BIG RICH: ROAD WARRIORS!

Summer of 1972 we held a BIG Bash at our place in Wixom, Michigan...25 acres, house and barn... destined to become another Suburban Development... meanwhile we invited every body out for a PARTY!


The Band

The IRON HORSE EXCHANGE was our band then, powerful loco-motion for sure, everyone was there, Billy G, Gerber Baby, Bert and a shit-load of 'em I never saw before... don't print fliers if you don't want a crowd.


The Crowd

Lots of fun and Rock n' Roll and naked hippies in the fields... the barn was rockin' so hard it felt like an earthquake! The band brought Cops and KEGS of Heineken Beer, my "other" brand, never saw that again 'till a show in Ypsilanti..

NEW ORDER with Ron Asheton and Dennis Machinegun Thompson, a few years later.


New Order

There comes a time in each man's life when he must "hit that road", for one reason... or another. After my disastrous failure as an herb merchant and short stay in OC Jail, I headed west.. hitchhiking across America is a time honored tradition... so we went.



Lenny was a Botany Major at U of M, he knew where the mushrooms grew. We got dropped off, the other side of the Mississippi River... first ride took us all the way, over the mountains and thru the desert... next stop LA. Lenny's Brother lived in a motel with some Senorita, on Route 66... we turned down his plan to boost a VW bus and trade it for Kilos in Mexico, then swim back... no thanks.



I went solo, thumbed up the Pacific Coast Highway, US1, from San Diego to San Francisco, camped in Big Sur , stayed a few days with a commune up in the mountains... had to move on, camped out in the desert and up in the Rockies near Aspen, nobody wants a wanderer hangin' around... had a court date, so I headed home...


Big Sur

That Deputy leanin' on the Bus Stop, readin' Wonder Woman Comic Book at 2 am, in Sterling, Colorado, was eyeballin' us vagrant hippies for a 30 day vacation, so I panhandled a ticket out o' town... then stuck out my thumb, first ride went from Denver to Toledo, what do ya' think of THAT? Back in Ann Arbor,



I was upstairs at the Hill House, looked out the window and there was my Girl... she said meet me back at the Ranch...so I did.