Bob Duffey and the Purple Van

After camping on the outskirts of Las Cruces, I rode ten miles into town at about 7:00 in the morning to grab breakfast. An older gentleman named Ed asked me about my rig, and we talked for a while about motorcycle touring and land sailing (he was wearing a land sailing shirt). He was there to have breakfast with two friends, Bob and Ana Duffey, who are also motorcycle tourists. I joined them at their table and told them about the three flat tires I had had in the last 50 miles; apparently Southern New Mexico is notorious for goatheads, which had indeed been causing all of my flats.

I had a slow leak in my rear tire as I ate breakfast that I didn't really want to fix with a hand pump only to go two miles to the bike shop. Bob asked if I would like to load my rig into his van so that he could take me over so that I would not have to get directions to the place or use my hand pump. After breakfast, we said goodbye to Ed and headed to the van.

Bob's van is something is like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo gone wild. It is from the 1970s, has over 500,000 miles on it over three engines, and is COMPLETELY purple. The exterior paint, the upholstery, the steering wheel cover, and even the bean bag chair in the back are purple. The carpet and the rims are purple. Bob likes purple.

After fixing the flat, the temperatures were soaring. Bob and Ana asked me if I would like to join them for lunch, and we went back to their house, which I was curious about after riding in the van. It didn't let me down.

Bob's house is completely devoted to motorcycles. He won the 1977 CBS Sports Spectacular World Championship Motorcycle Jumping Competition by jumping his motorcycle over rows of cars to land on a target. He held the record for the fastest quarter mile ever ridden on a motorcycle: backwards. In his front room his two stunt bikes sat behind velvet cord, and his purple motorcycle leathers with "Bob Duffey" emblazoned on them hung on the wall. There were thousands of miniature motorcycle replicas, motorcycle posters covering ever inch of every wall, and in the bathroom the Hot and Cold taps had been replaced with piston heads, and the water spout was an exhaust pipe. Bob loves motorcycles.

We watched grainy old videos of when Bob became the first man to jump over a helicopter with the rotors spinning. We watched the 1977 CBS coverage. When looking through photo albums, every single picture had a motorcycle in the scene, and many times the subject was riding the bike.

Bob didn't recall time so much in years as much as by the motorcycle he owned at the time, or else how it related to the 1977 jump competition. 1977 might as well have been Year 0 of the Bob calendar; everything else was either "Before Competition" or "After Domination". Bob's pictures can be seen here:


Bob helped me box my bike and trailer for the bus ride home the next day. Just as Bob had chosen to measure his life by what motorcycle he owned or how it related to his "big jump", I had decided to listen to what I see as omens. For one thing, Texas was blisteringly hot. My last three days I had averaged over 100 miles per day, which meant I was racing the heat instead of enjoying the ride. I wanted very much to be home for Mother's Day, and could just make it if I got on a bus the following morning. All of my friends were finishing school at the University of Nevada, and I looked forward to spending my summer with them. The time was right.

I'm camping on the outskirts of Las Cruces looking down on the city tonight!

I started at about noon and am in Deming. The tail wind is very strong and there is a chance i will make it to las cruces, otherwise i'll camp out!

Silver City, New Mexico!

As my last post stated, I rode a grade-A tailwind out of Safford, AZ yesterday for about 10-15 miles before setting up camp for the night a little ways away from the road.

I woke up early with the sun this morning. I was up at six and took about an hour to pack up; Clayton had kindly told me as I departed about Arizona's aggressive "killer bee" population, and I spent about 15 minutes actually packing and 45 minutes running in sporadic circles every time something buzzed within 50 feet of me. I packed up wearing only my boxers and shoes, so this must have looked pretty freakin' insane if someone were to look over from the highway.

The wildlife in this area is amazingly dense, and because the roads are not often traveled the animals tend to come close to the road. As I ride, I hear constant scurrying away from the road through the bushes. I happened to see a coyote at about 150 yards, and stopped to take a picture. He looked at me and howled. I howled back. He howled a return. This call-and-return continued for the better part of three minutes until HE got bored and wandered off.

