Starting To Think About The Next Ride West

It all begins by looking back at previous trips and letting my mind wander.The plan forms and then I see a way forward. Well now it’s October of 2014 and I had somehow managed to get on track with my work and am able to fly out to Las Vegas, rent a car, head south to Kingman Arizona, and begin a two week trip with Celia all over this part of the word. We wanted to check out Kingman to see if we could live here but it really didn’t suit us so after two days looking around we headed out across the Mojave Desert to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a long day of driving across the desert but really interesting. I stopped often to take pictures and the rental car had good AC so it wasn’t bad at all even though it was around 100 degrees F outside.At the end of the day we were here at the entrance of Joshua Tree Nat. Park Where we would spend the next two days exploring.

After a good nights sleep we headed into the park to explore. What a great place this is. As we hiked around we found all sorts of cool places. Incredible rock formations, beautiful plants, long distance views, a spring where we saw some birds, it was really nice. Took so many photos it’s hard for me to decide which ones to put in here. It’s 2025 and as I look at all these photos I’m transported back into 2014. It’s motivating me to get busy and start prepping for a trip back out here. Been talking about going with my friend Ron in a truck with our motorcycles in tow behind us next year in the Fall of 2026. Ah, planning another adventure. I’ll be 77 fucking years old then ! Hey, may as well go for it if I’m still in this world. It helps that I’ve been out here before. On the 2014 trip it was mid October and still hot as hell so it will be a bit later in the year for the next trip out so riding will be enjoyable. You know, the plan now is to use a truck and camp here and there for days at a time while exploring the area on motorcycles. A bit more civilized than the way I used to go on the bike lugging all my shit behind me on the seat and luggage rack.That was fun when I was younger but too damn hard now. So, here are some photos of this wonderful national park.

So it looks like this winter I'll be working on a bike to use for this trip.I think it will be my 1971 Yamaha R5 350cc 2 stroke twin.As I get old it's easier to ride than the Moto Guzzi and definately easier to tow being a couple hundred lbs lighter.

Back In The Saddle

Well I actually stayed in the saddle but didn't go out as much as usual as I waited to heal up after hitting that deer. I rode a few days after the encounter with the deer but kept my rides short to give myself plenty of time to heal up. Did a brake job on my little Chevy S10 yesterday and been working in the garden. Life goes on. Went through my inventory and gathered all the parts I'll need to fix my bike and who knows what I'll find at the bike show & swap meet this coming weekend.I'm a lucky guy!This is what I was thinking this morning as I rolled down the road on my 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T . The other day I was on my 71 Yamaha R5 Life has been pretty good to me in these 76 years I've been here on Planet Earth.

The Battle With The Buck

This morning, July 5th I got all ready to take my 1965 Yamaha YDS3 out for a ride. It was a beautiful morning for a ride and after having my last cup of coffee off I went. Got about 2 minutes into the ride when this huge deer ran out of the woods right in front of me about 10 feet away. I hit it going between 35 and 40 mph and went down hard. The bike left me and slid over into the other lane as I slid along the road to a stop next to the deer. The deer died in under a minute and I got bad road rash on both of my forearms and one hand and both knees . People stopped Some guy from the fire dept wanted to get the ambulance and I said no. That would cost a couple thousand bucks and then there would be thousands more for the ER. Been there done that. I knew I was ok . I was thinking straight. I was able to lift the bike up and once I did that a guy helped me roll it to the shoulder of the road. The cops showed up. I told him what happened and that I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. There were no other people or cars involved so it was my call. I was real close to home so I called my wife. She came and the cop left. I got the bike running and rode it home with my wife following me and blood dripping down my arms and one hand. Put it away in the garage and went inside and showered. Boy did that hurt! Got all the wounds real clean with soap and hot water then put anti biotic cream on everything before bandaging it all up and here I am 2 hours later sitting here in my chair all fucked up but OK ! The deer died and I rode home so I fucking won. It was painful that night and I got no sleep.The next day I went to this urgent care place and let them check out the wounds.I had done a good job on them and all was well.They gave me a tetanus shot and bandaged it all up again.Told me to go to this Wound care thing.I decided to deal with it on my own and last night I took all the bandages off like they told me to do after two days.I did it in the shower so I could get the stuck ones off without hurting myself any more than I already was.Let it air dry after a good long wash out in the shower with soap & water, put lots of Neosporin on it all and re-bandaged it.Now its starting to heal up and doing pretty good.Changing the dressing daily at this point and it's all good.I got real bad road rash on both arms but other than that I came through it ok. So,here I sit dead in the water. The bike came through it pretty well too.It will need paint work on the white part of the gas tank and some body parts. The chrome work was undamaged so it's all fixable without too much effort. Here are some photos of the bike and what road rash looks like. It looks nasty and it is but things happened so fast my brain couldn't process it so there was no fear or pain. It was a blank from the instant after I saw the deer to coming to a stop on the road next to this big deer. I hit it straight on while on the gas getting ready to shift into 5th gear. The impact slowed me down really fast and is why I wasn't hurt much worse.I was probably only going 10 or 15 mph when I hit the ground and the bike took off on it's own. It's always something !

And here we are in the middle of August.I'm riding , all healed up , and thinking about heading over to PA to the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet. Life goes on