Daylight Thursday was taking its sweet time arriving.\u00a0 I rolled over several times in the wee morning hours to check the clock and find that the time was only a few minutes later than my previous inquiry.\u00a0 The plan was for me to roll off the driveway at about 08:30 and meet with Raymond and Dana some one hundred fifteen miles to the south and then ride on together to Panama City Beach, Florida.\u00a0 I finally gave up on the whole idea of waiting for the alarm.<\/p>\n
I got out of bed and dressed, checked the weather, and looked over the VRCC board.\u00a0 I sure wished we had been traveling two days prior when the local temps were in the seventies.\u00a0 Today\u2019s numbers were in the thirties, but at least it would be dry all the way.\u00a0 Raymond was finishing up a two hour stay at work and should depart the Wichita area about 09:00.\u00a0 At 08:15 I posted a departure note and got on the road.<\/p>\n
It took only a few minutes to clear the populated suburbs and begin the flight south on US 69.\u00a0 We were to meet on the southeast corner of 69 and 400.\u00a0 Raymond was estimating that they would arrive between eleven and eleven thirty.\u00a0 The sun was shining; I was running well; and the trip down was mostly uneventful.\u00a0 Well there was the debris dropping off the eighteen wheeler in front of me, but an intervening minivan saved me from the need of dealing with it.\u00a0 At the gas stop, the minivan caught up with me.\u00a0 The driver asked whether they had kept the apples off me.\u00a0 I thanked him and wondered how an apple would have felt at eighty miles per hour.<\/p>\n
I rolled into the rendezvous just before ten AM.\u00a0 Good timing, I thought, an hour\u2019s rest and a chance to grab some breakfast.\u00a0 I made small talk with the clerk, ordered up a cheeseburger and hot chocolate, and plugged in my cell phone charger.\u00a0 Waiting for my burger I glanced out the door and was shocked to see two black Valkyrie Interstates fueling in the lot.\u00a0 I walked out to greet them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey! You\u2019re here a little early, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u00a0 Raymond couldn\u2019t wait.\u00a0 He left work early.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen d\u2019you leave?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven forty-five.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s great.\u00a0 I thought it would be a while so I ordered breakfast.\u00a0 I\u2019ll eat fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s alright.\u00a0 No hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dana and Raymond came inside and ordered up fried chicken gizzards for breakfast.\u00a0 We spent a leisurely fifteen minutes eating, chatting, and making use of the available services.\u00a0 We were all impatient to get underway.\u00a0 Raymond showed me a gas can in his left saddlebag as we were leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid of running out of gas.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to run that standard dry before we stop.\u00a0 How far before you hit reserve?\u2019\u00a0 The Interstates carry two gallons more fuel in the tank than does my Valkyrie Standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a hundred forty to reserve and then another forty-two to empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get a hundred and forty miles before reserve?\u00a0 Let me know just as soon as you go to reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s actually a bit worse.\u00a0 My trip meter reads three percent low so it\u2019s really more like one hundred forty-four.<\/p>\n
We turned our heads toward Missouri and put our faces into the wind.\u00a0 By noon, despite some traffic and a construction slow down, we were in Arkansas and on the four lane slab.\u00a0 There is a certain pleasure in group riding, and Raymond and Dana are easy to ride with.\u00a0 (Yes, I know I dangled a preposition, but sometimes it just works out that way.)\u00a0 The passage through the Boston Mountains was beautiful and the temperature was rising into a very comfortable range.\u00a0 I began calculating and came to realize that I was going to hit reserve prior to our arrival in Fort Smith.\u00a0 At Fort Smith we would transition from I-540 south onto I-40 East.<\/p>\n
As predicted, a short distance out of Fort Smith the Dragon sighed beneath me and I found myself turning the throttle more to maintain cruising speed.\u00a0 Six carburetors really do help the machine to shut down quite smoothly.\u00a0 I reached down to flip the fuel switch and Raymond was almost instantly beside me.\u00a0 What ensued was a short discussion of facial expressions and hand gestures, not all of which I am sure that I correctly interpreted, but it went something like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou on reserve?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u00a0 Thirty more miles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTen more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty more?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. Ten.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the turn to the east.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
We cruised on south and through the interchange onto Interstate Forty.\u00a0 Approaching the first exit on I-40 Raymond blew past me and turned on his right signal.\u00a0 It appears that the issue at hand was not so much who was going to go dry as it was who was going to get wet.\u00a0 We had no more talk of running the standard out of gas.<\/p>\n
We fueled, addressed our needs, shed a few layers and pointed our faces toward Memphis.<\/p>\n
The run across Arkansas was an all day four lane interstate ride in pleasant weather and mostly light traffic.\u00a0 Usually we rode with Dana out front and Raymond sweeping.\u00a0 I like to ride behind Dana because he doesn\u2019t miss much if anything.\u00a0 Once he motioned off to the right and I looked to see a quarter of a mile off on a parallel road a white car with lettering on the side and luminous decoration on its roof.\u00a0 Raymond kept the boredom to a minimum level.\u00a0 Sometimes he would run alongside a fellow traveler standing up on the pegs and once or twice he came motoring past us sitting on his pillion, feet properly placed on the passenger pegs.<\/p>\n