I rode about 120 miles today, with a whole lot of vertical. There was a total of one mini mart between Safford and Silver City, so I figured I better make it pretty far. I crossed a State Line, a Time Zone, and the Continental Divide today. All in all it was a great day but by far the hardest I've had thus far. To reward myself I am staying in a motel tonight, and will probably get a slow start tomorrow. Cheers!

In silver city new mexico, more to come

Safford, AZ

I got into Safford, Arizona around two o'clock and have been doing some errands. I might ride on, but there is about a 50/50 chance I will stay here tonight! There is not much between here and Silver City except mountains...

I'm in Globe, Arizona and will be staying about eight miles down the road at a campground on the indian reservation tonight.

A Bee in my Bun-net

I left Wickenburg riding solo once again. The ride into the Scottsdale/Cave Creek area had some interesting events, but I was so well rested and fed from the night before that I hardly minded. While I was riding on the wide shoulder of a fairly busy highway, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my left buttocks. It continued to grow stronger and stronger as I slammed on the brakes and pulled to the side of the road, tearing my Spandex shorts down and exposing myself to the Greater Phoenix area. As soon as my shorts were down, a bee whizzed off into the sagebrush. How he got in there is beyond me, but I had to ride in a slightly different position for the remainder of the trip.

About twenty miles down the road from the bee, I passed a sign that read No Hitch Hiking: Prison Area. Not a second after I thought about how ironic it would be for me to get a flat in that area, I heard the surefire "pop" and felt my rear tire deflate. 30 feet beyond the sign, I had to take off my trailer, pop off the rear tire, and change the tube as highway travelers no doubt considered the likelihood of a prisoner using this clever ploy to hitchhike into town and terrorize Phoenix.

When I got near the house, I got my hair cut. Clayton saw me riding in as he was driving out, and Shelly had everything I would need waiting for me in a guest bedroom, complete with a plethora of throw pillows.

At dinner, I FINALLY got to meet my Dad's Aunt Barb! Dad has always told me about his Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb who lived off of the Sea of Cortez and enjoy everything Baja California has to offer. I was very sad to hear that Uncle Dave passed away last summer; I heard nothing but good things about him and would have liked very much to meet him.

After dinner, I worked for what felt like endless hours trying to load pictures and write up my Blog from Wickenburg. Marissa came home late from preparing for her last finals before graduating from ASU (President Obama is speaking at their graduation!), and we had a nice opportunity to catch up and chat.

Today we had breakfast, took Beau and Happy to the dog park, met up with my cousin Matthew, had a delicious dinner at Clayton's house and took a quick dip in the pool. It has been a very restful day. I'm going to wake up early and work with Clayton before getting on the road towards the East by late morning. Thank you Barb, Shelly, and Clayton for all of the hospitality I've received while in the Phoenix area!

Nobody Knows It but Me"

This is a Patrick O'Leary poem read by actor James Garner... I really like it a lot but it happened to appear in a Chevy Tahoe commercial that I didn't really care to display on my blog. I changed up the code of the YouTube embedded video so it shows pretty much just the play button, which you can click to hear the audio. I hope it works!

Pictures!

At long last I have added pictures to my Blog! You can find them at the bottom of each post, or watch the slide show at the following address:

http://tinyurl.com/trevorschroniclepictures

A Desert Rose

Jesse and I pulled into Wickenburg, Arizona early yesterday afternoon on what would be our last day of riding together before he headed North towards New York and I continue East towards wherever I am going.

As we set our bikes against the side of a Safeway to get our bearings and a bite to eat, we were greeted by John and Rose, a couple loading a massive amount of groceries onto a wagon. We greeted the couple, and Rose was ecstatic to hear what Jesse and I were doing. She told us how good she felt when she walked to and from the grocery store, and how she couldn't understand how anyone could drive in a car when it felt so nice to be out exercising and enjoying the day. She offered to let us take a shower at their home. We gratefully accepted, and she gave me directions to their condo nearby. They departed and we gourged on our snacks.

Jesse didn't feel like staying in a pay campground, so we got directions to a good spot to camp outside of the town. After talking to a kind veteran who almost certainly had Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, we headed to the house to shower.

We were greeted by John and entered into a cool, air conditioned room adorned with little knick knacks and counters still covered with the recently purchased groceries. The condo was small, no more than 1000 square feet, and it felt very comfy. After a quick paper-rock-scissors tournament, Jesse took the first shower as I talked to Rose and John in the living room.

