LOCATION 2 OF 3: V-Twin TV (Speed Channel)
Travel Day (12 March)
to Orlando, FL from Daytona, FL
I forgot to mention that the show airs on Speed Channel on Tuesday evenings. It’s part of Speed’s 2-wheel Tuesday or something like that…
We drove in to today. Some of the crew is flying back to Los Angeles and one of the producers and I are now off to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I didn’t know I’d be going anywhere after Florida so I don’t pack much in the way of warm clothes. I looked around today for warm clothes and boots (they left me with my own vehicle). No luck. I understand there’s a mall near the hotel – I might give it a try there.
We’re staying in Orlando today before flying out tomorrow. I was surprised to find that the neighborhood around the hotel has a small Vietnamese community. I was hoping to grab a bite at one of these restaurants but everything closes a quite early around here. (That’s something I do miss about Los Angeles – open late just about everywhere.) Maybe I’ll get some pho when I get back.
Today was to be our day off, but with so much to do, it was more of a respite. One of my errands was laundry. I got jacked! The only place I could find charged $1.50 per load and a whopping ¢25 for 5 minutes on the dryer! For those of you who don’t usually use a laundromat, that’s a lot of money.
We’re staying at the Courtyard Marriott. I have to say, it’s a real nice hotel. Free high speed internet, free printer use in the business center, and clean roomy suites. If only every shoot was this nice. I even got to go swimming for a while. I needed that.
Everywhere around here you’ll find lakes.
This is an amazing looking school. I wonder what kind of person I would have become if I had attended a school like this?
My chop sticks – Plan B when I don’t get cutlery. Like this time! (Many thanks to my friend Aaron for getting me this birthday present.)
The sign on the clock above the shop says, “between the buns” – tee, hee, tee, hee. UPDATE: I was shocked to see that THIS hot dog stand was used in “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector”!!! Check it out in the trailer. Can I pick a location or what?!
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector – (clip from the trailer)
Travel Day (13 March)
to Sioux Falls, SD by way of Omaha, NE
It’s 1 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. I’m somewhere over Georgia or possibly Alabama.
I never tire of looking out of an airplane window. I take picture after picture and wonder what’s going on down there. The twist and turn of streets, highways, byways, toll roads and dirt trails peeking through cotton candy clouds looking like the capillaries on a leaf. I think about all the lives I’ve flown over and the vast number of communities and moments that have just passed. Tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of people. I can’t help but wonder what event in their lives I’ve just flown over. A traffic accident, a birth, a death, a fight, a promotion, a meal being cooked, a child’s first step, a first kiss? We live such insular lives until times like these awaken our thoughts that we really are not alone. Our troubles aren’t just ours. Within those sky-scrappers and farm fields, those shacks and mansions are people not really much different than you and me. And then, i peer out my window again and I continue to look down and think to myself, I’m a lucky man.
• • •
I drove us from the airport in Nebraska to the hotel in South Dakota. We had a GPS navigation system – it was funny to hear the unit say, “do this in for .3 miles”, then quickly followed by “do that for .3 miles”. Then, when we got on the freeway, it said “follow I-29 for 168 miles”… silence for a really long time.
It was 175 miles of this… Cold, dry Nebraska and Iowa soon gave way to really cold and snowy South Dakota. By nightfall, the temperature was down to 10° F (-5° C).
Twisted Chopper (14-16 March)
Sioux Falls, SD
John (director) getting some shots on the way to our hotel.
(Tuesday) This was a flat piece of sheet metal yesterday. It was all done by hand and various presses and punches. All of the gas tanks for their custom choppers are hand-made instead of stamped. In total, it’ll take three days to hammer and weld this out.
Windy today, 24° outside – feels like 12° with the windchill according to the weather channel. It’s funny, many of the folks who live in South Dakota don’t want to live in South Dakota but you stay where you know. It seems few people like cold winters. Still it is beautiful here at times. When we arrived, it felt like Christmas.