At Little Rock we stopped to fuel and briefly discussed the path that lay before us.\u00a0 We would hit Memphis right at nightfall.\u00a0 We talked of forest rats in the South and the dangers of travel in the dark.\u00a0 The original plan called for us to aim for Tupelo, but to stop when any one of us had gone far enough for the day.\u00a0 Lori, my wife, had commented that the plan was seriously flawed as no one of the three of us would confess to being the one to halt progress.<\/p>\n
As anticipated, the sun had fallen as we crossed the corner of Tennessee and made our way into Mississippi.\u00a0 Raymond did a masterful job of leading us through several highway changes in Memphis and onto the US 78 diagonal.\u00a0 I would be reminded of how well he managed Memphis when he later led us through Montgomery, Alabama.<\/p>\n
We fueled up in Olive Branch, Mississippi and decided to push on through the night.\u00a0 We held a slightly slower speed through the darkness and when traffic was not present we spread across two lanes to throw as much light as possible upon the road before us.\u00a0 In Tupelo we stopped for gas and asked a few locals about the distance to Jasper, Alabama and the Alabama state line.\u00a0 They either didn\u2019t have a clue or didn\u2019t really want to help the out-of-towners because they gave us some really off target answers.\u00a0 We decided that we would shoot for Jasper, bundled up, and climbed back onto the highway.<\/p>\n
A short distance down the road we stopped again for fuel and hot chocolate.\u00a0 The people of Hamilton, Alabama seemed much more knowledgeable and willing to help.\u00a0 Jasper, they said, was about another forty-five miles. Hey, we could make forty-five miles in any temperature.<\/p>\n
On the road again we found that their distance was rounded ever so slightly to the low side, but soon we came to the exit for 118 into Jasper.\u00a0 We made the exit and the first sign that crawled out of the black indicted Jasper to be six miles down the road.\u00a0 Something seemed wrong to me as I had remembered exiting US 78 almost directly into the Jasper hotel district, but we obediently followed the signs into the \u201cJasper business district\u201d.\u00a0 Apparently Jasper is a town much older than I had previously seen.\u00a0 The so called business district was all closed down.\u00a0 We wandered around in circles and arrived eventually outside the local jail where two deputies of varying gender were enjoying a smoke in the cool evening air.\u00a0 Raymond asked them some questions and I could only catch a few \u201cturn right\u201d, \u201cfollow \u2026\u201d, and \u201cturn left\u201d bits and pieces.\u00a0 We rolled out through the ghost town with questionable confidence and after several turns and one loop back we arrived down the road at the entrance to US highway 78.<\/p>\n
We turned right onto the highway and after a few short miles it became evident that we had managed to find the first and last US 78 exits for Jasper and had bypassed the Jasper hotels entirely.\u00a0 Caught in the irreversible masculine prohibition against backtracking, we rolled further south into the now near freezing night.\u00a0 Somewhere along about Sumiton, Alabama we gave up on our hopes for a steak dinner and pulled into a McDonald\u2019s.\u00a0 We ordered up something to eat and spent a few minutes of lively banter with the local fast food help.<\/p>\n
One of the teenage boys was particularly interested in our modes of transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s the crazy one without a windshield?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, aren\u2019t you cold?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s cold, but not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad has a Harley, but it\u2019s in the garage right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
We made inquiry as to whether there were any good places to stay in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u00a0 The nearest good hotels are in Jasper up the road a ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going back.\u00a0 Any on further south?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some in Adamsville, but you don\u2019t want to stay in Adamsville.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with Adamsville?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCrap.\u00a0 They\u2019re all really crappy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay where\u2019s the nearest good place to stay to the south.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing until you get to sixty-five then there are hotels all over sixty-five.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow far?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about thirty miles to Birmingham.\u00a0 Sixty-five is at Birmingham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then arose the expected exchanges.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, I could keep on going, but I don\u2019t think Carl can go any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m alright.\u00a0 I could ride on through the rest of the night but if you guys want to stop I\u2019m up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going back to Jasper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou make it another thirty miles?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n
About that time a man easily identified as the earlier teen\u2019s parent entered the dining area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich one is the crazy one without a windshield?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoy, I\u2019ll bet you wish you had a windshield now.\u00a0 You must be freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not really.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got one of those at home but I\u2019m not ridin\u2019 it.\u00a0 It\u2019s just too dang cold to ride.\u00a0 Yes, sir, it\u2019s just too dang cold to ride.\u201d\u00a0 He left the area shaking his head.\u00a0 We shook our heads, too.<\/p>\n
On the road again we steeled ourselves against the piercing frigidity of the night and headed for Birmingham.\u00a0 About a half hour later Raymond, out front, spotted a small motel and pulled into the parking lot.\u00a0 Out of the shadows a man stepped and exclaimed loudly, \u201cI got it.\u00a0 I got what you need right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was the third one into the lot.\u00a0 I pulled alongside Raymond, put one foot down, raised my visor and said, \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a Day\u2019s Inn down the road a ways.\u00a0 Can you make it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go to Day\u2019s Inn.\u201d<\/p>\n
