The mountains of Austria behind us, we entered a long stretch known as the Autobahn. Porsches and Beemers were flying past (no speed limit in most places) but we were capped at 100kph due to the torpedo on top of the car carrying all our worldly possessions. We pretty much raided Lutz’s entire CD collection on the eight hour drive up to Speyer. Oddly enough, the kitschy Kid Rock song “All Summer Long” is a big hit in Europe right now and we mused on its sampling of "Werewolves in London" and "Sweet Home Alabama". We admittedly even felt a bit homesick as we sang along, boppin’ down the ‘bahn. Lutz introduced us to a great singer named Frank Carrillo and I think we listed to “Roll the Bones” about ten times in a row.
I have to admit that we were pretty tired at this point and hadn’t really heard much about Speyer; hadn’t heard ANYTHING actually. It’s a small to mid-sized town an hour outside of Frankfurt and we kind of viewed it as just a one-night stop on our way to Barcelona... If you hear crunching sounds from now on don’t worry, it’s just the sound of us eating a heaping plate of humble pie...
We found our way to the Flaming Star and had our minds blown. There were already 20 bikes parked in front, mostly café racers and a couple old Harleys. Our jaws dropped and the owner ushered us into a scene we still can’t believe. The bar was sort of a gated clubhouse and inside they were having an old-fashioned American-style Bar-Bee-Q. More and more bikes kept showing up and it was absolutely fantastic. Kutty and his family were there and we had a great time catching up and hearing about the various adventures that had taken place over the past ten days (only ten days?!) Legendary pinstriper Herb Martinez was on hand and believe it or not our buddy Jacqui even showed up!
When it finally came time to show the film, everyone packed into the bar and they even stood out the door. As it played no one spoke a word; we were truly speechless. So here’s to Speyer; huge thanks to all the rulers who came out for the event. It was truly our pleasure to have met you. Big thanks to Dynamite and Custombike Magazines, the Flaming Star, and Dickies for making such a fantastic night.
On a side note I wanted to relate another story from the evening. We had the pleasure of meeting a couple of American guys who had been serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of them mentioned that Choppertown had gotten him and his boys through a lot of shit and they used to turn it up full volume to help them unwind after many a tough day in the field. He said it was an honor to meet us and we had only one thing to say; it’s an honor to meet him. Regardless of where you fall on the political side of the fence, those men and women go through a lot and we wish them all a safe return. Hope to see you guys on the road again soon.
