Well, I guess it's time to call it a trip! What a great frigging trip! I had to wait until Steve got home to send out the last blog entry. My only regret....it did not last longer for sure. Would I do it again? Tomorrow! I hope I win the lottery to take all my friends and family with me!
I don't even know where to start to recap the whole trip and finish the blog. That is why I have probably been dragging my feet on this. There are so many things I want to talk about, explain, people I want to talk about, sights and roads I want to write about. And I am sure, no matter what I do, I will miss something, some sight or someone.
Let's start with the easy stuff: Friends!
I guess what a lot of you don't know, Steve and I had never traveled together. Hell, we barely knew each other. He was actually a friend of a friend. We had, had a few beers together and been in Charleston at the same time one weekend about a year ago. That was it. LOL, my only conversation with Steve was...."I don't share rooms, are you OK with that?"
So, for two people who didn't know each other or each others little idiosyncrasies it was a big undertaking. Like Steve told his wife, we would come back friends or hating each other! That SOB! =-) Just kidding, he did get to ride a week longer than me, so I am pissed off about that. He spent a week in TX with his wife and friends.
Friends I got to see along the way:
There was Dan, a fellow pilot who introduced me to Orville who is a fellow Veteran and now a friend. They rode with us for three days. Great riders and fun to be around! Both are always welcomed at my house.
Then Steve the attorney in Michigan. What a tough life he leads. Showed up in his convertible Mercedes in the middle of the day to have beers with us from his lake front home! (Tommy, why have you never invited me down to your lake home for beers? In fact, why have you never even bought me a beer? You are an attorney! What's up with that? BTW Tommy...Little Big Horn was REALLY awesome!)
Then around the horn of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see my good friends Kennie, Jeff, Brenda and Jud. (Cheese Head Motorcycle Club I met four years ago in Yellowstone while I was traveling alone) Made a new friend in the form of Brenda's sister Sandra, Shandra...something like that. Oh well, hell of a good cook. We invited her with us next year to be our executive chef on the trip. Just get like 25,000 miles under your belt by then!
I got to visit with my buddy Bob and his wife Cathy in Colorado. Lots of catching up and too many beers were had. On second thought...too many beers is like being too thin and too rich! No such thing! BTW Bob....still waiting on the recipe for the beef dish.
I would be remorse for not mentioning the sisters (no, not the ones from Idaho...(What a man!)....the ones from the Happy Hour Bar outside of West Yellowstone. Still one of my most favorite places to stop, hands down. They make me laugh until beer comes out my nose. Or maybe I just drank it too fast. Regardless....good people in their own right!
That covers the old friends.
The new friends:
Sturgis....Michelle! A warm smile every morning we had breakfast at her place! LOL...the only person I met in Sturgis when you mentioned riding would go: UGGGH! Not sure if we will ever see her again. For sure not on a long ride. Regardless....good person with a personality as wide as the ocean!
In Missoula, MT there is Kat. She is the GM of the La Quinta. Great girl. She introduced us to her boyfriend Andreas (by the way...I am still checking on his green card. I have a friend that works for ICE. I am just not sold on the Texan with a German accent, Navy Veteran thing. Something is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry suspicious as Col Klink use to say on Hogan's Hero's) I expect to have these two for friends for a very long time I hope.
There were the three I call the "Viking Motorcycle Club." Again, I wish I had met people like that when I was living there for eleven years in MN. Maybe someday they will trek down to NC. Oh yea, I forgot, Midwesterners are not use to being invited down by "strangers." Just ask the Cheesehead MC! They were getting ready to ride down when their daughter asked; "do you really know this guy?" Their answer was the same as mine when someone ask me if I "really knew them that well." NOPE! But, four years later we are still friends. So, VMC...if you ever make it down to NC, you have a place to stay. Oh, we don't have "hot dishes" down here! Cold beer and BBQ is fine dining to us!
Then I guess my biggest faux pas was asking the four Baptist riders, (the preacher, the assistant preacher, the choir director and another church member) if they wanted a cold beer as I checked in to the hotel in KS. Now that I think about it...they didn't offer me any of their pizza! Ummmmm, Southern Baptist! Wait a minute....so am I! I am sure it had anchovies on it and they probably picked up right away I am not an anchovy kind of guy. I have their email and it would not surprise me to run into them again on the road. I would hope I do.
Best roads:
Wow, everyday Steve and I would say the same old thing. "Was that not the best road!" Over and over again. It became like a broken record. Several deserve honorable mention:
Hwy 119 (Street of Trees) in Michigan. Needles Hwy in South Dakota. Hwy 89 on the outside of Glacier Park going back to West Glacier. Hwy 12 in Idaho along the river. McNeil Canyon Rd, ID, Hwy 20in the Northern Cascades of Washington State. The first part of Hwy 1 (Pacific Coast Hwy), the shores of PCH down the coast. The Lost Coast in Northern CA. Around Lake Tahoe. Hwy 50 was spectacular from Virginia City, NV over to Utah. Down into Monument Valley, AZ. Up into Ouray, CO from Durango. All are "MUST RIDE" roads if you own a bike!