We dove back onto the road for a few more miles.\u00a0 Dana was in front now and the Day\u2019s Inn was just before the entrance to Interstate 20.\u00a0 Dana missed the turn and sat watching from the I-20 ramp as Raymond and I pulled into the lot for Day\u2019s Inn.\u00a0 Dana was only about twenty feet down the ramp.\u00a0 I believe I would have violated the law and the normal flow of traffic, but Dana is a more honorable man than I.\u00a0 He disappeared down the ramp and I wondered whether he would seek the next exit or if we would just see him in Florida.<\/p>\n
We noticed that the hotel had a tall iron fence around it and a security guard on duty.\u00a0 Odd, for a highway stop, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Dana?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows we stopped.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dana apparently took a little tour of north Birmingham.\u00a0 He says he ran three stop lights getting out of an area in which he didn\u2019t feel he would fit well.<\/p>\n
Inside a young Indian gentlemen took our questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have a room with three beds?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, but we have a suite with a king size bed and a fold out couch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we get a roll-away?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, but with the king size bed you may not need the roll-away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u00a0 We need three beds.\u00a0 I don\u2019t share.\u00a0 How much?\u201d<\/p>\n
The price was not right, but it was late, we were cold, and our decision making properties were almost expired.\u00a0 We took the room.<\/p>\n
Early morning found us packing our bikes and wiping the ice from our saddles.\u00a0 We turned south through the Birmingham highway system and once again Raymond led us through.\u00a0 People in Birmingham, it seems, are in a great hurry to get to work, even on Veteran\u2019s Day, but the responsiveness and acceleration of the Honda Valkyrie have a tendency to uncomplicate what would be a significant dilemma for the unfamiliar traveler.<\/p>\n
By the time we stopped for fuel, the temperature had climbed into the fifties and we were shedding layers again.\u00a0 From there south the ride and the weather just got nicer and nicer.\u00a0 The ride through Alabama was without incident except that we did take a rather interesting tour through the residential streets of Montgomery.\u00a0 Raymond was leading.\u00a0 We did find our way back out onto the super slab and blew past Dothan and deeper into the sunny South.\u00a0 It seemed that when we crossed the Florida line that the ambient temperature jumped by ten degrees and by the time we rolled into Panama City it was like a return to summer weather.<\/p>\n
Finding our way to the hotel did involve a long route through the populated area and one, maybe two, requests for directions.\u00a0 Crossing Panama City a young lady in a red Toyota attempted to join me in my lane of traffic.\u00a0 I gave her a rather ample sampling of my horns and a good talking to.\u00a0 It reminded me of how pleased I was to have replaced the stock horn and how much I needed to go ahead and install the air horns for maximum effect.\u00a0 She did later pull alongside me and mouth the words, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
I replied, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, Sweetheart,\u201d and we all went to bed feeling very good about ourselves that night.<\/p>\n
We arrived at Howard Johnson\u2019s Panama City Beach Resort to find only a couple of Valkers and a man on a scooter in the parking lot.\u00a0 Steve, the Valk rider, informed us that a bunch of them had just ridden out to lunch and he was only there because our rooms weren\u2019t ready yet.\u00a0 We checked in to the hotel and Raymond worked his magic on the desk clerk.\u00a0 We walked away with three keys to our room on the third floor overlooking a beautiful Panama City Beach beach.<\/p>\n
The room was all we could have hoped for; two full sized beds, two bunks, a kitchenette, and a picture window looking out over the gulf.\u00a0 I took the top bunk.\u00a0 I know it doesn\u2019t make sense as the lower bunk was not to be occupied, but I just always like to be on top.<\/p>\n
We decided to cruise down the main thoroughfare and find a place for a late lunch.\u00a0 We passed several spots and ultimately aimed for a Subway but landed in the parking lot of a deli across the street.\u00a0 It was a fortunate accident.\u00a0 They served up huge sandwiches and we sat to eat in very comfortable benches.\u00a0 For the first time in two days I began to feel the effects of road weariness.<\/p>\n
Dana contacted Winghot of Cullman, Alabama.\u00a0 He told Dana they would be right over and if we finished eating before they arrived to wait for them.\u00a0 Dana said, \u201cYes, sir,\u201d hung up the phone, and finished eating.<\/p>\n
We did wait for a few minutes in the comforting sunlit warmth of the parking lot before Winghot and his posse arrived.\u00a0 We renewed acquaintances, shook hands, slapped backs and acted like long lost brothers; as well I guess we were.\u00a0 Eventually we roared out of the parking lot toward the hotel and I found the sound of multiple Valkyries instantly rejuvenating.\u00a0 The road weariness that had accosted me had been very short lived indeed.<\/p>\n
The hotel parking lot was filling up with a steady stream of Dragon riders and friends.\u00a0 Swoppie was flitting around like the secretary of a hundred V.I.P.\u2019s being certain that everything was in place for the gathering.\u00a0 Swoppie was becoming quite worried about Strider and his crew.\u00a0 Swoppie does seem to like to worry, but we didn\u2019t want him to stay worried so we made a call home to get Strider\u2019s cell phone number and then called Strider.\u00a0\u00a0 Surprisingly, Strider answered the call immediately and reported they were a little over an hour out.\u00a0 They had had some adventures involving a flat tire and otherwise slow going.<\/p>\n
