Home at last, Sick again

Last night when I arrived home, I noticed the Omerga3 fish oil capsules were soft and sticky, so I threw them in the frig to firm up. Took one in the morning with breakfast, two hours later was violently vomiting. After the fourth vomit episode, wife called 911. They checked my vitals, all were fine, even good. Said I just had to get it out of my system. Not much a hospital could do, except wait it out.

By the end of the day, had vomited eight times and constant diarrhea. Lost three pounds of body weight. Boy am I glad this happened at home instead of on the road somewhere. Now I realize what had made me sick in Oregon, was not the Chinese food, but the fermented omega3 pill I had taken that morning.

From the beginning, I had been carrying the omega3 and peanut butter in the top case on the back of the sidecar. In the hot sun, the temperatures easily exceeded 120 degrees in that case. Cooking, or in this case fermenting, whatever was in there.

My beautiful, patient wife of forty years / nursemaid took great care of me. Hope to be back to normal food soon.

Enough of that. Not food poisoning after all, but stupid rider error!!!!!

Well, this particular great adventure is over. Now for the writing and publishing.

 

When we left Texas back on May 19th there were 3188 kms on Da'mit. As we pulled into the driveway back home on July 31rst, Da'mit registered 24,464 kms. Da'mit and I rode together for 21,276 kms, or 13,220 miles over two and a half months. We saw some fantastic sights, visited 20 states and three Canadian provinces, met some wonderful friendly people, had an adventure or two, rode the Alaska Maritime Highway, saw some parts of the United States that were more beautiful than anticipated, took over 2000 photos, visited the southern most, the northern most and the western most points of the continental United States, posted 68 times to the blog and experienced what many only dream of doing.

Oh, we made Ural history and checked off yet another item from the ole bucket list

There will be time to review what worked well, what was okay and what will be deleted from future rides. Some things need to be upgraded and others were excess baggage, better left at home.

Thank you for following along with our travels and stories. Your comments and compliments were what kept the blog going when we just wanted to sleep at the end of an exhausting day.

Da'mit is waiting for a good cleaning and bath. She deserves it after serving me so well on this trek.

This is not the end. There will be other adventures with Da'mit. You can rest assured of that.

Nite Da'mit,

Nite all.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Austin and beyond

The weather forecast was for another 100+ degree day, so we were up and riding by 5 am, trying to get as many miles in before it became unbearable.

The plan was to reach Austin by late afternoon, have dinner with our son Sergio and his girlfriend Amanda. Spend the night there and travel on Thursday.

Da'mit motored on strongly and we were in Austin by early afternoon. So the three of us met for a pleasant lunch together.

Decided to get out of Austin before the heavy rush hour traffic started and try for home. Only 134 miles away at Ural speed... in 103 degree heat. We would stop every so often to wet down the neck scarf and bandana.

Arriving home to the surprise of my wife who thought I was spending the night in Austin. Was exhausted from the heat and miles ridden today, so slept soundly.

No photos today as the camera's battery died a slow death.

Tomorrow the adventure, or misadventure continues....

Da'mit is safely at rest inside her own stable tonight, for the first time in two and a half months of being on the road.

Sleep well Da'mit,

Nite all.

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Four Legged Trouble

It is Tuesday morning, Da'mit is packed and we are ready to ride again. Up early we hit the road only to encounter indecisive trouble before we are out of town.

Slow down, will she cross in front of us or turn around to run the other way.

She decides she has the right of way, so I yield to her crossing. She acts calm so probably will not make any sudden changes in her direction of travel. Still I watch her until she is off the roadway. We have had no close encounters with wild game on the roadway so far on this trip, so for our last couple of days on the road is not the time to start playing chicken with wildlife.

Leaving Angel Fire, the sun slowly creeps across the timberline awakening a new day.

We take a little traveled gravel road over the mountains from Black Lake to Ocate, then to Wagon Mound. Before Wagon Mound we have another encounter with the four legged road hazards.

Can you see it on the roadway? It's a pronghorn antelope outside of a pasture. Which is unusual as they don't normally jump fences, unlike whitetail and mule deer.

It moves off into the tall grass, so we should be safe.

Now the pronghorn starts running ahead of us along the fence line ahead of us, looking for a way to escape a noisy contraption coming after it.

Not finding a hole in the fence, he cuts across the roadway directly in front of us. This is why one slows down when encountering wildlife along the sides of the road. They become nervous and unpredictable.

Cutting across, he enters the tall grass on the other side, and...

races along that fence line.

With one hand on the brake and the other on the clutch, we motor along slowly waiting and watching to see where he will go next. Pulling along side, he reverses direction and is now running away in the opposite direction behind us.

Motoring up we continue out journey across New Mexico: Wagon Mound - Roy and the grasslands, Logan and Clovis, finally crossing into Texas.

Arriving in Lubbock, we seek out the Ural dealer to say hello. Smokey owns Wildfire Motorcycles, a fast and upcoming Ural dealership in West Texas. We visit about Urals, Alaska and making a trip of a lifetime until their closing time.

As with most people I met around my age, we talk of our bucket lists. Making the time to finally start checking things off, or adding new items to it. Time waits for no man. Sometimes you just have to swing a leg over the saddle and do it. A sad delusion is thinking there will always be tomorrow, until one day you awake to find all your tomorrows are gone. If you are not living today, then when will you?

Was able to put another 80kms on Da'mit before landing in Post, Texas for the night. Now there might be some really great things to say about Post, Texas, but I was not able to find them tonight.

After getting a room at the "Deluxe Inn". Turned on the window AC unit to cool things off before retiring. Walked five blocks to the BBQ place, to be told they are closed on Tuesdays. Walked back, then walked to the supermarket next door hoping they had a deli department or fresh... something. Again disappointed.

Could see a McD's across the street but was hoping for something more family style. Walked back to the Inn. Uncovering Da'mit, we rode to the edge of town looking for a place to dine. The only place open was George's Diner. Sign outside said BBQ. Was hot and dry after the ride today, waitress informs me the town is dry. I.e. they do not sell cold beer, nor does anyone else in town. Okay, iced tea. Ordered the Sliced Brisket plate with potato salad and beans.

As anyone who has traveled in extremely hot dry weather knows, the last thing you want to eat in anything greasy or fatty. Pulling the bread aside that was covering the brisket, were three thick slices of the fattiest, most grease marbled pieces of meat you could imagine. Floating on top of the beans was another layer of grease. Sending the plate back, I asked for something lean, not fried. Waitress said that was all they had.

After yet another misadventure trying to find a meal in Post, resigned myself to eating at McD's. At least the grilled chicken wrap with fresh veggies was not dripping grease and fat. And the cold banana strawberry fruit smoothie satisfied my thirst.

Nite Da'mit,

Nite all.

 

Posted with Blogsy