Friends...and Family - Colorado 2023

[Road Runner]

Great trip with great friends. Good for you all for doing it and making amazing memories. I would love to do a trip like this and make memories.
Thanks for sharing

[Hppants]

It's been a while since I've had an extended FJR trip with friends.

I'm jonesing....

[wheatonFJR]

Thursday, June 22nd - Day 6 of my trip...

Woke up in Winter Park with a real KSU time as today we had be in the RMNP by a certain time...or not get in. It was a crisp and cool morning, but sunny...as has been the case for all of this trip, which is quite unreal from my past traveling experience. As Marty and I were talking last night about our route for the day...seeing that we were going to end up near I70, maybe Glenwood Springs...or maybe somewhere else, that I would likely start heading east towards home Friday morning. My condition was not abating. Marty knew about my condition, it was rather obvious...but he said I didn't have to leave, but it was up to me. Marty and AJ were both good friends to me on this trip and I enjoyed the heck out of their company. I was unsure what C would think of riding with us...but she was fun to have along. I knew none of them before 2010, and even awhile after that time, it took awhile to get to know and develop that friendship. Well, this trip with friends was awesome and the scenery was the most spectacular, from my eyes, that I have ever seen Colorado. I was pleasantly surprised from a traffic standpoint as well...that also made the trip much more fun.

This is the approximate route we took for the day...


We all got up, gassed up and got going down the road. Entered the park in a timely fashion and the others waved me by for some reason (what were they thinkin??). It's boring to hear this over and over because I can't explain it very well, but this ride through the Park was the 10/10 for me...just incredible, mountain top experience with friends. Beautiful morning with friends, riding up the switchbacks, snowy peaks, animals in their own environment. Jaw-dropping, gob-smacking. Perfect temperatures and conditions...

Looking back down and west from whence we came...



At the first overlook stop...


Some guy from Travelers Rest...


AJ and C...


Marty, looking with his binoculars at an elk that we passed...elk I totally missed as we rode by...because evidently I'm blind


Friends...


AJ and Carrie led us through the park in a nice relaxing pace as we considered the beauty and animals, blue skies, and our good fortune. They knew of another good overlook where we stopped.






Marty signing an autograph for one of his TIK-TOK fan boyz that showed up unannounced


AJ and Carrie


Some of Marty's other fans


So...I am just enjoying the heck out of this day, this ride...living in the moment, appreciating the blessing of being here at this place with good friends.


Special place. Special friends.


At the next roadside we saw a herd of elk...it was magical...




So...at some point in time, you have to come down off that mountain. But the mountain view remains as long as I can remember it. However good that view is though, it is ten times better with friends. Thank-you Marty, AJ, and Carrie for agreeing to riding this trip with me.

I have no other photos from this trip...but the trip went on. I will let others fill in more if they wish, but we had a fun last day together...and stayed in Granby that night.

We got together at the hotel/resort restaurant later that evening for our last social time where I was involved. It was a much needed connection for me as I was heading back east the next morning.

[mi_pjk]

Great stuff Wheaty. Thanks for posting.

[Blueridgerider]

I really enjoyed reading about your trip. It seemed to have it all, an emotional motivation, great friends, and incredible scenery seen for the first time. That’s a trip on my bucket list so if I am fortunate enough to ever do it I would look back on this report for guidance. Thanks for taking the time to write and share it.

[wheatonFJR]

Friday/Saturday, June 23rd/24th - Days 7 and 8 of my trip.

Not much to say, except I have 1600 miles to get home...but I need to get home as soon as possible. I will get as far as I can the first day and that will determine how long this trip will actually take. I am allergic to interstates...but I am in "get home" mode squared...especially because of this thing that has cropped up with my body.

It doesn't happen at night, nor off the bike at the motels...but during this trip I became incontinent while riding the bike. It's been pretty humiliating. I would get 40 miles into a tank and need to pee, no matter where I was...I would have a couple minutes warning and that would be it.

So, I really need to go.....home. Now.

