11.10.99 + New York City = frigid day with icy streets. 

NOT!

It was 70 degrees, BABY!  I'm having shoulder surgery next week and there's just no way I could NOT ride today... it was warm and one of the last days I'll be "capable" of riding til March 00.  I'm getting multiple phone calls from every rider I know wanting to go out and ride.  This was worse than Spring Fever... so I'm getting ready to leave to go to some unknown destination when the phone rings. 

It's the founder of the WB.  He's telling me that the guys are going to go out to play.  I ask which guys... you hear mumbling in the background and he's say "This guy" is with us... well, "This Guy" is the one I was referring to on my HalloWheelies page, turns out the guy's name is Anthony.  So Santo, Anthony, et al are going to go out to play and I'm invited.  They give me directions to a rendezvous point, but you know how guys are... they're not good at directions, especially when A) there's lots of them there talking to each other, B) they're about to order food and C) everyone knows where the place is but the person they're giving directions to... and as an aside, while I'm on this tangent, what is it with men and their stupid landmarks?   Why can't they say "turn left on 8th Street," instead of "and then you'll see a hardware store, turn right after that"... and, of course, they won't actually know the name of the hardware store... or they'll think they know the name but if there's another male there, there will be most likely be a dispute... anyway - just give me an address and give me a map, I'm usually better off. 

Anyway, back to the phone call.  I'm on someone's cell and the phone gets handed to a new person.  I get greeted with a "howyadoin" and he starts in telling me directions.  Now, he gets to the point that we've already discussed and he starts to tell me something else but there's lots of murmuring in the background and arguments on where to go, where to stop, etc etc. and  basically nothing is resolved.  I'm left with some vague idea of a general direction to head - but it's 70 degrees, BABY and I don't care. 

I'm out of the house, on the way there, get to my designated exit and then begin to hunt for the locale.  Up and down the road I go.  Staring at ever other motorcyclist for some kind of clue as to where I'm supposed to be heading.   An hour of this and I'm disgusted.  I finally go back to my original exit point and go the OTHER direction and ta-dah, there's where I was supposed to be... if someone had said turn right off the exit that might have helped.  But anywho... 

I drive up to the area where I expect to see everyone but there are no bikes to be seen.  I do, however, see a herd of cops with flashing lights.  oh wait, do I see clusters of bikes within the cop herd?  uhoh. 

I debate on what to do.  stay/go/stay/go.  I opt for a big wide slow U-Turn and then park away from the cops and sit there (helmet on, of course). 

Sure enough, one of the bikes comes towards me.  It's the notorious Santo... apparently everyone was there earlier and cops came and umm.. stuff happened... and uh... well remember Anthony?   They decided to abduct his bike.  You know how the Man is about stupid things like paperwork.  

Anyway I ride up to the herd of cops and Anthony offers his hand and introduces himself as "Little Anthony."  If I were a guy I wouldn't wanna be called "little" anything, but you know how Italians are with their nicknames and there's probably a "Big Anthony" or a "Medium Anthony" out there somewhere - so "Little Anthony" it is. 

I find out that all the other boys left the scene and picked another meeting point and we're going to hook up with them later.  I, of course, take pictures of the three cop cars but put my camera away when one of them starts threatening to check everyone else's paperwork as well.  I mean, I'm legit, but why push it? 

So we leave.  Quietly.  well, not real quiet but quieter.  And, hey, there's the flatbed... so we make a U-turn and go back to make sure the tow truck guy puts the bike up real nice like.  Since Little Anthony is riding bitch on Jeff's bike, they go watch the loading and Santo and I hang back - who wants to hang around cops with too much time on their hands?  Not me.

Now is Santo's perfect photo op.  And since I can't ever seem to snap a good picture of him, we go at it.  (all this, mind you, with the cops still flashing their little lights in the background). 

Santo does some good endos... which, of course, I don't catch (I think Santo's bike is camera shy).  But after much maneuvering,  I manage to snap off a few shots.  He's practically got his own portfolio now.  

Anyway, we finally meet up with the rest of the crew in Brooklyn.  And what a crew - I knew this would be a good night.  Aside from Santo, Jeff and Little Anthony, there's Mario, Paulie,  JohnV, JohnM, Kurt, some quiet Asian guy, that guy who I can never remember his name on the R1 that does wheelies forever and another kid on a R6 which I don't think I'd met before. 

We had to go run an errand or something so off we go.  The boys are all in rare form... stand up wheelies stop light to stop light, me wishing I had a stupid helmet cam and enjoy the hell out of the day.  Endos at every light, wheelies in between, burnouts at every possible opportunity.  We ended up on a quiet residential street in Brooklyn.  Well, at least it was quiet before we showed up.  The boys started showboating up and down the little one way street and it was only a matter of time before someone called the cops. 

We left before they came but saw them en route to our earlier locale... half the crew went one way and the other half went the other way.  I ended up going with the wrong group but since the cop car was tailgating me, I decided to pretend that I wasn't with anyone and drove really slow.  Wobbling a little for theatrics and I stayed in the middle of the road so they couldn't get around me to go after the other guys.  The other boys were up ahead, cutting through traffic but I figured any extra time I could buy them would be helpful.  The cop finally got around me and presumably went after the guys.  I saw this, breathed a sigh of relief (cuz who wants to be followed by a cop?) and made a U-turn, not noticing the other cop 3 cars behind.  He bleeped his siren at me and turned on his lights and I made a quick turn down an unknown street.  After many other turns and changes of directions, I lost the cop and headed home.  Don't know what happened to the rest of the guys but it was a good day despite it's early ending. 

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