Thursday 2nd August

A bit of a weird day, really. Maybe it's because it's all coming to an end? 

Got up at about 08.00 and had breakfast in the lobby. Spent the rest of the morning hanging around the room, blogging, etc.

I taught myself how to use the ashtray at the Best Western - only took 24 hours .................cool!

The old ladies waited downstairs. Not a lot for them to do today.

Eventually had a shower and we went over to see Billy. Steve (Stew D Baker) was there, waiting for a guy called Fast Eddie to bring his engine back from a bottom rebuild. Fuck knows why he's called Fast Eddie because we hung around waiting for him for hours, when he was only a couple of miles away! Still he was good value when he got there. We seem to keep meeting crazy dudes, for some reason.

Some pics for Jonny, seeing as he seems obsessed by wheels

These any good Jonny?

I opened my parcel from Jireh, which had been delivered yesterday. I'd ordered an Ultima oil pump for my Granny Glide, a single fire electronic ignition kit, which Kev owed me, and a set of front crash bars. While the other boys were waiting for Eddie's arrival, they kept talking about metal specifications, alloys and the like, so I fitted the crash bars to Ruby. They cost $60 from Jireh, cheapest on ebay UK £120 - that's triple the cost!!!

Well, Billy's employees finished work for the day and we still waited for Fast Eddie. Eventually he arrived, explaining that he'd been trying to rebuild his 77 Porsche 911's gearbox and hadn't wanted to leave it. He was a good guy to shoot the shit with, too. Steve was given his motor, Eddie was given some new Pan cases and a set of barrels and pistons he had to rework, and we decided what we wanted to eat. Italian won the vote, so we all piled in Eddie's minivan and set off for Frantone's.

In the Short Bus

Here we are at the restaurant:

Left to right: Kev, Billy, Steve, Eddie and me.

 Despite appearances, Eddie is neither an old woman nor albino, nor as fucked up as he looks in this photo!

We had a nice meal, with lots of chat about racing, great riding places and the like Yesterday's buzzword was 'gnarly', like in 'It was a fuckin' gnarly bike, dude!' which seems to mean it was either good or bad. A bit like 'sick' maybe? Today's word was clearly 'bitchin', like 'It was a bitchin' bike, dude', which could also be good or bad? If, near either word, 'awesome' soon follows, I think that definitely means something was very good. By the end of the evening, 'gnarly' was trending again, WTF?

A really  gnarly evening. You dudes are bitchin' company, man. Awesome! . 

That means 'Cheers, chaps!