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I’ve spent the past 4 days slugging across the middle of the country trying to survive high heat and humidity and dodging numerous thunderstorms. Nothing really interesting since leaving the Parkway until I arrived to Badlands National Park yesterday and rode the loop. I’d been to Badlands previously but it’s worth a second trip. The contrast of riding through endless grasslands across South Dakota and then seemingly out of nowhere you arrive to this incredible canyon and desert landscape. The temps were around 100 degrees and I had geared up in the morning due to the strange early morning thunderstorms ripping through Sioux Falls when I headed out. Needless to day I was very hot and sweaty when I got to Rapid City. I had already decided I wanted to stay in Rapid City. In addition to the endless billboards advertising for Wall Drug there were several billboards advertising Firehouse Brewing Company – each with a fully intact antique fire truck staged by each of the signs. I stopped at one to see if it was actually a fire truck and not just a facade or shell of a vehicle but they were real fire trucks! I admired the commitment to promote the brewery so made a point to choose a motel downtown within walking distance for an easy visit.

After settling into the the Town House Motel, I made may way to the brewery. Town House is my favorite style motel when traveling – with the rooms opening to the outside with parking spots right in front for easy unload/loading and to keep tabs on the bike. Much more convenient than going through lobbies and indoor hallways to rooms. I always ask for ground floor for even extra convenience but this time all they had available was 2nd floor.

It was just a little after 5pm and already the bar area was super crowded – a good indication for good beer and food. I was able to grab a barstool and as someone got up a left just as I arrived. The couple sitting next to me were local and members of the mug club so were able to give me a rundown on their favorite beers. I settled on the Black Forest Brown and it was quite good. A while later the stools on he other side of me turned over and an older gentleman and younger lady (his daughter) sat down and we struck up a conversation. He was local and she was in visiting from New York but had grown up in Rapid City. After chatting for a bit it turned out he was one of the partner/owners that started the Firehouse Brewery 27 years ago. I got the entire history on the space firsthand – which was remodeled from a working fire station. They did a good job keeping the bones of the place intact so it did really have a firehouse feel to it. One of the partners bought an antique fire truck several years ago to keep the up on the theme and then it ended up snowballing over the years into 17 trucks purchased – most which found their way to interstate 90 to team up with the billboards. Genius! I never would have ended up there without the catchy advertising! Anyway, this was one of the first brewpubs to open in the midwest. The ownership group got their inspiration from visiting the Wyncoop in Denver in the late 80’s. They now also buy grapes and make wine for both the restaurant and retail market – Firehouse Wine Cellars. Glad I got to meet him and hear the story firsthand.

Shortly after the owner and daughter left a couple from Washington state sat down next to me and they also had an interesting story. She was Australian and he was American and they met over 50 years ago in Munich at Oktoberfest. They are on a national park tour throughout the west. All in all it was an enjoyable night and good to have some socialization after existing in somewhat isolation the past several days camping and staying in super seedy hotels – where I didn’t see anyone particularly wanted to get to know anyway. The pub had the Impossible Burger on the menu so of course Veggie Boy had to give it a try. I’ve had the Beyond Meat burger you can buy in the grocery store but hadn’t tried the Impossible Burger. It was pretty darn good!

I’m going to stay an extra day in the area to ride some of the epic roads in the Black Hills. 500,000 people will show up here for the Sturgis Motorycle Rally in a couple of weeks – not really my thing so glad I’m here prior to that event. My ride today will take me through Custer State Park, past Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial. Should be a good day as the forecast calls for sunshine and zero chance of rain all day. Looking forward to it!

It’s Sunday morning and I’m sipping coffee and typing this in the breakfast room in at an EconoLodge in Shelbyville, KY. Temps were still in the 80’s last night when the sun began to go down so I didn’t feel like camping – and I had ridden over 600 miles on Saturday so a bed sounded nice. I had camped on Thursday and Friday nights where it was nice and cool up in the mountains. The Parkway is a great road trip that everyone needs to experience sometime. Beautiful views and cool little towns to stop for coffee and lunch along the way – most just minutes off the Parkway. Along the 469 miles I had 3 bear sightings – one that I almost hit as he bounded across the road out of the brush, and more deer that I could count. Lots of cool birds also flying above along the way.

After getting off the Parkway I had planned to stay in Asheville, NC but couldn’t find a room under $150/night – way over my budget. With the tropical storm/hurricane making its way inland over the next few days I decide to start heading north and west to try to beat the incoming wet weather. That part of the ride was mostly super slab, long and hot – temps over 90 most of the way. I was wishing I had just paid the $150 and stayed in Asheville after about 100 miles of interstate. Then I just got myself into a mental “make miles” zone and rode. Didn’t really enjoy much of it after the Parkway experience and today will be more of the same boring slab just to make miles. If it weren’t so hot I would take the slower backroads which are more interesting but that would just add more days in parts of the country I don’t really want to spend time in right now.

