Chapter 62

I rolled out of bed at five forty-five, happy that my internal clock was kicking in for the local time. I showered, dressed, and made a pot of coffee in the kitchen, and went out to turn on the porch light. It was a little chilly, so everyone would need their heavy riding clothes. It was supposed to be sunny, so before we reached Daytona, we would be shedding layers.

Hap came out to the kitchen with a smile, Margie trailing him, also smiling. "We slept great. Thanks for suggesting we stay here. That was a great idea."

Margie said, "Can I start breakfast for us? How about some bacon, eggs and biscuits?"

"Sounds good, let me get my menagerie going. They'll need to search out some warm clothes." I said this heading back to the bedroom.

All three were up and were getting out of the shower. I told them to dress warm and Sue said, "If I ride behind you, your legs will break the wind. Whoever is in the sidecar is going to be out of the wind and whoever rides behind Sandy or Mandy will have someone to break the wind for them. I think jeans will be fine. We'll layer up on top and wear our heavy leather jackets. You might need leathers for your legs, but probably not."

As I went back into the kitchen, I found Maggie and Glenda helping Margie. I heard some bikes pull up outside, and Sandy and Mandy, along with Bear and Crystal came in. They were all dressed warmly and the two girls had leathers ready. It was still dark out, so it was chilly. Typical Florida though, because as soon as the sun pops up in the east, it warms up fast.

Bear turned on the weather channel to find out what the forecast was going to be today and tomorrow, then built a bunch of Bloody Marys. The non-pregnant women had some along with their coffee and generally began to get rowdy.

Hank and Debbie came over with Robbie, next Shawna and Charlie showed up with CJ and Sean. The last to come were Jim, Hannah, and Mia. Kate came walking in with Carson. She said that Jim was going fishing with their neighbor and would come by later this evening. The babysitting crew would be Beth, Glenda, Maggie, Kate, Susan, and Tina. All would get some breaks, but there were enough people to keep the critters under control. I think all of the parents felt good about leaving their kids.

We ate and cranked up the bikes by seven o'clock. Mercy wanted to ride behind Sandy, as she says she likes to play with her tits while they ride. Sue elected to be in the sidecar, which meant Juanita rode behind me. We let Hap and Charlie lead the way, with the rest of the crowd in the middle and Bear and I bringing up the rear.

The ride is a decent one. You go straight across 54 to I-75, up to state road 50, across the state through Clermont, continuing across until you dump out at I-95. We rode over to the Cabbage patch at nine in the morning. The tiny place was expanding, but still has the original postage stamp bar intact. It served up our first beer, amongst a rowdy bunch that may or may not have been to bed yet.

Our next stop was over at the Volusia fairgrounds at the Abate camp grounds. We didn't want to have to pay the forty bucks to just walk through, so we passed on visiting with friends that we would have seen and went on toward the Iron Horse Saloon to check out what kind of rice rocket they were burning this year. After a beer there, we went over to the Last Resort for a beer. About Noon we headed toward the beach.

When we pulled into the drive-through valet area for the hotel, I let Sue get out, and asked the attendant directions to the secure garage. When he started to get funny, it set me off for whatever reason. I didn't want to deal with any narrow-minded assholes looking down at us, so I said, "The lady that just went into register owns a big chunk of this fucking hotel. If you want your job to continue past right now, you will treat everyone in this group with respect. They will return the favor. Got it?"

When he said, "We'll see. That bimbo can't do shit."

I motioned for everyone to sit tight and I went inside to the hotel. While Sue was checking us in I got the attention of another desk person and told him to get the manager. When he turned up his nose I said, "Look, make it easy on yourself, my name is Sharp, that lady over there has a maiden name of Phillips. Does that ring a bell?"

"I'm sorry, Sir. I'll get him right away." That's what I figured. If Ben was deep in this place, some of Sue's money was in it and a lot of ours. If it came out, Sue and I probably owned half of the place.

The manager came out and glad handed me, "How can I be of service Mr. Sharp. Steve Sharp, right?"

"Yes, come with me. Bring another bellhop, I have a job for him."

We went outside and I went up to the attendant. When he saw me he sneered and said, "So what are you going to do now, punk?"

The manager became apoplectic and the attendant suddenly realized he may be in trouble.

"Remove your uniform right now. Give your jacket, hat, and shirt to this man then go somewhere and take off the pants. If the manager can use you in the laundry room he can, but nowhere in public, and not with customers. Now get."

