CHAPTER NINETEEN - Winter's Wait

Waiting for a ride that is 3 months away is hard enough under normal circumstances. Knowing that the trip itself will be longer than the wait was even harder to comprehend. Some two-week trips can seem endless, resulting in the last few days overwhelmed with the desire to go home and be with my family - and off the bike. So a two month trip needed to be paced out a bit.

So, I found myself going over plans and routes, changing the concept a dozen times. In general, I was settling on the idea of riding for a few days, and staying in one spot for a few days, trying to keep from burning out too early on the road. On our 'off-ride' days, I hoped to do some day-rides, loop trips and just getting to know one place better than we would if we had just blown through town. Some of the 'off-ride' days, as I was getting to call them, would be at friend's houses, relatives, or in areas that were worth exploring a few days.

Lance made it clear, he would rather I worked out the details, and just allow him to enjoy it. That's the least I could do under the circumstances. I'll play tour guide, make the routing decisions and he would keep my taillights in view. After a few weeks of sending him ideas and suggestions, he asked if I would just let him follow along - I could be Road Captain, and he would come along for the ride. Fair enough.

He had ridden home the following morning after his brief stay at our house. Back to medical tests, treatments and an empty house. He had found a buyer for his place who was willing to rent it back to him until he left for the trip. From what I could gather from his emails and updates, without sounding too morose about it, it appeared he was leaving very little behind after our March 1st departure. It was almost as if that was his target date - make it till then, and ride off into the sunset. In this case, he was hoping for a few months of sunsets, all of them on Petey.

I had a different set of priorities, besides the trip planning. I had to arrange for someone to act as my contact back home in case a client needed some serious work done on their WebSite while I was gone. I interviewed several freelance designers to work with me during the winter, become familiar with my style, and gave them access into my WebServer to help run the business. I had been considering taking on a freelancer anyway to help with the workload, so this worked out well.

Kim and I spent several nights considering which segments of the trip she would want to join us. Because of plane tickets, we had to break up the trip into several segments, with the freedom to do and go where we wanted for a couple weeks at a time, but committed to be at various airports on certain days to pick up Kim, and deliver her to her departure city a couple days later. She had arranged for vacation time giving her five 5-day weekends over those three and a half months, meeting us on a Thursday and flying home on a Monday.

The portions of the ride that allowed Kim to join us on specific dates had her with me through the Florida Keys in Mid-March; The Natchez Trace through Mississippi in Early April; Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge and southern Colorado in early May; the northern California coast in Mid-May; and finally a week and a half vacation with us from Jackson Hole Wyoming, through Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and back out of Sheridan, Wyoming early June. That still left me 2 weeks to get home before I had to attend my family reunion the last week of June.

By early January, we had reconfirmed Lance's condition, reserved the flights, bought the tickets, and reserved motel rooms on Kim's portions of the trip. I wanted the in-between legs, the ones without Kim, to be free to wander and go at our own pace. It seemed to me that our pace would be plenty slow and allowed for side trips and detours quite often. I was purposely adding day trips while staying in the same place several nights.

Lance was undergoing treatment designed to maintain his strength and not necessarily prolong his life. On February first, he told us there was very little change in his prognosis since we last saw him, but his stamina and strength were slowly fading. He still was confident he could do this ride and made it clear he was to be expected on my doorstep the last day of February, with everything he owned in his pockets and duffel bags.

I generally used a computer trip planning program to find routes and highlight roads I wanted to travel. An advantage of that was estimating mileages and travel times. By doing that I plotted several maintenance stops along the way, New Orleans, Louisiana; Durango, Colorado; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and one when I got back home. Each had a full day or two to allow time for repairs and waiting in busy shops.

I spent a few nights in late February programming files onto my Laptop with GPS routing and waypoint information. My little Garmin GPS-V which I had mounted on my handlebars could show me street maps of any US city down to the alley level of detail. Still, I expected I'd have to download some sections of the ride into the GPS from time to time on the ride. Its internal memory wouldn't hold the entire country.

Where I knew Kim would be with me I routed those days into files that I could download later, but between those rides with her, I left the route open to our whims and at the mercy of the number of saloons and pool halls we found along the way.

With the trip route coming together, time off arranged, and business covered, I settled in for the task of getting Ol' Huck ready for the ride. I purchased an extended warranty that covered the entire bike, including a tire policy, tow package, and all recommended service intervals. My local dealer made some calls to those dealers along my route where service was going to be needed and cleared the way for as-you-wait service on the bikes. Most give special attention to out-of-town riders for quick service anyway, but it was good to know the names of service managers who knew who I was.

