I-95 Corridor Packed as Rolling Thunder XXII Comes to Town:

ABM Bro reports heavy bike traffic on the 95 from Florida to DC:

Says it was easy to hook up with columns of motorcycles headed north toward Washington, DC. There seemed to be more bikes than last year's estimated 350,000, perhaps as many as a half million in support of veteran's rights, including full accountability for pow's & mia's from all wars. Packs caught up to him, he caught up with others, & observed groups of bikers at every exit, pausing to fill up along the way. Every American state was represented.

Do we have more time on our hands, owing to the unemployment situation? Maybe it's the lower cost of gasoline & lodging. Maybe the Iraq/Afgan campaign is adding to our ranks, as newly discharged veterans become involved in motorcycling. Likely, all these factors added to this year's intensity. Memorial Day coverage in the media seems to confirm that Americans are thinking less about bling, & more about basic, important concepts; Life, and liberty, instead of the blind pursuit of oppulent happiness at any financial cost.

This year, the rememberance of a few who gave all seemed more important than before, and the media coverage proves it.

Daytona Int'l Speedway Under 10 ft of Water!

Up to 30 inches of rain hits immediate central Florida area!

Adjacent town of Holly Hill gets 29 inches, lucky ones on high ground. A thousand or more Daytona homes, down on the flats, flooded out, as runoff, fish, & floating garbage poured through doorways. The state has declared some counties a disaster area. Estimated 60 million in property damage, & 50 million more in nearby truck farm crops of melons, 'maters, & 'taters, rotting in the ground.

The tunnel entrance to the Daytona International speedway was under ten feet of water early this morning. The entire track is flooded, for the first time in history.

Worse than a Hurricane?

Caused by a freak interaction of a stationary high pressure system over northern Georgia, rubbing against a stubborn Cuban low which slowly moved up the middle of Florida, the storm began last Monday, bringing consistent torrential rain, and wind speed of up to 55mph, lasting 24 hours a day, every single day, and all hours of the night. Today, (Sat) was the first sign the weather was finally beginning to break. We've yet to see the sun for more than a few minutes. What's really weird? As of last Sunday, we'd finished a month and a half of San-Diego-esque 80-90 degree days with nary a drop of rain. The understatement of the year is to say the Florida rainy season began a month early this year. Now we can wait for the mosquito population to explode. Yeah, we get no snow, but we got our problemos, like everywhere else.

What Happened?

As the Nor'easter wind blows the salty ocean water onto the shoreline, beachside sewer grates may actually percolate up with salty ocean water, providing the 30 inches of rain runoff no where to go except gradually sink into the ground. So far, there's a lot of left over flooding. Worse yet, ants, snakes, racoons, & other critters seek the high ground in an attempt to avoid drowning, so people are dealing with more than just standing water & fallen trees. It's a real mess. On the sunny side, I'll bet you can book a Daytona oceanfront hotel room for less than thirty bucks this weekend..

Bike Scene Decimated:

Nobody is riding now. Few people desire to venture far from home, even in their cars. Neither of ABM's bikes has been ridden since last Sunday, the longest stretch we remember having went without a two wheeled fix. Have not been away from the compound in a week. Mighta tried to dodge the wet for a little spin today, but fighting a nasty cold brought on by days of working outside in the driving rain, to unplug rain gutters, lash down stuff that was blowing away, as high temps dropped from the mid-ninties to the low sixties in 12 hours, & stayed there all week, was awful. The combo of cold, wet outside, & indoor a/c finished me off. Tomorrow's another day. We'll ride, but we ain't expectin' much co-op from the sun, still, it'll be sweet to hear them bikes up & running again.

If this is like what life in Seattle has to offer, ABM will el-paso on the move to Washington state.

Suds Shocker! Beer Tax 300% Increase!

Dear Feds:

We already have.. income tax, tobacco tax, property tax, sales tax, estate tax, hotel tax, gift tax, gas tax, a current beer tax, & too many others to print.

In just one year, 2008, we paid over 41 Billion Bucks in beer tax, for our brew. Wasn't that enough? Now you want 123 Billion Bucks a year? We agree that universal health care for all Americans is needed, but..

What have you people done with the money we already sent to Washington..give it away?

Oh..fergot.. they did give it all away...a Trillion Bucks at a time.. Dude, I need a beer!

Myrtle Screws Up Royally: Bikers Have Options..

..And.. Brains.

East coast bikers come to the ride-free state of South Carolina to escape the hassle of having to don a lid ten times a day. Now that Myrtle Beach has decided to require that helmets be worn in this corner of SC, bikers have decided to party elsewhere.

Business people from throughout MB and Horrie county, are screaming for the replacement of city council and the mayor, and why not? One hotel, with over two hundred rooms to offer, at a discount, was able to fill only 12. Ouch. Scooter rental dudes had potential customers tell them thanks, but no thanks, when informed they'd have to wear a helmet at 25 mph, yet law enforcement was stringent as ever. One crusty old owner of a 1965 Harley, from way back when headlights didn't light up with the turn of an ignition switch, was fined $250 because he forgot to turn it on.

