Wanna Go Get A Steak?
OK, It was a sucker bait
question for sure because I KNOW Iron Man is always up for a steak…he’s like me
in that respect.
I heard once that if you get a
person to start saying “Yes” to small things you can sneak in a bigger thing
later and they will continue saying “Yes”.
“Would you like to go
for a ride on the ‘Wing?”, I asked “Yes”, was the reply.
“Would you like to have
a heated jacket for cold weather riding?” I asked “Yes” again.
“How about some
electric gloves?” , I asked “Yes, yes”.
“Would you like to
visit another GWRRA chapter, say Independence, Kansas?” I asked “Yeah”, he shot
back, impatiently.
“Would you like to go
The Big Texan for a steak?” I asked. Instead of his normally quick response,
that question was greeted with “Where’s that?”
“Amarillo, Texas” was
my reply.
Silence.
“Sure, let’s go!”
The fact that I was
asking him in late January would be a clue to a normal person; but then no
one ever accused Bill and me of being ‘normal’. Heck we are not even sure what
that is.
But I have a son who lives in
Amarillo and his birthday is February 12, it is one of my annual pilgrimages;
visit him and take him out to dinner, I thought what better way to do this than
on the ‘Wing…it had never been to Texas and everyone should go there at least
once in its lifetime.
So, the date was set, the
plans were made, now how to get there?
We anxiously watched the
weather channel trying to determine what the weather would be to see if Honda
or Toyota would take us on our great adventure. About 10 days out we began to
see the weekend of Feb 8 on the forecast and there was a promise of 60’s from
Oklahoma City south and 0% chance of rain; so 10 days out we decided to take
the bikes.
On the 9th day
out, the forecast called for rain so we decided to take the car.
On the 8th day
out, the forecast called for sunshine so we changed our minds to take the
bikes.
On the 7th day
out, the forecast called for rain again so we decided to take the car.
On the 6th day
out, the forecast called for snow so we reaffirmed our decision to take the
car.
On the 5th day
out, the forecast called for sunshine and warm temperatures so we changed our
minds to take the bikes.
On the 4th day
out, we arrived at the conclusion that we cannot count on the forecast from
weather.com and said we would wait until Friday to decide how we would go.
But, being the fools for
motorcycles that we are, we checked the forecast on Friday and the temperatures
were supposed to plunge on Sunday, down into the 20’s in most of Kansas but
were supposed to be warm for the rest of our trip.
I wish I could be wrong most of the time and still keep my job!
Friday Arrives and after a brief check with Trophy Wife
who was not feeling up to snuff at the time, I departed and headed to the Groh Psychiatric Facility and proceeded
to check Iron Man out for the weekend.
The head caretaker reminded
me of the procedures for dealing with the patient, to be sure to give regular
medication so as to help him remain calm.
I promised to do so.
I was reminded that he should
always wear a helmet when outside his safe room where the walls are soft.
That’s easy, just put him on a motorcycle because Iron Man ALWAYS wears his
helmet on the bike. That’s one less thing to deal with during what turned out
to be a grueling trip home.
It’s also important to note
that the Helmet Compression Ratio (HCR) has to be fine tuned to avoid excessive
cranial pressure if the patient is remain calm and controllable. A high HCR
results in discomfort and erratic behavior results, too low and a dangerous
situation can occur, especially if there is an accident.
The correct HCR is managed easily
by ensuring a good fit of the helmet; that’s the easy part…but leave the helmet
off too long…madness and insanity are almost inevitable. You may have found
this to be true for you as well during the winter when you don’t wear a helmet
as often.
I managed this by keeping the
patient behind the handlebars of his Gold Wing and kept it moving; I am happy
to report that there were no problems at all. Just keep him moving most of the
time with only brief rest and refreshment stops.
To accomplish the correct
pressure meant keeping Iron Man on a motorcycle as much as possible during his
furlough from the facility. It required that we move about 1,200 miles over the
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8, 9 and 10 February on a motorcycle.
But no sacrifice is too great
for Iron Man! He’s my best good friend and worth the effort.
Honda of Chanute
Iron Man bought his ‘Wing at this dealership and had I known
about them, I would also. It was with dismay that the dealers around Kansas
City seemed reluctant to have anything to do with me when I tried to buy a
‘Wing. I was happy to visit a dealership that seemed to actually want my
business and who took pride in their products.
