With all haste we spoke too soon. The counting started several days prior. With twice as many as a quarter of what the average vehicle has Rolling Thunder on the Boulevard and other modes. They gathered in droves and did it as well. We with 21 rollies snaking through corn, soy, and tobaccy, to wafts of the Wacky kind.
We had a leader and a sweeper, we lost two after the first stop. Two gone and collected later in the Dover of Ports. Spokies, and cast, cut and chopped, laced throughout the scene. So many not visible in one ocular gulp no matter how tall you strode. As we neared the line became melded with other groups guided unwaveringly from the directions of the local and regional constabulary called in for the fest.
The heat radiated from fins of all colours and types. Cans pumping the internal combustion energy through throats of chrome, ceramic, and wrapped. Hear, feel, and see the rumble from rubber mounted, fixed, and Vees between the knees. The whine of the sporties like mine screaming at the least of twenty feet to lunge ahead in the crowd looking for a leaning ledge for the leftmost swing-out.
We spark on a spot and disseminate in the crowd. Wandering the hawking and vending for the Tee and Pin. Beer and vendors for burgers and buns abound where once was the lonely footpath. A visit with former proximate residers through the new digs and onward to the center. No shortage of chrome, black leather, and heat.
I bottle up with the Barley Malt at an outside bar and chat up the boys. From here and there, how long and the far of it making their way to the Port of Dover. Over the hill to the olde centre slipping my sights on older and newer, spying and spotting ones wanted and built. Whilst weather winds blow westerly, nary a breath penetrates the depth of the crowd. By now the sweat slithers down my back and front. My brow beats with beads.
Now for the numbers:
“There is a common myth that the earliest reference to thirteen being unlucky or evil is from the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (circa 1780 BCE), where the thirteenth law is omitted. In fact, the original Code of Hammurabi has no numeration. The translation by L.W. King (1910), edited by Richard Hooker, omitted one article:
If the seller have gone to (his) fate (i. e., have died), the purchaser shall recover damages in said case fivefold from the estate of the seller.”
#1: November
1981
#2: August 1982
#3: May 1983
#4: January 1984
#5: April 1984
#6: July 1984
#7: September 1985 scroll down
#8: December 1985
#9: June 1986
#10: February 1987
#11: March 1987
#12: November 1987
#13: May 1988
#14: January 1989
#15: October 1989
#16: April 1990
#17: July 1990
#18: September 1991
#19: December 1991
#20: March 1992
#21: November 1992
#22: August 1993
#23: May 1994 scroll down further
#24: January 1995
#25: October 1995
#26: September 1996
#27: December 1996
#28: June 1997
#29: February 1998
#30: March 1998
#31: November 1998
#32: August 1999
#33: October 2000
#34: April 2001
#35: July 2001
#36: September 2002
#37: December 2002
#38: June 2003
#39: February 2004
#40: August 2004
#41: May 2005 scroll down fruther
#42: January 2006
#43: October 2006
#44: April 2007
#45: July 2007
#46: June 2008
#47: February 2009
#48: March 2009
#49: November 2009
#50: August 2010
#51: May 2011
#52: January 2012
#53: April 2012
#54: July 2012
#55: September 2013
#56: December 2013
#57: June 2014
#58: February 2015
#59: March 2015
#60: November 2015 scroll down fruther
#61: May 2016
#62: January 2017
#63: October 2017
#64: April 2018
#65: July 2018
#66: September 2019
#67: December 2019
#68: March 2020
#69: November 2020
#70: August 2021
#71: May 2022
#72: January 2023
#73: October 2023
#74: September 2024
#75: December 2024
#76: June 2025
#77: February 2026
#78: March 2026
#79: November 2026 scroll down further
#80: August 2027
#81: October 2028
#82: April 2029
#83: July 2029
#84: September 2030
#85: December 2030
#86: June 2031
#87: February 2032
#88: August 2032
#89: May 2033
#90: January 2034
#91: October 2034
#92: April 2035
#93: July 2035
#94: June 2036
#95: February 2037 almost to the good stuff
#96: March 2037
#97: November 2037
#98: August 2038
#99: May 2039
#100: January 2040
With a maximum of 3 in a year, you can plan your week-ends from here. And cross off the ones you were at. As well if you have been to all 50 you will know you will have scarfed 100 moth eaten T-shirts from vendors by the end of 2040. Your hangers heavy with hemp hewn back coverings.
My feet burn with the heat of the street, spat on by barking belching road warrior steeds. My ride fires and whines screaming for the open road home. Off the main path wending through country cool with heated port hindward.
Oh, and Posto Scripto to the rice rockets who raced past me at a crossroads, I caught up to you in a flash. New ponies didn’t scare off the equine of ages beneath me. I know and you know, AND, I know you know, -- you know I know, AND, I know, you know I know, --- you know I know you know, I CAUGHT YOU. Seven of you pulled off to get gas knowing there was no way out.
Caught left and rose again, only one next year.
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