Old School

When I left you last we had an episode with a less than desirable substance and a rock. We were really happy to leave that campground (and mess) in the rearview mirror. Our objective for the day? Get to my home in Utah. We were still 150 miles North of Boise so it was going to be a long day. We still had some lingering issues with La Jefa and we were trying to decide if it was worth stopping in Boise to get them looked at. We were tired and just wanted to get home.

Ready to Go!

We arrived in Boise about noon and parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot so we could get some lunch. I also had to gas up the Triumph before going any further. We decided to let the refrigerator issue (not cooling properly) wait so we could keep going. We still had hours of driving ahead of us to get to my home in Utah.

As you can see Benz was ready to go. He hasn’t been himself lately, he acts like he’s choking on something by swallowing a lot but he’s still eating and drinking just fine.

We drove through some hellacious wind gusts on the leading edge of some storm cells just East of Boise and that continued for another 50 miles or so past Twin Falls Idaho. It was so bad at one point that the only way I could hang on to the handlebars of the Triumph was to put my chin as close to the gas cap as possible. This looks stupid but it kept me going. We stopped again about 30 miles from home in Coleville to fuel up La Jefa and the bike for the final push.

As we pulled onto Highway 40 South to Heber City, I felt a sadness come over me realizing that our adventure together was coming to a close. At that moment the sun came out from behind a cloud and cast a perfect shadow of me and the Triumph on the road just to the left of me. I watched it with pride, knowing that I chased a dream that was about to come to completion. I gave my shadow the respectful biker wave and of course, received one back.

“Welcome Home”

We rolled into Heber City at 8:40 pm on Tuesday evening, July 10th. To our surprise, Ken and GayLynn McConnell (my neighbor) were standing curbside happily waving us on! Ken has ridden this run to Alaska and knows what it takes to complete. In fact, he has ridden all the way to the Arctic Circle! So he’s still one up on me…

We really didn’t have the energy to unload anything but our overnight cases, we just wanted to get inside, get a nice shower and have one last Bloody Mary to celebrate our run to Alaska, the “Last Frontier”

Some love for La Jefa!

Today we spent the day unloading and cleaning. I told OB I wanted to wash La Jefa, it was the least I could do. Yes, she’s been a pain in the ass but at the end of the day, she brought me home. I figure I owed her that. Maybe she will be nice and carry my parents the rest of the way home to Michigan without incident.

I want to give my parents credit for agreeing to go along with this crazy idea of mine. Sure it may not seem like a big deal to most but you have to realize that my parents are no longer spring chickens. My father has two fake knees that hurt him constantly. He also has a bad ticker and he gets chest pains from walking just a few yards. Mom has terrible allergies and a bad hip. I watched her sit in a chair until the wee hours of the morning because the pain was keeping her awake. Yet through all of that, they tackled each day with purpose and optimism. It sure brought back memories for me of our days camping together as a family. The only thing missing was my brother Don Jr. and sister Dawn.

Update on Benz, he is fine, he has laryngitis and is taking antibiotics to get it cleared up. He probably got it by lipping off too much at passers-by?

See you around the next corner…

MM

“A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.”
John Barrymore