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June 13,2011

Dinner with Franz

It started, as it always does...with a dinner. For Franz, it started last October, when he began planning another trip to the US. It was just going to be a father/son kind of trip, perhaps with Rob and Daryl part of the time. However, it became something else...a tour of 7 western states with a group of 14, including Franz and his son and Rob and Daryl. The group arrived at LAX on June 12 and settled in at the Cal Mar Hotel and Suites in Santa Monica. On June 13, they all piled into the not-quite-big-enough van and went to Universal Studios for the day. When they returned to the Cal Mar, Rob and Daryl were also there, with both their Gold Wing and Porsche Boxster. We all congregated at Il Fornaio on Ocean Blvd, where Rob had arranged for a private room, which turned out to be an enclosed patio. With Santa Monica's perpetual June Gloom, it was not the warmest idea, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. "Everyone" included Mark and Lynn; Rob and Daryl; Franz and his 25 year old son, Clemens, who would be driving the luggage van; our other friend from Vienna, Herbert, who had brought his girlfriend, Ulli, who had little experience with motorcycles, so they would be driving the Porsche; Udo and Manuela (Manu), who were friends of Franz and who would be spending several days in NYC with him and Clemens at the end of the trip; Robert and Ingrid Mayer, who we have met several times both in Los Angeles and Vienna; the Mayers' son Manuel (also Manu) and his girlfriend, Marlene; and some friends of the Mayers, Johannes (Spike) and Karin Mueller. There were a good number of "newbies" on their first trip to the US – Clemens, Udo and Manu, Manuel and Marlene, Spike and Karin. Ulli had been to Florida once and so she was definitely a West Coast "newbie." Mark and Lynn had made personalized t-shirts for everyone involved with a map of the Western US marked with the highlights of the trip. This would be a good souvenir to add to the collections they had already started. Franz brough t-shirts for Rob and Daryl, with photos from our European rides some funny captions. After a couple of hours of wine, beer and Italian food, some of the group headed back to the hotel, some headed to the Pier for Bubba Gump t-shirts and Mark and Lynn headed the longest distance, home.