Bike Night at Westgate... Again!

During one of our many phone conversations I popped the big question. "Abby, perhaps if I take the bike you would like to take a ride with me?". And to my surprise and without any hesitation her answer was "sure!". My first thought was, did she understand correctly, this is the Harley I'm talking about? So I kindda asked again but the reply was the same, "sure I will, I've ridden in the back of a bike before and at very high speeds". Wow! I've found me a daredevil.

Ready to rock and roll, or in this case ride and roll.
Joe Cool!
So, it was a great opportunity that on Thursday night, Westgate City Center was hosting a bike night, so obviously the Harley came out of the garage and even though it was already hot weather we headed that way. The place was not packed but there were still lots of bikes, probably close to 500 of them.

Trikes with VW engines are still cool to this day.
But I still drool over the high end custom sleds, specially baggers like this one.
We got there and found a nice spot to park it right in the center of it all. After walking up and down Coyote Blvd. and watching all the cool rides parked there we headed to Margaritaville for some drinks.

My baby, can't believe it's a 94.
There were bikes everywhere.
And on both sides of Coyote Blvd.
Now this is the first time I ordered a margarita there, but after the awesome margaritas from Sedona and Jerome this one completely failed. It was weak and did not look nor taste like a margarita. Go figure! I thought for sure Margaritaville would offer killer margaritas.

Westgate City Center is a fun place to go party, plenty of restaurants and shops but most importantly the home to The Coyote's NHL Hockey Arena, and NFL The Cardinal's Stadium. Not a place that I would go there every weekend but the times I have been there I have really enjoyed it.

More pics from bike night:

Although she can pose she is not a "poser", she's the real thing.


















Abby or pin up girl, ummmmm! I like!
Ummmm! I think I can ride this one!
"Oh no! That is way to low" she said.


Vintage iron.
A young rider saw the camera in my hand and offered to snap a shot.

For more images visit my facebook page.

Peace!

A Bohemian Bike Night?

Tonight was a prelude to tomorrow's Bohemian Night but it was also fused with Westgate Bike Night which makes me think that it's a small world, or at least a small town.

Last week I met Mary, the coordinator for the Bohemian Night and we are getting to know each other through the PoetAz page on Facebook which she maintains and through our blogs. So this afternoon I got a text from her where she said there were lots and lots of bikers where she was and asked if I was there. No, not yet is what I told myself as I was still performing market shopping duty with my mom.

Of course I was heading that way, tonight was the opening night for Westgate Bike Night and I even ditched choir practice to attend. I got there and found her along with two other friends I met last Friday (both of them great poets) enjoying some drinks at Margaritaville, I was asked to joined them and the next two hours were spent in conversation about music, poetry, and bike noise, lol. Yeap, the place was so packed that I didn't even make it in to park on the street but had to go and park along a lonely wall next to the "cops only" parking. lol I kinda hoped my bike would not be towed away from there and luckily it wasn't.

The more I talked to this ladies, the more I became excited about tomorrow's performance. Oh, by the way I am now listed in the program so I guess I can't back down now. I was thinking maybe I will do three songs and go find me a corner to hide afterwards but I was told to start thinking more like a five song set. So, a five song set it will be I guess.

Card for Friday performer's, I am excited now.
If my niece goes with me tomorrow I may pull her to give me some singing support, specially since our choir main guitar player will also be there. Oh, man this is sounding better and better by the minute. We will see.

Vicky (Poet), Mary (organizer and poet)and Blanca (poet and MC)
But more on the Bohemian Night tomorrow.

Well, for sure they were having a kick with all the bikes and bikers there, I certainly was too so let me share with you what I consider poetry of a different kind. Poetry on two wheels, loud, exciting, and beautiful.

You Snooze You Lose and More

OK call me crazy but i thought cartoon cars were based on real cars and not the other way around. It's kindda scary when an auto maker let their designers take a cartoon car and put it out there for all to own. Now be honest and tell me you don't see the resemblance.

This is the one and only Lightning McQueen. From the movie "Cars".