That afternoon I got to see some old friends and to meet some people whose names I had known but whose faces were new to me.\u00a0\u00a0 I saw Smokin\u2019 Joe and met Detn8r, the VRCC\u2019s only Valkyrie submarine captain.\u00a0 Charlie and Lori Koon whom I had not seen for a year and a half were there.\u00a0 They are a couple of people with hearts as big as all outdoors.\u00a0 Thunderbolt was already busy helping someone change his plugs and check his carburetion.\u00a0 They were working on one of those beautiful and rare 2001 blue and white standards.\u00a0 Counting mine, there were three of them there that weekend.\u00a0 RedValk and Sherry arrived.\u00a0 RedValk is a man that oozes enthusiasm.\u00a0 If leadership is mostly inspiring others to follow, then RedValk is a natural leader.<\/p>\n
Sherry called out to me, \u201cHey, Paul!\u201d\u00a0 I gave her my usual stern glare.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright,\u201d she said, \u201c I won\u2019t do it again, but I had to just once.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chrisj CMA and his wife, Judy (Queen Dinky) were there.\u00a0 They had been chatting with my wife, Motomama, who told them I needed to be supervised.<\/p>\n
TJ and the boyz, Dakota and Ram, arrived.\u00a0 Dakota and Ram were two of the best behaved and friendly Rottweillers that I have ever seen.\u00a0 Sadly this would be Dakota\u2019s last outing as he was suffering from an enlarged heart and passed away the following week.\u00a0 To see him that weekend, one could not tell that he had any physical issues as he was running and playing and enjoying all the people just like, well, one of the boys.<\/p>\n
Britman of Georgia was there.\u00a0 Paul can handle idiocy with civility better than anyone else I know.<\/p>\n
Names that add color to a gathering were there, Jeff K., a man who knows all that needs to be known about the mechanics of a Valkyrie; Hard6, a great guy who rides a beautiful Dragon; Scooter Trash who rode his scooter all the way from Birmingham to Panama City Beach; and DDT, the all time long distance champion of the VRCC.<\/p>\n
Strider and his Mississippi and Louisiana posse finally arrived and the night was complete.\u00a0 Strider is a man to whom the term, positive attitude, can be appropriately applied.\u00a0 He lights up a gathering by his presence and he is a people person extraordinaire.\u00a0 He brought with him Pun and Moonshine.\u00a0 Well, actually others brought moonshine as well, but Strider brought Moonshine.<\/p>\n
I met several people for whom I only learned first names.\u00a0 Rob, Larry, John, multiple Steves, and several Woody\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0 Swoppie had provided some home made beverage and Winghot had a cooler full of refreshments in the back of his pickup.\u00a0 Some of the attendees slipped inside the Blue Moose for a noisier place to gather.\u00a0 It seems that almost everyone was content just to hang around in the parking lot shooting the breeze and checking out one another\u2019s rides.\u00a0 There was a pavilion provided by the resort for our use but it was only late into the night that a small few of us slipped into there for a while.\u00a0 Most of the conversations took place under the warm and wonderful Florida night sky.\u00a0 All told there were more than one hundred seventy people who gathered and a parking lot filled with fabulous machines.<\/p>\n
A few of us gathered around Nia, Winghot\u2019s and Robin\u2019s little girl.\u00a0 Little children in general are fascinating, but this one is a double dose.\u00a0 Judy had brought a mechanical dancing chicken and we spent some time encouraging, and being entertained by Nia\u2019s dancing with the chicken.<\/p>\n
Several of us inlanders took a break during the evening to go eat seafood.\u00a0 It\u2019s a closely held secret, but for the short ride down the street Raymond rode bitch on Blue Velvet.\u00a0 There were two firsts associated with that brief excursion.<\/p>\n
All too soon the night wore on and we each drifted off to our hotel rooms as the weight of our journeys overtook us.<\/p>\n
Saturday morning we began gathering for the ride before nine AM.\u00a0 First departing group was scheduled for ten, but once more it seemed no inconvenience to populate the parking lot well short of departure.\u00a0 There was no shortage of friends to be enjoyed and conversations to be had.<\/p>\n
I left in the second group.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really recall a lot of the ride out into the Florida countryside except that we made our way quickly out of the populated area and began to enjoy some perpetual spring scenery.\u00a0 The column moved cleanly and quickly and soon we arrived at the first stop.\u00a0 Raymond was not quite ready to stop riding and passed some time running up and down the road that skirted the service station.\u00a0 Once I did notice him passing by in his own unique version of the driverless carriage display.<\/p>\n
Dana had some fun with some of the folks asking, \u201cDid you see that idiot ride by on the passenger seat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the passenger seat?\u00a0 Who was driving?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one.\u00a0 That\u2019s just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u00a0 That\u2019s just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I guess there may have been only one first on that ride to dinner.<\/p>\n
After a while we pulled away from the service station.\u00a0 I was near the front of the column but immediately pulled over because I couldn\u2019t recall placing my camera back in the left saddlebag.\u00a0 By the time I checked and rejoined I was within ten places of the end of the column.<\/p>\n
We turned down a rather remote pathway and began to enjoy some twists and turns.\u00a0 There is something mystical about watching a column of motorcycles fall successively into a banked turn, something almost hypnotic in its pleasure.<\/p>\n
I rolled into a relatively sharp right hand curve and halfway through noticed that some of the riders ahead of me were frantically motioning for a shutdown.\u00a0 I glanced to my left and saw a yellow and black Valkyrie on the ground with a rider well separated from it on his back.\u00a0 I pulled off the right side of the road and, leaving the bike, rushed back to the spot of the downed rider.<\/p>\n
