Great day for a ride. Pushing into the 70s, felt humid... time to roll! Chief can't make it, but Dutch is in. Boudreaux and Nance want to put some miles on their 'new' trike they recently converted. Lucy can't make it, so I pick a destination she doesn't like to go to .... Bottle Cap!
I've broke out Krome today for this ride; that bike misses my love. Or, maybe I have it backwards? Dutch and I head over to Boudreaux's home, they mount up and we work our way into Greenville ... the 'long way', as best as possible. We pop out on 380 with a few miles to go and roll up after 1300 hrs. Now.... here's the point of this blog post. Before we left Chief asked me if we could 'wear our cut's in there'. I made some smart ass reply that I would be. Couple of years ago, some 1% MC was having an event out this way and a few places had their sphincters' tighten up from Greenville to Emory and for the first time said no to MC's wearing their colors. Hell, we've had a chapter meeting at Bottle Cap previously with no issues, but that was a couple of years ago and previous to the MC issue. Well, as we get off the bikes, Dutch says the same thing to me. "Can we wear these cuts in there?" I'm full of myself and head to the door. I notice they are taking a LONG time out there by the bikes and even notice they take off their vests and I'm thinking WTF and continue in. Unbeknownst to me, an employee has come up to them and told them "we want your business but we don't allow vests" so they do the 'right thing' and are soon headed in. I walk in by myself. Looking up at the front door in the top left corner, there it is on a small sign : " No Club Colors."
Young kid whom is the host has a dreading look on his face as I walk in, tower above him at twice his size and asks me 'how many' obviously uncomfortable. I tell him I'm waiting for the others; four total. Then a really nice attractive lady in her mid 30s comes to his rescue, whom is obviously the manager. Her bad news is now delivered to me. "I'm sorry, we don't allow motorcycle clubs to wear their vests here". I simply replied with "this isn't an MC vest. We are in a Veteran's based association. Not a Motorcycle club that she's thinking ( I named a few which she acknowledged). " She's now staring at the front of my vest, I turn and hear her say "Combat Veteran" and ... she's contemplating the situation. She immediately apologizes and says "Oh ... Veteran. come on in!" and the situation has been diffused.
Now the fun part for me is when the other three roll in cut-less and I'm smirking and ensure they hear the story at the bar while we grab lunch and a few cold ones. Looking up at the big screen TV I see the US score against Iran with the point that will win their game eventually (looked painful as the kicker took a knee to the groin as well!).
Headed to the VFW for a few cold ones then headed home. Ran into a guy we used to work with (Sonny) and shared a few.. I mean .. LOT .. of stories about the Good ol' days. Dutch got to share some of his from his L3 days at the plant. And the icing on the cake; Boudreaux and Sonny joined the VFW as members. Oh yeah, I picked up a few VFW tee shirts, because I obviously need more.
Yep .. was a good day to ride!
Update #1: Well, that didn't work out so well. I ended up violating a new rule I was unaware of that had changed less than two weeks prior. I don't agree with any of how it went down, or the consequences. But, it was it is. There's a couple of "Lesson's Learned " in there .....
Update #2: You know.... I guess some things just bug me... and I always feel compelled to speak my mind. As I re-read this I forgot to add more info/depth to the post. Had they not allowed me in there with the vest, I would have left, headed to my bike and put my vest in the bag and returned. The other folks had done just that. Now.. had I been traveling by myself and I would have walked off, got on my bike .. and left. I'm not if I would ever return .. ever. That was actually in my thoughts .. before walking up to the door. I'd heard a rumor about the vest issue, but again .. I'd never seen the sign nor heard of it before that day. I'd worn my vest(s) in there before with zero issues. That all being said, there wasn't a motorcycle in the parking lot but ours. It was a mid week, after lunch crowd. I was not boasting or bragging... the purpose of this post was ... the manager used common sense. Anyone that doesn't see that, we'll just agree to disagree. Finally, for obvious reasons. If I come across another 'sign' like this one in an establishment and wearing my CVMA vest ... I'll either remove it or simply leave, taking my business somewhere that deserves my money. But ... once again.. the main point of this post was about the Manager. Nothing else, Nothing more.
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| Still have their vests on ... |
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| Looking good in MY vest ! lol |
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| My double cheese burger wrapped in lettuce... was good! |
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| Rolling out from Bottle Cap |
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| VFW |
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| Looking good! I LOVE the look of this trike..but, I'm biased |
