“Up with the sun, gone with the wind.”
Like many people who spend their lives traveling, I live and breathe many of Bob Seger’s lyrics.
“Out to the road, out ‘neath the stars
Feeling the breeze, passin’ the cars”
I just returned from my biggest motorcycle trip so far this year. I rode 8,300 miles. I started in New Hampshire, transversed all of Canada, stuck a toe into Alaska, spend a few days with Yamaha at a Rally in Plain Washington and then winded my way across the length of the country to return back home.
It was an awesome trip out, as I love traveling through Canada. I made a special stop in Thunder Bay Ontario to thank the crew at Excalibur Motor Works who helped me when my bike broke down last year. I also invited Greg Symons who had responded to my help post on Facebook and fetched me from 90 miles away. I tried to buy lunch for everyone but the owner had already ordered pizzas and refused to let me pay! Greg showed up with some crazy good local donuts for dessert. One of the employees even made me a special Excalibur T shirt with my GO PAUL GO logo on the back! It was a fun couple of hours and once again I was moved by the generosity of our neighbors to the north.
The next two days were spend heading to Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is the southern most town you can drive to in Alaska. It’s so small, there isn’t a US border checkpoint to leave Canada and enter the United States! Hyder doesn’t connect with roads to any other place in Alaska, so I suppose it’s not much of security threat. The Town has a few dozen people living in it and besides the Boundary gift shop, there is the Glacier Inn Bar. As a first timer in Hyder, I knew I had to partake in the tradition of being “Hyderized,” which involved doing a shot of 150 proof grain alcohol at the Glacier Inn. If you don’t knock it back or keep it down, you have to buy a round of drinks at the bar. I didn’t have any trouble!
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Hyder is significant in the long distance motorcycle community as many of the 49 state rides and world record attempts document reaching Alaska by visiting Hyder. Caroline runs the gift shop in town and I was tasked with giving her a hug from a few of my riding friends. I bought a few pieces of jewelry, a beer stein and a T-shirt. Her homemade fudge has its own reputation, so I bought a brick of that too!
I mentioned there was no checkpoint to cross the international border to get into Hyder, but there was however, a Canadian guard who asked me for my papers as I entered back into Stewart, British Columbia. I probably smelled of grain alcohol and fudge, but I was allowed to enter and made my way to the hotel where I was staying a half mile away. I had a great dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was also a Toaster Museum.
Another early morning and some stops to get photos as the sun crested over the Rockies. I rode through some of the most incredible scenery, stopping for pictures in Jasper and Banff Provincial Parks.
On the fifth day of travel, just before reaching the US border, a man approached me while I was getting fuel.
“Are you doing this for MS?” He caught me off guard. I often forget my bike has decals all over it about my million mile journey chasing the cure, and this trip had been so incredible, I forgot why I was on the road in the first place. I never let having MS take control over my plans and try to minimize my symptoms and concentrate on the positive things in my life.
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“Yes, my goal is a million miles all for MS. But, I have to be honest with you, I’m on an incredible journey this week and I am lucky that my disease has been very mild and manageable.”
The man went on to tell me about his best friend who recently passed, who had been living with progressive MS for years. He handed me $5 asked me to put it towards a cure. It was a much needed grounding experience to remind me that not everyone who lives with MS is doing as well as I am.
I made it to the Touratech Rally in Plain Washington where I was the host of Yamaha’s VIP camping area. The rally is for Adventure motorcycle riders from all over the country who like to ride their bikes on and off road. Yamaha provides a tent, cot and air mattress for their customers, as well as water drinks and snacks. I spent the four days making coffee and flipping burgers during the day. I had plenty of fresh stories to keep the campfire busy into the wee hours of the night.
My trip home was a bit shorter. I did however, try to route myself around the extreme heat most of the south and east was experiencing which ended up sending me through Custer State Park, Needles Highway and the Badlands of South Dakota. Eventually I knew I needed to get back home, so I rode the last two thousand miles in 36 hours.
I took lots of photos for my annual calendar and met lots of great people along my ride. Thanks to my corporate sponsors, I am able to continue my quest to ride a million miles sharing my story and raising money for Multiple Sclerosis.
“These are the memories that make me a wealthy soul.”
