I had one airbrush, a half pint of red, yellow, blue, black and white basecoats, some One Shot enamels, and a brand new canopy tent. We borrowed a van from Cherie’s Grandpa and set off.
The rally was huge and we were pretty well swamped from the get-go. And, being a primarily Goldwing rally, we were painting larger scale bike murals around the clock. Cherie would handle all the business and PR and I would sit and paint.
At about 4 in the morning on the Saturday night, I went to clear the fenders of a Goldwing trike I had just finished painting a Native American theme on. It was so humid and foggy that you couldn’t see all the way across the parking lot and I laid the clear coat down as if my touch-up gun was a garden hose. It ran and sagged and dripped and was just a horrible, horrible mess. We had to completely wipe it off; removing my murals in the process.
I started over and repainted the entire back end in about a third of the time - and it showed. When the customers showed up at 9 the next morning, they were not pleased with my efforts. Looking back, I really don’t blame them at all. After all, I had only been airbrushing for about 2 months and this was a full mural covering the entire back end of the trike that had been completed in about 3 hours… They did not want to pay the $150 we were charging (no - that’s not a typo… we charged $150 for a full mural job on a Goldwing.)
Cherie butted heads over it for a while but eventually sent them packing and I honestly don’t remember if they ended up paying or not. But what I do remember more than anything is how, in a moment of total exhaustion, frustration, and embarrassment; Cherie stood by and supported me. She comforted my bruised ego and gave me the required kick in the ass to get back to work on the other projects I had lined up and waiting. (I’ve included pictures below of one of the other trikes I painted at this rally.)
In fact, it was how she handled that incident and her conduct in general that lead to a spill over of customers from that rally to our next one a few weeks later. We were able to book people in advance and travel knowing that there was going to be work for us when we arrived.
We went on to travel and work bike rallies for the next three years covering the entire south-east of the United States. I couldn’t have done it without her - nor would I have wanted to. It was an ongoing adventure that I still look back fondly on.
Although I do have several other memories from our wedding week - this remains prominently among them. It has been 13 years now and I still rely on her for her unwavering support, encouragement and occasional kick in the ass. I’m pretty damned lucky…
Thanks for reading… Hope you’ve had a good week!
Rod
P.S.
In case you remember/as promised last week:
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