I’ve been on the road for about a month, and since my older self may one day want to know what I was up to in the year 2024; here’s a somewhat brief summary of how I ended up on a motorcycle ride to Tuktoyaktuk, NW Territory, Canada.
We all know that as we age and some of us finally stop to take in and smell the roses, that we don’t or won’t remember as much detail of life our lives, as we did when we were younger; that is unless of course, those moments get imprinted in us to become “a significant emotional event.”
I now go down that rabbit hole to share with you how that “significant emotional event” became a thing for me.
And now that I thought about it more; I already feel my wife Patti cringing, as I recount yet another story that she’s heard over the past twenty five years of a relationship together.
Stay with me now just a little bit longer, because I always manage to eventually close the loop on all of my storytelling.
So far you have 1) me riding a motorcycle to Tuktoyaktuk; 2) and what constitutes a significant emotional event; 3) possibly a reason for my absence from writing; 4) another upcoming ride
My readers digest version of how a significant emotional event was first created in me. The story begins with a newly graduated ROTC Second Lieutenant attending an infantry officers basic course in Fort Benning, Georgia in one of the hottest and most miserable time of Georgia history. The two hundred or so 2nd Lieutenant students were now into two of a four month Army active duty course.
Unlike soldiers in the Ukraine war today all that we had to fear back then were the Georgia elements and our own forces that took turns becoming the enemy force.
After the most miserable of miserable nights on account of the humidity, lightning strikes and falling rain a small river suddenly started flowing through my sleeping bag. It briefly felt so good I nearly peed myself and then I woke up.
First I teased out all of yesterday’s crud and camouflage paint from the innards of my nose, ears, eyebrows and eyes. In addition to a week without showers we hadn’t had a good hot meal in several days.
Then near me I observe our senior sergeant walk over; lean himself up against one or two of the other Lieutenants and slowly start a bobbing himself back-and-forth, back and forth. When this black Sergeant opened up his mouth you saw a perfectly formed pearly white mouth full of teeth and one prominent gold tooth right in the front.
His smile was as contagious as was his singing voice that could easily woo over any lady. As his gaze looked eastward towards the morning rising sun; out flows the words; I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day, when it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.”
Some of you reading this blog may know the rest of the words to that song, and the rest of you I pity for never having experienced the My Girl lyrics song by Motown, the temptations group and singer Smokey Robinson back in the year 1964.
That song and the moment combined to create such a “significant emotional event” in all of us, that I doubt anyone would get through life forgetting that song, moment and life altering experience.
Which now leads me back to another significant event. About a month ago I drove my truck from SoCal to Tacoma, Washington to visit grandkids. I stayed with my son Michael and his family for a few days before flying from SeaTac airport to Anchorage to participate in a planned memorial ride for a dearly departed friend , Tom (age 50) who died last year during our Alaskan motorcycle ride as a result of a collision with a moose.
In 2024, we saw closure of that tragedy. It takes some time before humans are fully able to come to terms with someone’s untimely death. Closure I learned is an important part of living.
And now that I’m getting ready to return back to Alaska for yet another motorcycle ride I still continue to reflect on how precious life and our time on this earth is.
This new ride in to the NW territories of Canada. We’re attempting to ride to the farthest reaches in Canada to a place known as Tuktoyaktuk.
They’ll only be two riders this time, Roberto and I. And trailing us will be the legendary GPSKEVIN driving his brand new Suzuki Samurai. You say you haven’t seen any on the US roads? Here’s why.
Suzuki did not stop building their tiny SUV they just stopped selling them in the United States.
They’ve been making and selling the little toy like jeeps under a different name to virtually every other market in the world.
This tiny off-roader has been tearing up the terrain in 199 countries but the USA since it launched way back in 1970. My brother Rick had one that he brought back from S Korea after serving an Army tour on the DMZ.
Along the way, Suzuki has racked up more than three million sales. But not a single one has been sent to the U.S. since 1995. Here’s the new one.
And now a little background before I sign off yet again:
In late 2017, an all-weather highway opened up in the Northwest Territories of Canada making it even more awesome to see and experience than a ride out to Prudhoe Bay Alaska.
This road leads directly to the Arctic Ocean and is only 86-miles long and called the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH).
The two-lane gravel highway snakes its way around many lakes and creeks and, for the first time, opens up the Territories’ far-flung northern reaches to visitors year round.
You can make this journey up the highway and back within a day, but first you’ll have to get there.
From me right now where I sit in Seattle it’s about 2,500 miles away.
Below are some pictures to take a moment to reflect on.
The End
You are missed.
Trawlercat Chronicles 