Part V - More People

Dan Sorenson (aka Cereal Killer): Dan calls himself the geekiest guy since his father. Dan is a small wiry guy without an ounce of fat on him - couldn't have, he moves too quickly. He has thin, short, very light brown hair and wears small wire frame glasses. He has a thin, short beard that is also very light brown. He wears old jeans and tucks them into tall black motorcycle boots. Dan was fresh out of the hospital recovering from blowing out his esophagus while coughing vigorously. He spent the weekend swearing off spicy food, strong drink, and tobacco. And enjoying them anyway.

Dan claims to be only 29 years old. Dan claims a lot of things. Dan can out-talk Tom Ohmer. He has stories from the Navy that will alternately curl your hair, make you laugh, or make you want to kick him in the shorts. Dan likes to talk, but when Penny challenged him to debate helmet laws he must have had too much to drink and was not as sharp as he usually is, because he didn't come up with those tricky concepts that usually leave Penny hands-on-hips thinking deeply for probably THIRTY SECONDS before coming up with the perfect retort.

Dan plans to hook a 600-cubic-inch Massey Ferguson twin-cylinder diesel to a rigid frame and make a Hogly-Ferguson. He says it would be perfect, since Harleys are descended from agricultural equipment -- why not put agricultural equipment on the road?

Dan rides Butcher Boy as though he were born to him. He tells lots of bad jokes but it's fun to watch him think. Dan looks young, but isn't. He'll probably continue to look young for a very long time. Unless he rides Butcher Boy again, in which case he'll be the youngest geezer you ever saw. Dan needs a woman to take some of the starch out of his attitude.

Jane Pilsworth (Lady Jane): Here's the slimmest redhead on a Harley in all of Texas, but she doesn't have the accent. Dark auburn medium length hair. Slender little arms that heave her FXR around with no effort at all. Jane doesn't make herself stand out in a crowd, but when you go and talk to her one-on-one, she is smart and funny. This woman looks great in shorts! Jane brought pictures of Eddie Kieger, Barry Van Hook, Matthew Trost ("Wind In His Ear"), John Stafford, and others who for one reason or another couldn't be at the Meet.

Tom Freelove: Tom is a recent patron of the bar and grill after being a lurker for a long time. He still lurks, sitting quietly and observing. Penny sat down and talked to him for awhile at the MEET and they had a wonderful conversation. Tom rides a beautiful Zebra-painted bike that is as conspicuous as he is a wall-flower. Tom is a tall guy with dark hair who always wears a cap and glasses. He has a beard and speaks softly of his deep insights concerning people and the attraction of meeting those whose words he had read but whose faces he had never seen.

Donna: Here's a blonde gal on a 1200 Sporty who has as many quips as Davey D. She lost a footpeg on the Saturday ride to the diner, but pulled her bike over to the side and kept her cool while Mikey and the cops retrieved her missing part. As a side note from near the back of the pack...everybody kept their head, pointed out the hazard to those behind, went around it smoothly, and pulled off in as orderly a manner as possible. Thanks to Mikey for getting the peg and for calming down Illinois' Finest when he started getting nervous about the collection of Harleys on his highway.

Karlette Schoen & Chris: Karlette is a dark haired woman who rides like she's been doing this since she was a child. She handles her bagger like it was a toy, even with Chris on behind. Then she steps off the bike and reaches into the tour pak and whips out an expandable cane and flips it to its full length before walking away. Chris is a shorter, dark-haired woman who smiles broadly and doesn't say very much at all. If sheer miles piled on were the criterion for the IronButt award, Karlette and Chris would have it. MITM was just one more stop in a wide-ranging tour for these two.

Jon Boulle & S.O.: Jon Boulle surprised us. He's a tall and solidly built man with a deep tan and salt-and-pepper gray hair. Casual, with his Chicago accent and strong hands that look as though he could rip two- by-fours to shreds. An ex-commercial diver, he got out of that gig after he began to think about what he was swimming around in. Jon gets paid to be on the road...he's a trucker. Jon rides a cream-colored bagger and has this gorgeous long-legged blonde as his perfect match. The two of them are very classy.

Cheezie & Belinda: We thought Cheezie had to be a big guy with a beer gut and no hair, but no. He's a little blonde guy with a lotta tats and looks like he's made of piano wire under his skin. His eyes sparkle so much you can almost hear them crackling. Zips around like Jiminy Cricket plugged into a 220-volt main. Wears his cap backwards and rides a beautiful iron-head sporty with orange and yellow flames on every conceivable scrap of paint. He calls it the Hangar Queen, and gets ribbed by the other guys at Watson's because he's so busy riding customer's bikes he never has time to ride his own. He's well-spoken and worries about people having fun. He seems addicted to hard work, but he has Belinda to help, so life can't be all that hard.

Belinda is this small beautiful woman with long hair, the flattest belly in Illinois, and twinkling eyes. She's sweet, polite and always seems to be moving slowly while at the same time getting almost everything done without anyone noticing. She ended up playing Den Mother along with

Pam and Butch when Cheezie got called away by a death in the family. Only Cuda wore jeans any tighter than Belinda's.

Doug & Michele Morse brought their two kids, Omni & Ansel. Doug is a tall and thin man who dresses in grey. He has reddish brown hair and a bushy beard that combine to resemble the mane of a lion. He's quick to smile and loves to eat. We saw him speak more to his kids than to other members of the Meet, but he was so kind and responsive that he had his kids hanging on his every word. Whatever this man says he will do, he does.

Michele rode her bike in later with Omni and didn't say as much. She's tall and very athletic and strong. She has dark, medium length thin hair and wears tight jeans with her keys on the beltloop. She had lots of sun on her face that gave her "raccoon eyes" for the weekend.

Next - Part VI - More People