By the time I arrived there were already a large number of people milling about.\u00a0 Some had turned their bikes back and some had driven directly into the church parking lot next to where the rider and bike lay.\u00a0 Cell phones were out.\u00a0 Someone came out of the church and was asked about the address.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 Rural location.\u00a0 A caller reached the 911 operator and learned that he had a GPS locator in his phone.\u00a0 EMT\u2019s were on the way.<\/p>\n
I stayed next to John and listened to the conversation going back and forth.\u00a0 He was coherent, but in a good deal of pain.\u00a0 He kept saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
His bike had skidded off the road on the outside of the curve and when it hit the dirt the front wheel had apparently locked leaving a long furrow in the grass.\u00a0 When it did catch traction it predictably high sided and slingshotted its rider away.\u00a0 There was a significant divot in the ground and a matching clump of dirt stuck in the left tail pipe of the downed machine.\u00a0 The bike had a broken left bag, a snapped right driving light, and a broken windshield mount.\u00a0 Altogether that doesn\u2019t seem too bad for a machine that did a full cartwheel.<\/p>\n
In a few minutes a white pickup truck with a strobe light in its windshield and a wagon load of hay bales behind it rounded to corner and came to an abrupt halt across the road.\u00a0 Two people bolted from the vehicle and ran across the asphalt to where John lay in the grass.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a first, I thought.\u00a0 I hope they\u2019re not going to transport him atop the hay.\u00a0 Rural EMT\u2019s.\u00a0 Quite interesting.<\/p>\n
Over the next thirty minutes more people and vehicles arrived; a deputy sheriff, more civilian looking vehicles with attached flashing lights, two Florida state troopers, and finally a real ambulance.<\/p>\n
It was a little unnerving to be so close to where someone had just been put on the ground.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure we all tried to deal with the uneasiness in our own ways.\u00a0 I overheard someone quote the old adage about two kinds of riders, those who have crashed and those who will.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe that shit!\u201d was Jeff K,\u2019s response.\u00a0 \u201cMy father rode all his life and never went down.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tend to agree with him.\u00a0 To me it seems that one who believes that something is inevitable will subconsciously help bring it to pass.<\/p>\n
Ultimately we needed to try to understand what had happened to put our minds at ease.\u00a0 We speculated that John, a relatively new rider of the Valkyrie, had for some reason become spooked going into the turn and touched a brake, most likely the front brake.\u00a0 The path he followed led straight from the middle of the turn to the crash site.\u00a0 It appeared typical of a bike that had been stood up after entering a turn.<\/p>\n
Arrangements were made to hide John\u2019s bike behind the church and come back to get it later.\u00a0 John was a local rider.\u00a0 I took as many pictures as I could of the crash site and the bike and the professional EMT\u2019s hauled John off to the hospital.<\/p>\n
There was a moment of panic when I was having a pleasant conversation with a rather mature Florida state trooper and suddenly realized that everyone else on two wheels was leaving to go to a place that I did not know from this location of which I, with no GPS inside, was very uncertain.\u00a0 I disengaged myself, almost discourteously, from the conversation and ran, as best my aged form could, to my mount some sixty yards down the road.\u00a0 It is probably not advisable to leave a state trooper at an accident scene with six open pipes screaming and clinging to the back of a beast under maximum acceleration, but I felt my options were limited as the column had disappeared around the next couple of bends.<\/p>\n
I caught them within about a mile an a half; we turned around once, and made our way to the designated lunch stop.\u00a0 I parked amongst all the many Dragons that had been there for some time and made my way into the restaurant which had an excellent buffet and very clean facilities.\u00a0 I was in no mood to eat, but the facilities were a comfort to me.<\/p>\n
I found friends who had just finished dessert and were headed out.\u00a0 I joined them.\u00a0 I have always preferred riding to eating.\u00a0 It may catch up to me one day.<\/p>\n
We made our way uneventfully to the next stop.\u00a0 I fueled up as I wasn\u2019t certain how much longer the ride would be.\u00a0 As I was fueling I glanced over at the road and noticed an electric company truck form Longview, Texas.\u00a0 \u201cHey!\u201d\u00a0 I hollered, \u201cI was born in Longview about fifty-four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure the young man must have found that amusing as that would have referenced no time of which he was aware and probably a Longview very different from the one of his memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to help with hurricane repairs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our way home, actually.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been down there for two weeks.\u00a0 A lot of pole damage. It\u2019s a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad you were able to help.\u00a0 I work for the electric company in Topeka, Kansas.\u00a0 Some of our guys have been down there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou work on a line crew?\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled.\u00a0 Just for a moment a thought crossed my mind.\u00a0 \u201cNo. I work inside in an office.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRide safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u00a0 You all travel well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the street I engaged in discussions with my riding buddies about the ride back.\u00a0 It seems some were discussing going straight back to the hotel and some were going to complete the ride.\u00a0 We talked some with Swoppie and waffled back and forth but finally decided to ride with the group that would complete the ride.<\/p>\n
