Ron

Two old dues, not sure which is in better condition, both are loud!



Re-united!



Got up this Sunday morning, bright clear, sunny... a great day to be above ground as they say.

Phoenix (the cat) was meowing as usual right about 6 12 am or thereabouts.

There are many (many!) changes taking place in the Dr.'s household, more on that later.

As a habit, I do a little walk around, check catfood. Make sure the fountain is topped up, after all... it's the little guy's personal watering hole. 

Put his harness on, open the screen door and after my usual Fatherly lecture... "stay in the yard, away from the road, check in regularly..." etc, out he went.



Three Fishing cowboys on Jumping Pound creek... gotta be a C&W song in there somewhere.



Tried going back to sleep, to no avail.  Seems once up, I'm up.

I geared up the old coffee pot, the one that was in my first shop in PEI back in the day, put some clothes on, and fired up the email program.

There's a message from my old friend Ron M.

Ronnie and I first got together during my second stint in Fort Mac Murray or as RM likes to call it, Fort MacHell!



End of the PFT.



He was in town to run the weekly paper, the FM Express, kinda like a softer version of the tabloids, okay about as soft as cotton candy compared to the Enquirer but you get the picture.

I was back licking my wounds from a divorce in which I pretty much had the slate wiped clean. 



Rte 68!



Lost my business, my home, my 50 acres of the "oiland"

My kids were split up, Holly was then 11 and stayed with Dad and Lisa was 8, stayed with Mom.

My World was upside down and I was happy for the life preserver offered to me by old friend and former employer John Metcalfe from Four Seasons Motorsports.

Ended up operating the MC training program that I had started in FMH, 14 years before, that had died a slow death in the ensuing time frame.

Anywhose... I digress.

I get this email today from RM.



very cool!!!



He says to me in very eloquent terms, he likes reading my Blog.  Says it almost makes him want to buy and ride a DP bike, but his... and I quote "I don't think my poor old shoulders would be capable of much off-roading beyond fire and logging roads!" 

I had to smile and chuckle reading this.  I could take Ronnie on some wicked fire and logging roads right in his back yard.

You see, his back yard is in the B.C. interior.  No, not Bragg Creek but British Columbia.

Although I have not spent much time in his neck of the woods, I'm pretty sure I could dream up some back roads/logging roads/fire roads that would pretty much do him in!

Ron is a street guy and he recently bought back his old GS 750 T that I had bought from him in FMH and then years later sold to a friend of mine locally.



That's PF looking south.



This bike has a very ugly memory for me which occured during a fuel stop in Lac La Biche AB. 

Holly and I were just leaving the service station when a woman driving a large car tried to beat cross traffic and cut the corner into the station, aimed directly at us.

I could see it coming and was totally helpless, with no where to go.  I had time to brace myself on the bars as a reaction.   Wouldn't have been much help at a 50kph head on impact.   She saw me, floored the brakes and a small child standing next to such a responsible Mom, sans car seat or even safety belt, flew off the seat and smacked the inside of the windshield!   The car stopped about 7 and a half inches short of the GS' chrome front fender!!!



Bison farm just west of Calgary.



I was grateful that a collision that would have surely smashed the bike to smithereens, and catapulted Holly and I into oblivion, was avoided... but horrified that her 2-3 something child, took the blow.  traffic tied up both ways as cars screeched to a halt.  Talk about you "nit wits."

Geez there I am off topic again.  Must be old age creeping up on me. Back to the point. 



Yes, that be three bags of grass, sitting in an alley.



Over the years that I have had my writings and ramblings (some would say incoherant babbling) published, I have been contacted by many that have felt like following my travels on their own so to speak.  I have met many people in just this way.  Even during my stint at the Foothills Hospital in '05, a guy trailing a hundred pound fluid pole, loaded with intravenous bottles, oxygen bottle, monitoring equipment, all designed secretly to build up your stamina after heart surgery, recognized me from some article he'd read.  Everyday he'd say, "I know you from somewhere..."  Until the third day he literally screamed aloud... "You're that Doctor guy, that writes those travel stories!"

I even got a phone call one time from 75 year young Gold Wing rider from Yellowknife, that wanted to get an Enduro bike and ride to Alaska, after reading my Forestry Trunk road article.  He wanted some professional advice on what kind of bike to buy for his trek.

This is why I write.  If even one person loads their soft saddlebags and heads south to Baja California, or to the Alps or to the Rockies or the Cabot Trail... I have done my job.

In my early days of teaching the MC training program, and owning/operating Freedom Cycle Inc.  my mission was to put people on motorcycles safely and happily.



Home is where you hang your helmet...



Nowadays, that mission is to keep you riding.

Happy Trails:)