MAN... not only was this storm persistant but she was incredibly Defiant too! Born in June, it was a true Gemini. if I'd have given her a name... it would be Hurricane Debbie! Taunting and teasing, sexy and sultry one minute... and then a total insane, banshee screaming, blood curdling, frigging be-ach the next, lashing me with stinging pellets of rain driven by blasts of wind, hard enough to melt iron in a Pittsburgh steel factory.

I had left the Brunet in full battle gear expecting the worst. I wasn't dissapointed... cuz' I got just that! Fog so thick you would have sworn you were in Jolly Old. It wasn't cool, it was cold. Winds were smashing into the Divvie's fairing with such violence, I was afraid it would be torn from it's mounts and lost into the mists.


Even the Doctor of N. Thusiasm was having a difficult time keeping a smile on his face. To make matters even more interesting(?) I got lost in the fog.

Bike parked on the roadside, pouring over my map like the sheets of rain slamming my body, I was sooo glad to be plugged in. Those tiny little flowing electrons had saved my proverbial butt (not to mention other unmentionable parts of my body) many times. By keeping my torso relatively warm, I was keeping myself at a comfortable body heat level.


Fortunately, the worst of it had passed by mid morning. There were true Gemini like spans of intense, crystal blue sunshine to warm my spirits passing thru Thonon les Bains.

During the respite, I stopped for a wander and cafe on the south shore of very gorgeous, and calm Lake Geneva, in a beautifully kept, pretty little city (Evian) where I was told by the obviously bored (I was the only paying customer) proprietor of the cafe, that "Brad and Angelina, Austrian born (I'll be back) Arnold" and other such famous celebs regularly visited. He pointed up the hill overlooking the lake, where posh villas and hotels roosted.

You could just smell the money...

I learned that even Mick and Keith were frequently seen walking the streets and visiting the bars, (yeah... right!) wearing their signature dark sunglasses.

(To hide their Identities?!)

In contrast... I may not have been a Rock Star... but I certainly felt like a Road Star!

I personally didn't see any of them, but could imagine the elite 'royalty' of People magazine hobnobbing in a place like this.

While snapping pics with my waterproof Olympus, I came across a red object that had caught my eye. It turned out to be a stone shaped like a heart, laying in only 6 inches of water, 2 meters from the Lake Geneva shoreline.

I waded in... Hell my boots hadn't dried out in days and my feet looked like prunes anyway, and retrieved the oddly shaped rock sitting in total contrast to the grayness of every other stone in sight!!! I took it as a positive omen that maybe... just maybe... my own rather gray past history of love affairs was going to contrastingly... brighten and turn red hot!

On the other hand... I certainly didn't want it turning to stone! Hahaha!!!

One can always hope, right........

Passing innocently into Switzerland with the Swiss Alps in clear view, I thought of my growing up in the sixties and seventies. This Displaced Hungarian kid that couldn't speak 'Inglish' until the first grade, listening to the likes of the Beatles, the WHO and of course, the W.G.R.B* When I saw the signs directing me towards Montreux, I remembered many lonely nights with my hookah and turntable... shaking the walls in my 'music room' in the Fort Mac split level, the raunchy wail of Deep Purple's (T.W.L.R.B**) "Smoke on the water" heavy metal blasting from the 'stereo' on LP***.

Recorded just across the lake from where I was now peeling off clothes in blossoming heat... I could almost see the flames, the smoke rising, as the Casino went up in flames!

"We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline... to make records with a mobile... we didn't have much time..."

"No matter what, we get outa this... I know, I know, I'll never forget...

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky"

The temperature had shot up like a 105 mm projectile blasted from the muzzle of a howitzer. Before long I was roadside once again in sunshine so bright I thought my eyeballs would fry beneath my shades. (Of course, Nobody recognized me!)

The Alps shone in the near distance, calling my name (in Swiss/German). True to it's Gemini nature, the calm after (and before ) the storm was alluring, tempting, inviting, drawing me in.

"Come little boy Franz... come, don't be afraid..."

Little did I know what was in store for me in just a few hours of riding.

* World's Greatest Rock Band

**The World's Loudest Rock Band
*** Long Play