I have not seen so much meat...

Since a grateful reader organised a tour of the Riverstone abattoirs for me.

At Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis, feral waiters with huge iron skewers roam the restaurant, eagerly looking for any opportunity to top up the mound of perfectly cooked steaming animal parts on your plate.

Outside it was cold, but in there it was hot, and getting hotter.

Welcome to America. It might look from the economic statistics as if the US economy is on the skids, but somewhere like Fogo de Chao or, for that matter, at the Victory Motorcycles factory in Spirit Lake, Iowa you definitely wouldn’t think so.

The Americans have not lost a bit of the fierce, aggressive drive that has pushed them to where they are – still the leaders of the Free (and just about all the rest of the) World. At the headquarters of Polaris, Victory’s parent company, we were treated to a review of the outstanding performance Polaris has chalked up all over the world. Then we met the Victory development team, a seriously impressive and above all young group of people who are working on stuff that they unfortunately hid while we were there – but I’m betting it will be amazing.

All in all, let me just say: keep an eye on Victory (and the rest of Polaris) and keep an eye on Australian Road Rider and CruiserClassic+Trike, where a few stories about this trip will be appearing.

I’ll try to put together a quick blog about my ride of the Judge, Victory’s new lighter, slimmer fun machine, out in the Californian mountains. I never realised that Palm Springs, Heaven’s Waiting Room, could be so much fun.

 Meanwhile, what’s this on the skewer? Really? I didn’t even know you could eat that part of the animal… just give me a few slices…

PT