Hasn’t happened yet, but June’s Open House should be a good one. It’s Rock’s birthday, too, so we’re planning a real nice party. If you can stop by, please do. That’s Saturday, June 21st at the clubhouse.

Rain, rain, rain! It’s raining in Daytona, too. We didn’t go this year and it’s funny that we didn’t make early plans since we ended up not being able to go in the end.

Angry Dave had neck surgery to fix some herniated disks so he’s in a neck brace. That wouldn’t have been too much fun since he can’t ride the bike. Funny how things work out.

Not too many people showed up at the clubhouse on Bike Night, but that was okay too. The people who did show up were all good folks and we really enjoy each other’s company. I say that a lot, but it’s true. We get together and laugh and that’s always a good thing. Even if you start out in a funk, the laughter is enough to get you feeling good again.

Hugs all around. Nothing better than that.

Heck yeah it was raining, but it was a chance to go up to the clubhouse and meet our mates and relax.

The music wasn’t so great. I can only take ’70s pop rock for so long. I listened to FM during the ’70s so the only time I listened to those songs was riding in a car where we only had AM radio.

We changed the radio station to ’70s classics, which also gets old. I like a mix of stuff I guess, if I’m not listening exclusively to my own weird collection of music.

I played Scrabble with Cindy’s daughter and did (as usual) an incredibly poor job. I’m not sure why I suck so badly at Scrabble but I do.

So Angry and I left about 11 and came home to watch a really odd movie (maybe we didn’t turn it off because of the mood we were in): Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. It was along the lines of… um I don’t know. If you see it, be sure to have a beer in your hand.

That’s all. Signing off for now.

We started out at the usual place, usual time and instead of blasting down the turpike we took the long way down US 1 to West Palm Beach and then out to Military Trail to Benny’s Ice House in Boynton Beach. I’m glad we took that route instead of the big highway because we got there just at about 1pm. Perfect timing.

I’m sorry, but it was C-O-L-D standing outside. I wasn’t too cold on the ride down but once off the bike I was shivering and could hardly wait to get inside.

We got some seats at the bar and had a beverage and ordered off the menu. I had some pretty good chicken wings and onion rings, Angry Dave had a patty melt he liked and hot and crispy french fries. The others in our group had Buffalo Chicken (boneless) and a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich that looked yummy. We were very satisfied.

Prices were reasonable (beer was $3 a bottle which we think is kinda steep) and the food hit the spot.

We bought some raffle tickets like we always do, and at the first band break they called out a bunch of numbers. Out of the 7 tickets we bought, we won 4 times! We got a box of pilsner glasses, a bottle of vodka, lingerie, and a $20 off piercing coupon to Ink Link Tattoo. Good thing they’ve got a shop just down the road by the Roosevelt Bridge!

The others in our group won a nice bar mirror. No way to get it home but we can go down to get it later.

We left at about 3pm and went home by the turnpike, which is just down the road from Benny’s. We’ll be stopping there again, for sure, since it’s about half-way from further down south and home.

We got to Port St. Lucie about 4pm and that was actually pretty lucky because we forgot to gas-up before we left Boynton Beach. Good thing one of us had a reserve switch on the tank. Ok, so we didn’t think of everything. But we got off the turnpike and rode over to Shea’s to say hello, have an evening cocktail and then it was home by 5pm. We were comfortably installed in front of the tube watching the Daytona 500 race and relaxing in pjs.

I love my life.

We had a really good turnout for Open House this month. If you missed it, you really missed it. Yeah, it was cold, except by the fire and inside the clubhouse. So if you just got your butts there you would have had a great time. Too bad for you!

We had plenty of terrific food (it was Italian night) and we even had marshmallows to toast by the fire. There was excitement, too, when one of the guys decided to heat up the food for later arrivals and turned the oven up to 550 degrees. The smoke tipped us off to something happening, and all we could think of was, “you’re fired”. Step away from the stove and oven and let the ladies do the cooking.

Our new fridge is fabulous! And the guys did an outstanding job of getting the slider apart, the fridge inside, the old one emptied and outside, and the slider put back together without any disruption of the festivities. It was impressive to say the least. That was real teamwork.

Have I ever said this is the best group of people, ever? I’ll definately say it again because it bears repeating. I think it was THE place to be for a Saturday night.

Another fine riding day! We met everybody at the DD at the usual time and scarfed down a breakfast sandwich and some coolata to get us revved up. Not everyone was feeling 100% because of the Poker Run the day before (another good time), but we soldiered on to the turnpike and blasted down to the Pompano rest stop. We rested for a short time, gassed up, and headed the rest of the way down to Dania.

We’ve never been to the new clubhouse and kinda knew where it was but we were very happy to run into some fellow WOGs who got us there forthwith. What a spread! It’s got a great big, beautiful yard (with a nice lawn, even!). Since it’s in a commercial district there was plenty of parking and the rockin’ Sunday event wasn’t a bother to anybody so there was no stress. There was plenty of food, seating in the shade, live music, and good people.

Half of the group left at about 2:30 but we stayed about an hour or so more. I think it was something about having drink tickets left over - I’m not sure. Anyway, we finally took off and decided we’d take a more leisurely pace back home.

We got on 95 (did I mention that the clubhouse has easy on, easy off access?) and got as far as Pompano Beach. We headed east and stopped at The Briny Irish Pub at the corner of Atlantic Blvd and The Beach.

A really nice place! They’ve got sociable bartenders and a great, biker friendly atmosphere. We sat at the bar but we could have sat at a booth or table and been just as happy. Ok, we prefer sitting at the bar, but we coulda sat anywhere else - really.

We all gave this place a thumbs up. They have live music from Thursday to Sunday starting at 9pm. They serve lunch and dinner. We did get a look at the menu and I think we’ll have to make plans to stop there again on another trip south, for sure.

After we finished our beverages we headed north again on US 1 up to Boca. In Boca we stopped at Neighborhood Sports Grill right on US 1. The place is huge. From the outside you might think it’s not our kind of place, but it’s really an excellent place to stop. We were greeted with a smile and told, “You can sit at a booth, a table - whatever.”

It’s a very comfortable place. There’s lots of parking and a very big outside covered porch seating area for smoking. Really pleasant. We sat outside on the porch to enjoy our beverages. We had good service and enjoyed our stop at this place, too. Next time I’ll get a look at the menu…

The last stop was closer to home. We stopped at the Bay City Bistro on North Lake Blvd in Palm Beach Gardens. It’s in a mall there, and isn’t real big, but we’ve always been treated well when we go there. This night we had wonderful patty-melts (so big I couldn’t finish it) with french fries and FREE DRAFT BEER. I dunno what that was about and I don’t know if it’s every weekend or what, but seems to me that would be a draw!

The service was good, as usual, and we were very content with the food and atmosphere. By the way, they have a lunch card where you buy 10 lunch items and get one free. We like that place.

Bay City Bistro is just off of the highway, and we decided to take I-95 home. So, 12 hours after we started the day we rolled into the garage and took our positions on the couch. Mmmmmmmm. Sleep.

We lead hard lives. But somebody’s gotta do it and it might as well be us.