Frĺn: albin ahlvin []
Skickat: den 22 augusti 2004 00:22
Ämne: FROM SWEDEN TO AMERICA - THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME ,Brother Albin's visit to America.

august 20, 2004........

the story begin one day, 2˝ years ago, when i got my computer, and since that day i started serchin´ on internet for different motorcycle-related connections........soon i found a lot of them, but my eyes focused on a “group”, called “the brotherhood of the grey beard bikers” (BGBB) and at the same time i send an e-mail to a precident in Ark-La-Tex.....during the following mounths, i keep on with my corresponding and get in to the groups deeper and deeper. the spring this year i bought myself a new car, and at that moment i get the chans to borrow some extra money, these i thought should be a good investment for the following hollyday. my daughters said yeah...ofcourse you take the flight, my parents said yeah....your daughters can stay with us.....after these 2> yeah....i went to the travelagency and bought my ticket ( after several e-mails to america, to get the confirmation about possibility to come and stay for some day´s).

july 24.

up early, on the train to copenhagen (denmark) and the airport. left 15:40 (afternoon local time) and get to chicago (il) at 19:00 local time)(+7hours). there i found out that the next airplane was counselled....the cabin-crew went home....get some help from the staff to change from united-airlines to american-airlines, and with one little hour delay, continued to dallas, but......before i could leave the airport, i had to pass the security-check.....had to take off everything, unpack my bags and show them whole my body ( they probably seen more goodlookin´ ones....). everybody on the flight went thru the same procedeour(?), 20minutes they spent on everybody.....finally on the flight, and started to wonder, bill, my brother in BGBB, the man who should meet me at the airport, is he still there, did he get the right info about the delay.......when i finally came of the aircraft, there he was with the blue baseballcap on....45 minutes to his home and after a while in his house i get intrudused to “my room”....a wonderful recidence.....one of the rooms during my 3week journey, and i wright it down once for all.....everybody gave me a “private space” through the whole trip ( thank´s everybody, good to have a chance to close the door some minutes/day to catch up all the impressions).

july 25.

woke up 06:00, met bills wife lisa, took a walk to the garage and bill let me take care of the yamaha roadstar, he took his favorite (honda goldwing).....after a short trip to the local coffee-shop called starbrucks, and ofcourse a cup of hot strong coffee ( just like home), we went on the first trip on usa-roads....felt good. a special feelin´when i used the throttle....85hp, my own has 63hp, and i could feel the (big)difference. after the trip, bill and lisa took me to a local steakhouse for a good dinner and the possibility to talk.....then back to the house and filled the car with bags and on the road to new adventures........3 hours later we where in wascom (north-east tx), they drove me all the way to david and gail lindsey, (precident in Ark-La-Tex) and a moment of feelings......bill and i took farewell...he and lisa went away and now it was time to move to next family. jerry, liz and haley should be my next couple of folks that should take care of me the next day. an evening filled with local food and some other members, randall, bubba and dottie....after a long day of travel, i went to bed at 22:00.

july 26.

jerry´s birthday, and that morning he gave me a precent, a nice t-shirt ( normally it should be vice versa). david and me used the pick-up, and jerry took his bike all the way to their local yamaha-dealer. at tis place i got intrudused to the whole crew...tony o (the owner) and his wife frances, marthy, clyde, randy and the rest of the people. now i could finally pick up my mustang-seat, that i ordered via e-mail many weeks ago, and also a passangers backrest. after that we went to a buffé-place, you could eat as much as you want for less than 8$.....when i told the lady in the entrence that i should take a walk and be back in an hour.....she said...ohhh nooo, then you have to pay again....(i thought i could sneak in later and have dessert, but that was against the law (ha-ha-ha). everybody warned me for the next couple (niel and janice) or ecpecially him, >don´t listen to what that man try to fill you with....but, i can tell you all, i laughed the whole time, my stomack still hurts.....BUT, that man he got one of americas wormest heart, a true brother.....so i say to all of you people....take good care of him, that redneck is hard, no impossible to replace......well, before i get to sentimental.......niel, janice and myself went to a culture-centre, the place was called, hhmmmm......wal-mart. there ain´t such instutution in my part of the world, so that is one of my experience. we went back to the house so janice could prepaire the house for the evenings cookout, and the two of us went to a place called dwights biker dreams, a combo of museeum and store( ultras), where you can order bikes and they build them...on the yard, there was a warehouse filled with stuff from -30, -40, -50 and so on. with that collection of parts, i think you can build ceveral houndred bikes in different styles.......later that night all the poeple come to have dinner in the garden....we where 12-15 people, incl. tony and his crew from the yamaha-sportcenter. sittin´there all night, talkin´for many hours, and didn´t went to bed until midnight. temp was 75*F and very humid.

july27.

the day after niel and janice took me to the mal, so i could find some precents for my children.....the niel drove me halfway to david green´s place. he and his wife debbie lives in arcadia(la), and the next day´s i should spend with these people.

july28.

started the morning with coffee on the porch, try to fixin´ a photo to ya´ll with some nice shots of the local hummingbird-family, but they were to fast for me. then a tour to pro-bass, a huge facility for outdoor- activities. they have it all, and i meen all, everything that you can imagine + little more...then the next stop was ark-la-tex car museeum, (nothin´ in common with the star-riders, exept the name) a very nice collection of ~25 cars in vey good shape. next stop was natchitoches ( pronoused: nacka-dich), the oldest seddlement west of mississippi, and old farm from middle 1800 and now some kind of museeum. then to the other side of the village to another very interesting event, “the gator farm”....a huge are filled with alligators, from 10” baby´s to ~5yard youngsters......we were there about 5 minutes when they announsed : foodtime......today´s special: raw chicken....yummie !! went back to arcadia and we had a nice meal at a local resaurant toghether with debbie.

