RIP - my buddy 1911/Duane Wellington just passed away

[wheatonFJR]

I’m having difficulty extricating myself from work stuff. May be able to attend visitation Sunday (likely). I know several others are in flux trying to make an appearance. I’m interested in who might make a visit on what day, so I know who to look for.

I'll be there both occasions. If somebody is in need of an overnight bed, we have a bed or two at our humble abode. First come first serve basis. Being on the north side, T.R. is probably 40-45 minutes from the location Im guessing.

[Hppants]

I'm coming to the visitation. I want to look that lady in the eye and tell her how sorry I am.

Let's meet on Sunday night and drink a toast to our friend.

[Redfish]

I'm coming to the visitation. I want to look that lady in the eye and tell her how sorry I am.

Let's meet on Sunday night and drink a toast to our friend.

I simply cannot get away this time. Please represent Pop and me.

[wheatonFJR]

I'm coming to the visitation. I want to look that lady in the eye and tell her how sorry I am.

Let's meet on Sunday night and drink a toast to our friend.

I do remember you and your crew visiting in 2018?March? You and the boyz were at TWO on a chilly weekend and Duane and Marilee camped out with yall after a poor local tour by me.

Marilee needs looking after. She has two daughters local and son in laws. She might ghost me after awhile, which is her choice, but I will be making sure she knows help is near. She is very capable but precious. We will overwatch as needed.

[wheatonFJR]

I'm coming to the visitation. I want to look that lady in the eye and tell her how sorry I am.

Let's meet on Sunday night and drink a toast to our friend.

I simply cannot get away this time. Please represent Pop and me.

Understand. No judgement.

But please, come visit the doublewide sometime...and we'll ride/drive down to Marilee's.

[Tyler]

I'm coming to the visitation. I want to look that lady in the eye and tell her how sorry I am.

Let's meet on Sunday night and drink a toast to our friend.

I simply cannot get away this time. Please represent Pop and me.

And me, please... <3

[El Toro Joe]

Sorry to say that I won't be able to make it down there this weekend, but hope to make it down for some type of memorial ride, if something like that ends up happening.

[wheatonFJR]

I understand that the lead time is very short and that alot of you have expressed an interest in expressing condolences personally, face to face, but can't make it this weekend...so yes I will make a remembrance ride down here happen some time in the future...it would be months away, not weeks away. You will have plenty of warning so all those who want should have a reasonable opportunity to attend.

FYI, I will be at Joe's Ramble...so lets lift one in Duane's memory there, too.

[wheatonFJR]

Dayride photo that you've seen before: Duane was here as well...because, if he could, he was ALWAYS up for a ride.


At Cowpens, SC Revolutionary War Battlefield site, with Griff and my son David...because dayrides are even better with history...


In SE Ohio, with petey and a coupla other knuckleheads, because I wanted to show him SE Ohio and he said, "SURE!"...


A couple more photos from a May 2018 trip to SW VA, Hungry Mother, and Wytheville...


Duane and his buddy John Nodine...


The hills and scenery of SW VA that Duane loved so much...

[danh600]

I will be there Monday for the service.

[Intech]

I am sorry to say that I will not be able to make it. I am in NC for a wedding.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[Powerman]

I won't be able to make it, sorry. I have a Dr Appt Monday that I have waited for 3 months.

[smitty141]

So sorry to read this..I did not know him..My condolences to his dear friends and family. Hug your friends and family, you never know how many hugs you have left.

Godspeed

[wheatonFJR]

Just spoke on the phone to Marilee, she is greatly lifted up by all the comments on social media, including this board. We talked about a question she had and got that resolved. Please lift her up in your prayers tonight.

One little side note: she met with the funeral home staff today and when they found out before the meeting how close Smokey was with Duane, they said to bring him. Ole Smoke had a chance to see and sniff and say goodbye to his master today.

[Toter]

So sorry to hear this. Only met him a couple of times. R.I.P. Duane! We are diminished!