And this is Mazda's Speed3
What is this world coming to. Anyway, it is a cute little car. I do like Mazda cars but still wouldn't buy one. For me Mustangs are still the way to go. And here's a couple samples as to why. Too bad we had to miss this year's Fabulous Fords Forever at Knott's Berry Farm this last Sunday. I am sure I would have seen plenty of awesome cars there. But as I said before, due to the influx of grand kids just born and on the way we had to skip it.


Eat your heart out Chevy owners.

Well, my Mustang will soon receive some TLC. I already bought the back window which had been missing for the past three years. I will get that transmission oil leak fixed and I'm planning on changing the color and adding chrome wheels among other enhancements. Since I don't owe money on it and it's been such a loyal car, it deserves to be refurbished. It will still be a lot cheaper than if I was to go and buy me a new car.

But for now it patiently waits its turn.

So, I got permission from my sister to ditch choir practice tonight so I could go to Bike Night over at Westgate. It had been windy all day long and I was dead tired when I got home. I laid my head on my pillow and before I knew it I was totally asleep. The saying goes "If you snooze you lose" well I did. All of a sudden I opened my eyes and it was like oh crap what time is it. Luckily it was just barely past seven so I took out the Harley and braved the cold wind and headed towards Westgate. The attendance was way down, I knew this as many riders chicken out if it's a little cold, still there must have been over 300 bikes, which in my book is nothing to sneeze about.

I got there, found me a good spot, secured my bike, and started walking around checking out the other rides. Here are some of my favorites tonight.

This is one crazy ride. But I really, really like it.
This one sits so low it's awesome. Lots of chrome to be found in it too.
This one reminded me so much of my Kawazaki from back in the day when I was a teenager.
But this one is still my favorite. Oh yeah, I do like this one.

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Bike Nite

The scene over at Westgate. There were bikes all over.

Ah what a feeling to go to bike nite not as an spectator but as a participant. Unfortunately I had to ditch choir practice just to make it to bike nite on Thursday night, which by the way I was going to miss because we were waiting for a certain Atalie Belle to make her presence known Luckily she didn't make us wait forever.

So at around 7:00 p.m. I rode over tho Westgate City Center and joined some 500+ other riders that were partying and enjoying the music and great weather. It was so packed I thought I was going to have a hard time finding a spot to park, but as it turned out I didn't, as I rode in I found and empty spot just calling my name.

I have been so out of touch since I didn't ride for almost five years but as I am finding out my love and passion for riding is very much alive. My bike which I have owned since July of 2000 still looks awesome and gets plenty of compliments, it sports a nostalgia paint scheme that is very rare, in fact so rare that I have not seen another one like it.

With Arizona Bike Week upon us I am sure I'll do something this week, maybe a ride or two but I am also saving myself for Laughlin so we'll see how things go. In the meantime check out the scene over at Westgate.

And I parked right next to this vintage piece of machinery.
Yeap, that's my baby parked next to this vintage bike.
And here it is again. The guy admiring the vintage bike represents our passion for Harley Davidson.
More vintage iron.
There it is, my baby looking good, and I didn't even washed it yet.
Some custom choppers were also there.
A Spider. It looks interesting enough.
Wow, some kid is cruising in style.

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Bike Night at Westgate

So last Thursday was the third installment of Bike Night at Westgate City Center in Glendale, my son in law and I got there when it was already dark and the place was so packed with motorcycles that the overflow was starting to park in the adjacent parking lots. No I did not count them but there were surely at least 500 bikes there.

For a limited amount of time Bike Night is every Thursday night but if profitable for Westgate it may be there to stay. To date this is the closest we Arizona bikers get to having a place where bikers can meet and park their bike within view. It gives the feeling of Sturgis or Daytona minus a few thousand bikes of course but nevertheless just to peruse some 500 bikes can take a while.

Every restaurant in the venue was packed and bikers are known to be very generous which again leads me to believe that Bike Night at Westgate is here to stay. I really hope so.

All these images were captured by "Junior" my son in law. He is still learning but sometimes his captures prove to be display worthy.


This is Coyotes Blvd. Also known as "Events Plaza".


This is one sweet Heritage Softail.


The gas tank says it all.


One nice yellow on black custom chopper.


Awesome looking chopper.


Trikes are supposed to be fun too, I have yet to ride one.


Two Screamin' Eagle baggers.


Old school flames.


New school flames.

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