Some are probably wondering what happened to Mexico. I had shared with friends and family that I was planning to ride down to Oaxaca, Mexico for some Spanish lanquage and cooking immersion after leaving Breck. It all came down to time…just not enough of it and I didn’t want to rush Mexico. On the little Yamaha 250 it would take at least 10 days each way on a straight line. As mentioned, I have a commitment in Michigan the first part of September so I’ve decide to delay Mexico until sometime after the golf trip. Should be better temps and weather anyways as the rainy season is happening now in many parts of Mexico. I want to be able to dedicate 2-3 months to Oaxaca and riding throughout interior Mexico. So this going on right now is my plan B – just ride with a loose plan as to where to go next. I honestly don’t even know which exact route I’m heading this morning. Need to get on google maps and see what route north and west to choose. I’m hoping to get about 400 miles in today. Time to motivate and get at it…

Quite a bit has happened and changed for me over the past year. I’ll try to sum it up in this post.

I’ll pick up this story from my last post in August 2018. After picking up the truck and toy hauler in Spokane in August I made my way south to Colorado to pick up some items from my storage in Breckenridge and then turned east towards Virginia. I wasn’t in much of a hurry – just wanted to be able to get back to the farm and have a bit of time to prep the BMW for a ride around north eastern Canada and US. I was hoping to leave in early September so that on my way back down I would be riding though New England around peak fall colors.

I arrived at Ken and Marybeth’s farm on Friday, August 24th. I always enjoy spending time there. Harrisonburg is a smallish but vibrant college town with a relaxed vibe and a growing food and beer scene. The area outside Harrisonburg is dense with miles of farmland and Dayton is the town their farm resides in. The next couple days were spent hanging out with Ken and Marybeth, dinners and Sunday brunch in town while also beginning prep on the BMW for the upcoming Canada trip.

On Sunday evening Marybeth and Ken had a family picnic to attend sending off some of Ken’s cousins who were moving to South America. I stayed behind and continued getting ready for my trip. I wanted to leave in the next few days as I needed to be back the first week of October for an annual golf trip at Pinehurst in North Carolina. If I was to go all the way up to Newfoundland, I would need to get moving. My plan was to enter Canada through northern Michigan and then make my way northeast.

That ended up being the night that changed everything for me. I won’t ever forget Sunday, August 26, 2018. Because on that evening I had a heart attack. I didn’t know it was happening at the time…I just knew I didn’t feel well at all. Marybeth and Ken came home about 8:30pm to me laying on the couch. I had been feeling badly for about an hour at that point. Marybeth quickly googled heart attack and starting reading off the symptoms…I said yes to 8 of the 10 she reeled off. At her insistence, we headed to the emergency room where I was quickly taken back to be examined. Minutes later they were calling in a Cardiologist and I was rolled off to the stent lab. One stent installed at 11pm that evening and another to be done the next morning. The first procedure seemed to go fine and I spent the night the ICU wired to a heart monitor.

The next morning I went in around 11am for the second procedure and woke up 2 hours later than planned with the disturbing news that the stent that was installed the night before had been completely blocked…with towel fibers. Somehow they apparently got towel fibers into my system during the stent procedure the night before. They had to try to clear that out before installing the second. They were somewhat but not entirely successful. The Cardiologist needed to consult with some colleagues to decided the next step. While staying 2 more nights in the hospital, he circled back to say he recommended performing another procedure to install 2 solid wall stent selves to fit inside the original mesh stents. The hope was that the solid wall stents would not catch the towel fibers floating around my bloodstream like the mesh ones were. I would end up coming back a week later and spend two more nights in the hospital having the sleeves installed.

Unfortunately this whole episode took several weeks to play itself out and I was bouncing between the hospital and Ken and Marybeth’s place. Looking back it was very fortunate timing…not fortunate to have a heart attack, but fortunate from a time and place perspective. Time being that just a few weeks prior I was riding in some of the most remote corners of North America – most with little or no medical facilities nearby. And place being that Ken and Marybeth are some of my closest friends and they stepped up for me big time in my time of need – visiting me in the hospital, bringing me what I needed, and picking me up from the hospital after surgeries. Hospitals don’t let you do much on your own so I am grateful that they were there for me.