I had planned to write this up on my Harley Riding WebSite, Muthuh's Rides, as I went, and arranged for some sponsorships. PanOptx eyewear sent me two pair of their windproof eyewear in my prescription. One dark and one clear for night riding. RevPak sent out some rainproof road bags, including a tank bag for holding my camera and maps conveniently between my legs on the tank. And Uni-Go gave me a deep discount on my new trailer.

I was really excited about the trailer, a one-wheeled sleek little guy which was painted to match the bike. It appeared in the back of a DHL delivery truck 4 weeks after I ordered it. After a couple hours of assembly, wiring and hitching to the bike, I suited up in 40 degree weather and pulled out of my driveway on a test run, anxious to see how it handled behind my bike. Man was I surprised. I never knew it was there. After loading it up with about 100 pounds of garage junk, I went out for a second ride and still couldn't tell it was there. Except for some advanced thinking about where to park and how to back-up, this trailer would be a great addition to a long ride.

I found myself buying a new rain suit, boots and gloves, but for the most part I just started setting aside my oldest jeans, holiest t-shirts and best cigars for the trip. The bike got a new set of tires, new brake pads, and its 52,500 mile scheduled service at the dealership. From here on, if something needed buying, I'd buy it on the road, and if something needed repairing, we'd do it outside of the motel room door. Nothing left from here but the wait.

Waiting for March 1st to creep closer was agony. Even two weeks out, I caught myself packing away little things on the bike, filling up the several leather bags I had strapped to the engine guards, or behind the windshield, then unpacking them to be stored in a better location. After 7 years of riding an Electra-Glide, I had a pretty good system of packing, but a trip of this length caused me to rethink some options. Eventually, with 3 days to go, I had the bike, bags and trailer completely packed except for my carry-bag of personal clothes, my laptop and my camera.

"What have I forgotten?" I was staring up through the overhang of bare tree limbs at the star-filled sky overhead. Bubbles from the filtration pump which was circulating at low speed were rising from the drain vent at the bottom of the hot tub, circling my legs and popping rhythmically on the surface between us.

"I'm not sure it matters", she said "You have no more room on the bike except for my bag when I come out."

She was right, too. I have stuffed all the bags and pouches and trailer with gear, saving her one saddle bag for her stuff. "I suppose you can just bring stuff out with you if I've left anything out." We discussed her bringing out a goody bag of various expendables, batteries, and blank disks. Even though I planned to save photos and the ride story to disk, I wanted to dump it all on backup disks. She was going to bring an empty box with her that I could fill up with disks, letters for the kids, souvenirs and gifts, mailing it home from the airport where I picked her up.

If only I could snap my fingers and have the ride begin.

Eventually, though, the days passed and I found myself waking up to the familiar sound of an old Harley engine rumbling up the road in front of my house. Lance was already on his trip and I was his first stop. My feet were pounding down the steps before he ever got to the driveway. Before he laid it over on the kick stand, the garage door slowly opened to reveal Ol' Huck packed and ready to go.

The grin on his face told the whole story. We were minutes away from a multi-month road trip on the back roads, and nothing was going to stop us from hitting the road.

With the ride upon us, the intense desire to leave lessened a bit. Lance needed a butt break after a 3 hour ride from his home… well, now someone else's home. Over coffee and English Muffins around our kitchen table, he recanted how he had now sold all his stuff in life except for the things he now carried on his bike. His saddlebags and T-bag were stuffed with the net worth of his life. While he looked genuinely happy to get on with this segment of his life, his eyes betrayed a sadness at the finality of it.

With an air of formality, he pulled an envelope out of the pocket of his jacket draped over the chair beside him, looked at Kim and said. "I want you to hold on to this for me til I get back. There's a will, and some medical papers in there that might help if something gets too squirrelly on the road."

The envelope seemed pretty thick for a simple will, but it was sealed up and taped, so I slid it across the table to Kim, who picked it up and smiled as she left the table. I assume she was heading for the office to put it away.

"What'dya say we hang around for an early lunch, get the bikes loaded and give you a chance to rest?" Needless to say the bikes were already loaded, but I figured we could go over all our shit one last time.

"Hell, we got 3 months, we can stay all day if ya want!" But we both knew that wouldn't happen. Within minutes of checking over the gear and retying it down, checking the hitch on Lil' Mut and doing some last minute work closing down the office, we looked at each other with a knowing grin, and figured it was time. We both wolfed down a couple sandwiches and a beer, I kissed Kim and my daughter goodbye one more time, and fired up the bikes. I caught Lance looking back at the house one last time with a hint of farewell in his eye as the bikes picked up speed and rumbled out of the driveway.

For someplace within easy view, I knew home was an awful long ways away.

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