August 2006

Five men went, and only five returned.  It was a Portuguese bike rally held by the Sao Miguel Grave Diggers, known for it's crazy camping, hellacious ham sandwiches, and outrageous orange soda mixed with beer.

Since Sao Miguel is about 150km (93 miles) from Terceira, we had to take a ferry to get to the bike rally.  We parked our bikes on the walkway above the cars.  Here's Liam, looking a little too happy, tying his bike to the railing with high-tech baling rope.

Our first night on the island, before the rally began, we stayed at the residence of the U. S. Consulate to the Azores.  The conditions were tough, but we're bikers, we can handle anything.

Sportbikes were not allowed!  I know, it's sick!  My friend was kind enough to trade with me for the weekend, so I found myself riding this Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200.  It is a sweet bike!

Early in the morning (that's about noon if you're Portuguese) we gathered in the town square of Ponta Delgada.  There were some pretty cool bikes there.  Certainly more than you would expect on an island in the middle of the Atlantic.

Ruthie and Vernon!  I was thinking of you guys when I took this picture!  It doesn't have an engraved windshield or color-changing LEDs, but this is one tough trike!  You don't want to get stuck behind it on a bike, because it spews some nasty fumes (trust me, I know).

First stop:  The American Bar!  And there were only five Americans in the whole damn rally!  How do you like that?  What really amazes me is how we packed all those bikes into that little parking lot.

Enter the hellacious ham sandwich.  But seriously, they were really good.  There was food laid out at all that stops.  The whole island really got into this.  There was cake, too.  Bikers love cake.

If you aren't already convinced that I'm a badass biker, check out my mohawk.

After riding about 50 miles to the far end of the island, we made camp in a soccer field.  There was a big party here and the leaders of the Grave Diggers club gave wheelchairs purchased with proceeds from the rally to some handicapped children.

The next day we rode another 50 miles back, stopping for a picnic and a nap by a lake.  Bikers get cranky if they don't get their nap.

When we returned to Ponta Delgada, there was a really cool parade through this big festival that was going on downtown.  I didn't get any pictures because it was dark and I was sort of busy riding a motorcycle.  It was really cool, though, take my word for it.

THE END