A lot of Myrtle's biker biz moved south to Murrel's Inlet, home of the Suck, Bang, Blow, where crowds were a little thicker, but on the grand strand, bikers in the usual numbers were awol. Of course, all of this didn't stop the cops from setting up those "safety" road blocks, for bikers only. Gee, just for us? Isn't it nice to be "safe"? Would have been even nicer if they were able to apprehend the stewed woman who allegedly crossed the center line & wiped out a biker. Was she wearing a helmet? It'd be nice if they'd go after the real weasels from time to time, instead of looking for bike mufflers, turn signals & skid lids, but then again, we are the low hanging fruit,
conspicuous, easy to ticket. And...after all, we're only bikers..

All of this has the business community screaming for the heads of city council members, and the mayor, who was supposed to be biker-friendly, replacing the former biker-unfriendly bunch that was kicked out of office last time around. There's a lesson for biker destinations to be learned here:

Bikers have options. And.. Brains.

Tears in the Morning

Daddy's little girl..

17 years ago, on a trip to the local grocery store, a kid begged me to take the last kitten out of seven, a stunted, homely little brown female, looking all alone, and afraid in the cardboard box. Looking into her dad's eyes, it was obvious that if the kitty wasn't claimed by the end of this day, she'd probably go into a gunny sack with a rock & be tossed into the river, so she was brought home to the ABM compound. Through the years, we grew very close, even though she once ruined 500 dollars worth of fancy deep sea fishing rods as her claws came in. The mirror image of Saturday Night Live's Mike Meyers bit of "Toonces, the driving cat", "Toonces" became her formal name, though, to me, she was "Daddy's Little Girl." Almost two decades later, as a result of old age, and cancer, she grew weak. Last Monday, the vet supplied a liquid form of valium so there would be a few more days for me to say goodbye. Even though she was in such pain, she purred last night, as she slept with me. I petted & told her what a good little girl she was until the sun came up. This morning, I gave her the last of the valium, & took her to the vet to be sedated. When she was asleep, he administered the final shot. I brought her home, wrapped in black velvet, & buried her under the shade of an old riverside oak tree, in my back yard, where she could be forever remembered. I poured two shots of tequila, one for her, the other for me, but my tears just won't go away.

Fingernail Creep Kills Biker Mom:

Kill A Biker, Go To Jail. No excuse.

"Fairly Typical"?

We get it. Playing with the Ipod, texting, calling, reading a book, applying makeup, shaving, or... painting fingernails are examples of "fairly typical behaviour"..that is, until one of these actions results in the death of an innocent 56 year old mom.

Wauconda, Il: Motorcycle riding mom is waiting for the traffic light to change, when she's hit from behind by a car driven by a woman more concerned about how her fingernails look than the life of an innocent biker, totally oblivious. Says she never saw the traffic light, the bike, or the brightly colored jacket the biker lady was wearing. Sadly, in America, this happens every day, but hey, "it's just a biker". Only this time, it wasn't some grizzly old dude in worn leather, riding a shovelhead. Know what? Grizzly old dudes have familes who love them too. Hope for jail time, then, a good civil lawyer, a fair judge & jury, who will sue this woman so far into the ground, she'll have to borrow five bucks for her next batch of nail polish, and apply it while riding in a city bus on a bummed token. What a creep.

Biker Lives Worth Less than those of auto drivers?

The short answer is yes. Somewhere on up the political food chain there must be an effort to direct the cops to get off the 10mph over the limit speeding tickets, & begin writing tickets for failure to yield the right of way. Excuse? Too difficult to prosecute. ABM says, BS. If you can video us during a traffic stop, you can video murderous drivers too. Begin by reassigning officers from useless "safety checkpoints". Go out & look for these uncaring inbreds. Can't find 'em? They see the blue lights? Use an unmarked patrol car, better yet, do what we do, ride an unmarked motorcycle equipped with hidden video cams. The status quo sucks.

Waiting at an intersection? Keep your bike in first gear, leave room to escape, and watch your rear view mirror.

Ready-Set-Write!

Myrtle Beach cops get an abundance of overtime during this year's beaten-down rally, which begins Friday.

Johnny Law is moving in, bigtime, as Myrtle calls in backup from the surrounding area. If fewer bikers are expected this year, due to the recently enacted, draconian mc laws, why the need?

Like "Safety" check points? You got 'em!

Love them "safety" checkpoints. How about carving out a few officers & appoint them to ticket the inbreds who insist on violating our right of way? Expect checkpoints. Expect increased patrols from the locals all the way up the food chain to the state highway patrol. Big fun!

If they don't want us, why bother with it?

This is all about Myrtle Beach, and not the surrounding county. A shame that 20,000 residents can pickpocket the effort of county wide area vendors who have been peacefully been doing biz with the bikers for years. If you're going, stay out of Myrtle Beach, even if you're riding a new bike with stock pipes, & you just spent 500 bucks on a brand new helmet. An attack on one of us, is an attack on all of us. Election time is comming. Make your voice heard, but not too loud..you might be violating some new ordinance. What a shame, for the bikers & vendors. All of the additional ticket revenue won't make up for what an additional 150 thousand of us would spend on a week of lodging, food, entertainment, bikes & accessories.

PS.. The local Harley Dealer is just outside of the city limit, but only by a few hundred yards. Know where you're headed, & be careful.