The Big Ride 2014  

     Prior to the beginning or getting ready to be ready

I started this winter with high hopes and high expectations.  Eugene and I had finished a wonderful trip in June through the US Northwest and Western Canada and ending in Yellowstone National Park before heading back to Reno.  I had stayed put the rest of the summer but Euge had invited me to join he and his friend Billy for a ride from Dublin down to the Pyrenees Mountains for a bike tour of the scenic back mountain roads of southern France and Northern Spain.  He even thought he would be able to borrow a bike for me so that shipping mine or buying a new one in Europe would not be necessary. I thought, wow!, there's a trip you don't get to do every day.  I was pretty confident about my health since I had done fairly well on the June ride even though I had a lot of pre-start anxiety over my breathing. 

I know.  Most of you are sick and tired of hearing about my health challenges, and many told me more than once that I must quit smoking.  My difficulties are all of my own making but unfortunately they are now the things that most fundamentally define my world and to simply ignore their challenges is unrealistic.  I promise I will try to make this blog more about the experience of the trip and not a chronicle of my efforts to breathe.

One of the things that made me hopeful about the Pyrenees trip was that I had taken a steroid on the last ride and it had helped quite a lot.  However I normally experience a worsening of my condition over the winter and this year was not an exception.  By the time the New Year had arrived, I was seriously questioning my ability to make the Europe trip.  I obviously did not want to have an emergency while over there but more importantly to me was that I did not want to be cause of ruining the trip for Euge and Billy.

Billy, Eugene and I at Druid's Glen
during a trip to Ireland in 2011

After fretting about this for most of January, I decided to take a short ride here in the US as soon as the weather improved enough to allow it in order to see how well I got along.  As soon as the temperature hit 50 (10 C), I called my friend George at his ranch outside of Benson, AZ and asked if I could visit him for a couple of days.  George was his usual welcoming self and I soon headed south taking as direct a route as possible.  The ride is just about a thousand miles each way so it should be a pretty good test of how well I am currently capable of handling a long ride.

The test ride down to Tucson

The Test Ride to Arizona was fun but a struggle

I failed the test.  I had trouble most of the time on this ride but the first and last days were perhaps the worst.  It took me several days to recover from a ride of just over 450 miles (725K).  On the ride into Colorado in 2010 I had done this distance several times but it is one of the longer daily stretches.  In any case, I did not think it should take days to recover and it did.  I pretty quickly decided to just call it quits and sell the bike.

I put it in the classified ads and listed it both on Cycle Trader.com and Craig's List.  Within a week I had an offer for the full amount I was asking and was standing in my driveway watching my beautiful  Triumph Tiger 1050 being ridden away by a complete stranger. Clutching a handful of $100 bills was little consolation.  A few minutes later I walked into the house and called Eugene.  I told him I just did not think that I was going to be able to join him on the Pyrenees ride.  Major bummer for me but I think Eugene was a bit relived. 

I think he shared some of my doubts about my ability to make it without incident but of course he was too much of a friend to try to discourage me.  

I put the money in the bank but what followed was a couple of very bad weeks.  I was quite depressed.. just could not come to grips with the fact that I had made my last ride and owned my last bike.  I generally avoid self-pity and do not have much tolerance for it in others.  The, "woe is me", finally got so bad that it even got me disgusted with myself.  Now I was feeling bad and feeling bad about feeling bad.  Not a good place to be in so I got on the computer and distracted myself by

On the 2012 ride to The Grand Tetons, Wyoming

looking to decide what new bike I would buy if my health would have allowed me to own another.  I started the search with the assumption that the "dream" bike would be the BMW 1200 GS.  The GS has been generally acknowledged as the outstanding leader among motorcycle makers in the Adventure Category.  I had looked at the GS for some years now and was convinced it lived up to its reputation as the leading bike.  I got this from articles as well as discussions with GS owners that I ran into over the years of wandering around the country.  Almost all were full of praise about the bike.  Granted almost all also commented about the high price and the unconscionable service charges but most ended up with the sentiment that if you wanted to own the best, you bought the BMW.  In recent years a couple of things have happened that have somewhat modified this adage.  One the number and quality of competing bikes targeted at the Adventure Touring segment have increased dramatically with Triumph making the most direct challenge to the 1200GS, even copying the styling so that the two bikes even look alike from a distance.  Triumph has not however walked away from its biggest strength and that is the power, reliability and performance of their 3 cylinder (triple) engine design.  For the new Tiger they stepped up to a full 1200cc size but kept the triple's high revving and smoothly powered heritage.

