Lavapalooza

Even though I was in Lava dealing with family crisis, there were some positive aspects of my trip. I reconnected with some family who I've been out of contact with, I got to have an awesome road trip adventure with my boy, and I got to witness 'Lavapalooza'.

What is 'Lavapalooza' you ask? It is when over one thousand motorcycles take over the tiny little town of Lava Hot Springs Idaho. Okay...so nobody actually took over anything, but when you have that many bikes in a town that has a population of about 500, it kind of feels like it's being taken over. What a crappy day for my camera to stop working! But I know you all have great imaginations, so you can all picture it as you will.

When I first started seeing bikes rolling into town on Friday afternoon I asked my aunt what was going on. She owns one of the towns two bars and I knew she would be able to give me the info I was looking for. She told me about the event. Just your run of the mill rally....bikes, bikers, bands, drinks, vendors....wait....no vendors, guess it's even better than your typical run of the mill rally. I immediately got on the phone with Dave and told him that if he and Willy got on the bikes right then they could make it by the next afternoon, but alas, they had just done their Arizona trip and couldn't make it. I started having major withdrawals for my bike. And my silly dad told anyone who would listen about how "his little girl rides a Harley", I was getting embarrassed, but it was cute to see my dad proud of me for that.

I was excited to see all the goings on, but then I started thinking logically....I was staying at my Grams, in her apartment, above the other bar in town, the big party was going to be on Saturday night, I had to be up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and drive 16 hours to get home. Oh boy, this could be bad.

Saturday night I tried to go to bed around ten, I would much rather have been down at the bar partying with my 1000 new friends, but the safety of my child came first, I needed to make sure I would be in good shape to drive.

And here is the breakdown for the rest of the night.


10:15- Loud, people yelling having a good time, laughing.

10:30- Arguing, escalating, can tell there is going to be a fight.

10:35- Screaming, women hysterical, fight, guys yelling, ends pretty quickly.

11:00- More arguing, different people, look out the window, two feet from my car, 8 guys, two different clubs, pushing, yelling, punching, getting closer to my car, one guy screaming,"I'll kill you if I have to, don't make me kill you", one guy on the ground, almost right on top of my car, guy down on the ground, another guy kicking him in the head, me thinking let them beat the shit out of each other, but what about my car, visions of my car getting a broken window and me running down in my p.j.'s yelling at the guys for breaking my car.

11:10- Cops roll up, guys jump off each other, assure cops they're 'all good', cops yelling at them, "why you guys have to act like a bunch of jackasses", some guy mumbling something I can't understand, cop smacks him up side the head and tells him to "shut the fuck up", guys hug each other, shake hands with the cops, everyone leaves, I get back in bed thinking 'this is the weirdest shit'

11:15- First bit of quiet for the night, interrupted by woman screaming, "oh my God, no! Don't do it", running, punching, again by my car, cops must be waiting around the corner, couple people cuffed, I go back to bed....I have got to get some sleep

After this point I lost track of time, but it went this way until 4 a.m., laughter & fun, fighting & screaming, back and forth.......
I have never experienced such madness in my life. Dave & I are planning on making it for 'Lavapalooza' next year..........anyone wanna go with?