know, with having electrical problems, having bad, bad back tire brakes, the hundred-degree heat. Um, I start thinking about it's like in a movie, right? You start thinking about the barefoot guy, the no-shirt guy, all the friends, um, you know, Eric, you know, I caused you to play paid uh double occupancy for for some rooms because of Eric. Um, you know, just all the great people I met. Yeah, it just hit me. Yeah. And if there's any way I can end the Route 66 part of this conversation, it's tell people that all the stuff you see is really cool, but it's that emotion and it's that sense of accomplishment for me that I got that just said it, it it made it the greatest trip I've ever taken. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Now, how has that experience changed your perspective about long distance riding? And and all I have one more, I have one more question for you after that.
SPEAKER_00But go ahead. Oh, no problem. The one the one thing it's probably changed the most is well, there's two things. Uh, one is how I pack. And I think this was the first time I figured really figured out how to pack. I got a a vacuum sealer for my clothes. That sounds like a great idea. It I got it on Amazon for like 25 bucks. And I was able to have one big bag that I could throw on my uh rack, where most other people had two bags plus. Um, and I was able to fit all my clothes in one bag. One one uh wet, they're called wet bags or dry bags, I'm sorry, they're rubberized. Okay, um, 40 liter, which whatever that conversion is in pounds. Um, I was able to fit all my clothes and only had I did laundry one time, and that was some socks underwear and a couple t-shirts. Wow, damn, dude, that's awesome. That was one, but the oh sorry, but the main thing, and a trip that I never thought about until I was on my own in writing was how to eat on on a road trip. And it may sound silly, but I realized that like two-thirds of trip, I was getting tired, whether I was on the road with the group or on my way home by myself. I was getting tired like around one o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock. Yep. And I figured out the last two days of the trip with it. I was in, I just crossed over from Utah to Wyoming, uh, Wyoming on my way home. I stopped at this, I'm like, I'm sick of fast food. I'm gonna stop at this cool little diner, get some home cooked food. Yeah, and uh, so I got a burger and these steak cut, hand-cut French fries and uh Edger, Edgerton, I think is the name of the town. Um, and as I'm like eating the last two steak cut fries, I'm like, oh shit, this is a bad idea. Because of all the food is making it's gonna make me sleepy. Yeah, all that carb, all those carbs, man. Yes, yes. So the one thing I would recommend to anybody who's doing a long distance ride or solo or anything like that, eat a light breakfast, eat an extremely light lunch, and then if you've got to gorge yourself, gorge yourself a dinner when you're when you're done for the day. Yeah, yeah. Um, and and truly, it's I've never thought about before. Um, but yeah, that that would be the huge biggest tip I give to people. Don't eat a big dinner, or big, I'm sorry, big breakfast or lunch, because you will fall, you will get tired on a bike.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that'll that'll do you end for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh would you ever do Route 66 again? And would you do it with a different approach and maybe different goals?
SPEAKER_00I I will do it again. Um, I actually have promised my daughter that I'm doing it once more and I'm and her and I are gonna do it together.
SPEAKER_02There you go.
SPEAKER_00Um, whether she's when she's old enough if it's on her own bike or whether she hops on the back with me. But we're gonna do Route 66 because she was really, really um interested in how this how how this trip was gonna go.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So she wouldn't she wouldn't hear all about the trip. She was she wanted to go herself too. So and she's 11, so um, it'll probably be 10 years plus or 10 years from now that I do it, but um the goal would be to do it with her, man.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So your your ride back from LA back to home, uh, how long did that take you?
SPEAKER_00That took me uh four days. Four days. Uh yeah, I went from um I went from LA to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, um, Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming to Mitchell, South Dakota, Mitchell, South Dakota to home, and I think that was about uh 2,000 miles.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was at that point, it was just get me home at that point, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You weren't you weren't yeah, but it you still got to see, you know, going through California, Nevada, Utah, why you still got to see some amazing scenery though, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, the unamazing scenery or the thing I did wrong again was I rolled through the desert again. Again, it was again 100 plus degrees. In fact, there were there were three straight days that I have a temp gauge on my bike, yeah, that it did not go under 97 degrees. Oh three straight days I was in 97 degree heat.