So even though I had the BMW in my sights for a long while, in the end it came down to a choice between the big GS and the new Triumph Explorer.  I rode both bikes and the final decision turned on the subjective quality of the experience not the objective performance.  I still think the BMW is the superior bike in terms of engineering and handling but the Tiger has a lot more power and the triple engine revs quickly to deliver it 'right now'.  The Triumph is just more fun to ride and that's what I bought.  At 135 horse power and 570 pounds, the bike just goes like hell.

I got a deal from the local dealer on last year's model which included the two hard-sided traveling bags which I wanted.  However, I would have to wait for a few weeks for them to be ordered and delivered from the Triumph factory in England.  So I had plenty of time to think about another big trip.  Even when I wrote the check for the bike, I was not completely sure I would be able to make another long-distance trip but in the end I decided I would be happier just knowing I had a bike in the garage rather than admitting that I was really, finally finished riding.  That uncertainty kept me from calling Eugene back and trying to rejoin his Pyrenees ride.  But while I was not going along, I was looking forward to following their progress via the blogs that Eugene was planning on posting along the way.

As the date for their departure got closer I got fairly excited about their prospects for a truly memorable experience.  Eugene's friend Billy knew a guy who had guided bicycle tours of Southern France for many years and he had planned the route for the ride so the guys were sure to see some really spectacular scenery and historic sites.  Eugene called me the day before their departure to let me know they were taking the ferry from Ireland to France and then heading south to the mountains.  Every following morning, I looked for an email or Google+ posting.  Nothing.  I was becoming concerned that they might have had some trouble or an accident of some sort.  This was troubling since I would have had a hard time not taking some of the blame if Eugene had been badly injured.  He most likely would not have started biking if not for my urging.  But he is a big boy and has always shown me lots of determination and courage so I thought he would be all right and he was.  After a couple of days of no communications I received a video email from the boys.

Video greeting from the boys

A Greeting Email from the road

I was so pleased the guys were doing well and enjoying themselves.  Eugene had called me to give me a heads-up on the video and explained that the Internet connections in France we simply awful so he was having to forgo attempting to blog the trip.  He did promise to keep me posted as best he could.  After talking with him I was pretty down, particularly after receiving the next picture of their stop at one of the Cathar Castles which are scattered on cliff tops and hilltops throughout this central section of southern France.

Spectacular view of the town of Rocamadour in the background

The guys were obviously having a ball and I was jealous.  At the same time, I had to admit that I most likely would not have been able to keep up with their pace and was glad I had not detracted from their enjoyment of the adventure by insisting that I go along.  I have always been interested in history and while I knew a little bit a bout the region of France's history as a result of visiting the old restored Medieval Town of Carcassone.

A walking tour of the ancient city of Carcassone

When Eugene and I were there in 2011, we only got a couple of pretty poor snapshots but the video is a professional job of showing the town.  Some people have complained that the town has been too well restored and that the fading or ruined glory feeling that the cracked mortal and split and weathered stones provide is missing.  I did not agree.  I think it is a wonderful experience to see just how the town would have looked in its prime and experience it in much the same way as residents in the Twelfth Century would have.

The Keep inside Carcassone City

Eugene's note prompted me to do some research into the Cathars.  I will not bore you with all the data but they left some very interesting castles and fortifications that even today challenged the tourist to reach in the same way it challenged the Catholic armies that were sent against them by the Popes of the time.

For you who are interested in a bit of history of the Cathars, the following link is informative.

History of the Cathar Crusades

I next heard from the boys when they were in Collioure at Eugene's beautiful vacation home.  They were taking a break from the bikes and enjoying the opportunity to play a little golf as well.  I visited Collioure with Eugene in 2011 and the great views of the southern French countryside and the sweeping Mediterranean coast are fond memories for me.

A view of Collioure Harbour from surrounding hillside 

When I was visiting, Eugene's youngest son Bevan was also in France and captured this shot of Euge and I on a bench overlooking the old Medieval Harbor of Collioure.  We were in France for only about one week but the visit is still fresh in my recollection.  

The view out of my bedroom window was also spectacular and you could just see one of the old semaphore towers that were constructed during the reign of Napoleon.  These towers covered much of France and allowed important messages to be sent from tower to tower using a sophisticated code spelled out by large wooden arms that made the signal tower look a bit like windmills perched atop the highest hills in each region.  Even though I sat patiently awaiting by the phone for another message from my friends, my desire went unrequited.  Many days after abandoning hope of hearing from the adventurers and suffered from my anxiety over their safety, I received a message from an unexpected source; the US Mail.  The following postcard came from one of their stops at the many picturesque alpine lakes in the Pyrenees.  This one "Le Lac d'Estaing" on the Spanish side of the border.  

I was very happy to hear from them and know that all was well however my pleasure was tinged with a bit of regret that I was not there to accompany them on their great adventure.

The Great Pyrenees Expedition 2014

The Great Pyrenees Expedition