21 years ago, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. At the time, I was a divorced Dad, raising two boys on my own while running a small retail business. I had already sold my motorcycles and had decided my passion for riding and competing in long distance rallies would have to wait until my boys were grown up and on their own. I was dating Elin, and had just proposed to her when I got the devastating diagnosis.
I had been dealing with weakness in my hands and arms, loss of dexterity, and a variety of memory issues. My brain’s hard drive was still intact, but my ram memory was slowed and unreliable. I got confused easily and had extreme fatigue daily. All of my symptoms got worse when I was warm or overheated.
In addition to the symptoms, I was experiencing from the disease, I was constantly being called into court by my ex-wife who believed the system had wrongly taken away the children from her. The stress of a combative relationship and an endless litigious battle made my disease worse, and I did fear my diagnosis would be weaponized against me. Three years after our divorce, my Ex had lost physical custody. Her behavior got worse and she then lost legal custody, then visitations and eventually her intensifying defiant behavior even lost supervised visitations.
Parental alienation is a devastating tactic and unfortunately, after 43 court hearings, her abusive behavior never changed and the court eventually issued her a no-contact order with her children. Not the relief I had ever wanted or hoped for, but it was the only choice the court had left after her continued refusal to follow simple orders and her destructive abusive behavior.
As you can imagine, getting through what became a ten-year ordeal after my divorce and dealing my MS diagnosis needed some heavy-duty support and an outlet to help me heal in between legal episodes. Getting married to Elin, gave me not only someone to share the rest of my life with, but a best friend who would be their daily to help me through false accusations, gut-wrenching legal hurdles and life altering decisions I had to make about the welfare of my children. My friends and family supported me through the ordeal as well and finding an attorney who understood my struggle just to be a dad to my children was crucial to my survival.
To escape from the brutal daily drama and with the fear of what my disease progression would do to my future, I began riding motorcycles again. I didn’t travel far, but I tried to get on the bike as often as I could to clear my head and balance my anger and my thoughts. An hour here, and hour there was all I could get, but it was just enough. As it did when I was suffering through the brutal year before leaving my first marriage, riding motorcycles helped me find the strength and willpower to continue on.
I call it Motomedicine, and it is indeed a real therapy.
Today, the children are grown, and it has been fifteen years since my last appearance in a courtroom. (Except for those pesky speeding tickets!) Fourteen years ago, I began this adventure to ride a million miles for Multiple Sclerosis. It has been an incredible ride, traveling 700,000 miles across the country reaching out to others, all while still appreciating the level of therapy I still receive each and every mile I travel. Riding is part of my treatment for slowing the progression and depression of living with a chronic disease and every time I climb aboard my motorcycle, it still brings me peace.
As my riding is supported by corporate sponsors and my Patreon members, I now spend most of my riding traveling to events where I present seminars or share my inspiration to others living with challenges in their life. When I am not traveling the country, I try to find projects around the house to keep me occupied and to keep our property in good repair. I was home most of April and May and eight weeks without my Motomedicine proved to be challenging and expensive!
I decided to tackle a landscaping issue we have had since buying this house in 2007. Forty years ago, most builders would bury all the stumps they pulled when clearing the lot somewhere in the back of the property. As the stumps rot, they create cavities and the ground above starts to sink. Sink holes from stump dumps are a real issue in this part of the country. My stump dump was about twenty feet by thirty feet and every year would sink a bit deeper. It became our favorite place to dump our brush and leaves each autumn, mainly because they would sink, somewhat decompose, and the pile never grew taller! The area grew wider swallowing more and more of the back yard and it was time to fix it the proper way.
After getting a few high quotes to dig up the stumps, truck them away, fill the area with dirt and then grass, I decided I would enlist the help of my oldest brother David and more importantly, his little tractor! I had two giant truck loads of gravel and loam delivered and with the promise of beer and good food, my brother showed up with his machine. Spring was the only time I can do manual labor outdoors, as the heat of the summer wreaks havoc on my MS symptoms.
We worked for four days, digging, pulling up giant logs and stumps. Many had not rotted away as expected because they were below the water table which we found rather quickly. If you dig 2 feet down anywhere in my back yard, you hit water. After debating creating a fish pond or small lake, we refilled the giant swimming pool sized abyss with gravel, packed it down and repeated until the tractor’s tires no longer sank. The top was layered with loam and eventually grass seed. With the stump dump area under control, we took on some of the rocks protruding through the grass in the yard. The stones I would hit with the lawnmower every week in the summer turned out to be giant boulders left by the glaciers a million years ago. We worked hard. The tractor couldn’t lift the rocks, but we were able to roll or drag them to their final resting place at the edge of my property. So many boulders tuned to icebergs that I had to order another 24 tons of dirt. The last triaxle truck got stuck in the yard creating even more work, and another $200 of grass seed was ordered.
I kept telling my brother that we had to finish up by Wednesday as my first trip in months started in just a couple days and then I would be traveling almost three weeks each month all the way until November. (Just saying this out loud gave me goosebumps!) I did not want to leave this big project unfinished. We raked the last bit of topsoil over the new grass seed and gave it a good soaking with the hose. I thanked my brother and helped him load the tractor on his trailer. Tired, dirty and sore in places I don’t reminder belonging to me, we hosed off the dirt for the last time and then I prepared a meal of blackened salmon and we had a few beers. Dave left early the next day for northern Vermont and I was finally able to begin preparing for my trip.
After two long months of being home, tired, physically beat up and financially broke from my yard project, I was certainly ready for another dose of Motomedicine.
A rolling stone grows no moss, and stumps under water will never rot.
Catch up with Longhaulpaul at the following national motorcycle events this year.
Americade Rally
Touratech Rally West
