We are all tourists here and life is just like a journey!” Anonymously Me.
A sense of gratitude is what I now feel as my body is now fully recovered following a month on the road that includes two weeks of Alaskan roads motorcycle riding. My mind is both calm and rested from the nearly 24 hours of daylight that kept me energized like that Energizer Rabbit wearing sunglasses and blue and black striped flip flops.
My soul and spirit is looking forward to seeing my Alaskan band of brothers, their families and friends whom we have amazingly been blessed to meet once again; as we start the second half of our Alaskan Exploration Ride that on day (1) takes us from Anchorage to Valdez, Alaska.
It’s not all adrenaline infused riding we’re after, at least not on the little Klondike I’m riding. It’s a Kawasaki 300 Versys. (And Roberto and I are still proving that a smaller Adventure bike, well equipped and with a good rider at the helm is a far superior option to riding a heavier larger more loaded one.)
Perhaps I will write that story for rider magazine as requested by the editor and also collect my $200 for doing so. Or, perhaps I like it this way. There’s always a cost for doing something for money. With it, the expectations change. I’m not that interested in the publicity at this time. This blog started out for me and now it’s for us, friends and family who are from coast to coast and in between. Without this blog to share one can easily be forgotten in this hurried state of life, as one grows older.
My replacement front fender should have finally arrived from Partzilla who promised but, never delivered, unlike Amazon who has since delivered new Tusk panniers, Giant Loop top case, Ram gps mounts and Quadlock iphone holder. For the necessary working parts I have a new sprocket, chain, clutch cable, and a replacement set of Trailmax tires for this next ride. The guys like Todd, Tom, Flying Brian and possibly Jacob used up their original set of tires on ride one (1).
The next two weeks of riding we will see new riders join the original band of brothers to replace the departing riders like John from Canada and Deckland from Gig Harbor and Rodney from Maryland, and Paul from Anchorage and Gpskevin from Southern California and Federico aka Freddy, and Roberto 2 from as far away as Mexico City and Gregg who is also local will not be joining us.
The older we get the more aware we become that the mind, body and soul are our internal gauges that for whatever reasons, determine what our next ride will be and when that last ride will come. It’s always a sneak peak as to what it could be if we don’t keep our skills up by, you guessed it, more riding.
Always grateful for another ride trip with what today qualifies as possibly my final band of brothers in this lifetime. We are all tourists and life is just a journey!
We have now completed over 2,000 miles of riding in Alaska with over 1200 miles being on gravel roads. And for the guys like Gpskevin, Roberto 1 and Roberto 2, Freddy and I you can include the distance from Prince George to Anchorage. And almost forgot. You can also include the distance that I rode from Tacoma to Prince George.
While home friends and acquaintances have already asked me why am I riding some of the most dangerous roads in America’s last frontier? I can now think of only one answer to give. “What should I do with the last free remaining years of my life?
Should I be like other timid men in the lower 48 states that like to keep the Mrs company; while she indulges herself on a couch eating bon bons, after recently returning from a massage at Massage Envy and is now starting another episode of watching novela like episodes on Netflix like Suits. “Suits is set in a New York City law firm and tells the story of Mike Ross, a college dropout who secures a job as a law associate whilst on the run from a drug deal that went wrong. (And now ask me how I know?).
I always like movies with drug deals that go wrong, like perhaps the 38 movies made by Hollywood just last year. There’s Carlito’s way. The story of an impoverished Puerto Rican former convict who was just released from prison and promises to stay away from drugs and violence despite living in N.Y.C. It could happen! Only if the current set of writers don’t go out on strike, like they are now talking about doing.
And my old time favorite, Breaking Bad. A story about a Mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher named Walter White who thinks his life can’t get much worse; he has a pregnant wife, a teenage son with cerebral palsy and a dog who just gave birth to sixteen puppies he can’t easily give away.
Oh and on top of that the writer’s add terminal cancer to his list. Walter makes a desperate bid to earn as much cash as possible working with a doper student by the name of Jessie, who hates dogs, so they turn his old RV into a rolling meth lab. What could possibly go wrong here? And how is it that a doper ends up in chemistry class anyway?
Oh and by the way, I’m only joking about the wife eating bon bons on the couch. She’s also my CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and I wouldn’t want my credit cards cancelled mid ride; if you know what I mean. She is the reason I continue to return home. One day I tell her I’ll be too old to do this adventure motorcycle riding. She smiles. I smile. We both smile and soon begin to laugh together.
OK one more alibi. I added the parts about Walter having a dog with sixteen puppies he couldn’t possibly take to the pound for adoption because they’re too ugly for adoption. It’s only my feeble attempt to tug at your heart strings.