Wishing I was back at the cozy and warm hotel. Yesterday (Tuesday) was warm and enough of the snow melted to make mud, which is today frozen. It’s late at night right now and I’m in my hotel room. The wind is howling and just outside my window are a few pine trees swaying from the wind while a couple of bunnies are playing underneath their boughs.
One thing that freaked me out, and that I didn’t expect here, was how gentrified America has become. What happened to all the mom and pop shops? This part of Sioux Falls is completely inundated with nation-wide chain stores and restaurants. It’s a bit disgusting and too familiar for my taste. But on the other hand, the few local restaurants we’ve visited have been disappointingly awful. I don’t know which is worse.
Last day to play…
The tank more than half way done.
The finished tank – L to R – Blair (sound mixer), Jason (Twisted Chopper owner, builder), cheese… e me!
The fished tank with the signature gas cap.
Jason on the “rat” bike he and Kai made called the Mudshovel Bobber.
This is by far and away the best bike I’ve seen – the EXO-chopper. So much so, I want it. Ah, someday! Twisted Chopper
Mudshovel Bobber featured at David Mann’s Bob’s Back Museum Exhibit at Sturgis 2004 at Journey Museum.
Blair watches on as Jason welds.
Buffalo burger… yum!
Quiet Chad working on a prototype.
Kim and Kai behind one of the bikes we featured.
Well this marks the end of this leg of the trip. Tomorrow we drive back to Omaha, NE and then fly out to Raleigh, NC. We’ll be there two days and then drive out to Charlotte, NC on Sunday.
I think this was a much easier shoot than Daytona, the only difference is that it was a much more tiring shoot. Party, because we didn’t really have any time off, but also because this time I shot mostly handheld. I’d say roughly 80%. I think it produced much better shots but it did a number on my shoulder blades, biceps and lower back. If you think mini DV cameras are light as a feather, try adding a glass wide-angle lens to the front and holding it out in front of you for six hours out of an eight hour day – it adds up. The remaining time I used a Steadi Stick by Tiffen. It’s useful (I’d use it again I suppose) but limiting. The way it works is that you strap a belt on and an adjustable stick is attached to the belt and a plate that’s attach to the base of the camera. It helps support the weight of the camera on your hips mostly. It helped especially when we would do interview that continued for 50 minutes a stretch. Why not use a tripod… my back certainly wishes I did!
(John sits on Chad’s bike holding the shop kitty “Kitty”.)
John’s our field director/producer. He’s a good egg with a good head on his shoulders. He’ll come up with questions that just escaped me to ask. He also can spin a yarn with the best of them. He’s got some great stories both personal and production related.
Here’s one anecdote he shared from a book he owns and it is quite possibly one of my most favorite stories because it holds so true to production work…
Technical troubles developed with a huge new generator at Ford’s River Rouge plant. His electrical engineers were unable to locate the difficulty so Ford solicited the aid of Steinmetz. When “the little giant” arrived at the plant, he rejected all assistance, asking only for a notebook, pencil and cot. For two straight days and nights he listened to the generator and made countless computations. Then he asked for a ladder, a measuring tape and a piece of chalk. He laboriously ascended the ladder, made careful measurements, and put a chalk mark on the side of the generator. He descended and told his skeptical audience to remove a plate from the side of the generator and take out 16 windings from the field coil at that location. The corrections were made and the generator then functioned perfectly. Subsequently Ford received a bill for $10,000 signed by Steinmetz for General Electric. Ford returned the bill acknowledging the good job done by Steinmetz but respectfully requesting an itemized statement. Steinmetz replied as follows: Making chalk mark on generator $1. Knowing where to make mark $9,999. Total due $10,000. (From www.wikipedia.com – thanks John)
The folks at Twisted were incredibly nice, hospitable and above all genuine. It was a great visit and should make for a good segment. Snow, good people and a chance to admire a couple of guys who love what they do and strive for excellence. The aspect of the bikes they build that most impressed me was not just that they look good – real good – but that they make sure that the bikes are ridable and dependable. I wasn’t kidding when I said I want the EXO bike pictured above. I certainly hope to someday have these guys make me a bike. Sweet!
Many thanks to Kia, Jason, Jeff, Kim, Chad, Chad, and Chad.
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