If you’re waiting for blogs from me on the Three Flags Classic and updates on the RX4, you won’t get them. I dropped out before I even started. I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter, but that’s what I did on this one.
It came down to this: I’ve been on the road for the last two months nearly nonstop and I needed a break. I am not doing a very good job at being retired, and the travel just got to a point where it was overwhelming. I had a consulting gig with a large agricultural firm in Colorado, then it was more expert witness work (analysis and a deposition), a trip back east for my 50th high school reunion (that was a lot of fun, but it was another week of travel), a trip to Seattle for a friend’s wedding (lots of fun there, but yet another week of travel), a couple of runs up the coast to be with grandkids (more fun, but again, more travel), and on and on it goes. I don’t think I’ve been home more than two or three days in a row in the last two months.
Three Flags for me would have involved a full day on the motorcycle in 100-degree weather to get to Mexico today, a 681-mile motorcycle day tomorrow starting at 3:30 a.m. to get from San Luis Rio Colorado (in Mexico) to Cedar City (in Utah) through 110-degree weather on a holiday weekend, and another 1500 miles of riding to get to Canada over the next week. And then another 2200 miles or so to get back to southern California. It would be two more weeks on the road.
Baja John was going to ride with me, but when he considered the distances and the temperatures and the timing, he decided not to go. When Joe Gresh heard I wasn’t going, he thought about taking my place, but after an initial burst of wanting to go he came to the same conclusion as John did. Those two guys are smarter than me. What was I missing? At what point in your life do you decide you need to stop and smell the roses for a bit? At what point do you say: Hey, I made a decision that was too hasty and I need to reverse it?
For me, that point was yesterday. There’s nothing wrong with the RX4 motorcycle (in fact, it’s a great bike and the new ones are in port waiting to clear Customs now) and there’s nothing wrong with the 3FC19 ride. The timing’s just not right for me. I know I’m disappointing a few people with this decision, but I’m also pleasing a few people, and I’m one of them.
Good for you, Joe. Sounds like a rational reason, and you’ll be fresher (and wittier) after a recharge. Looking forward to more news on the RX4 whenever you get to it, and more gun blogs!
Too bad. But then again what’s an RX4 ? A Mazda rotary ?
It’s the new CSC 450cc ADV bike.
Congrats on the correct decision.
Your life and your family aways come first Joe and you make great reading news about guns and motorcycles you will never please the whole world. P.S. but you know blue is faster jajaja. And yes 3 digits weather is no good. Smart move .
Being retired means you’ve given your all for the team and all that, but, when it’s for you, you’re supposed to slow down , smell the roses along the way, and stop often and frequently, rest and enjoy, not keeping the stress level topped out. Unwind my friend, do nothing. Enjoy. You deserve it
Thanks, Duane.
Smart decision!
I was looking forward to another adventure that I could vicariously experience by you taking it! However, you need to watch out for yourself and do what you think is best for you! I’m sure that you will come up with some other adventure to entertain us guys and I for one am looking forward to it! So take a little time to recharge your batteries and think about what you’re going to be doing next
Its your deal so you gotta play it your way. Besides, it’ll give you some time to start writing all those columns about writing for Easyriders. Oh man, I’m just waiting!!! BTW – your article on the Indian 741 for Motorcycle Classics was a Duesi . And your right about Planes of Fame , or as we call it , Mecca . I’ve been known to spend a little time with a B-17 myself but thats another story.
If you see a nice bar, and you don’t feel that you have the time to stop in for a beer, then you’re either on the wrong kind of ride or you haven’t truly retired yet.
Put me in the disappointed column, although I do understand the timing. The last time we rode together, I was chasing your RX-3 for part of the 5,000 miles at 8,000 rpm. My friend, Jack, was hoping you’d sign his copy of Destinations, now he’s an inconsolable mess. Well, he is a little disappointed.
Enjoy your rest period, as the rest of us 3FC19’s spot away on the highways and biways in intolerable heat.
Have a great ride, George, and be safe.
Riding a bike on a “forced march” in that kind of heat is miserable. We purchased our Ultra Classic from a friend in N. E. Tennessee last September and rode hard all the way back to Colorado in triple digit temps and triple digit humidity levels. Pure misery. I think we only survived thanks to some very generous friends who put us up in Eureka Springs for a couple of nights of R&R from the road.
I hear you, Brother. China was high heat and humidity once we came down off the Tibetan plateau, but we were covering much shorter daily distances (typically around 200 miles per day). We did about 400 miles through that kind of heat on the first day of the Western America Adventure Ride through the Mojave Desert and it was rough. I think the worst one was the CSC 150 ride through southern Baja in September, the hottest month of the year in Baja. We had triple digit temps, high heat, it was day after day riding through that zone because one of the riders was holding us back (if the bikes weren’t owned by CSC I might have dropped his butt), and you couldn’t generate enough speed on the 150s to get cool. In a headwind, we topped out around 38 mph.
It’s called WISDOM !!
Yours is working!
Have to admit I’m a bit disappointed, because I was looking forward to hearing about the ride.
But, I can’t really argue with the logic. That’s a lot of riding just to be able to ride somewhere else, all during the worst time of the year, heat-wise.