While we were standing there by our mounts, some of the riders began to file out.\u00a0 We were in the midst of trying to determine which group was which when Raymond interjected, \u201cI don\u2019t know which is which but three groups just left and we should have been with one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the fun elements of falling behind is the effort to catch up.\u00a0 We left the parking lot like frightened cats, first Raymond, then Dana, and then me.\u00a0 I had to wait on traffic for just a moment and was forced to use more velocity than is reasonably acceptable on a rural two lane to try and catch my partners.\u00a0 That pesky rev limiter always seems to get in my way.\u00a0 Honestly, she just seems to be still pulling really hard when she climbs past the red line.\u00a0 I have mine set at seventy-five hundred, incidentally.<\/p>\n
We passed traffic, climbed, fell, turned, and screamed along the asphalt ribbon until we finally caught a column.\u00a0\u00a0 It turns out they were running around seventy miles per hour themselves.\u00a0 Somewhere along the way back the column got broken up again by a few traffic signals and we were again whittled down to a smaller group. Dana and I followed a small number that included a rider with a GPS unit while Raymond chose to go on ahead and meet us at the hotel.<\/p>\n
Back at the hotel we discussed options such as taking a short nap and walking on the beach.\u00a0 Raymond didn\u2019t feel that it would be right making the long trek to the seaside and not going into the water, so he donned his shorts and headed for the surf.\u00a0 Dana and I went along to take pictures and laugh.\u00a0 We took pictures.\u00a0 And we laughed.<\/p>\n
We passed the afternoon and went to get an evening meal with Winghot and his family.\u00a0 Robin wanted me to choose and I wanted her to be pleased.\u00a0 We appeared to be at a selection impasse.\u00a0 Robin said, \u201cThere was a Backyard Burgers down the road.\u00a0 Is that okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
We headed out to dinner, this time with Raymond on his own steed.\u00a0 It was a good meal, but a bitter sweet experience.\u00a0 After Robin had finished her meal she had to go out to the truck to listen to the University of Alabama complete its loss to LSU.<\/p>\n
The evening festivities were exciting.\u00a0 The pavilion was filled with Valkyrie riders and friends.\u00a0 There were raffle tickets to be bought for a Chinese auction; a pocket bike, and some fine oak woodwork donated by Chrisj.<\/p>\n
I have to say that Swoppie and the Li\u2019l Boss Unit did an excellent job with the raffle.\u00a0 On my fourth trip to the prize table I mentioned that I would need to win the knife on the end of the table to safely exit the pavilion.\u00a0 Swoppie offered it to me for twenty dollars, but alas I had invested all my cash in raffle tickets.<\/p>\n
The decision was made to donate the proceeds of the evening to John to assist in his expenses and recovery.\u00a0 Britman returned his prize, a front fender guard, to be auctioned off.\u00a0 Several winners followed suit and then Charlie went out to his trailer and brought in a front wheel chock to be auctioned for John.\u00a0 Lori whipped the crowd into a bidding frenzy and Winghot primed the bidders when things slowed down.\u00a0 Before the evening was done something near eighteen hundred dollars was raised to ease the pain and suffering of a fellow Valkyrie rider.<\/p>\n
Reelay kept the music going and again the fun and excitement lasted well into the night.\u00a0 When RedValk leaped up onto the table and danced wearing the Viking headgear the party was almost over.\u00a0 When Sherry slow danced with her man it was time for us all to leave.<\/p>\n
Sunday morning we were up before seven and the parking lot was already filling with departing riders.\u00a0 Leaving a long distance motorcycle event is an experience of mixed emotions.\u00a0 There is a certain sadness in the farewells but within the soul of the rider also is rising an excitement to get back into the wind.\u00a0 We said our good byes.\u00a0 Joe greeted me loudly from across the lot, there was much hand shaking and back slapping, and then it was time to play the pipes.<\/p>\n
We had studied the weather predictions and determined that our best route was to stay south as long as possible and climb north on the far side of Louisiana.\u00a0\u00a0 We chose to ride two lanes north at a slight angle to intercept Interstate Ten at the earliest reasonable juncture.\u00a0 There was much nice Florida road and pleasant countryside, but I was disappointed to find that after traveling for forty-five minutes we joined I-10 at the same distance from Pensacola that we were leaving Panama City Beach.\u00a0 The Dragons were ready to run.\u00a0 When we hit the super slab it was all I could do to keep the two Interstates in view for the next hour.\u00a0 We passed a rider on a V-twin.\u00a0 I felt a little sorry for him when the first Valk blew past.\u00a0 I just hoped he didn\u2019t get off to see why he had stopped when the other two cleared him.\u00a0 My Dragon hit the reserve point some twenty miles before I had expected it to and we stopped for fuel and a Cracker Barrel breakfast in Clearview, Florida.\u00a0 There was apparently a local toy run under way and the parking lot of the restaurant contained several two wheeled vehicles. \u00a0I was amused to see that we put three Valkyries into a single space while right next to us two half Civic drivers had decided that they each needed their own.<\/p>\n
Crossing the tip of Alabama and into Mississippi was sobering.\u00a0 The closer we got to Gulfport, Mississippi the more extensive was the evidence of the recent hurricanes.\u00a0 The sight of steel signposts twisted and turned was a stark reminder of the relative strength of human construction and the force of nature.\u00a0 Pine trees snapped like matchsticks and wind blown litter of surprising sizes lined the highway.\u00a0 Pictures had not conveyed the extent of the devastation to be witnessed along the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n
As we entered Baton Rouge we encountered light rain for the first time. We exited the highway and found a near empty shopping center in which we could don our rain gear.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost humorous watching grown men without chairs attempting to get into uncooperative rain pants.\u00a0 It seems to always be that second leg that is the most trouble.\u00a0 In fact, I believe if one could learn to leap into both legs concurrently all the issues would disappear.<\/p>\n