The guy was stupid, as he opened his mouth, he said, "You can't fire me, only that man can."

"I wasn't going to fire you, I was going to demote you for not showing respect. Everyone deserves respect. If they do not warrant that respect it will show up later. In your case, I've come to disrespect you a great deal and believe you have cost this hotel a great deal of money. You may disrobe and leave now. Go away, never come back."

The kid looked at the manager with a question on his face and the manager said, "Please do as Mr. Sharp suggests. He is the majority owner."

I laughed, "Shoot, I didn't know that."

The kid now looked worried and said as he left, "I'm sorry, Dad, I didn't know."

I said to the man, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that was your son. Hope he learns to show more respect to everyone."

The man smiled and said, "It is a problem. Some of the staff look down on those who ride. They don't say too much when I ride my Deuce to work though. My son should ride. He would learn respect a little faster."

The man shook hands all around and said he would have a tub of iced-down beer delivered to our suite. He then directed the bellboy he brought out to be the valet attendant. Give these folks tags for their bikes and direct them to where I park my bike. They will be fine there.

Sue came out and asked what the turmoil was about. Bear said, "Mr. Sharp just fired one of your employees that turned out to be the manager's son."

"Huh? One of our employees? Manager's son?" Sue asked.

"Seems your Dad is investing our money in hotels. The guy said we are majority owners here."

"Damn, I'm going back in and get the whole top floor," Sue said, and started back in.

"No, don't do that, they can sell all the rooms twice during this week. Let's be thankful we were able to pull this out of our hat. Take our stuff up to the room and we'll meet up there. Which one is it?"

"Just go to the top floor and they said the door is straight ahead."

We rumbled though the parking garage and parked our bikes next to a fairly new Deuce. We walked back to the lobby and rode the elevator to the top, where we walked to a set of double doors that were left partially open.

"Holy shit," Bear said. "This is class. Damn, I wish we had all taken vacation so we could stay up here the entire week. Man this is nice."

There looked to be four bedrooms off the main room and there were three large couches that probably folded out. That would sleep seven couples or distinctive groups. That should take care of us. If necessary, two couples could double up. They might anyway.

"Okay, first things first. It's nice outside, so lets put our swimsuits on and go stroll the beach."

Sue said, "We didn't bring swimsuits?"

"Then let's go buy some. Come on, I'm flush with cash I won in Monte Carlo, so I'm buyin.' Let's go get some sexy swimsuits for you ladies."

We went to the lobby where I asked if they had any swimwear in their shop. When they said yes, we headed straight there. I told the guys, "Get some trunks and we'll go upstairs and let the women do their thing. There is beer up there waiting for us, come on."

It took us five minutes to find our sizes in some obnoxious colored swim shorts and pay for them, before we left Sue and the girls with the directive, "Less is better." I gave Sue two grand in cash and left them to have fun.

It was almost an hour, and three beers later, before the ladies returned. They were decked out in swimsuit cover-ups, big hats, with a bunch of beach towels and carrying their clothes. Sue said she had stopped and reserved some umbrellas and beach chairs so we needed to get out there.

On the way through the lobby, I bought a dozen huge bags of chips and pretzels. I asked the lobby concierge to see if he could get some refreshments out to us, while handing him a hundred. Whatever he could get, along with some Diet Coke. He asked me if we preferred domestic or imported. My comment was, "Anything cold will be good."

When the girls took off their cover-ups, they all displayed some of the skimpiest swimsuits I've ever seen. There was barely enough cloth to cover the pubic area and hardly anything over the nipples. Sue and Juanita looked really obnoxious. They might as well have been nude. We all went to the water to discover the Atlantic still thought it was winter. We went right back to the beach chairs, where two guys were hauling down a big cooler for us. The one guy said, "Stay right in this roped off area with your beer. The cops won't say anything to you as long as you're in the hotel's area. Tell the girls to keep their tops on as the locals are all becoming God cops lately and are trying to better our morals. Shit, wild women are half the fun of bike week and spring break."

I gave the two a fifty and told them to split it. We slicked up with some sun screen and enjoyed the sun, drank some beer, and ate snacks. We had been out about an hour when the two guys came out with two huge trays of shrimp cocktail, small sandwiches, and a bunch of shucked clams and oysters. "Compliments of the management," they said, and set up some tables for us to get at the goodies.