The temps were warm on the way home...I stopped looking at what they were and just kept the gages set to read miles that day, and miles on the tank. That kept me focused on what I need to focus on...putting on the miles, and how much until I stop.

This is my approximate route for the two days...




I could say a lot about the last two days and philosophy and other stuff, but I won't. I've already filled the air with enough of my thoughts and feelings...it's gotta be tiring to listen to just about now.

I will say that it was very hot and tough...for me...but it had to be done.

I could share the anecdote of a middle eastern guy and his wife and a crying baby in a fancy car in western Kansas gas station sharing a sad story of his first trip to America and losing his wallet and showed me his gas gauge was empty and how they were trapped there and trying to get back to Vegas. He had a big gold chain and a gold ring which he took off and tried to give to me so I would give him enough gas to get to Vegas. I certainly am an empathetic person, but I am also a skeptical person and didn't believe him. I also had lots of miles to go in a lot of heat that day and had to get going...now. So I pumped $20 of gas into his car after swiping my card...put the pump back on the handle and went on my hot way. Before I left I told Fariq, or Muhammed, or whatever his name was, that he better call his relatives for money because $20 of gas will get him stranded out there away from help and he would be putting his baby's life in danger.

In Illinois, I gave a lady a $20 for gas at a rest stop as I was just getting back on my bike...because she was "out of cash and stranded". Certainly didn't believe her, but just in case..gave her enough to get on her way.

Louanne was not happy about me giving away $40 after hearing these anecdotes. I gave that $$ away on the 5% chance that what they were telling had some semblance of truth to it.

At the beginning of this trip I talked about how this trip was about completing some circles and beginning new ones. I just was surprised at the end of this trip what circles I was closing and what ones I was opening up.

I need to ride with these friends because of a trip that I never got to go on...and because I wanted Marty back on a bike and ride with my buddy again. Lumberg and I have lost two riding buddies in the past year, and I wanted to go on this trip to be with Marty when he spread some of Jason's ashes in Colorado. I had to - I needed to go on this trip. Then surprise, Duane was going to join us on this trip. Then Duane died and my world hit a breaking point. Work stress was off the charts and two of my treasured friends died. I was barely functional at that point and I told Louanne I didn't know if I would make it and live to retirement. She said, if you need to retire early, retire early. That gave me a window of hope that I could survive. I focused on trying to help Maralee. Sometime after Duane died, I invited Lumberg to go on the trip in Duane's stead to make it a group of 4 bikes on this ride. Lumberg surprisingly said yes. Lumberg was not able to stay for the whole trip...in fact he ended up just riding on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not sure if this was his plan all along, because he is kind of secretive, but he made a special mission of ferrying me out to Weatherford, OK, then returning to Atlanta the next day.

I thought I was completing circles of unfinished business as described above and opening up new circles of adventure with motorcycle friends. I was doing some of that. But due to my newfound condition, I think that I am also completing circles of riding with my FJR friends. Louanne googled the condition of this during riding...and I guess it is a thing. Unless something changes I have taken my last FJR group ride, as I will not ride with others, nor solo if this is the way it is to be. I ride motorcycles in part to feel younger, to feel alive...not to be soaked in end of life physical issues. I will ride a daylong solo ride in about a month or so to see if anything has changed, and if it hasn't, that will be it for me.

If this is the way it ends, it is humiliating...but I will remember the last 20 FJR years with joy. I know I have friends that have and will continue to stand by me.

If this is the way it ends, then it will be me in a car, with Louanne on trips. If she can put up with me.

...and that is not a bad thing at all.

[Festus]

Hang in there Wheatie, I'm sure it's something solvable. Just be as simple as a chiropractic adjustment. Some nerve may be getting pinched or irritated only while riding the bike. Might be as simple as a few adjustments and you're all set.

Don't let the negative options overwhelm you. Stay positive and know that someone's going to figure it out and you'll be back riding again.

[wheatonFJR]

Coda: some people know that I got a boo-boo trying to prepare my bike for this trip.