Back on the interstate we were immediately greeted with good reason to be pleased with our decision to suit up.\u00a0 The entrance ramp was backed up by traffic making its way around an accident on the highway.\u00a0 It appeared that a cage had hydroplaned and spun around to meet an oncoming vehicle front to front.\u00a0 It gave me a comforting feeling knowing that we were out there on two wheels where the four wheelers were slipping and sliding on the water\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
Traffic was moving slightly faster than was I and I let them go.\u00a0 A small pickup passed me with a tall refrigerator tied precariously upright just behind the cab.\u00a0 We crossed in significant rain a long elevated left hand curve of road with steel expansion joints.\u00a0 When I hit the first joint it took me a bit by surprise that the front wheel kicked out as it crossed the slippery steel.\u00a0 I eased up the lean and did my best to keep my pants dry across the rest of the turn. \u00a0\u00a0Crossing the river out of Baton Rouge I passed a refrigerator lying on the right shoulder of the road.<\/p>\n
About ten miles out of Baton Rouge the rain diminished to a light drizzle and then faded away altogether.\u00a0 We stopped in Alexandria for fuel and a quick lunch and discussed how far north we would be able to go.\u00a0\u00a0 Our intent was to get to Texarkana before we sat down for the night.<\/p>\n
As night fell we began to see flashes of lightning in the distance, first to our left and then both sides of our pathway.\u00a0 As we approached Shreveport the lightning stretched all the way across the horizon and appeared to be very close.\u00a0 Raymond, leading, took an exit off the highway and pulled into the first parking lot.<\/p>\n
As we pulled alongside he asked, \u201cWho thinks we\u2019re going to get wet if we go any further?\u201d\u00a0 We agreed to stay in Shreveport for the night.<\/p>\n
It took us two tries to find a hotel in Shreveport.\u00a0 We settled into one just across the street from Denny\u2019s.\u00a0 After we had walked to Denny\u2019s for supper and returned, the rain began to fall.\u00a0 We congratulated ourselves on what must have been an excellent decision and settled in for the night.<\/p>\n
The best route out of Shreveport for Wichita appeared to be west through Dallas and north on I-35.\u00a0 That was, however, one hundred fifty miles out of my way.\u00a0 My best route was north on US 71 through Texarkana, Fort Smith, and on into the Kansas City area.\u00a0 I was prepared to say goodbye to my friends in the morning, but after a short discussion they informed me that they were riding north into Texarkana.<\/p>\n
We had just cleared Texarkana when we got into significant rain and by the time we reached a reasonable place to stop I could already feel the cold water seeping through the seams of my jacket at the shoulders.\u00a0 We found cover under a service station awning and once again began the comic ballet of the donning of rain gear.\u00a0 Faced with a wet jacket, I chose not to put on the outer rain jacket, but to instead use my Joe Rocket rain liner beneath the jacket.\u00a0 I would not remove that liner until after I arrived at home.\u00a0 I called home to have Lori check the weather radar so we could know how far north the rain stretched.\u00a0 She indicated that all the rain was gone before Fort Smith.\u00a0 We terminated the call and then she called back leaving a message that if we would cross the state line west into Oklahoma there was no rain on that route showing on the radar.\u00a0 That was a message I would receive after I arrived at home.\u00a0 While we were under the awning the fiercest rain of the day passed over us.<\/p>\n
Back on the road we traveled through intermittent rain for the next ninety miles.\u00a0 At Mena, Arkansas we stopped for fuel and left most of the rain behind us.\u00a0 Although the rain was almost gone, we were now facing dropping temperatures and by the time we reached Mena we were becoming less and less comfortable.\u00a0 We geared up for colder riding and had a short chit chat with a couple traveling north along our route.\u00a0 We were queued up outside the men\u2019s restroom when a lady came out of the women\u2019s room and said, \u201cI won\u2019t tell if you won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
In retrospect I think she was speaking to her husband, but it was good advice and I took it.<\/p>\n
With dry roads and the pull of home ahead we attacked the winding route north out of Mena.\u00a0 There are long stretches of double yellow lines along that path and we were strung out fairly long.\u00a0 Raymond was in front with Dana in the middle once or twice I got hung out behind slower traffic that the two interstates had passed.\u00a0 Once in particular a slower vehicle noting that I had been separated pulled to the right shoulder offering me a free pass on the winding road.\u00a0 I declined the offer.\u00a0 Part of the adventure of falling behind is the challenge of catching up.<\/p>\n
It was a good run of eighty miles and by the time we reached the southern edge of the Fort Smith area we were still running on a fair amount of adrenaline or whatever it is that pumps through one\u2019s veins while carving the hilly byways.\u00a0 We paused at a red light with Raymond on my right and Dana behind the Black Pearl. When the light turned green with no traffic to our near front, Raymond twisted the throttle hard and I jumped right into his wake.\u00a0 We really didn\u2019t run it up much past eighty-five indicated, but it must have been quite a duet to hear.\u00a0 As we approached the traffic ahead two vehicles blocked the lanes before us and held us to a near crawl.\u00a0 Almost immediately a white vehicle with lettering on the side and decorative lighting on its roof slid to a stop at the crossover to our front.\u00a0 I had dropped into the position left and behind Raymond with Dana coming up on my right rear.\u00a0 I gave Raymond the three pats on the head sign and he nodded.\u00a0 I watched the bear as he dropped into traffic behind us and seemed to seek out the places that would be obscured from our view by larger rolling objects.\u00a0 I hope he wasn\u2019t too disappointed as we pulled across the way into a service station for fuel, lunch, and the refreshment of the available facilities.<\/p>\n
I had a hot ham and cheese sandwich and Raymond had some sort of chili dog or two.\u00a0 We took a good deal of time to thaw out.<\/p>\n