[Bugs]

Very sad. Condolences to his family and friends.

[tidrick]

Gut-punch!!!

Just met Duane and Marilee at Wheaton's this past fall. My reaction from that brief interaction was much the same as bungle4 stated, "A quiet thoughtful man who struck me as a person people should get to know better."

We are in the aftermath with friends of ours from just a couple of weeks ago with all too many similarities - 56-7 yrs old, putting away Christmas decorations and fell through the ceiling hitting his head - gone.

Nothing including experience prepares you for these unexpected emotional landmines in life. Live well, love deeply, cherish the gift while it is yours to share.

- kbt

[wheatonFJR]

I woke up early, a few hours before dawn (Lumberg time) these last few days since I got the News. Usually spending time in a darkened living room looking at old rides or ride reports or old texts, filling my head with the treasured moments or essence of my buddy Duane/1911.

He had a way to succinctly distill the essence of an event with a wry twist. After I had a woopsie a few years ago and apologized for wrecking the day's ride for everybody, he had this to say...

Sorry I messed up a perfect ride....

We rode good riding. Wheat put on a show. Then we went to dinner.
Riding, dinner and a show. What's to be sorry for?

Then another post about the same incident...Duane loved riding in the mountains, Duane loved riding with friends. He was really excited about this ride because so many people were coming. In Duane's world, the more riding buddies around the better.

This is a long post, certainly a long post for Duane. You can skip through if you want, but I hear a lot of the essence of Duane in this post. I also hear his concern for me...and on this sad, cold, rainy morning...this is precious to me. I hold it close.

The Wheaton incident, viewed from the 6th hole.

Posting in part because there were some things very well done here and maybe some things that could have been done better.

The day couldn’t have started much better. Mark and I have posted up a lot of rides out of Greenville over the last few years. This one had one of the all time best turnouts. Last summer’s ride and cookout at Casa De Wheaton was the only other one with a turnout like last Sunday’s. 9 riders showed up for breakfast. Mark, Tommy, JWilly, Cav, Prestone, the Zooms Jim and Iris, and I showed up for breakfast and the ride. Griff showed up to eat with us before taking off to chase BMR bonii. The waitress put my breakfast on Prestone’s check. Like I said, good start.

An 8 rider group ride is on the edge of being manageable. Mark and I linked Senas during the pre-trip. We discussed breaking up into two groups and decided to leave options open until we see how things shook out. I moved to mid pack where I could keep connected to Mark and keep an eye on Tail end Charlie. The natural running order of things seemed to work itself out fairly quickly. Mark was leading, with Tommy, JWilly, Cav, Prestone, Me and the Zooms in tow. When we’d get to a known-good stretch of fun stuff of decent length Mark would send JWilly and Tommy on ahead and tell them where to wait up. This is SOOO much like a group of buddies running an off-road enduro event that it’s stunning!* The first five certainly weren’t holding me up and I didn’t SEEM to be holding up the Zooms. So we were sort of split into two groups by nature.

We left Stax and shuffled over to 178 (transfer section) where the known-good fun stuff started. The group chased Tommy and JWilly up 178 and 215 to Canton. Transfer section to 209. Then it was more known-good fun up NC209, NC208, NC212 and TN352 to Erwin, where I had to get gas (because I was riding the only, less fuel efficient, Black Cherry color, FJR in the group-not because riding like a squid burns more fuel).

From Erwin Mark was leading through another “transfer section”, US19W over to Bakersville, were the next section of fun stuff was to begin, the run up Roan Mountain.

The group was working around some four wheel traffic, but not in a terrible hurry. This was good road, but still just a “transfer section”. By the time The Zooms and I had cleared the four wheelers there was a little gap between us and the first half or so of the group.

I came around a corner and saw one of our riders standing on the side of the road waving down traffic. A few more yards, one of us, face down and motionless and a FJR scattered about. I didn’t know a stomach could knot up that fast.