SPEAKER_01Now, what desert were you going through then?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think it was for Mojave both times.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Now when you went north you went north through what you went through Navarra. Nevada. Did you go north through Nevada or did you just cut straight across into yeah, you must have. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I went a little bit north through Nevada and hit hit the uh the tip of Utah. Um and then rolled up through Utah. And and honestly, Utah is kind of weird. It's kind of weird to it's scenic-ish at first, but then once you get close to Salt Lake City, it's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Um mountainous. Yeah. Um, I think actually Utah was where I hit my highest elevation at 8,600, 86 or 8700 feet. Um and uh one other side note I noticed is, and I was talking to a couple other riders as we're rolling, as we're rolling on Route 66, we hit some mountainous parts. Um, India makes two core engines. They make the Thunderstroke and the Power Plus.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00But the Thunderstroke engines, which are are air-cooled, purr, absolutely purr at higher altitude. It is amazing. Oh man, I I learned it to hear my bike just it just it started, it truly was purring. And I'm like, this is this is crazy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and motorcycles love cooler weather and higher altitudes, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, it was the the the liquid cooled ones, the guys were saying, Yeah, I'm feeling I'm fueling up a lot. Apparently, liquid coolers don't like that higher altitude as much. That's interesting. Interesting, very interesting. Uh so but yeah, um Utah was Utah was amazing for scenery, absolutely amazing. Um only got caught in the rain a couple times, once in looking at my notes, Oklahoma, I believe. Like the beginning of Oklahoma, and then um I kind of got caught in the rain in Wyoming. I had actually went from my hotel to Cheyenne, I went from my hotel to a restaurant and sat down um to eat, and I there were these two ladies sitting next to me, and I'm like, and and as I was leaving the hotel, I saw lightning coming down, and I was just wearing a sweatshirt at this time. I'm like, I'm hot, I'm tired, I'm not putting on all my gear. The restaurant was half a mile away. Um, so I asked them, I go, hey, I don't want to be that weird guy that talks to people in a restaurant randomly. Yeah, but I said, I'm on a motorcycle and I do not understand the weather patterns in this area because you know, yeah, every area has, especially if you're in the mountains, weather patterns are different. Sure. I go, is it gonna is it gonna rain? They go, oh yeah, it could probably hail too. I'm like, come on. Damn it. Literally 10 seconds after we had this conversation, the lights flicker in the restaurant. Yeah, it starts to rain. Uh luckily, no hail, and then two minutes later, power goes out. I'm like, but luckily, because of the mountains, the weather system passes really quickly. So it probably was like 15 minutes of heavy, heavy rain, and then it was gone.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_00So um, yeah, the rain was it. Um saw a lot of horses, a lot of buffaloes, a lot of cows. A lot of cows. A lot of cows. Ironically enough, a lot of sheep, which I did not expect. Um, yeah, I saw a lot of sheep through Wyoming, uh, Utah.
SPEAKER_01But now from uh from South Dakota, uh once you first enter South Dakota, how long is it that point from there to your home?
SPEAKER_00Uh let's see. I actually wrote that down too. Um it's probably about 900, 800 miles.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Did you push no, no, no, I did not. Because I I um let's see, I went from Wyoming to I You said Cheyenne, right? Um yeah, I I dipped a toe in Colorado. Literally, I was in Colorado for like five minutes, um, and then in Nebraska for like 30. And then up to South Dakota and went through the Black Hills.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, just on the outside of Sturgis, went through Rapid City and then to Mitchell.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh, but yeah, that that whole that section, yeah, like I said, I think was close. That was a 500-plus mile day to get from Wyoming to Mitchell. Yeah, and then another 350 from Mitchell to my house.