John works for a traveling carnival and had just returned from a long event in Tucson. They had spent the day going back and forth from the grocery store (twice) to load up on food and supplies for his homecoming. Rose quickly offered to let us do our laundry, have dinner with them, and spend the night if we weren't riding straight through. I talked to Jesse when he came out, and we were both more than happy to spend a night indoors and away from the riverbed the veteran had gravely warned us about.

After my shower John, Jesse and I took Stoney (the dog) for a walk through the desert with a couple cold beers and pellet guns to keep things interesting. John told us about various aspects of "The Show," including his time spent as the guinea pig for the 5-story slide when it had been set up incorrectly... Laughter ensued.

When we got back Rose had prepared an immaculate spread for dinner. For the second time that day I ate until it hurt. We were supposed to watch a movie but Jesse passed out in his lounge chair not two minutes after sitting down in it. John and I had already seen the movie, so we decided against it and he wandered off to take care of something. I pulled up a stool in the kitchen, where Rose was cleaning up after dinner (I offered to help, but she flat refused.)

It was at this point that I found out why Rose had had a glint in her eye and a special smile on her face when she had talked about walking to the grocery store earlier that day. She told me that after surviving a bout with cancer, she had "blossomed" up to 600 pounds from never leaving the house. She had since lost nearly 400 pounds from exercise and diet, and said she felt like she was living again after having given up.

Jesse had mentioned earlier that he was riding to Cedar City, Utah. Rose had mentioned her mother grew up in Cedar City, a town in Southern Utah with a strong Mormom community. Rose had grown up with this same devout Mormon upbringing, and continues to practice and live her life in keeping with the LDS faith. She did her mission in a Spanish speaking country after graduating with a Law degree from Yale, and following her mission continued living in Barcelona and practicing International Law. She had been a partner in Baker and McKenzie, a major international law firm, prior to having cancer.

She had met John only seven years ago, after beating cancer for the second time. Across the street from the hospital room where she underwent treatment, John had been working a carnival; neither of them realized until they began dating years later. She told me how lonely she was when John was on the road, but that he had been tireless after leaving the show a few years back and it was her who had convinced him to return to it. Although it made her lonely, she was happy to see him feel fulfilled again.

More than anything, she talked about how grateful she was. She said that although they lived humbly, she wouldn't have it any other way and that she appreciated the life she had been given. I thought again of Grandpa Ringler, a child of the Great Depresssion who would have fully appreciated the two trailers-worth of food in Rose's pantry.

Rose and I talked until I couldn't hold myself awake on my stool any longer. I sank into the warm bed John and Rose had made up for me, and I felt incredibly lucky to be where I was.



John, Me and Jesse armed to the teeth!

Hope, Arizona

I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning and decided to write a post. There isn't much else to do in Hope, an RV park abandoned by snowbirds (retired people with RVs escaping the cold) in search of cooler climate! I've been travelling the last two days with Jesse from New York, which has been a pleasent change of pace from riding alone. I crossed over the Colorado River into Arizona today, moving across the desert at a solid clip. Yesterday I rode through the Algodones sand dunes and the equally barren Chocolate Mountains. "The House of the Rising Sun" came to mind, and by the end of the day my brain felt a little fried from the sun despite having plenty of food and water; I started talking to myself, and when I finally came to the Colorado River late in the afternoon I exclaimed out loud "Shit, it's the Colorado!" to no one in particular. At this point I opted out of the addtional 20 miles I was considering.

The temperature at its zenith has been around 94 degrees, and I've started to wear a long sleeve semi reflective shirt and large brimmed hat to keep the sun off me. It looks like an outfit my Dad picked out; needless to say I look like a dweeb but I'm not getting burned!

I'm finding it harder and harder to continue on not because it is physically challenging, but because there is so much going on in Reno I look forward to. I passed highway 95 today, the most direct route back to Reno. I will fight another day under this sun.

Also, the Eddie Vedder song "Hard Sun" is great to listen to while sitting in a comfy chair in a cool room reminiscing over time spent toiling in the desert, but listening to it in the middle of the afternoon while riding through a sand dune might have killed a piece of my soul. More soon, possibly from Phoenix!


Doesn't this look inviting?


Dweeb Garb