Motorbike Mike

This book is for anyone who has ever ridden a motorcycle or wanted to. I want to share what it was like to be raised on two wheels during the 60’s and 70’s. How it helped shape my personality, motivated me, served as an outlet for pent-up anger during those awkward teen years and gave me a competitive advantage in business.

This story really starts with my parents, Donald and Marilyn Chesney, who allowed me to have a motorcycle at a very young age. My father was a very motivated young entrepreneur who owned and operated his own Standard (now Amoco) gas station. It was  there that my father started his second business, selling snowmobiles, minibikes and go-carts.

I am one of three kids, my sister Dawn and brother Don Jr also rode. The early years were spent making grooves in the grass around the house during the week and riding on the weekend at the camp in Northern Michigan. It was the most fun you could possibly have as a kid and when we weren’t riding we were thinking about it 24/7.

We were your typical middle class family and it seemed like everyone had a snowmobile or motorcycle in the barn. It was part of the midwest culture, motorcycles were fairly inexpensive, fun transportation. People would use them on the farm, getting to their favorite hunting spot and visiting neighbors. Me, I used it to satisfy my need for speed!

Some of the characters in this book may remind you of someone you grew up with, real people with real stories that get better each time they’re told but all are born from truth. It’s all about friends, dreaming, boundaries, fear, exhilaration, decision, hesitation, pain, love, heartache, repercussion, right, wrong and the one thing that kept it all going the right direction…motorcycles.

I had no idea what a wild ride I was in for over the next 40 years and I’m not talking about “riding”. I’m referring to 16 challenging years working in the family business, a failed marriage and an eye-opening, and a roller coaster ride as Sales Manager of a start-up motorcycle brand, Victory Motorcycles. I wouldn’t change a thing!

Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride….”Life Is An Adventure, Ride-It-Out”

Motorbike Mike

Well, OB and Mert left for Michigan yesterday morning and Benz and I are going to miss them. I spoke to them late last night, they had made it just inside of Nebraska and were looking for a place to settle down for the night. OB likes to stay in rest stops and Mert likes to stay at Wal-Mert parking lots (yes were changing the name to Wal-Mert).

I suspect that they will make Iowa tonight and will be in good position to get home by late Sunday afternoon. I know it’s driving my dad nuts, all the work that he has to do getting La Jefa fixed up. Here’s the list;

1. Repair the fiberglass on the front bumper where he ran into Killer
2. Rub out the scratch marks along the RH side where he hit a construction barrier
3. Fix the hole in the grey water tank where the drive shaft hit it
4. Repair the heater core that leaked and cause the bus to quit so many times before we just by-passed it
5. Repair the microwave (cans falling out of the cupboard broke the trim off one side
6. Repair the wood moulding above the microwave. (Shook apart from rough road)
7. Fix the toilet leak (cracked water valve)
8. Repair the upper and lower control arm ball joints (no grease zerks)
9. Repair or replace the 3-cargo doors that took that beating at our last campground
10. Repair the inverter that broke away from the storage compartment wall

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

Ouch!

We were all quite excited to leave Lewiston after being stuck in a parking lot for two days in the sweltering high Desert heat. Even Benz the dog knew things were getting better as he seemed to be pulling out of his little dog depression, funk thing he sank into.

La Jefa was finally back on the road headed South with Boise in her sights by night’s end. It was already 2:00 pm and we had about 300 miles to go before reaching our destination. At about 150 miles on the clock, I stopped for a cold drink and to inform OB that I would need to stop for fuel at the next town (which was Riggins Idaho.) OB mentioned that he and Mert were just looking forward to stopping at the very next RV park that looked decent. I knew they were both tired but wrestled with the idea of stopping. I wanted to get as close to Boise as possible in case La Jefa had a relapse.

SHIT HITS THE FAN! Or something like that…

About 10 miles down the road I spot a sign for a state RV park and make a quick decision to stop. We check in with the front desk and find out that there is no sewer at the site but they have a pump-out station just a few feet from our campsite. OB proceeds to pull over to the pump station and I met him there to assist.

(OB) “let me know when I’m close enough” (Me) “Ok OB, stop right there!” OB jumps out of La Jefa and hooks the black water tank tube to the output of La Jefa. (OB) “Where’s the inlet?” (Me) “Right there OB”. OB proceeds to plug-in the other end of the tube to the inlet tank in the ground (or so we thought!) OB opens the valve and the black plastic tube starts to fill expanding toward the inlet (all the while looking like a ground mole making its way along a yard) raising the tube as it goes. We stand there following this lump in the black tube to its final destination, the inlet to the holding tank. All at once, the tube flies out of the inlet spreading a sea shit juice all over the holding area.

(Me) “OB. the end of the tube just flew out!” OB runs over with his gloves on, grabs the end of the spewing tube, and sticks it back in the hole. (Me) “OB, are you sure that’s the right place to drain this?” “I have never done this before”, I exclaimed. (OB) “I don’t know, that inlet shouldn’t be higher than our tank outlet” (It was). (OB) “You’re going to have to hold the end from popping out so I can pick up the tube and keep the shit moving, it just keeps stopping?” I ran over without gloves and hold the other end of the tube in the ground so it doesn’t leak. OB proceeds to try to pick up the tube and drain it to the tank and it springs several pinhole size leaks along the way and is now pissing the shit juice all over him and the ground around the coach. Then it starts streaming out of the connection I’m holding, with a velocity and pressure that is starting to resemble a fire hose. (Me) “OB, I’m outta here! you’re on your own!!”

(Me) “OB, what is this thing for?” (OB) “Oh shit, that’s the drain!” (Me) “Then what the hell are we draining into now?” (OB) “Crap, that must be the system vent tube!” We look at each other and just start laughing as we’re both covered head to toe in our own shit!. (OB) “Ok Mike, when I pull the coach away you take this hose and wash that crap down the drain. IT ONLY GETS WORSE!!

I’m washing the shit mess down the drain and I hear this horrible crunching sound. When I look up I see La Jefa hung up on some big boulders that line the entrance to the campground. Apparently, OB cut the corner a little short while trying to back into the campsite and got La Jefa hung up. All I could do is watch in horror, I was speechless and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

My mother was trying to tell him that he is hitting something but because he can’t hear and she mumbles when she talks, he just keep jockeying back and forth until he starts to rip the storage compartment doors open. We finally got the wheels turned in the right direction and he was able to back away from the rocks. Whew! That was ugly…

All of this takes place in a matter of minutes. I was yelling for him to stop but to no avail, the damage was done. I felt so bad for him afterward, he loves that coach and now along with everything else that has happened, he has ruined three hatch doors on the right side of his prize possession. The rest of the campers were witness to the Laurel and Hardy show, I’m sure…

After he finally gets La Jefa parked, he performs his do-diligence in getting power and water hooked up, the slide-a-bay out, then, levels the coach. We both grab our tools and try to straighten the twisted doors enough to get them closed. We all take showers, mix Bloody Mary’s and get out the poker set. We had a good night and didn’t speak of the accident the rest of the evening.

Nothing can faze us now!

MM

We are finally on our way down the road. New fuel filter and a repaired bare wire behind the console. Hope that was it…

Third time’s a charm!