SPEAKER_01You must have been really excited and happy at that point, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Then I started breaking multiple traffic walls. Multiple, yeah. Yeah. Like I was doing Mach 5, man.
SPEAKER_01It was it was what was your uh feelings and emotions how when you pulled into your driveway?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know what's funny? Because I thought I called my wife and my daughter. I'm like, hey, I'm gonna be home. I'm surprised you I'm gonna be home earlier in the day than I thought I would be. They're like, oh, well, we'll be gone. I'm like, oh, okay. My daughter is in a play. Uh actually the first night is tonight, but they were doing rehearsals, so I'm like, oh, okay, well, nobody'll be here but the dog. And I hadn't seen the dog in two weeks. The dog barely recognized me, so I come home and I'm like, okay, this is a little anticlimactic. Um, and I go, but here's here's the funny thing, right? So you don't realize until you get home. So I un I I take my bags out of the saddlebag, yeah, um, unload some stuff, I sit on the couch, and then two hours later I wake up. And I was like, okay, I was drained. I was absolutely drained. Yeah, man. Um, you start realizing that, and then you reflect, you're like, well, this whole trip, on average, I've gotten like five hours of sleep a night.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then you're riding all day. Because and like I said, man, it's because you're staying, you're you're staying up talking to people, reflecting on the day. Um, we're usually we were kickstands up one morning. We were kickstands up at five o'clock to miss all the LA traffic. Um most days we're kickstands up by seven or eight. Right. Um, so yeah, and it wasn't, and and I joke about Eric, but it wasn't like the Eric persona, but it wasn't like we were up drinking, we were just up talking, man. Just talking about bikes, talking about the trip. Hey, did you see that? Hey, we ran near wild horses. Yeah, hey, remember when that guy hit your kill switch? Waiting for everybody to go, and all of a sudden you're like, damn it. Yeah. You know, it was that kind of stuff. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so now decompression time. So you're done, man. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'm gonna hit you now with 10 rapid fire questions. All right.
SPEAKER_00All right.
SPEAKER_01You ready? Yep. Okay, here we go. Number one, favorite state to ride through on Route 66, Arizona.
SPEAKER_00Ah, cool.
SPEAKER_01Number two, best meal of the entire trip.
SPEAKER_00California at a sushi at a uh Japanese sushi restaurant.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Where the girl actually uh was was very was very Asian in her voice until you asked her another question, like you asked her something else, and she'd slip and had and her full California accent would come out.
SPEAKER_01Like, oh, okay. See what you're doing there. Okay. All right, yeah. Number three, most surprising roadside attraction.
SPEAKER_00Uh actually, it was probably the first one. It was probably the uh the and you you call you named him, and I can't remember. The guy with the helmet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the galaxy guy, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah. Is it Gemini Man or something? Gemini Man, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Number four, town you didn't expect to love. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Um number five, most photogenic moment. Oh, definitely the ice the ice can't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, cool. Yeah. Um best number six, best stretch of pavement for pure riding joy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, there was actually so many. Um I man, that's a tough one. I'd actually I'd probably go with Utah outside outside of Salt Lake City, which is not on Route 66, but um that was just the pure joy of that. Part of the trip, right? You know what? Let me let me let me rewind. Actually, it was Route 66. There was a sidewinder, um, sidewinders in Arizona.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right, cool. Number seven, go to gas station snack. Beef jerky, baby. You can't go wrong with beef jerky. Yeah, buckies. Uh, number eight, the song that became the unofficial soundtrack.
