31. Tall Paul and the Big Spring Road Riders

Winter of 1983 was spent preparing for the first ever Big Spring Road Riders Rally. This is an enormous undertaking and not one that Judy and I would ever tackle again. There are so many details making up the mountainous volume of work that a large team is required to complete the project.

Some of these details include advance notice in motorcycle magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, flyers and, not the least of which,is plain old word of mouth. That’s right; talk to everybody you see and spread the word.

Most times the host club provides a meeting place, information about camping and motels, registrations, event pins, T-shirts, refreshments, poker rides, bike events, supper, an award ceremony, medical care, and a send off breakfast on Sunday morning. We even had a dynamite Country/Rock Band on Saturday night that blew the boots off the dancers!

Usually folks start arriving on Friday evening with the main rally day being Saturday. Sunday is devoted to an early morning church service provided by the Christian Motorcycle Association and followed by a clean up of the entire grounds. A big job!

We had a core group of about eight couples who worked long and hard hours to put this show together. For a first time event, with no history, we drew over 600 attendees! This in a riding area where club officials were tickled if they got 150 to show up! We even had two guys from Canada who read about the rally in Rider Magazine and one guy from Alaska who found our ad in the BMW News.

Paul Bierman from Alaska won the long distance trophy. How in the world does an aircraft mechanic from Anchorage wind up in a dusty, little West Texas town, make a big hit with the local press, ride up to the mid-west with new friends, and polish it all off by going to California with traveling journalists from Rider Magazine? Well, now the story can be told so get yourself comfortable and read on. This is Paul’s story.

Details of our rally were nearly done. Preparations were made to put on a dance after the event which was something no other rally in West Texas had provided at that time. About a week before the rally, our son Scott who was 12 then, said he got a phone call from Alaska asking for information about the event. Scott read the brochure to the caller and told us later. Judy dismissed it as a joke that someone was playing and promptly forgot it.

On Thursday of Rally week, our Topeka friends, Jeannie and Paul, left Topeka and headed down to attend the party. They were scheduled to arrive in mid-afternoon on Friday. Shortly after dinner on Friday, Judy called me in somewhat of a panic, telling me that Scott had called and a guy from Alaska was at the house asking about the rally! He was in full leathers, real tall, and lanky and somewhat road worn.

I left work and headed for home and as I pulled into the driveway, I got my first look at him! There he was! Tall Paul, 7 foot, 2 inches, 150 pounds, dressed in leathers and wearing a big smile. I liked him right away. Some people you just know are trustworthy and this was certainly one of them. I invited him in, fed and watered him. He asked about a place to tidy up and change clothes.

While he was completing his ablutions, Jeannie and Paul from Topeka arrived. I told them about our visitor and commented on the fact that it would be a hoot keeping the two Pauls separate. Paul from Topeka knew before he met Tall Paul that he was OK! Why? Because Tall Paul rode a BMW, just like Jeannie and Paul! Instant brotherhood!

When Judy came home, we all went out to supper and then rode down to Rally Headquarters to greet the early arrivals. Trooper Luke, a Texas DPS officer, had prepared a big pot of ham and beans along with his famous sweet cornbread. Served with iced tea, this was food fit for kings.

Others brought more tea, coffee, lemonade and even homemade ice cream! What a thoughtful idea and a neat way to welcome riders who had been on the road all day and were hot, tired, thirsty and hungry. A free meal with the best of West Texas. We even ate a second supper late in the night and it was excellent. This was shaping up to be a magical weekend.

Tall Paul had tried to find a motel room earlier only to find “no vacancy” signs in great proliferation! Oh, what the hell. He seemed OK to us, and he did ride a BMW, so, the question of where he would sleep was settled. We had plenty of camping gear and offered this to him to make the living room floor more comfortable.

Meanwhile he was endearing himself to many Texans by sharing his unique sense of humor. He had many one liners and amused the Texans when he teased them about Alaska being the biggest state in the Union.

He said, “Why, there’s enough gold in Alaska to build a fence 14 feet tall completely surrounding the state of Texas!” This got a big laugh from everybody except for one steely eyed old settler.

He told Paul, “That’s OK, sonny. We got a little gold of our own down here, although ours is black and in liquid form. Go ahead and build your gold fence. And...if we like it, we’ll buy it!” What an uproar! These guys entertained the crowd for a long time.

