[Jeff Higgins]

No, I did not. This is all second hand, through then current members, and ex members I've known and ridden with. Mostly many, many years ago, but some of them much more recently - I just had lunch with one a month ago. But no, he never made it up here, except for book signings and other promotions. Most of the members around here had never met him either, by the way.

His reputation permeated their world. There was a real love/hate, respect/fear, admiration/loathing relationship. Most lived in fear of crossing him in some way, so actually either actively tried to avoid or, at best, didn't put much effort into meeting him. He was very much an enigma in that way, at least to the guys I knew (or know).

My comments on the club scene in general do come from first hand experience. I was pretty enamored with the whole thing when I was younger. I was asked to prospect for a major club, and probably would have done so, but then I met my wife... That, and as I got deeper into it, my pending role began to clarify, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be the romance of the "outlaw biker" I had convinced myself it was going to be. I followed a few of my "mentors" out the door (on their advice) as they were turning in their patches, for the reasons outlined above.