SPEAKER_00This would this should be man, and it was, and now I can't think of it, it was stuck in my head. Um man. Um, not Hotel California. It's it's about went through the desert on a horse with no name. Oh, kept bringing it in my head, right? I don't know why. It's probably because I was on in the desert and I kept thinking those wild horses and you know, horsepower on a mug. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh, number nine, this is gonna be a tough one for you. I know it's gonna be, but number nine, funniest moment with your riding friends.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Um, one I haven't mentioned, you know, it's multiple moments, but once again, Kevin. Kevin is a shop of all. And Kevin at one point goes, you know what? I think I need to buy more luggage. So he becomes yeah, and we kept giving Kevin a hard time uh because he loved he loved to buy. He was a shopper.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, all right. Number 10, last one. One word that sums up the whole Route 66 experience. Legendary. All right, that'll do. That was easy. That'll be that was an easy one. That'll work. All right, Larry. Listen, that's it. I am I really appreciate you telling us the whole story. It was it was a lot of fun. I can only imagine. I mean, look, if if anybody out there has never done Route 66, me included, uh Larry certainly makes it sound like something you really need to do. Yes. And do it with a large group, preferably of uh 60 people or more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but keep that group into smaller sections. But yeah, it is it is a it is a definitely don't don't write it by yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one more question. One more question I do want to ask you. For that whole trip, do you know how much you spent on fuel?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I haven't checked every fuel I pay for, I pay with the same credit card. I haven't looked at that receipt yet, but I'd probably say $500.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00That's not that's not horrible, actually.
SPEAKER_01No, it's not it's not horrible at all.
SPEAKER_00Wow, man. You know, to there was one thing I for I forgot to mention, and I think this is worth noting. Okay. Um, that the people, so we started with like 70 to 80 bikes. Okay. There were actually 38 bikes that did the right from ride from start to finish. So uh I think that was pretty impressive as well. Is that we because it was a kind of a self-guided thing, and the fact that that many people finished was was amazing. And the closing night we had before everybody went to the to the sign, we actually met up at one of the one of the guys' stores. He has a he runs an apparel store. And we all stood up and started talking. And guarantee you, mostly men, right? It was mostly men that went on the strip. Eight guys cried. Wow. Standing up on stage because it was that much of an emotional show. Sure, yeah, sure. And I say that because, as you say, you know, ride with a large group. Yeah. Um, ride with a group of friends, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And share that moment you will never, that is a moment that you will never, never lose.
SPEAKER_01Right. Absolutely. Ah. Man, man, you got me got me jealous. I really want to do it.
SPEAKER_00Well, if you do it, you know, give me a holler. Yeah. I may have one extra ending, so I certainly hope so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, dude. Listen, thank you very much for being on the show. Don't go anywhere. I want to talk to you when we're done, but thank you very much for sharing your trip with us.
SPEAKER_00No problem, and thank you, everybody. Thank you for hosting me, Ted, and thank you, everybody, for listening. All right.
SPEAKER_01Huge thanks to Larry Marshall for taking us along on his 100th anniversary Route 66 journey. His stories remind us why we ride. The history, the camaraderie, the unexpected moments, and the open road that always seems to call us back. Check out the vtwin blog and his YouTube partners for more of their adventures. Now you can learn more about the vtwin blog by getting on over to www.thevtwinblog.com. Links will be in the show notes and of course on the Motorcycle Men website at motomanpc.com. Hey, don't forget to get on over to the Ride with Ted YouTube channel and watch some of the many videos I have there. And if you would please also like and subscribe. That would be a tremendous help to the channel and of course to the podcast. Hey, get your copy of my book, The Road Most Traveled, now, direct from me, on the Motorcycle Men website and save nearly $8. It's still available on Amazon, and you can get the audiobook on Audible if you'd like. Hey, you still have some time to register for the Motorcycle Podcasters Challenge. Right now, at this time, we've got five teams going up against each other, and we have 14 solo riders going to participate in this year's event. If you would like to be a part of this great, fun event, just get on over to motopodchallenge.com. Sign up, sign the waiver, and you're in. It is free to join the challenge. Alright, for the rest of the motorcycle man team, thanks for listening. Keep the rubber side down, and I'll see you in the next episode. And remember, boys and girls, we say stupid crap so you don't have to. Ride safely, kids.