So which one do I pick................Old Post Rd, Mooresville, NC! I loved every mile, every friend, every sight, every twist, every turn, were all perfect on God's easel of this great country we live in. But, as much as I love to ride, 10,410 miles this trip....it was good to be home. I am so lucky to have such good neighbors, friends and family. I missed my neighbors, the kids calling me Uncle Buck, sparring with Walt over my total disregard for the EPA and other sundries disregards of authority that I love to do. My riding friend, fellow Veteran, CVMA member Ken "AWOL" and his kids and family. I missed my brother even though I talked to him every day of the trip a couple of times a day.
So, Old Post won "best road" hands down to me. I have a life long new friend in Steve. And I want to publicly thank his wife Lisa for being so kind to "allow" him to go. Especially with me! I would have thought for sure you had been in the women's bathrooms around town and know better! OK, so I am lying about that. It's my little world and I occupy it just fine! =-)
I have already started planning my next two wheel trip of sight seeing, beer drinking, pillage and debauchery around the country. So, for all those they may want to go......do like I do. Put a coffee can in the cupboard and throw $20 a week into it all year. You will be surprised at how fast it accumulates and makes vacation so much more fun! Or, buy a lottery ticket like I do as well!
I do feel like I need to answer one more thing.......Steve and I were sitting having a beer one day (I know, a beer...it surprised the crap out of me too....Poof! It just showed up in my hand) and I was talking about some of my close friends. Names like StrangeMan, AWOL, Iceman, Girley Beer man, and White Paul. He finally said...how do/did they get those names:
StrangeMan is a career Army Special Forces. He is a current Special Forces Instructor at Ft Bragg. For those of you that maybe didn't follow the Iraq War...we (USA) had guys crawling around in the sewer system long before the war ever started gathering intelligence. All Special Forces guys....They do some STRANGE shit! (get it....Strange (strangeman...strange shit...climbing around in the sewers....remember...this is a BFB (blonde friendly blog)
AWOL...he is not the best with directions. He is always getting lost. He had a close friend who was also a Vet and rider. Whenever AWOL was going over to visit if he would get lost...his friend would always call and say..."Are you AWOL (absent without leave for you non military) again?" Thus, he became known as AWOL!
Iceman. Iceman is on his 9th tour in Iraq. Master Sgt in the Marines. He is one rank away from the highest possible rank he can achieve in the Marines! He used to live in Louisiana. He was riding to a meeting for the CVMA (Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association) one day in LA. It was like 25 degrees. If I recall, most of the other "riders" drove to the meeting. He showed up with Ice on his face from condensation....Iceman!
White Paul....A great story. No, he is not a racist. Far from it. Paul is married to a gorgeous woman named Pam. She is Hispanic. Well, she has two other sisters. One married a Chinese fellow, one married another Hispanic fellow. They all three were named PAUL! So, at family gatherings...White Paul, Mexican Paul and Chinese Paul are how they are addressed.
Girley Beer Man.....My friend Joe from NYC. I could not ask for a better friend. (Marine Vet...NYC Cop) I met him in a local bar here at Lake Norman. (I know, I know...it really does surprise me too. Why are all my friends always in the bar?) I walked in to the bar, (MILF's...no really, that is the name of the bar) him and another buddy who is a cop also were standing there drinking. I am 6'3", and not skinny...Joe is eye to eye..maybe a tad more...Jerry his buddy looks like an offspring of Hoke Hogan's. As I stood there drinking my beer and minding my business and theirs as well....Joe orders a beer...Miller Lite! The bar maid put it down...I turned around, looked over my shoulder and said in a nice southern drawwwwwwwwwwww....."Nice Girley Beer!" Joe looks at me, looks at Jerry like (did he really just say that to me) and I think...ummm, Harley boots are not the best for running in. Joe pushes his girley beer to the side and looks at the bartender..."give me what he's having!" (and NO it was not a southern draw) We have been great friends ever sense and will be to the last breath either one of us takes!
So my friends....I will depart with these words from Dierks Bentley's song....Modern Day Drifter:
I'm gonna be a modern day drifter
And get out while I can
Gonna trade in this life i've been livin
For a pocket full of sand
And a modern day drifter don't have to tell no one his plans
I'm gonna find that long stretch of highway
No one knows my name
Where as long as the sky just goes on
And it's never the same
A modern day drifter don't ever complain
Bye bye high life
Feels like the right time
To say so long
Keep on goin strong
And i'll just keep on bein gone
Cause i'm gonna be a modern day drifter, Yes I am
Gonna slip this ring off my finger
Cause everybody understands
That a modern day drifter's got nothin but time on his hands
Until next time....Hug your family and friends...tell them everyday you love them...you will never know when you may not see them again!
Rick (MDD..............out!)
No comments:
Post a Comment