Got up pretty early today and cruised down to Jesse James’ corner of the world. The guy has a little Long Beach empire going with his West Coast Choppers, Monster Garage show , celebrity status and new burger joint, Cisco Burger.

Evan and I had a burger at the joint then walked down to scope some gaudy chopper bikes. Real macho shit. Yawn.

On the way back, we noticed a tall, brawy character hanging around outside the burger joint, complete with the characteristic tattoos, shants and vato hat. There was the man himself. I walked right up to him, waited a sec, then got a big, meaty handshake from the guy. “Came all this way, might was well get a handshake.”

The same hand that has “Pay Up Sucker” tattooed on it.

Now, I’ve watched only a couple episodes of his show. Not a fan Personally, I think the guy is a meatdick. He’s a bully who can only communicate by accusing people of “acting like a pussy” and muscling them outta of their opinions. A little too “jock” for me.

But, I do have respect for his place in the Long Beach community. Word is that he does a lot of good around town, donating money, hiring lost souls, giving chances, etc. That’s good, and man, we all know we need more and more of that sort of good will.

So, I got a handshake and gave him a good once-over. And up close, he’s pretty grisly and weathered. Years and years of Long Beach sunbaking, I’d bet.

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We drove around a little more, then back to meet up with Larry. I arranged my gear and loaded it up and we were outta there, headin’ due north.

Left Long Beach at 7pm, pulled into Portland at 10am. 1000 miles, kids. Just like that. Good work, Larry.

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We had this to say about the whole deal, specifically, regarding travel to Southern California: “Never again.”