TWO NIGHTS in a bed, one to go… Killing me…
Captain Willard knows the feeling… Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker… Every minute Charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger.
We’re all getting out of Dodge in the morning. Mi amigos will trailer their bikes 900 miles south to Houston. I’ll point the iron piggy east. With 7,300 miles behind us we’ve got about 2,000 to go before we’re home.
There, you won’t be surprised to hear, I’m all for a bed. Given that the bride is in it.
It’s tough to name a place in North America where the iron piggy hasn’t been, but Oklahoma is one. We’ve ridden right by it more times than I can count. Now I’d be going out of my way to avoid it. Oklahoma is dead-nuts on the way to Branson, Missouri. We’ll ride U.S. 412 out of New Mexico, across the Sooner State and into Arkansas, then it’s U.S. 65 north to Missouri, Blue Routes all the way.
Why Branson? For years I’ve been meaning to visit Ron Hall. We started corresponding after I saw Stray Dog, the documentary Debra Granik made about Ron, his life and family. It’s on Netflix and well worth your time. It demolishes a certain stereotype.
You might have seen Ron in Winter’s Bone, the movie that put Jennifer Lawrence on the map.
He was Thump Milton, the behind-the-scenes biker badass who knows where the bones of the missing lie.
Ron follows the Nickels, so he’s aware I’ve been on the road in the west. He invited me to stop in on my way back east.
Will do.
Tony DePaul, September 2, 2018, Angel Fire, New Mexico, USA
