I may not be out there riding this summer, but here’s the next best thing:
On July 3, my friend Bob Weeks rode in from British Columbia on an adventure bike he built out of a 2000 Harley-Davidson Sportster.
The donor bike he started with.
Bob rode quite a lot of gravel across Canada getting here. I hadn’t seen him since 2019 when I visited him and Janey at their place in Tete Jaune Cache while on my way up to Tuktoyaktuk and Deadhorse.
Bob got here in the afternoon on the 3rd and was back on the road the morning of the 6th. Pam and I enjoyed every minute of his visit. He’s a great raconteur, has been to a lot of interesting places in his life; ridden South America and Australia and just about everywhere in North America.
From our place, he camped next in western Connecticut, then the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Water Gap, a favorite of mine, then on down the Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia, the backroads of North Carolina, rode the tail of the dragon at Deals Gap. He’s in Alabama today, headed for the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.
It makes my summer that he stopped by. Definitely revived my spirits. My 90-day blood labs aren’t looking so good. Won’t bore you with that. Will let you know what’s what in October when I find out whether it’s a trend or a blip.
All the pretty horses…
I asked Bob to take the piglet out for a ride, given that he knows DR650s a lot better than I do. The bike was stock the last time he saw it in British Columbia. I went through it from stem to stern when I got back, bolted on lots of new equipment. He thought it rode well.
Pam and I were on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire when Bob texted to say he had crossed from Ontario into New York and was headed for Rhode Island. We had made a quick trip north to see James Taylor at an outdoor venue on the lake.
We camped there overnight in Jenna and Jonny’s van, left the venue the next morning when the place was deserted. There had been quite a traffic jam inching its way out of there late the night before. The place seats something like 9,000.
Oh, and get this: that sign on our next door neighbor’s Westfalia…?
It got an uptight somebody’s tighty whities into a twist. He informed the staff he wanted to be moved to a less controversial camping spot.
Saturday rolls around and traveling-man Bob is saddling up.
I rode with him down to Exeter to get him pointed west on route 165 off route 3. We got rained on pretty heavy. To get out of it we pulled into an open-air post-and-beam building, owned by my friends Amy and Dana of Ocean State Harley-Davidson. That gave Bob a chance to go over his maps and fix in mind the backroads he wanted to ride across Connecticut.
Paper maps! The only way to go. Like Bob, I typically look at them once in the morning, get the general idea, see where you are at day’s end. Be open to the road. Some of the best places I know I found accidentally.
With Bob on his way, I took the van north again on Sunday, met Jonny at the ski retreat he and Jenna are building in Vermont. I didn’t feel as if I had 163 July motorcycle miles in me, hence the van. Really didn’t feel up to going at all, but we had planned it for a month, Jonny had arranged time off from work. I had said I would be there, so I went.
It was the final push on habitability, a red pine floor in the little apartment over the garage, about 500 square feet.
The pneumatic nailer drives 2-inch staples through the tongue, then we face-nailed the floor with cut nails, for the Vermont look.
Virgo in the night sky, viewed through my iPhone.
We applied an oil finish: tung oil cut 50/50 with citrus solvent.
Let the oil soak in for an hour, wipe up any excess with a rag, it dries to a matte finish.
We also trimmed out the skylight openings. I had cut a sheet of maple plywood to size at John Ross’s shop in North Kingstown, hooked up the airless Graco and sprayed the panels white.
Jonny made the final precision cuts, built the boxes on the floor of the garage; we popped them into the rough openings, done.
The site engineer came by. There might need to be some earth work done before the well driller can do his thing.
Speaking of water, my wash-water ditch was dry. It was ungodly hot. We definitely got too much sun exposure cutting the floor boards to length outside.
That said, the place is coming along nicely. The kids will likely hire the house foundation done next year. And with the apartment finished at last, they’ll never again have to camp in a construction site on the property. They can treat the house as a turnkey project.
I wish I had snapped more pics while Bob was around—we were too busy visiting!
This you might remember: a few days of our 2019 travels in British Columbia and the Yukon.
And for you motorheads, here are 18 pages of Bob’s one-off Sporty build on Adventure Rider. Lots of cool shop photos.
Out for now.
Tony DePaul, July 11, 2024, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Tony, thanks for all the kind words.
I was through Angel Fire today and now in Pagosa Springs. Haven’t looked at this computer for days. Been camping out and enjoying the heat.
It was a pleasure to finally meet Pam that I have heard so much about. It was great riding together again.
Thanks for your hospitality and wonderful conversations we enjoyed so much…..Bob
Hats off to you, bud, riding the Mid-Atlantic states and the deep south in the dog days of July. Quite a feat of endurance. Enjoy your return to the Rockies and say hi to Tug for me.
It was a pleasure to meet you. Enjoyed your company very much, Bob! I hope I get to meet Janey one day.
I love the fact that you spend so much of your life building. What a tragedy it is that kindness is now viewed as controversial.
I will pray for your blood tests.
Best wishes always.
Thank you, Stephen. I appreciate having you as a reader.
I have great memories of Bob’s visit to Australia. He’s a top bloke and a tough bastard. We got on well together. All the best to you Tony
Glen! It’s a pleasure to hear from you. I’d love to hear about your current travels. Hard to believe but it’s been nigh on a decade since you did your Newfoundland-to-South-America ride.
Thanks for the update Tony. Love that floor! Hope next tests improve.