For those of you still interested in this Alaskan ride adventure I promise you there will be words about riding yet to come. For those of you who enjoy free witty and entertaining stories you can always turn to Facebook or perhaps subscribe to the blog. About 1,000 people whom I don’t know do so. I often wonder what it is that they are after that they can’t get from watching reality based television and/or eating bon bons. My heart and thanks goes out to you as well.
One guy described it this way: He said most guys want a motorcycle. The problem he says is financial. I’m in (insert anything else here) and not everyone has the extra disposable income to put towards a bike. The little Versys bike that I am riding across Alaska cost me $4,000 bucks.
Never mind that it was in Washington and so I couldn’t get it licensed in California because the DMV needed to see the registration numbers on it. There’s always a work around. In this case it was my son Mike who lives in Washington. His name is also now on the title. $632.00 for registration later my name is also on the title. And if only I had a friend in Oregon. The registration would’ve been something like $32. But, the Versys was where it was and I am where I am in life. Not waiting on the stars to perfectly align themselves before I can do this or that.
One should not be afraid of death; they should be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live and ride either by using your own legs, a beast of burden or a mechanical one. Just keep moving! Own it, claim it, live it the best way possible that works for you.
Meet Asashi who is 28 but looks like 18. John always thinks that I am butchering his name and I probably am. He said remember Sushi!
Asushi is walking all the way from Prudoe Bay Alaska to Ushuaia the farthest points in S. America. We met him in Coldfoot and John treated him to a shower and a meal. So don’t go thinking anymore of us is a big badass for doing what we are doing. There’s always a bigger and badder badass living their life out there and on their own terms. You just don’t yet know about it.
“One day, I’ll own one,” they’ll say, and then, and I think this is common for many people, we graduate, time passes by, and responsibilities come along: getting a job, a wife, kids, a house, a bigger car, etc.
Owning a motorcycle then becomes an unrealistic fantasy. Without realizing it, life has made plans for them outside of owning a motorcycle. A selfish thing to own if you’re the only person riding it.
“At the end of the day, a motorcycle costs at least a couple thousand dollars; that’s a kid’s baseball season, a little girl’s dance lesson, or even a well needed family vacation at year end. And let’s not kid ourselves, motorcycles come with high risks.” And just sometimes, life has a way of making us put our dreams on hold until we’re too old to realize it.
And in the song by Luke Combs he sings;
And I’ve been finding peace of mind, slowing my role
You learn to tow that line with time, as it goes
In the middle of growin’ up, and gettin’ old
It’s when you start thinkin’
How much time left you got
If there’s more sand in the bottom, or the top
‘Cause that hourglass we have don’t last forever
Been thinking ’bout it more and more, these days
It’s like the less you have, the faster that it goes
In the middle of growin’ up, and gettin’ old
But I can still raise hell all night with the boys when I want to
Lay that hammer down to see how fast she’ll go
But these days I hang my hat on what I won’t do
And I’ve been finding peace of mind, slowing my role
You learn to tow that line with time, as it goes
In the middle of growin’ up, and gettin’ old
I’m still bending rules, but thinkin’ ‘fore I break ’em
And I ain’t lost a step, I just look before I take ’em ……….
And what’s more important right after recently coming home; the freedom of being on a bike, taking whatever road I wish, stopping where I want and for as long as I want or the loving arms of a good woman or eating chocolates?
And right about this time I’ll start to catch myself ever so determined walking into our pantry. I stick my hand into a Costco sized container, grab as big a handful as I can knowing I’ll have to release some, to get my hand back out. I stick them into my right side pocket and casually walk to my den, and turn on Youtube. Somehow between the ads, that I count down to; the bon bons magically disappear from my right side pocket.
No,’ They all agree. ‘It is a good thing to travel and to meet different people.’
We recently began getting our motorcycles back in order after that last two week adventure that took us to Deadhorse and Prudoe Bay. My little Klondike, a 2017 Kawasaki Versys 300 is now on its third chain, it badly needs a new air filter or cleaning which it will soon get.
They say that Adventure comes to the adventurous but, that you cannot be an explorer until you have explored. Perhaps it’s best to stop this blog right here because on dispatch one (1) we get to catch up with what happened in our not too distant past. The Exxon Valdez disaster.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker was on its way to Long Beach California, a distance of only a one hour drive from my home today in Southern California.
Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Tanker/Vessel Exxon Valdez, fully loaded with its cargo of Alaska North Slope crude oil, grounded on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
Eight of its 11 cargo tanks ruptured, releasing some 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of oil – about 20% of its cargo – into the icy waters of the Sound. Over 11 million gallons of crude oil was spilled during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The spill covered over 460 miles. Over 1,300 miles of coastline was affected during the spill. To be continued with the next Dispatch from Alaska.
Thank you for your support!
Dedicated to my wife Patti. You are loved.
Ralph
Trawlercat Chronicles 