HOW LONG have I been here? Five days? Six? It feels weird to not be moving.
It’s a good house, has a good feel to it. Even empty, and in the dead of night. I emailed John, the owner, to ask whether there’s a mischievous ghost in the house, a joker who likes to hide things. This was after two days of hunting for my coffee cup.
I awoke in the wee hours that night, as if to a phantom tap on my shoulder, and suddenly had the clearest memory of having stuck my cup in the microwave to heat it, never went back.
It was good to be here for a bit, and John was happy to have the house occupied, even briefly. He’s been working at a power plant up north since April, won’t be back until September.
I definitely got some recharge sleep while roosting here. Couldn’t bring myself to sleep in a bed, though. Got a lot of riding and sleeping on the ground ahead. I sacked out on the couch.
At least it wasn’t the floor. I like the floor for keeping in traveling trim.
Yeah yeah, I know, why turn every place you go into the Château d’If? Well, to not get soft, that’s why. It’s a daily battle here in luxury-loving America.
Saw this sign near Denali. The “For your convenience” caught my eye.
Follow this line of reasoning and it’s tough to make the case for going anywhere at all, let alone a wild place. Surely all the modern conveniences of home are at home. Why leave and risk the personal hell of being inconvenienced by the world beyond your door?
Aw, America, what happened to you?
I did a bit of scribbling on my novel manuscript here. Probably not anything I’ll keep. There’s a daunting curve of the learning kind to what I’ve been attempting to do. Long-form fiction isn’t one of the things I’ve done forever; one I already know and can bang out without even thinking about it.
It’s not journalism, not screenplays, not comics, not blogging… What it is is a shit ton of work on the old dog/new tricks bugaboo. In Canada it’s even more, a metric shit tonne to be exact. Yeah you’re gonna hear colourful language here in the north, especially hanging around the city centre.
In the background on this scribbling problem I think I’m just in a bit of a funk anyway. For me, it’s always a letdown to get the thing I’m chasing after. I wanted to ride as far north as is possible to ride in both Canada and the U.S. Okay, so… Did it.
Rode the Dempster to Tuktoyaktuk, then the Dalton to Deadhorse. So what?
And, more importantly: now what?
The day after I got here I found myself reading tutorials on how to stud motorcycle tires with hardened screws made to grip ice and snow. Has anyone ever gone ripping up one of these wilderness roads to the Arctic Ocean in the dead of winter?
Hmm…
I confided this passing thought to the bride and received a one-word reply, via email: “Yikes.”
Oh well, anti-climactic funk or no, it’s time to start wandering home. I’ll need a front tire to get there. Kinda need one now.
I’ll be in Anchorage tomorrow, will check some of the motorcycle shops there. If not, a place I know in Whitehorse has one. Has one now; I don’t know whether they will when I get there.
Whitehorse is a thousand miles down the road from here. Bob and Janey’s place in Valemount BC is another thousand-plus after that. FortNine has quick delivery on tires to Valemount. That’ll be my fall-back, fall-back, fall-back plan.
Will close here, with a few panoramas from the last 9,000 miles.
Soggy Illinois…
The road north along the Mississippi…
Canadian Badlands…
The road to Banff, British Columbia…
Athabasca Glacier…
Camped for the night on the Peace River…
North of Inuvik, bound for Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories…
Atigun Pass, the Brooks Range, Alaska…
Tundra south of Deadhorse…
The Homer Spit.
Tony DePaul, July 10, 2019, Homer, Alaska, USA
Did you say you were in a funk? A FUNK???? No, a funk is wake up, go to work, come home and wonder if can hold out until 8pm before you put your pajamas on! My excitement last week was “first Del’s of the season “! I don’t know what you are chasing but you have totally missed what you have done. You are an adventurer and you bring us along in an amazing way! I have a feeling you have no idea how talented you are and how much your “scribbles” mean to those of us along for the ride – in our pj’s – at 8:01pm! Safe trip home!