Thanks, Chris. It’s been one thing after another for the last eight or nine weeks. Respiratory issues, mainly. Question is whether low platelets & white cells is the result or the cause. Will surely know more by and by. Here’s hoping all’s well for you & yours in scenic coastal Maryland.
The ski resort pine floor is beautiful, thanks to Jonny and yourself, traveling to Vt. in all this heat and not feeling well, too. You’re a trouper.
Nice to hear of your lovely visit from Bob, it’s always good to re-connect with old friends.
I see James Taylor is in Tanglewood, if you’d like to see him again.
Best to you in October.
Now there’s a guy who’s working hard at 76. He was in Bangor, Maine the night before we saw him at Bank NH Pavilion. I read in a New York Times profile recently that he sold the rights to his entire music catalogue as a young man, sold them “for a sandwich,” he said. So he’s out there touring relentlessly to pay the bills. But he seemed very much in his element, as if there was nowhere else he’d rather be and nothing else he’d rather be doing.
As always, thanks for reading, Ellie. Bob must be in Texas by now, bound for his next stop in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
OMG. The poor bugger. To think what his catalogue would be worth today and the many years he’s been working. He should be on his private island sipping champagne. Hopefully, he’s like the Rolling Stones and loves performing anyway.
And thank you for your blogs, they always make my day.
Actually I had read that piece a few weeks ago in the Globe, Ellie, not the Times.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/27/arts/james-taylor-tanglewood-50th-anniversary/?s_campaign=8315
Pam mentioned you had a really nice visit and then off to Vermont you went. The place looks great! Hope to see it again soon. Coming to see you end of the month and bringing Kevin with me this time! I don’t think he’s been there since 1991 when we stopped on our way to California. It’ll be a couple of short visits, but visits nonetheless.
Great! Will look forward to it. But how did that get to be 33 years ago? Hard to believe…
I’ll keep the guest quarters in good order for you. When it goes unused for a while it starts to turn into my lair. Stuff starts accumulating.
But then visitors are on the way and I jettison everything into the shed.
At least there’s not a whole motorcycle in here… Did that one winter…
Great report! Thanks for sharing your adventures!
Come see us, Debbie! You don’t even have to bake cookies. Just bring you.
You and your friends are so amazingly talented AND skilled. It’s a pleasure to just passively behold your work progress.
Thanks. I probably do tend to gravitate toward people I can learn something from. In the construction trades since he was a kid, Jonny does everything well at a commercial rate. That’s what impresses me, when someone’s good at their work and fast.
Tone, I can’t blame Bob for not wanting to swing through Houston for a visit. Nobody wants to visit Houston in July or August, not even Houstonians…
There is something about a Sportster with knobbies that looks so gnarly, only a tried adventurer has the wits to pull it off. Bob has done it.
Interesting the red pine floor, love the idea of using old blacksmith cut nails to trim it for the right look. Look like farrier nails. Is the ceiling also sealed with oil or left natural?
October brings the best outdoor sleeping weather and rich pleasant scents. Hope your reports pass the smell test.
Hey, compadre. Bob will be passing through Pagosa Springs to visit a motorcycling pal, that’s only a few hours from Angel Fire. If you’re up there at the time, you guys should meet up to compare South America notes. When he was here I told him some of your adventures way down south, the serious Beemer get-off, all that.
The white pine on the ceiling, that’s in its natural unfinished state. Maybe they’ll decide to oil that, too.
Aw, the sweet smell of raw pine, better for sleeping.
Hey, Tony. Very good to have tea updates. Excellent you had a visit from Bob. The work in NH looks first class. Of course there is always my deep consideration for your well being, from a fellow traveller.
My regards to your beautiful bride. You have a stellar Tribe
Cheers, Yer old desk mate,
Alix
Thank you, Alix. Here’s hoping all’s well on Casco Bay.
Sorry about the typos. I also wanted to say I thought it pretty funny someone would be so offended by messages meant to be unoffending (not sure if that’s irony or paradox).
Looking forward to a happy October report. Let that shit know it picked on the wrong customer.
As an interesting aside, I left Houston for good. Now live in the Roaring Fork River Valley near Basalt in the unincorporated town of El Jebel. Independence Pass is about 35 miles up Highway 82 from me. Have a townhouse with patio view of Mt. Sopris, millions of stars at night, 4 seasons, and no hurricanes. Figured at 76yo I had one more adventure. Screw Texas. Onward.
Wow! That’s news, Brad. Now we really do have to meet up at Speed Week, it’s an easy day’s drive from where you are.
Houston, yeah… I wish my friend CCjon would get out of there and up to his place in Angel Fire NM full time.
So glad it is in my rear view mirror. Houston was great for a long time, but the last 10 years it has changed and not for the better.
I remembered Bob from your BC ride, he looks like someone you might find riding a horse during the 1849 gold rush. I checked out his Sportster build; he’s quite the mechanic.
It’s great you and Jonny got the place finished, and I really like that floor! I’m going to try the tung oil finish when I get around to putting down the Brazilian Angel’s Heart I bought months ago.
I hope your health stays and that the scans show nothing harmful.
Let’s see how things go when the weather cools, Will. Are you interested in sections 3 and 4 of the NEBDR?
Little apartment looks beautiful. Sending good thoughts for a solid result in October, Tony.
Thank you, Chris. I’ll have to get up there and take some photos when the room’s put back together. Furniture’s all over now, some of it we pushed against the wall, some is stacked in the bathroom, some in the garage. There’s a lot of work to be done in the woods. I’ll look forward to that in late autumn & winter. The deer flies are wicked right now.