If you read earlier, I was able to buy a pair of Duane's gloves that I didn't know that I would need.


During the trip, the healing started...


...and more...


and today...


Friends(fist bump to Lumberg) will help as much as they can...


...and the wound may look healed, but like all wounds...it will always be there underneath.

Thinking of you Sonya...and Maralee.

God Bless.

[sacramentomike]

Any of you have a shot where Carrie isn't wearing the helmet and AJ is?

[0face]

Any of you have a shot where Carrie isn't wearing the helmet and AJ is?

We tried to make him keep it on all the time, but he doesn’t listen well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[raYzerman]

Awesome ride report.... brought back some memories for me too.
Now about your closing remarks, I hope you are not jumping to conclusions before you get that looked into..... could be some helpful things like changing your diet, losing some weight, or what Festus says....... might even be a med that might help... all the best in the quest for the answers!

[gixxerjasen]

Grand Mesa is a great ride with beautiful scenery that you can neither accurately describe nor capture on camera. You just have to ride it for yourself to understand.

Also, more than once you've discussed hanging up the helmet and parting with riding and here you are. I suspect you still have another ride report coming down the line.

[Burnspot]

That was a great ride report; thanks for the effort, really enjoyed it!

Winter Park/Fraser is my hometown and where I wasted my youth skiing, mountain biking, camping, and hiking...it was terrible, not.

[bigjohnsd]

Great report Mark, please don't give up before the Urologist does his magic.
At some point, most if not all of us will pee in Morse Code. DAMHIK

[wheatonFJR]

Grand Mesa is a great ride with beautiful scenery that you can neither accurately describe nor capture on camera. You just have to ride it for yourself to understand.

Also, more than once you've discussed hanging up the helmet and parting with riding and here you are. I suspect you still have another ride report coming down the line.

Jasen, Grand Mesa was spectacular.

Regarding the other, I understand your perspective from past pronouncements. I cannot expect you to understand what this present situation does to me, the ickyness, the social aspect, the psychology, the ego and pride, and sense of what I want in a motorcycle life experience...as well as where it lines up in my life, along with Louanne's fears which I have set aside for years. At some point, a different road will be traveled, most signs are pointing to this being that time. Something that definitely was not in my vision even during my ride out there. But I had six days to "stew" on this, so to speak, alone with my thoughts during the daylong rides...when Marty or AJ weren't making me laugh my ass off.

If there ever was a high point trip to go out on...this is it.

I have had great rides over the past 20 years, seen many things, unexpectedly picked up friends who have done everything for me, especially in the past year, that I would do anything for. From one of my favorite movies, True Grit, "...I am used up. I bow out."

Louanne and I will have many wonderful adventures and travels ahead, we may see some of you. Hopefully yall will find it a mutually positive experience.

I am not selling my bike, nor my nomar, for atleast a year...to see how things are. If I am able to solo ride without incidents in a month or so, I will consider local dayrides with those that are in the neighborhood. If I still have love for riding in a year, I will keep it. Otherwise, someone else may get an FJR for bargain basement prices.

I would not recommend purchasing the rider RDL saddle...JSNS.

[wheatonFJR]

Great report Mark, please don't give up before the Urologist does his magic.
At some point, most if not all of us will pee in Morse Code. DAMHIK

...If I had that much control, I would not be in this predicament. JSNS.

[raYzerman]

I knew a couple of IBA guys once years ago, that was when I leaned about condom catheters..... had a drain tube right down to below their boots... well, this one looks interesting too...... all I did was Google it.....
Who said you need to stop riding!!
https://www.amazon.ca/External-Catheter ... 53&sr=8-38

[gixxerjasen]

And then when you DO stop, you have fun water balloons to throw at AJ and Oface.

[raYzerman]

And then when you DO stop, you have fun water balloons to throw at AJ and Oface.

The IBA guys didn't use the balloons, just let 'er run onto the ground....

[wheatonFJR]

Marty, AJ...do you or Carrie have any other photos to add to the trip? I know Carrie took some in Winter Park near sunset...