First Del’s of the season!? I’m on my way…
Loved the “ride” with you. Since you have the return trip we remain excited to hear about your experiences as you head for home. You so captured Alaskas beauty and I expect you made many new friends. Safe travels dear friend. j
Thanks, Jody. Long ride ahead… Will keep my eyes open for anything worth scribbling about. An occupational hazard from long ago 🙂
Hey there Tony,
I have to agree with what Cynthia said: “Your writing is more than the places you’ve gone. It’s more than the falls you’ve endured. It evokes curiosity, adventure and grit.” So, when you’re wrestling with writing your novel, ask yourself who you’re writing for, because I believe that you already have a host of eclectic readers that enjoy reading your travel blog/log/journals because they give us the ability to live vicariously through you, without ever leaving the comfort of our homes (a little poke at the reference you made to “soft America”). Ride safe Tony, praying you find what you need, whatever that may be.
Regards,
Will
Thanks, Will. I keep wondering what Marshall McLuhan would make of the “For your convenience” marketing pitch. Maybe it’s the only thing the marketers know; they assume this is what people want to hear: That travel should be, must be, made as convenient as watching a TV show in the comfort of home.
And on the audience side: have we been socially conditioned to want what they’re pitching? To respond to it by opening our wallets? One nation under Mammon, baby! It’s all about commerce.
That was a strange morning at Nenana Gorge. People reeking of perfume and aftershave boarding an armada of tour buses to go see nature on the other side of a piece of glass. I couldn’t ride away fast enough.
May the miles bring peace and fond memories. “Old Jungle Saying” Safe journey home bro. When you passed through soggy Illinois, that is my part of Deep Woods. I have really enjoyed your journey, the pics have been awesome. You are doing what at one point in my life I wanted to. Now I am living it through you, brother of the road. Wish I had bought a bike all those years ago, but that time has passed. Keep living the dream my friend.
Thanks, Terry. Remember that young French bicyclist? He just uploaded a new video. Check it out for the bird’s eye view of the country I rode through. I don’t know where he finds time to make movies while pedaling along for 12 to 14 hours a day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgjOHzUcFjQ
“Yikes!” Indeed . . . This is an amazing, grueling, stupefying and phenomenal adventure. I will not apologize for the superlatives, either, as I am proud about what you are accomplishing.
If you don’t mind, I would like to share three quotes with you from Edward Abbey (1927–1989); they are from his book “Desert Solitaire” (1988):
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit” (169).
“The love of wilderness is more than hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see” (147).
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds” (12).
Great words! I have to start reading beyond The Monkey Wrench Gang. Thanks, Keith.
NOoooooo, we don’t want your riding and writing to stop. Can’t we keep reading of your adventures up until the snow is deep at our windowsills?
Studded tires would be needed on the Ice Road in January. On February 16, 2005, Hubert Kriegel, after selling all of his worldly possessions except for a BMW sidecar rig, left New York City on that cold snowy day bound for the Arctic Circle and Prudhoe Bay. That was the first leg of what was to become his ten year odyssey/passion/obsession with sidecaring around the world.
Invite stands to see you in Coeur d’Alene in two weeks. Rally is at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, free camping on the quiet grassy area, not over by the noisy RV’s on rocky gravel.
Bringing Idaho potatoes to stuff up their generator exhaust pipes…
Tony,
I want you to know reading your adventure to my daughter and two of her kids was fun and satisfying. I used a map-book to have the kids find Kansas and the Dakotas and later Rhode Island and every state and territory you mentioned. The 5-year old enjoyed the use of a magnifying glass to find towns and rivers while his sister found the names easily.
This week, your story is my reading material for a jr. high student I work with. I’m teaching him to think about phrases such as “handlebars pointed west” and saddlebags and “in the weeds”, and ditches, and other descriptive language that will make him think.
Your writing is more than the places you’ve gone. It’s more than the falls you’ve endured. It evokes curiosity, adventure and grit.
Thank you.
Ha! Thanks, Cynthia. Glad to hear the young’uns thought it was fun.
Get home in one piece, dad. Love you!
That’s the plan, my Laur.