OK. I didn't actually RIDE a motorcycle, but I did get to sit on one. My old outfit is the Evesham Township Police Department, named after Evesham, England (there's a good story about that too). They host an annual Awards Dinner. I retired from police work in 2000, but they always invite the dinosaurs like me to attend. I went last night. Nice affair, good grub and as every cop loves, free food. Now, I worked for three different chiefs of police through my career. With each one, I would bring a proposal to start a motor patrol division and each one threw me out of their office. There were a couple more chiefs after I left who were real dicks, but the new guy who took over last year is a good kid. He decided to finally institute motor patrol. The unveiled the new bikes last night at the dinner. I asked if I could come back to work. Got a nice beer mug too!
Cooler story: Back in the early 90's somehow some mail meant for the mayor of Evesham, U.K. ended up at our mayor's office in Evesham, NJ, USA. Leave it to the postal authorities to screw up that badly. Our mayor made contact with the mayor of Evesham, U.K. and they decided to do a sister cities thing. Although half the towns and states on the U.S. East Coast are named after places in England, they made a big deal of it. Our mayor invited the town officials from Evesham, U.K. over and they came and did sister cities ceremonies, proclamations and such. One of the group was a bobby from Evesham, U.K. He got the tour of our station and we all went out to dinner - yada, yada, yada. But we learned the cops over in the U.K weren't issued ballistic vests. Now, these vests have expiration dates, usually five years. But they don't go bad. There's nothing wrong with them. We just had to get new ones every five years. We had a storeroom full of perfectly good used vests. We decided to send a group of our guys over with the used vests for your bobbies. I didn't go, but the guys who did were treated like royalty. Good old English hospitality. One of the things this bobby did was to take the guys on a tour of London. When they got to #10 Downing St. there was just one, lone bobby guarding the front door! (This was pre-9/11/01). The host bobby went up to him and talked a bit. Mrs. Thatcher wasn't in he said, so he took them in and showed them all around the residence!! The residence of the Prime Minister of the U.K.!! Incredible! One of the things he told them was that he did an eight-hour shift. Four hours on duty at the door and four hours to de-stress for having had to carry a firearm. I need to de-stress if I don't have a gun handy. Such is the difference in our cultures. Anyway, our guys came back with a bunch of your funny bobby hats and badges and such. I got one of the hats (helmets?) and a badge, which I gave to a young nephew. Little bastard ended up in prison and I never got the stuff back.
That's awesome, @Fork Lock! Too bad that new guy wasn't around when you were. But better late than never, eh? Great photos.
Looks like fun, @Bikerman! Thanks for sharing some photos with us. That 2nd pic of the silver Thruxton R made me pine (just a wee bit) for my 2016 Thruxton R in the same color.
There must be a bit of a craze started/ongoing @Bikerman If you look at the bollards behind the bikes, theres a group of soldiers around the memorial?
Our knitters decorate the local post boxes, and bollards too, quite a bit. I think it's great, and the best thing is the resident Neanderthals seem to like them, and leave them alone.
Just got back from a 70 mile trip to Willingham Woods, not many there today, which surprised me. So just a few pictures, on the way back I stopped by a rape field, the smell was just fantastic
