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Day 1 - Jean, NV, Getting setup and ready to ride.
Roderick and I arrived in Jean early Friday morning at 3 am. We checked into the hotel (The Gold Rush) which we quickly found out was extremely low budget and made for bus parties from Los Angeles. Since we were there to ride it was bearable but only slightly so as the atmosphere can be so annoying in a casino/hotel if the people are really strange.
We felt that the truck would be somewhat secure in the parking lot as there were lots of people around. Unfortunately, there were no rooms available near the parking lot, but thankfully nothing happened while we were there.
On Saturday he and I took a ride with the truck into Las Vegas where we had lunch at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. My college housemate from senior year is a casino host there and he popped in to say hi over lunch. After lunch Roderick went his own way and I stayed in town to be able to collect various parties arriving by plane.
Eli, Barry, and Bob came in later that night and we took a car service back to Jean, about 30 minutes outside, of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, John Columbo (a friend of mine), had a family emergency and couldn't come. The next day jimmy would meet us in the parking lot at a 9am start. Riders Mark Kariya (from City Bike magazine) and David Earl (a Las Vegas local whom I met via the Chain Gang web site, www.f650.com) would be joining us in the morning.
With this part of the mission complete the only thing would be to wake up the next day and get ready to ride.
Show Overview - outside area
Photo - Jimmy Lewis and the Mandarin Yellow Boxer
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Jimmy brought several bikes but we all liked to hear him speak
about riding the boxer
at Dakar and what the special differences were from the stock 1150 to the rally
bike.
This bike had TKC80's on it which were about the only thing
that he said got close to being
a tubeless dual sport tire for bikes of this type and size.
*note - While an amazing rider that is sometimes described
as 'not from this planet' due to his skills,
Jimmy doesn't have antenna's growing from him head. That's simply the light
posts in the parking lot,
but you already knew that, right? ;-)
Photo - Barry in the truck
By about 8:30 we were at the truck and starting to unload.
Roderick had already taken his boxer
out and was sitting in the parking lot talking to Jimmy's fiance Heather. Barry
was starting to show his
unique character which we all came to enjoy.
Photo - Roderick and Heather
That's Roderick Smith on the boxer! He was the only one
(besides Jimmy) on the 'big' bike
and really handled it well throughout the event. Props to Roderick.
I kinda think that Roderick looks like Gene Hackman so it was
fun to have lunch with him
at the Hard Rock where I called him Gene at every opportunity. (he was a good
sport and
didn't seem to mind, especially if the ladies liked it...)
Photo - Barry's ready to go
One of the nice things about arranging a group is that you get
to meet new people.
Hopefully, you'll like everybody and things will be pleasant. This was
especially the case for Barry who's
a customer of CalBMW and a friend of Eli's who was able to come along at the
last minute.
Photo - Barry's Yoga Pose
While morning calisthetics were not required. Barry eagerly
offered some 'rider zen'
poses to get us all in the mood.
Photo - Jimmy's camper
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Jimmy wasn't too hard to find as he had a camper with the
Jimmy Lewis racing logo
on it. Everyone was really impressed with his cool setup including the motorized
folding ramp and bike storage/work area.
You could see the "hotwheels" - 'gotta have this
toy' look on just about everybody's faces.
That's a helmeted Mark Kariya working the ramp.
<click here for video (15 sec) of ramp in action>
Photo - Jimmy watches us unload
From left to right in photo, Eli, David Earl, jimmy, and
Roderick Smith. It was really
easy to unload due to the great job Eli did in getting the bikes in. Notice the
rear ramp
which also made it possible to get the bikes easily in and out of the truck.
Photo - Jimmy tells us the next steps
From left to right in photo, Eli (again!), Bob Cunningham,
Jimmy, and Barry.
Jimmy told us to get gassed up at the Mobil station across the parking lot then
to
follow and access road and go under some railroad tracks out to the dry lake.
We were to rendezvous there at about 9:30am to sign our riding
liability waivers and
start the classroom portion of the training followed by practice on the dry
lake.
Photo - Dry Lake staging area
It was easy to find the Dry Lake which we all were excited
about riding on.
We still were in awe of Jimmy's camper from which came all sorts of creature
comforts
such as chairs, tables, extra gas and not to mention... Heather's great
sandwiches for lunch!
Photo - Mark gives a hand
Mark Kariya is a photographer and journalist who among other
things write for City Bike.
The editor of City Bike asked if he could come along to write a story and take
pictures.
It turns out that Jimmy and Mark have known each other for a while so this
worked out well.
Mark's a nice guy and is at many races and rallies so if you
see him with his trademark hair
and warm smile be sure to say hi! (we would also find out that he's also a great
rider
even with all of his camera gear in his backpack