Some of the best parts about travel, is experiencing the unknown, engaging in the unfamiliar, ending up at roadside attractions, and meeting characters of all sorts…
Recently on a trip to Ocean City Maryland, to watch professional athletes do barrel rolls, we ended up across the bay, looking for an affordable motel vacancy, in a hap hazzard summer tourist trap of a beach city. With most of the rooms in the area booked, and high priced, we ended up at a place called the Alamo, run by an 80 year old fellow named Roscoe, who had one arm, and proudly showed off his official horse shoe pits, his golf cart and a motorcycle burnout chamber.
Roscoe hooked us up with a room, and 6 of us piled in after getting a couple of cases of cold Busch beers!
Later that evening, after rebel rousing at the boardwalk, and getting our kicks, we ended up back at the Alamo, where an elderly gentleman named Larry was unpacking his station wagon, in the room right next to ours…
Larry was from New Jersey, his wife was in the room , already, and instead of being bothered by a rowdy rag tag crew, he smoked cigarettes, drank beer, and shot the shit with us. We learned Larry had done some time, he didn’t have teeth, and generally that he was a good sort.
Not soon after Kenny and Holladay disappeared into the darkness and come running back to the Alamo chill zone, roaring with laughter, and holding a giant garbage bag filled with donuts. A true drunken dumpster dive score. Pure gold!
We all ate 2 am donuts, and had a time. Larry even grabbed a few for his old lady, and set them on a napkin in his room for her in the morning.
At about 7 am, Larry knocked on our door, and handed us 6 to go cups of coffee to, and a 20 dollar bill that he said was for us to buy more beer. What a cool guy.
Larry was visiting a friend in the area to go fishing. When asked if he was an avid fisherman, he said something to the effect of just catching them and releasing them… and that he mostly just wanted some peace and quiet so he could drink his beer and not have to put up with anyone’s bullshit.
Larry was also wearing a shirt with a blue monster, with mismatched socks, riding a bicycle , with a fishing pole on it and a donut on a hook.
Thanks Larry, guys like you make the price of gas worth every cent!
FBM Does the Dew… from FBM BMX on Vimeo.