We stopped by Chanute to visit the dealership I had heard so much about, it was
about 4PM on Friday afternoon and as we drove up to the building. At first
glance it looks like a small building for a motorcycle store but it was
complete with all the Honda logos and signs on the windows and outside.
BUT STEP INSIDE and you find
a dizzying array of motorcycles that I found overwhelming at first. There must
have been 150 motorcycles on the floor, about 10 Gold Wings, 5-6 in Champion
Trike configurations for about $27,000. The prices were great, the selection
was awesome and we were told they have 35 other Gold Wings in crates but not
enough showroom floor to display them.
Of course, they have a
gorgeous Titanium trike sitting on the floor which drew my attention
immediately. I spent almost 10 minutes alternatively admiring the bike and
trying to help Iron Man pronounce “Ti-tan-ium”.
Finally the sales guy came over to investigate and asked if he could help…I
told him I was just there for a visit and would like to look around some more,
would he please help Iron Man try to pronounce the color of my bike while I
browsed.
He seemed all too happy to
help and stepped over to chat while I slipped away to take in the rest of the
store. Turns out he owned a Titanium colored ‘Wing too!
I returned about 20 minutes
later and unfortunately there was not much luck in the speech therapy. About
that time, a young man from the service department walked, listened intently
then suddenly disappeared and then reappeared with an HCR adjustment tool. A
minor tweak to the helmet and as sure as I am sitting here, Bill actually was
able to perfectly pronounce Titanium.
It was a miracle.
We celebrated, the news
reporters from the Chanute Daily Bugle arrived upon hearing the news and
were flashing so many pictures I am still seeing spots!
After pulling himself away
from the reporters, we noticed that the News Choppers from Kansas City, Tulsa,
Oklahoma City, Joplin and Iola, KS were circling overhead trying to get good
aerial shots of the mob that was thronging the Honda shop hoping to get a
glimpse of Iron Man actually pronouncing the word “Titanium”.
It was about that time we decided to slip out the back and head to our
rendezvous with Chapter “E” in Independence.
It was the proudest moment of
my life; Bill FINALLY was able to say something besides ‘gray’.
Independence, KS
Iron Man and I arrived in town and drove thru looking for
lodging for the night; during the brief ride down, he had been practicing the
word “Titanium” so as to impress the Chapter “E” membership.
I was secretly hoping that he
would not demonstrate his new found ability because I was getting tired and a
little chilled. If word got out around Independence, there is no telling what
would happen.
As we rode into town, we were
taken by the size of the cemetery in town, it did not seem as though a town
that size would require a cemetery that must
Suddenly as we were riding along checking out the cemetery, Iron Man hit a
small bump in the road which dislodged his helmet. The HCR came out of adjustment
and sadly, he lost the ability to pronounce the Titanium, a condition which
remains true today. It is not for lack of trying that he cannot say the
word.
The determination in his eyes
as he struggles with the multi-syllabic word is awe inspiring…we are sure that
another visit to Honda of Chanute holds promise.
It brought tears to my eyes
to see the disappointed look on his face when I pointed to my Gold Wing and
said, “OK, Bill, what color is my motorcycle?”
“Primer”, was all he
could utter, tears welling in his eyes; the exuberant luster that once filled
his eyes at the excitement from spectacular accomplishment…sadly, now gone.
It was a sad day indeed.
But sadness aside, we met
some really nice people at the Chapter “E” meeting; Tom and Linda made
us feel right at home and we enjoyed meeting the folks in Independence.
A Small World
I was seated across from a couple who turned out to be Darrell & Phyllis Roberts; Darrell’s initials, “DR” have earned
him the nick name of “Doc”; so I will refer to him as such. Doc was wearing a
vest with a patch from Ft Walton Beach, FL; which is nearby my hometown of
Panama City.
Since this appeared to
be someone from God’s Country (Trophy Wife agrees that it’s God’s Country
because She is the only one who wants it) I had to ask if he knew a cousin of
mine who rides a ‘Wing and lives around Ft Walton; sure enough, Doc does know
some of my family.
It just goes to show, you never know who you will run into; I hope to ride with
Doc and his lovely wife one day soon.
We had a nice meeting with
the folks in Independence and afterwards moved on down the road the Super 8 to
turn in for the night.
Upon arriving at the
hotel, the friendly staff greeted us and set us up in a room with a couple
of queen sized beds for the night. We watched in horror as the TV behind the
lady who checked us in was replaying the aerial shots taken earlier in the day.
