Rode from Flagstaff down hiway 89Alternate through a place called Sedona... this is where all the Red Rock mountains are. Incredibly beautiful!
The route begins with a whole whack of twisties that take you right down! It looked like a pile of intestines dropped on my GPS! BUT... the weather was awful and I'm not daring enough to go crazy taking hairpins in the rain.. at least not when my bike is my mode of transport. So it was slow-going...
Anyway, had to go through some harsh torrential rain. My weather thus far has been more than ideal. And the rain today while going to Phoenix which is often as high as 46 degrees Celsius was fine by me. Just interstate riding anyway.
SO... Here's the short and thick of it... for the most part i've alway been a pretty positive dude with a good sense of humor. But of course, after long enough living and seeing things in the world, I became kinda jaded, pretty cynical...
Anyway, I just got my life back on track when I broke my shoulder snowboarding in January. Not fair, right? I'm sitting in a pub meeting a fellow Couchsurfer in the Fort McMurray area, named Viktor. Viktor needed me as a reference so he could travel back to the nordic countries, and I needed him as a reference for THIS adventure I'm on. While we're there having laughs, a buddy from work runs into me. This guy is ALWAYS positive, always looking at the bright side of things... honestly, he's an inspiration.. ESPECIALLY in a dreary mining town where the ratio of single guys to single women is 6:1... *sigh*... He sees me and asks if I'm out living life and chasing down ladies, and I'm like "Look at me man, I've got a 2 week beard growing, the shoulder hair is back in full bloom, I just don't give a shit, I'm on hiatus from my life until this shoulder heals..." and he says not to worry about it all and to live anyway.
Well, I didn't immediately decide to jump back in the saddle.. in fact, I didn't... I kept flying under the radar.. But then, a few weeks later, with a couple more ski trips to go, he shatters his tibia!! Just like Rossi! Well, minus the highside in a shicane at 60 mph and then the flying 20 feet through the air part... but it WAS while hopping up to slide a rail on his downhill skis, caught a ski, landed on the shin, compound fracture (don't quote me).. So I hear about this from a coworker and think "well shit, he tried to cheer me up, so I'll do the same" and I log in to facebook to send him a message, and to my amazement, his status says something like "Just Shattered my shin bone! Gnarly xrays! This is Awesome!!" followed by numerous pics of him smiling...
And that's pretty much it.. If this guy can hold his head up and see the good in even that, well then I should get on board. And that's pretty much where I am now. I'm fortunate to have had this turning point in my life. I was on my way to ending up a lonely, crotchety, old, asshole.... lol, Yeah that's pretty funny actually.
And thanks to my couchsurfing hosts last night for recommending Sedona, as well as to Clark, the CA I met in Ragged Point who also suggested it.... Beauty.
Ah.. on a sadder note, the couchsurfer I mention above, Viktor.. . He recently died in a fatal car crash. Just not right.. May he rest in peace.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2010/07/12/edmonton-highway-881-crash.html
Take care, Ride safe
Haha Mike, just because I said I always wonder what your going to write next, didn't mean you had to write about me! Lol. I didn't realize I made such an impact on you but I'm glad I did, wouldn't want to plan an adventure motorcycling trip to Panama with a lonely, crotchety, old, asshole!! Just throwin' that out there! Be safe and give a shout out to red mtn's for me!!
ReplyDeleteWell I figured it was time for the whole explanation.
ReplyDeletelol, yeah too true on the crotchety riding partners.. Panama... we'll see where my life is leading but I think I'm in. We buying enduro's for this? We'll talk more later.. i've realized even in our own backyards, there is absolute grandeur out there for adventure riding.. but Panama would be something!
Sorry, Passed the red mountains by the time I read your comment, you'll have to shout out at them yourself.. it's so worth it. So is the Nut Brown Ale... fuck ya.