\u201cDana and I will be riding on up to Tulsa.\u00a0 It\u2019s the quickest route home and Dana gets a real bad case of get-home-itus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool.\u00a0 I\u2019m straight on up seventy-one.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been this route before so it won\u2019t be a problem.\u00a0 I think I\u2019m about thirty miles closer to home than you all are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, but I\u2019ll bet we\u2019ll get there before you. You have all that mess around Bentonville to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n
I made a mental note to be sure and get home before my friends.<\/p>\n
Outside the station as we were mounting up a woman approached us and asked, \u201cAre you from around here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Ma\u2019am.\u00a0 We\u2019re just passing through.\u00a0 I\u2019m headed for Kansas City area.\u00a0 They\u2019re going to Wichita.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u00a0 My husband has a Valkyrie and we always notice other Valkyries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool.\u00a0 Does he go out to the VRCC bulletin board?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he goes to the Valkyrie board to read, but he doesn\u2019t post much.\u201d<\/p>\n
I still wasn\u2019t certain that she meant the VRCC board so I gave her a card.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou all ride safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou too.\u201d<\/p>\n
We turned north out of the station and reached my turn off in about a half mile.\u00a0 Actually I missed my turn and had to double back, but only for a short distance.<\/p>\n
There is a joy in riding with company, but there is also a certain thrill to riding solo.\u00a0 We spread the Dragon\u2019s wings and she began to fly.\u00a0 It seemed that every cage we passed would move over to let us by.\u00a0 People would nod in recognition and pirate ships would lower their flags as we went sailing by.\u00a0 No wait, that\u2019s a different song.<\/p>\n
There was little resistance upstream and in no time at all we were rolling into Missouri. As the sun was falling I was within range to one stop the run into home.\u00a0 I ran until she called for the reserve tank and then ran for several miles further.\u00a0 I stopped for fuel just out of Carthage, Missouri and placed my hands free cell phone unit inside my helmet.\u00a0 Back out on the highway I decided that even with the visor down there was too much wind noise for the cell phone to work.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t call.<\/p>\n
The cold seemed to increase rapidly as the sun fell.\u00a0 My strategy when traveling through cold weather is to delay putting on the coldest weather gear as long as possible so that my body will acclimate to being much less than warm.\u00a0 The trick, however, is not to wait so long that all the warmth has been sucked out of the body.\u00a0 I was in danger of violating the condition.<\/p>\n
I pushed as far as I could and fought with the disappointment over not one stopping the last leg of the journey.\u00a0 I stopped in Rich Hill, Missouri and pulled every possible layer that I was carrying out of my right saddlebag.\u00a0 I spent a long time inside and all the time I was in there I could envision my riding partners flying up the interstate.\u00a0 I accepted my defeat and decided it was more important to live than to win.\u00a0 Besides, they didn\u2019t even know we were racing.<\/p>\n
I called home.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u00a0 I\u2019m in Rich Hill. I\u2019ve been slowed down a bit but I should be in by six o\u2019clock at the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u00a0 I\u2019m really cold, but I\u2019m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s Rich Hill?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m about seventy or eighty miles out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, we\u2019re going to eat about six o\u2019clock but you probably won\u2019t be home yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you I will be home before six!\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a rather long, uncomfortable silence.\u00a0 I\u2019m really not very nice when I\u2019m into suffering mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u00a0 Well I guess we\u2019ll see you then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSee you in a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took a few more minutes to feel sorry for myself and then went out to rejoin my ride.\u00a0 It seemed that everywhere people were glancing sideways at me and whispering to one another, \u201cDon\u2019t look straight at him.\u00a0 I think he\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sealed against the cold I rolled back onto the highway and began the last leg of the journey.\u00a0 As we accelerated on up to highway speed I began to feel remarkably well and increasingly more so as the minutes ticked by and I began to move into more familiar territory.<\/p>\n
I made my final gas stop in Olathe and rolled into the driveway at about five forty-five.\u00a0 I wasted no time in getting inside to post my arrival home message.\u00a0 I posted at 17:57 local time.\u00a0 Raymond arrived at six o\u2019clock and the Valkhound got home about six fifteen.<\/p>\n
The following morning the air was full of huge snow flakes and the temperatures were dramatically lower than the night before.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been almost a week now and the memories are beginning to dull around the edges, but if I close my eyes, lay my head back, and try really hard I can still hear the surf rolling in and feel the warm Florida breeze against my cheek.\u00a0 I can still feel the glow of the presence of my friends and brothers from the road and I can faintly hear the music of all those beautiful Valkyrie flat sixes winding up again.\u00a0 Good times, good people, and good memories are the stuff that we live for and they were all there in November, 2005 with the Dragons on the Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daylight Thursday was taking its sweet time arriving.\u00a0 I rolled over several times in the wee morning hours to check the clock and find that the time was only a few minutes later than my previous inquiry.\u00a0 The plan was …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}