09-06-2026, 10:33 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2026, 10:40 AM by Gone in 60.)
Friday, my delivery run was to a town called Temecula, inland and just above the San Diego County line. Interestingly enough, it's the exit from The 15 just before where I'd get off for my last one-year-only job that I left to take the delivery job. So, one delivery from there to Van Nuys and back home is about 220 miles. Makes for a lot of freeway time, and as I was headed South on the 15 through Corona, a B-17 Flying Fortress emerged from the hills to my East and passed over me, headed toward Chino. The Chino airport is home to two different vintage airplane museums and an annual air show. I figured something was up, so I texted my friend Giles, who knows about every airplane-related event in the area. He let me know that this B-17 was from the Commemorative Air Force out of Arizona, and it would be visiting the Planes of Fame museum in Chino on Saturday for demonstration flights.
Mrs. G and I agreed to have "Independent Study Day" on Saturday. She wanted to do a lot of plant maintenance, so I put together a day out with Super Bird. Being the ADD perfectionist that I am, I had made a few more tweaks on my home-covered Shad seat to eliminate some wrinkles from my early test rides and wanted to take a long ride with it to see how it would do in its final form. Plus, with the recent heat spike, I was wanting a full mesh jacket. Last weekend I snagged a killer deal on a Dainese jacket at the local Revzilla store. It was pretty, Mrs. G said I looked great in it, but, being a European brand, it was cut for Europeans, who must have very small hands. There was no cuff adjustment, and I struggled to get my paddle-shaped hands in and out of it. If it takes me five minutes to put on a jacket, that's five too many. Finally, I wanted to try my new phone mount to see if I liked my decision to skip a GPS screen in favor of the phone in eyeline above the dash.
My day was planned! First to Revzilla to exchange the jacket. The B-17 would be firing up at 12:15 for its demo flight, and a quick scan of the Planes of Fame website showed that it would be accompanied by their P-51.
The local Triumph dealer in Brea was also hosting a Triumph Days promo with "Demo rides, music, free food, gifts and more!". I could take Carbon Canyon, a nice twisty from Chino to Brea, and finish off my ride. Mrs. G made me a nice chicken sando to munch on too.
Revzilla was most accomodating with my jacket dilemma. And quite generous. Despite my return of the jacket, they didn't delete my "Zilla Bucks", so I applied them to another jacket and paid $1.65 difference. Got a rust orange colored Reax Alta Mesh. Never had a jacket that color before. Not too dark, so it won't absorb heat, and very visible on the road.
From there, I zipped up to Chino. The parking lot was completely full, so a lot of people were excited to see the B-17 demo flight. Good thing I was on a bike! Tucked up into a tight spot, palmed my chicken sandwich so they wouldn't stop me from bringing in my own lunch, and got to the flight line as the comments about this particular B-17 were being broadcast over loud speakers. It entered service late in the war, served for many years as a fire fighting plane, then was restored back to war time configuration for commemorative flights. Nothing cooler than the sound of four huge radials. They were selling seats to ride on the big bird, but I was happy to watch from the ground as it trundled into the air and made a few passes over the museum.
Perhaps there is one cooler sound, a Merlin V12. The P-51 made several figure-eights over the museum and looked and sounded awesome. After craning my neck upwards for such a long time, I downed my sandwich and checked out the rest of the planes on display.
After getting my twenty-bucks worth of admission, I headed over to Brea to see what was going on for the Triumph celebration at the local dealer. Arriving, there wasn't much going on and I was apparently the only customer there. A few guys were sitting under two 10'x10' tents with a boom box playing some music, a table with a pile of hot dogs and chips and some drink coolers. I asked "So, what's going on for the Triumph shindig?"
They replied "Don't know, but the boss is making us sit out here all day. Have some hot dogs!" I never turn down a free hot dog. As I was munching on some Fritos to go with it, one of the guys said "Hey, did you, like, sign up for this thing?" To which I replied "Yes, I have the confirmation code on my phone." He replied "Ok, cool. Go see the parts manager... he has your free gift! It's a thing to put a beer in a chicken's butt!"
I was simultaneously curious and frightened.
Approaching the parts counter, I asked about the free gift. I was handed this.
Apparently, it's a stand shaped like a Triumph, to hold a chicken upright with a beer can inserted into its cavity to produce "Beer Chicken". I guess if you just tried it without a stand of some sort the chicken would fall over and the beer would spill out all over your barbecue. I presented it to Mrs. G when I got home and she's very curious. We're going to procure a chicken and try it out.