Fortunately, she did not see the mêlée on the TV or we would have been crowded
around by another mob and we were tired.
CNN had somehow gotten the
footage from one of the local news choppers which had caught our departure on
tape; CNN had highlighted the footage and zoomed in on it clearly showing Iron
Man’s Illusion Blue motorcycle as it accelerated smoothly on the road heading
south toward Independence.
I can still see the picture
of our motorcycles driving out of the picture and the image fading to black and
the words “WHERE IS IRON MAN NOW?” appeared as the sounds and picture
disappeared.
We quietly went upstairs to
bed, turned off the TV and hoped no one would recognize us.
The next morning, we left
under the cover of darkness to avoid being recognized and thronged by Iron
Man’s admiring on-lookers.
The ride down thru Oklahoma
was nice, crisp and cool but the heated gloves and vests made the difference.
We had purchased the electric gear from Bob at Powersports for Less in Spring
Hill who always has a friendly smile and access to just about anything you
would want at the best price you will find.
Bill had gotten the gloves
and vest, I got only the gloves and while the gloves did keep my hands much
warmer than they would have been otherwise, I was disappointed at their
performance and I would not recommend them for a couple of reasons:
1.
The design left wires dangling all around to get entangled with;
not only were they unsightly but it was dangerous as well.
2.
These gloves only heated the 4 fingers; call me weird, most of
you do…but I want my THUMB to be warm too. In fact, I only have two of ‘em and
I’ve grown kinda fond of them.
So, do yourself a favor and
if you are in the market for gloves, be sure they heat ALL the digits on your
hand…unless you don’t care about your thumbs in which case I guess you can
disregard this whole paragraph.
Oklahoma City
Same for the 9-11 bombings; you should see the movie “In Plane Site”; makes you
wonder what is going on in these United States.
If you know me, you know that I typically take a whimsical view of life but it
is hard to make light of the fact that the lives of so many innocent children
were snuffed out with no regard for the promise that life held for them.
The pain and suffering of those who survived must be tremendous but probably
pales in comparison to that of the families who lost small children at the
hands of terrorists.
It saddens me to think about it but you should visit if you have not
already; and that’s all I have to say about that.
Radiator Springs
If you are familiar with the move “Cars”, you know what I am
talking about when I mention that name.
We had to stop for a picture; you might recognize this building as Ramone’s
Body Shop from the movie.
I call this a delightful
coincidence; life seems to be filled with those for me. I hope you have lots of
those in your life too.
If you are NOT familiar with
this delightful movie, you obviously don’t have grandsons like mine that obsess
about movies like this so much that you get to watch it over and over and
over….
Personally, I loved the movie for the first 30 or 40 viewings with the grand
sons, so I was delighted
Since we were in a bit of a hurry, we rode along the Interstate
dodging big trucks to arrive at the largest grouping of truck stops that exists
in the US; Amarillo!
This is the home of the Quarter Horse and an eccentric millionaire named
Stanley Marsh who does things with his money.
You should go there if you
pass thru on I-40…there will likely be a can of paint sittin’ around waiting
for you to paint your name on one of the cars.
Amarillo is also the home of
the Big Texan where if you can eat the 72 ounce steak in an hour it’s free.
I am not all that smart but I
am smart enough to not even try this!
I love to come here when I go visit my son; I guess the locals have been there
enough that they bypass it for more out of the way spots but it’s neat. They
have this huge rocking chair that Iron Man and I sat in together, their gift
store has tons of memorabilia that I was able to resist getting and since I am
a fan of snakes, they have their own pet rattlesnake.
If you just felt your skin crawl
because I like snakes then you obviously have not really considered our
slithering friends!
The best mousers in the
world, if rattlers did not exist, I guess we would be overrun by the little
rodents; and talk about a survivor!! EVERY other creature on earth tries to
kill them or at least get away from them. One would think they are at a
tremendous disadvantage since they lack legs but they use this disadvantage to
make them one of the most powerful predators in the reptile world.
On August 22, 1992, I was
walking across my brother’s yard late one night and stepped on a water
moccasin, or so the doctor thought; it was dark and I did not see it and
stepped on him which ticked him right off as you might imagine.
The Big Texan has a pet rattler, which you cannot pet but you can visit thru
the glass; they feed him once a week so if you are around during that time, you
can witness the lightning fast reflexes they have.