july 29.

left my pillow 04:30, quick breakfast and then over to david in wascom (1 hour ride) and he picked me up after a whole night of work, for transport halfway to houston ( in total 6 hours ride). i can say it was very hard to say goodbye to these wonderful people in Ark-La-Tex.......

july 29 – august2.

spend these days with tccrc in houston, some very good rides on different scooters, no more comments........ august 2. the late afternoon we left for next stop, at 20:30 i met brother pete and his son adam and they brought me back to their home. arrived 22:00, to an absoloutly dark-dark place in the middle of nowere.....when we where close to the house, pete gave his wife jenn a quick phonecall and when we arrived she gave me a mug of very good and hot coffee.

august 3-6.

next morning when i woke up, i had to take a short walk in the neighbourhood......a wonderful place, quiet (exept for the sounds from different birds), my home this time, a luxury mobile home with every facility you can imagine.......went to the local firebrigade and picked up a honda magna from one of his relatives, and that was my scooter fore the next few day´s. pete took me to a lot of different activities as: local culturehous where i got a lesson in cajun-history, his construction-company (where at a buildingarea and followed the work how to build a house, met many of his relatives during different dinners, picked up his next project ( superbeetle-72), different rides in the louisiana countryside.

august 7.

whole day ride from branch to new orleans. left 09:00 and arrived 11:00, after that we passed and 18mile bridge over the swamp and also the “little bayou” called mississippi river.......we found the direction to brother roadhog at once, and after a short photo-session on the walkway outside of his house he joined us and took us to all the places in his town. good to have a local guide, and coz he been there for many years, he know exactly where to go and what to show.....french market, café de monde, ofcourse burbon street and all the music-places.....during this short visit, i felt that roadhog was (or is) the same mentor for me, that he showed on forum, a man with a lot of visdom and a lifetime of experience to share. after a dinner at a local place in the outskirt of town, the hard moment come when we had to say goodbye and leave. got some valuable gifts from roadhog, to bring home + ofcourse the most valuable.....to finally met him in person........then a long ride back home to pete´s place. took us 4 hours to get back.....roadwork....

august 8-9.

a nice and relaxin´day before the next hard moment, the goodbye to brother pete and his wonderful family........at 22:00 they took me to lafayette (la) ( 1hour ride at east) so i could enter the greyhoundbus to houston. arrived there at 03:00, took a taxi to the airport and my plane left at 07:20. quick change in chicago and then finally get across the nation to new england area. brother ed and brother jim picked me up and took me to a restaurant (didn´t eat much during the transport) and then to ed´s house. nice pizza-evening on the porsh with ed and his wife mary. before it was bedtime we picked up a honda valkyre, that would be ed´s scooter the next few day´s when i rode his v-star.

august 10.

left my bed at 07:00, and after a good breakfast, we left the house for a whole day ride with ed and jim. they showed me a lot of different things in the new england region, everything from a local vineary, covered bridges, nice roads with exellent places to take a look over the magnificent view over the mountains. food at an old little diner.

august 11.

started the day at 08:00 after that we had breakfast and we used jim´s pickup and ed´s v-star. after 4˝hours ride at north we stoped at meredith to meet the rest of the brothers and also for a lunchbreak. as you can read on an other place on forum, the people we met was: gary & CJ- ed(eh) and windburn. felt the same here, felt like i known these people for years.......strange.....after a 1hour stop we found out that ed got a flat tire, and 4 hours later we hit the road again.....when we hit the goal....bethel (maine) we had a good meal at the wilde moose and then time to hit the pillow.....

august 12.

left the hotel and had breakfast at a local place, and then time again to hit the road. gary brought us up in the whithe mountains on very-very nice roads and then south again and when we come to gary´s and CJ´s town the next hard time comin´up......and as CJ said......bikers don´t cry......then back to ed´s place and a night to relaxe...

august13.

ed took me to the indian-motorcycle-museeum, also to a local harley-shop and also to his work. in the evening i had a luxory-local-special: lobster.......very good.....

august14.

grand finale.....the last day on this continent........ed and mary took me to the local airfield and put me in a limousine.......5 hours ride down to newark airport, new york......plane left 17:50 and 07:30 i arrived to copenhagen (denmark) and my oldest doughter emma and my woman birgitta met me at the airport with a bag filled with sandwiches and a lot of coffee........ before i finish this...........

a very big thank´s to all brother, wifes, relatives, friends and all of you other people that i´ve been introdused to during my visit. and also thank´s for everything that you done fore me.......this gave me probably memories to remember for the rest of my life. also some special-thank´s that i fixin´ to share to ya´ll (eh). redneck-koonass-roadhog-hitman ( hope that ya´ll understood..........)

albin “ the baron” ahlvin.at the moment in sweden, but you never know.........(these document i´ve send with honor to members in: Brotherhood of the Grey Beard Bikers and Ark-La-Tex Star Riders)

add some photo´s so there´s something to look at....

Albin & Bill (Sax) Texas Border

Pete at work RoadHog & Baron

David & Gail White Mountains, NH

Windburn, Herper, Run-in-Bare, Baron, CJ, Gary, Jim