The seat shows nary a wrinkle, so my mind can rest, it's as good as it'll get, and I'm very happy with it. The phone... not so much. In bright sunlight it's just too hard to see. I think I'll go with a smaller CarPlay screen and give it a shot.
Mrs. G and I agreed to have "Independent Study Day" on Saturday. She wanted to do a lot of plant maintenance, so I put together a day out with Super Bird. Being the ADD perfectionist that I am, I had made a few more tweaks on my home-covered Shad seat to eliminate some wrinkles from my early test rides and wanted to take a long ride with it to see how it would do in its final form. Plus, with the recent heat spike, I was wanting a full mesh jacket. Last weekend I snagged a killer deal on a Dainese jacket at the local Revzilla store. It was pretty, Mrs. G said I looked great in it, but, being a European brand, it was cut for Europeans, who must have very small hands. There was no cuff adjustment, and I struggled to get my paddle-shaped hands in and out of it. If it takes me five minutes to put on a jacket, that's five too many. Finally, I wanted to try my new phone mount to see if I liked my decision to skip a GPS screen in favor of the phone in eyeline above the dash.
My day was planned! First to Revzilla to exchange the jacket. The B-17 would be firing up at 12:15 for its demo flight, and a quick scan of the Planes of Fame website showed that it would be accompanied by their P-51.
The local Triumph dealer in Brea was also hosting a Triumph Days promo with "Demo rides, music, free food, gifts and more!". I could take Carbon Canyon, a nice twisty from Chino to Brea, and finish off my ride. Mrs. G made me a nice chicken sando to munch on too.
Revzilla was most accomodating with my jacket dilemma. And quite generous. Despite my return of the jacket, they didn't delete my "Zilla Bucks", so I applied them to another jacket and paid $1.65 difference. Got a rust orange colored Reax Alta Mesh. Never had a jacket that color before. Not too dark, so it won't absorb heat, and very visible on the road.
From there, I zipped up to Chino. The parking lot was completely full, so a lot of people were excited to see the B-17 demo flight. Good thing I was on a bike! Tucked up into a tight spot, palmed my chicken sandwich so they wouldn't stop me from bringing in my own lunch, and got to the flight line as the comments about this particular B-17 were being broadcast over loud speakers. It entered service late in the war, served for many years as a fire fighting plane, then was restored back to war time configuration for commemorative flights. Nothing cooler than the sound of four huge radials. They were selling seats to ride on the big bird, but I was happy to watch from the ground as it trundled into the air and made a few passes over the museum.
Perhaps there is one cooler sound, a Merlin V12. The P-51 made several figure-eights over the museum and looked and sounded awesome. After craning my neck upwards for such a long time, I downed my sandwich and checked out the rest of the planes on display.
After getting my twenty-bucks worth of admission, I headed over to Brea to see what was going on for the Triumph celebration at the local dealer. Arriving, there wasn't much going on and I was apparently the only customer there. A few guys were sitting under two 10'x10' tents with a boom box playing some music, a table with a pile of hot dogs and chips and some drink coolers. I asked "So, what's going on for the Triumph shindig?"
They replied "Don't know, but the boss is making us sit out here all day. Have some hot dogs!" I never turn down a free hot dog. As I was munching on some Fritos to go with it, one of the guys said "Hey, did you, like, sign up for this thing?" To which I replied "Yes, I have the confirmation code on my phone." He replied "Ok, cool. Go see the parts manager... he has your free gift! It's a thing to put a beer in a chicken's butt!"
I was simultaneously curious and frightened.
Approaching the parts counter, I asked about the free gift. I was handed this.
Apparently, it's a stand shaped like a Triumph, to hold a chicken upright with a beer can inserted into its cavity to produce "Beer Chicken". I guess if you just tried it without a stand of some sort the chicken would fall over and the beer would spill out all over your barbecue. I presented it to Mrs. G when I got home and she's very curious. We're going to procure a chicken and try it out.
The seat shows nary a wrinkle, so my mind can rest, it's as good as it'll get, and I'm very happy with it. The phone... not so much. In bright sunlight it's just too hard to see. I think I'll go with a smaller CarPlay screen and give it a shot.
You know what? I actually would like a pickle.