Ride & Vibes 2025

I Have A Picture    Pinned To My Wall     An Image Of You And Me And We're Laughing    We're Loving It All   But Look At Our Life Now   All Tattered And Torn     We Fuss And We Fight And Delight In The Tears That We Cry Until Dawn         Oh , No     Hold Me Now , Woah     Warm My Heart     Stay With Me    Let Lovin' Start , Let Lovin' Start     Hold Me Now 

Thompson Twins

Into The Gap 1983 

Ride & Vibes Baby:

It is that time of year when the mean streets of GJ close down. North to South facing roads become stages for live music. Main Street transforms into an Expo with vendors selling all of it. And the whole weekend is dedicated to Mountain Bikers and opportunity for community involvement. YES

Friday afternoon shenanigans kicks off with live FREE music on 4th Street around High Noon. Bands trade off between 5th street and 4th street stages with about a 15-30 min break in between each band. Along about 5pm started the kids loop around the Downtown Criterium Course. 6pm sparked off the Community Kluncker Crit Ride. So Rambunctious 

Yup , this was the highlighted event for a majority of us slackers. The Kluncker Ride is not a race , just a social ride around the Crit Course. Let's just say that The Dude & I were in so many photos/videos. Wearing the mirror-ball helmet was a huge hit with the crowd goers. We ended up completing about 4 laps or so and here below is a photo of The Dude & I via text from P&M. The Dude & I rang our bells nonstop and shouted "Happy Friday" to all. That infectious vibe caught on by about the second lap. Those gals on the coolest tandem beach cruiser bike behind us there joined in the fun and started shouting out as well. The Pro Women started their 45 min Criterium Race after us and then the Pro Men ripped up the city streets for their 55 min race after that. No Crashes No Whammies 

Two different bands played while the pro men and pro women raced their hot laps around the downtown streets. Moonbeam was terrific and the Laddery was just OK. Not bad , just OK. Still House String Band was the mainliner Friday Night and the place was packed. They performed a high energy bluegrass show and nailed a number of cover tunes of course. White Freightliner Blues was a hit for me personally. All of their cover tunes were a hoot. Yahooo00000  

At one point , my buddy Rob walks up next to me and says," You and I know a lot of people here in the Valley." I nodded in compliance. "I haven't seen a single person I know other than you." As I scanned the crowd with a soft focus , sure as Sh*t , he was right. There were so many out of town/staters and talk about boosting the local economy. Way Cool Ride & Vibes

Saturday fires off early with waves of Mt Bikers tackling the rowdy trail system of our high desert. Locals attempting the 15 miler / 24km , fit out of town folks shot off for the 30 miler / 48km , and all the heavy hitters blasted off for the 40 miler / 64km route. Impressive 

During that time , I worked. I checked out the Expo. I caught a few bands. I rode home for a fruit smoothie. I caught more bands afterwards. I saw a few finishers roll in. I went back to work. I caught a few more finishers. Caught up with a few friends here and there. Rode home for a proper meal. Rode down to see a local band called Big Dominguez. They were awful. I was so bummed. They threw on whatever shirt happened to be next to the bed that morning , the sound tech guy muddied the hell out of their sound , and it was such a drag watching folks leave the area to go check out the next band. Bummer 

I slipped away by about their third song or so and headed for the train station. Saturday was also National Train Day. Our historical train junkies brought their A Game!! They opened the old train station from the turn of the century as it is currently in renovation mode. Model scale N dioramas of train sets were on display. HO is the common household train set and the N scale is very tiny train set for comparison. A make shift bar was set up , burgers for the fund raiser on the open air grill , and massive color posters with concepts of soon to be intentions were showcased throughout the building. Local cats by the name of Stray Grass also played live and the train aficionados were thrilled. The photo below is from opening day in 1903. Bacana  

The evening back on Main Street was topped off with a duo that brought the vibes to Ride & Vibes. I had never heard of Black Pistol Fire but I was completely committed for a dang good time. They started right at 8:30 and exploded with sound!! The drummer went totally Ape Sh*t on that kit!! The whole riser was vibrating with every slamming strike. The guitar guy was full on ADD in HD. The drummer used a machine to add synthesizers , bass lines , horns , and who knows what else. These two brought a spirited pulse that I have never witness during Ride & Vibes. And that is saying something! At one point , the singing front man guy and his screaming guitar is motioning vigorously for everyone to pack up tight. All the kids knew every word of every song but us dinosaurs were so oh clueless. 

So the lead guy is still playing that favorite recognizable track and motioning everyone to come together. All of a sudden , he crowd surfs!!! While Playing!! The crowd went flipping nutz!!!! I looked over at The Dude and said ,"That's A First At Ride & Vibes!" They played rough and indefatigable right up to the 10pm downtown curfew. Their fans were screaming and they all sang to everyone of those songs. The two guys walk back out for an encore. They said thanx and all that and even said,"We were told that there is a hard 10pm curfew here in GJ." The drummer jumps back on the kit and the front guy says," So let's break the rules and come together now." Yup , encored with The Beatles Come Together off their 1969 Abby Road album. 1969 , these kids. Then of course , they jammed out one of their own tunes and the youth jumped out of their skin throughout the whole song. Amazing 

One of the better weekends here in JunkTown for sure & Happy 5/15 at 5:15pm,

Cheers