But we did not go there for
the snakes but for the steaks!
Being on a bit of diet I tried
to avoid most of the over eating part but being my son’s birthday, I did
splurge a little.
The food is great and it’s a bit of a cultural event to go there so if you are
passing thru, stop in; they have chicken too in case you are one of those that
does not eat beef.
Sunday Morning
We planned to leave Sunday morning and head back to KC, the 520
mile route that the GPS laid out was one I had never been on. We expected that
we would have nice weather at least thru Oklahoma according to the weather guessers.
What liars they turned out to be!
We left in 37 degree weather
and little did we know that would be the HIGH for the day. It was dark as we
pulled out onto the road and headed home down US-60. As the sun rose, so arose
the promise of warmer air; which never arrived. Although the sun did feel
warmer on my glove the ambient temperature (as reported by the thermometer on
the ‘Wing) never got up any warmer than 32 all day. While cold, the sun did
have some kind of psychological effect on us; at least on me.
Even without the vest, I was
layered with 2 sweatshirts, or shiverin’ shirts as I call ‘em now. Bill was in
his electric vest and made mention of the warm air that came out of his jacket
from time to time. My only problem was that my toes where very cold; even as a
small kid in Florida on the cold days, they would hurt and my cold days in the
army did not help any I’m sure.
Bill usually leads when
we go somewhere but since this was my trip, he followed me.
And complained about one
thing or another all along the way.
Usually about my cruise
control.
He said I was varying
my speed up and down a lot but without my hand on the throttle, I did not see
how; still we have evidence that the cruise control on my bike has
‘issues’.
We go toward the eastern part
of the panhandle of Texas on US-60 and saw some of the most beautiful country I
have ever seen in that state. Typically we would stop and take pictures but the
temperatures were in the 30’s and my fingers were in a warm glove and did not
want to come out manage a camera, so you will have to go there for
yourself.
Besides the picture would not
do the scenery justice; as you know no camera can compete with God’s handiwork.
As we drove thru the
valleys, the layers of the soil deposited over the eons is now exposed in
alternating layers of red with white veins of clay running thru the now eroding
landscape. It was simply so beautiful that it defies description using words.
Another thing that struck me
was the trains passing by; these were intermodal trains such as we see around
KC; I measured one that was stopped as we drove by and it was over a mile and a
half long.
The neat thing about it was that you could see the whole thing; reminded me of
the Doobie Brothers song, “Long Train Running”. It certainly was a long train
and pretty neat to watch pass by.
FOG
While the sun was out, I was OK, as we came into Oklahoma, we
encountered a thick fog and cloud covering which lowered the temperature a
couple of degrees. The drop in temperature was not so noticeable but I did
notice how my spirits dropped at the prospect of driving another 400 miles in
that kind of weather.
We got lots of “you are out of your mind” looks when we stopped for gas; as the
temperature dropped though, we rode on draining a tank at a time without
stopping.
Each time we stopped, Bill
insisted that we get a cup of coffee and make faces at the people who passed by
in wonderment at the motorcycles that were out on a day like that.
Personally, if I could have
found a U-Haul dealer with a truck, we would have been in the cab in short
order with the bikes tied down somehow. But, sadly, there are not a lot of
those to be had in rural Oklahoma.
It’s true that misery loves
company…we were (or at least I was) pretty cold and it was nice to have someone
around to talk with and mention that only somebody who lives in a mental
institution would try a ride like that. But if you have the right gear the ride
is not bad at all.
Home Sweet Home
We got home around 6 after a few stops and Trophy Wife made me
two cups of hot tea; one for each foot and soon I was warmed back up and back
to my old self. I think I shivered off a pound or two on the ride back as my
body struggled to maintain the core temperature.
All in all, it was worth the
trip, my son is getting older fast; but I don’t seem to be getting older
at all?
He is 34 as of the day that I am writing this (2/12/08) and I cannot believe
how time passes so quickly and here you’ve wasted all this time reading this
dribble, you really need to get a life! ;)
So, I will leave you with
this advice; please send your check for what you think it’s worth!
1. Always ride with a friend; especially one
that likes to laugh as much as you do.
2. If
you ride in the cold and buy gloves, be sure it warms the thumb too.
3. If
you have kids, be sure they are born in May or June because February is a
mighty cold month to visit them on a motorcycle!
Life is short, ride
often!
Jim “Primer” Tadlock &
Bill “Iron Man” Groh