Late, late nights and earlier mornings

Late, late nights and earlier mornings, I was a trucker for 16 years before I open the shop. Those nights were a lot of smoky bars, hotels and ladies of the night running around. Mile after mile, truck stop after truck stop, it sounds like a David Allan Coe song doesn’t it? Well this was my life before the bike shop, so I’m used to staying up late and working till the early morning hours. This is something I try to get Josh to do. To be self employed isn’t a 9 to 5 thing. Its takes all hours of the day to keep the shop going, money doesn’t sleep. A guy named Mitch called me not to long ago. He said he had some parts that he and his Father wanted to sell. I told Mitch to bring them up to the shop which he informed me that there was just too much to load up, and bring it to me to just “look at it”. So with Josh in tow, we headed for Mitch’s House. Mitch lives down river, that’s south of Detroit. My shop and house is North of Detroit, about 30 minutes. So getting down to Mitch’s was just over an hour. It was late, but it was still summer so it was warm. The sun was just setting as we pulled up to Mitch’s house. He and few friends were waiting out front for us. We talk for a min and then Mitch led us into his Fathers garage. There was a big line up of motorcycles, some projects but most were all riding. Mitch was building a very cool FXR with a twin cam power plant. As much as I liked looking and talking bikes with him we were there to work. Mitch had parts everywhere mostly in a trailer (which didn’t look like it would of made the trip to the shop), next to the house. He pulled some stuff down from the attic and then led us to the trailer. The trailer was piled up with old parts from all different makes and models. It was a lot to go though, we had bought some totes to put parts in and I was sure glad we did. I don’t think we would have gotten everything in the van without them. I worked in the trailer while Josh and Mitch loaded the van; after it was all done we sat and talked bikes for awhile. Before we knew it, it was midnight. We said our good byes and hit the road. Detroit is a very cool city; it’s a blast to drive though at night. Such a good night life in downtown it was about 1am when we got back to the shop, Josh was falling asleep; I was so jacked up from talking motorcycles, I was wide awake. Another late night, and an early morning was to follow. I had a FXR to pick up in the morning and a guy was coming down to the shop to sell us a 95 Softail. The late nights and early mornings continue these days but with less smoky bars and ladies of the night, maybe I’m getting older; or I just got a loving, sweet, tuff as nails wife at home that can whoop on me. Whatever the case, these days I don’t need to live like a David Allan Coe song. ~Boomer