My first question for the doc after 3 surgeries in 10 days was when can I ride again. I had since planned out a modified shortened version of my original North Atlantic trip and explained what I wanted to do. He wanted the wrist and groin (first procedure went in through the groin and the next two through the wrist) to heal for a week but didn’t have any objections to what I had planned as long as I felt up to it. His only precaution was that since I would be on very aggressive blood thinners, I needed to be careful on the bike. A crash with major external or internal injuries would most certainly mean I could bleed out and die fairly quickly. I certainly didn’t want to be reckless, but also really needed to get out and do something. My psyche had taken a huge hit in the days and weeks after having the heart attack. I had just completed two epic adventures over the past 10 months that had required a great amount of physical and mental stamina to complete. And I had done it. Rode to South America and on Route 40 to Ushuaia and then rode the Dalton to Deadhorse, AK and then rode the Dempster to Tuktoyaktuk, NT. These are know to be some of the most challenging roads in the world. And I did it. And then I had a heart attack. I have never felt more fragile during those two weeks after August 26th.

I really, really needed to get on my bike and ride and get my head back on straight. So on September 11, just over 2 weeks after my heart attack, I hit the road and headed north. I stopped to see my sister in Cleveland for an over night and then spent the weekend at my dad’s lake house in Michigan. Another quick stop in Grand Rapids to visit my friends James and Tonya and I was off on my own. These would become the only people (along with another close friend Jason) I told about my heart attach for quite some time. I still to this day haven’t shared this with very many people. I supposed I’m a bit subconscious and embarrassed by the fact that I had a heart attack at the age of 53.

That trip marked a turning point in my life. Like most people who have a health issue or disease (I will be labeled as having cardiovascular disease for the rest of my life), there becomes an obsession to devour as much information about the condition as humanly possible. Internet searches, message boards and forums and books. Lots and lots of books on heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, diet, exercise, etc. I didn’t watch more that an hour of television for that entire trip. I just read all I could on my condition and tried to figure out what got me here and what path I would be taking moving forward. Of all the information I digested over that 5 week period I read two books that resonated with me – The China Study and Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Nutrition-Based Cure. I’m convinced my high animal protein and undisciplined diet clogged up the pipes and caused the heart attack. I have ever since been moving towards a 100% whole food/plant based diet. I’m not 100% there, but I’ve done some long stretches avoiding animal proteins and processed foods. I originally made the move for my arteries but the added benefit was that I lost some weight and feel pretty darn good. I’ve since been dubbed “Veggie Boy” by several friends due to my current diet but in actuality right now I’m more of a “Veggie Boy Lite”- not full on as I still eat some fish, chicken and dairy on occasion. I also recently had some private pilates instruction and will attempt to make this part of my routine moving forward. I have a fragile lower back and am hoping a stronger core will result in fewer back pain episodes. Time will tell…

The road trip itself was great…Upper Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. I encountered lots of rain and cold weather but the few sunny days and the fall colors were totally worth the marginal weather. I still want to take the time to get up into New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador. Just didn’t have time this go around. I met the boys for the Pinehurst golf weekend – our 4th annual, and had a fantastic time. I then returned to Virginia, loaded up my truck and toy hauler and headed west. I had accepted a seasonal position in Breckenridge, CO with the company I had left just a year earlier. With my current health situation I thought it would be best to plant some roots for 6 months or so to make some cash and focus on my health. It was a great season in Breckenridge with record snowfall and fantastic ski conditions.

Which brings me to now…last Monday was the 5 year anniversary of the day I left to ride around the world with Ken in 2014. I’m so glad I took a year off to do that trip. It was my introduction to long distance adventure motorcycling riding and I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to ride to Ushuaia, Argentina, Alaska and the NWT of Canada since then. We all know we are not guaranteed any certain amount of time on this earth – and I gained a new perspective on this fact with the heart attack. I don’t want to live my life just working for some company – I don’t mind working at all, I just don’t want it to be what I live for. I have several job opportunities I could pursue right now but I’m not going to. I’m going to ride west without much of a plan…may go back up into western Canada and Alaska and see the things I wanted to see last year but missed – due to lack of time and the multitude of forest fires. I may just visit national parks in the western US that I have not yet visited. Last year’s rides were about goals: riding as far south and north that roads allow and conquering/surviving the Route 40, and the Dalton and Dempster highways. This year it’s going to be about enjoying beautiful spaces and open roads. I need to be in Michigan around the first part of September for our 5th annual guys golf trip – this year back in Traverse City, MI where the tradition first started. I shipped my clubs to my friend James’ house in the GR area where we are all meeting up. There will be eight of us again this year with guys flying in from California to North Carolina and between. Should be a blast – I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a great group of friends.

The first leg start today with a 469 mile ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina. I’m currently camping here at Devils Backbone Brewery and Basecamp after yesterday running the 100 mile stretch of Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park. I’ve ridden stretches of the Parkway but not the whole thing and had never been on Skyline Drive – very beautiful and fun ride! After running the Parkway, I will just make it up as I go along – searching out and enjoying beautiful spaces on this amazing planet. Follow along to see where I go next!