I did a couple u-turns, parking my bike on the side of the road well within the line of sight of oncoming traffic and turned on the hazard lights. Turning on the hazard light switch did no good at all, once I removed the ignition key to open a saddlebag to get at my first aid kit. By the time I got back up to the scene Mark had been rolled onto his back, moved the minimal amount to ensure a clear airway-well done, seems to me. His helmet stayed on until first responders arrived. His eyes were open and he was starting to come around but Jim said it best: “the lights were on but nobody was home”.

If you came upon the scene and asked who was in charge, my opinion would be that JWilly was lead man, Cav a close #2.

We were 2 miles southeast of the TN state line on US19W. There was no cell signal. Passers-by were asked to phone for help. JWilly had fired of his Spot Tracker “Oh Sh*t!” function. Mark began to try to move around but was quickly told to knock it off. Mark could feel and move what we asked him to feel and move, although he didn’t respond with a slap to Cav’s face as he should have, when Cav copped a feel while claiming to be looking for Mark’s phone, or maybe Mark liked it?. There were some questions he couldn’t answer, though he knew the material. We answered his questions, no matter how many times he asked them. His bell had obviously been rung.

Cav, interrupting my useless milling about, voiced concern that as far as getting help, we were leaving Mark’s fate in the hands of strangers and their ability to describe our location. I reset a tripmeter as Prestone and I mounted up and took off in search of a cell signal. I shot up the driveway at the first house with a sign of life outside. No signal and the occupant said that he didn’t have a land line, but that the folks two places down on the left did. Man, houses are a long way between up here. We pulled into a drive a ways down on the left with a fellow outside. Yeah! Two bars. A call to 911 and a transfer from TN dispatch to NC dispatch (“You mean even though we are only TWO miles out of TN you can’t send somebody from Erwin?!?!?!”) confirmed that help was already on the way.

By the time Prestone and I got back to the group volunteer first responders were on scene. Mark’s main concern seemed to be shoulder pain. Relief! Then the ambulance arrived. Then the ambulance broke down. Then another ambulance arrived-eventually.

And eventually Mark had been hauled off. JWilly had taken off to let Mrs Wheaton know what was going on and to let his own family know to stop worrying about that little Spot Tracker Emergency thingy.

The rest of us waited around for the wrecker. Mark’s bike, though obviously totaled was loaded upright, and tied off front and rear WITH A CANYON DANCER-well done Decolas Towing.

Mark’s gear and stuff was split up among a few riders to be taken back to Travelers Rest. One of us, Cav?, had a Givi rack with no Givi, and that’s where Mark’s Givi rode the rest of the trip.

Once the wrecker and Mark’s stuff was loaded we all followed Cav to the ER where we met up with JWilly and Louanne. We got an update then got the heck out of there. Hospitals are creepy.

What could have been done better? Mark could have crashed AFTER lunch. By now breakfast was a distant memory and a hungry man is a dangerous man. We all went to get a pizza. Except JWilly. Something about a long ride home.

I will say this though. Mark, being the ever considerate host, did at one point while lying in the dirt on the side of a mountain, ask if we had been to lunch yet. I said no and asked him if he was hungry. He said no, proving that it was us he was thinking about.

What can be done for future improvement? JWilly can publish a “what to do in case of a dismount” checklist on a pocket card to be carried by all. Thinking straight may not come easy when it’s a friend in the ditch.

Get well soon Mark.


*edit, the enduro reference explained https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YUL ... =sharing

I will see some of you at the visitation this afternoon, others I will see at the funeral. I will be the guy dressed up in respect for Duane, crying and tearing up in the corner, but trying not to.

[bigjohnsd]

Wheaton- I know I met Duane at YFO and at EOM, but as many have said, he was a man of few words. For whatever it is worth, like many here, I'm with you all in spirit today and tomorrow.

[bill lumberg]

I’ll be the guy in dripping wet aerostich. They may lock me in the kitchen…