I rode to Camarillo to Jim’s Retirement party after having lunch with Rebecca, my 5th wife. She’s going in for a knee replacement. There’s so much I would like to do for her, but she’s cool.
The JIMS party was amazing. Jim has been at it since 1967 and his entire family works for the company of 75 employees. Jim is the epitome of the honest family structure and how it works for the clan. And Camarillo still has the gorgeous agricultural sense of openness and tranquil prosperity in a vast plain as it reaches the sea on one side and the Conejo grade on the other. Folks still dress like cowboys and girls as they languish under vast pepper trees.
In a world gone mad and bikers from hell roaming the city nights, it’s cool to see a solid family unit blossom around motorcycle parts and everything is made in America at JIMS.
At 7:00 on a Friday afternoon Jim recommended I hit Las Posas Road for the coast and blast up into Malibu on my way home on my 2014 Indian. This ride brought back lots of memories of early Easyriders days. My first home was in Oxnard and I rode 30 miles along the coast each day to work on Point Dume in Malibu.
But on my way south along the coast I started to feel a tickle in my throat. I thought it had to be salt in the moist air, but it wasn’t. I was headed into a fucking cold.
Saturday, I took Dayquil and kept welding and preparing for Micah to come over on Monday. I welded for about 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon after a fruit-filled protein shake. Michael Lichter and his son were covering Born Free and the shop was all mine.
Sunday I was done. I spent most of the day in bed sweating. It’s funny about being sick. On one hand it relieves you of responsibilities. You just let yourself be taken to another place. Sometimes it’s not altogether a bad thing.
It’s the 50/50 illness that’s a pain, when you feel good enough to try to get shit done. Sunday night I wanted to be in bed early, but Mike and his son were returning to the Headquarters after the Born Free Weekend.
I had to feel better by Monday morning. I wanted Micah to be able to inspect the frame for missing welds. And we needed to make some decisions on the firewall. Michael Lichter wanted to take photos of Micah and I welding and grinding. This firewall will be a challenge to the very end.
We made progress, serious progress then the garage door acted up. A key fell out of the gear way. Then Michael tried to print something on my printer. It quit and gave him nothing but error messages. When Mike and his son tried to leave, I had just started TIG welding and it blew the fuse for our gate opener. Later that night I noticed a crown in my mouth beginning to click. I needed to call my dentist. It made it hard to concentrate on sleep.
We found the key and fixed the shop roll-up door. One down.
It’s Tuesday and the list is long and iffy. The gate guy is on his way. I want to knock this out and get it posted. I need to bore some holes in some sheet metal and make firewall patches. I need to weld the firewall. I believe I caught all the structural missing welds.
I may need to roll to my dentist to have the crown glued down. This afternoon Frankie and Em are arriving from Belgium and Graeme Lowen is flying in from New Zealand. I’m hoping to pick them up at the LA airport.
Plus, any day I’m going to receive a call from Aircraft Windshields and my Salt Torpedo windshield will be done. George, the wild brush is going to come over and help with the canopy and hinges.
My goal is to get us to the stage where we can start final assembly. The pressure is on.
Hang on!
Ride Fast and Free, Forever.