Tall Paul, when describing West Texas, said. “Everywhere you look, there’s just nothing!” Or when describing his car, a 1973 Rolls Canardly, said, “It rolls down one hill and canardly make it up the other!”

And how about, “Hey, it may be slow, but it’s ugly!” He was the hit of the rally for us. Everybody wanted to talk to him and the local press soon got word that a cool guy from Alaska was holding court and may make a good story. He did.

The press and TV folks all came out. They filmed and photographed him, put him on the front page and the lead in story on the televised evening news. He gave rides to the reporterettes and endeared himself to all by his open and friendly manner. Finally at the end of a long day, we all trooped wearily over to our place and retired for the night, taking the big visitor with us.

The Big Spring Road Riders first ever rally had been a huge success, far exceeding even our optimistic expectations. Games for the kids went well, the door prizes were numerous and extravagant, the meal of fried chicken and fried catfish was served quickly and was mighty tasty. And the band was dynamite!

One of our members used to travel with this group and he was able to convince them to donate their services in exchange for a good meal and lots of fans. This really was a team effort and one can easily see how one couple can not put this on themselves. All of the Committee Chairmen excelled in going the extra mile to put a real flourish on the first rally.

All that remained was the morning breakfast of do-nuts, orange juice and coffee, followed by a worship service provided on Sunday morning by the members of the Christian Motorcycle Association. And with so many hands available, the clean up tasks were quickly finished.

After the services, the Alaskan and the two Canadians, helped us with the massive clean up job. Many hands make light work and soon we were through. As folks left, we sat under the shelter in Comanche Trail Park and reflected on what a great time everybody seemed to have.

Since the day was mild and not windy, we decided to take a ride. We’d show our visitors some rugged West Texas canyons and wild country not seen from the Interstate.

We toured a few of the smaller canyons and came upon a long straight stretch of road where Tall Paul, Judy, Paul and Jeannie opened up the throttle. Soon they were just specks in the distance.

From out of nowhere, a Texas Highway Patrolman swooped down and nailed Miss Judy, somehow allowing the others to continue on; which they did; at even greater speed because they didn’t want a ticket! And seeing as how Judy was in his clutches, they escaped with great alacrity!

As the rest of us pulled in behind the Patrol car, Sidney Shankowitz yelled over to Judy, “Make him show you the radar print out. You got rights!”

The trooper growled and said, “Violators got no rights!” She was gettin’ into serious trouble but, maybe when Trooper Luke arrived, he could save the day.

Alas, Judy had been shrieking too loud and too long about how unfair it was to single her out. When Luke arrived, the trooper pulled him off to one side and told him, “If that woman doesn’t shut her mouth, I’m goin’ to arrest her and impound her pretty new motorcycle!”

Shankowitz and Judy had already ruined any chance for her to get off with just a warning. The challenge now was to keep Judy from goin’ to jail!

Sullenly she accepted the ticket and rode away in a huff. Our friends who had abandoned her were in the first cafe up the road sippin’ iced tea and enjoying a good laugh at Judy’s expense. Sorry, Judy did not laugh! She had to go to the remedial driving school for four hours a night for three nights! Did I mention she was not a happy camper? I should have.

Next morning was Monday and time for our guests to head home. Paul and Jeannie were bound for Topeka, just as Paul and Tall Paul were discussing highly technically involved periodic maintenance procedures on the BMW’s. Since Tall Paul was goin’ north anyway, he offered to do this highly technical maintenance work on Paul and Jeannie’s bikes.

They quickly offered him room and board and invited him to attend the National BMW Rally on the next weekend way up in Billings, Montana. Quickly, he took them up on the offer. I rode north with them as far as Snyder, Texas where we enjoyed one more meal of Gill’s Fried Chicken, and as I returned to Big Spring, they headed on north to Topeka.

A few week’s later, we got a report from Paul and Jeannie. All maintenance work had been done very professionally. Tall Paul was a professional aircraft mechanic from Anchorage as you may recall and very skillful.

His adventures touring the “lower 48” were just beginning as he next connected with journalists from Rider Magazine. Naturally he got himself invited along with them and headed off to sunny California. He was a gregarious person, never meeting a stranger. He certainly enriched the lives of all those he met in West Texas.

And judging from the articles in Rider Magazine, he’s still at it!