AFTER THREE MONTHS of dead air, here’s another one of my famous road reports, minus the road part.
I’ve been nowhere. Credit the pandemic and the slow-but-sure (mostly slow) return trip from chemo hell. Well-traveled friends of mine haven’t been stuck in place, however. More on their adventures below.
I’m looking forward to March. That’ll be the one-year mark, post chemo. The doc said to give it a year before we know what the new normal looks like. But all in all, I’m doing fine. I have way better days than, oh… I don’t know… Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner?
I forgot to turn up at the hospital for regular blood labs this summer and fall, or never knew I was supposed to, or… I don’t know what happened there. The oncologist called and said, you know, it’s actually a part of my job to be aware of what’s going on with you.
Trouble is, the chemo did the trick. And once you no longer have a hundred lymph-node lumps sticking outta yer bod everywhere, who thinks of it?
New Phantom stories in the pipeline, for the artists on the syndicated strips. Jeff Weigel on the Sundays, Mike Manley on the daily side.
A character in the story I’m writing for Mike is modeled on the late Tarquino Felix Flores, a friend and long-time Phantom fan from Mexico.
Tarquino left us as a young man, sadly. One of the great humans on the Earth. A real character.
A dentist, he wrestled in the lucha libre ring as… El Dentista!
Dig the molar on the bruiser’s mask. A happy molar, in line with Tarquino’s nature as a gentle giant. Of course, if it unsettles your opponent a bit, concerning the fate of his own teeth…
From Mike Manley’s drawing board, here’s the character modeled on Tarquino. He’s known to readers only as “the Trusted Man.”
The Trusted Man has just realized (will realize, online and in newspapers on November 14) that his forged passport is likely to attract unwanted attention from fascist gunmen at the Rhodian border. Adventure ensues.
Intrepid travelers I keep tabs on (sorta):
Duncan from Martha’s Vineyard. He was out west this summer on his BMW motorcycle. I had email from the Dakotas and could swear he sent photos of his bike on a snowy road in a mountain pass. Not that I can find them.
I don’t know of any passes in the Dakotas high enough to have winter in June, so… maybe he got to Wyoming?
Pierre, you remember him, my friend from the Dempster Highway in Canada. He rode his bicycle all over North and Central America, from the Arctic Ocean to Costa Rica.
The pandemic marooned him in the middle of nowhere Colombia. He finally was able to hitch a ride to Bogota on a military flight and, from there, made connections home to France.
Heard from Steve, the Africa Twin rider from the Pacific Northwest. He and his pals got out for two rides this summer. Montana, then Utah.
I know the four on the left, Steve, Robert, Dennis, Mitch, and then Bruce. Don’t know Bruce.
We ran into one another last year camped on Teslin Lake, the Yukon, then again about 600 miles north of there, at Eagle Plains.
Now that I think about it, I saw Steve and Mitch farther north still, in the Northwest Territories at a place called Tsiigehtchic (SEG-uh-chick). That’s where you ferry over the Mackenzie River. If not there it was the Peel River crossing, but I’ll say Mackenzie.
(Here it is May 5, 2021 and I just noticed that, yes, it was the Mackenzie. Happened to see it while searching for something else.)
Ol’ CCjon from Houston, he’s been on the road in recent weeks. He put Angel Fire, New Mexico in his mirrors just before the place started living up to its name. His smoke pic below.
There are three roads off the mountain. He wasn’t going to wait for two to be on fire before he left.
The 650 piglet hasn’t turned a single mile since we got home from the Arctic last summer. I went through the bike, installed better suspension, controls that fit me, better low-rev fuel delivery, lots of new gear. Haven’t even tried to start it yet. I’m sure it’ll be spring before I do.
She’ll spend the winter in the garage at the kids’ house. They have a spare bay. I hauled the bike there a few weeks ago on the ’49 truck.
Backed up to the wooded lot next door to unload. The topography made the ramp a bit more shallow.
Big iron piggy, she lives outdoors all winter, and her battery stays charged because she rolls miles.
She needs tires before things get too wintry here in New England. Tread’s done, and the compound’s weather-hardened. Now and again, on roads slightly wet with evening dew, the rear wheel will lose traction and lock up upon semi-aggressive normal braking. Which always captures the imagination.
Before the sand trucks hit the road, I’ll get a pair of grippy new sneakers under the old hog.
Tony DePaul, October 28, 2020, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Maybe you’ve already seen this (a friend sent it, I don’t read Cycle World). With all the mothers in your life who grew up with greasy hands thought I’d send this along. Hope you’re well.
d.
https://www.cycleworld.com/story/blogs/ask-kevin/methodical-thinking-and-troubleshooting/
Thanks for the link, Dave. It’s so true, and really satisfying when the answer suddenly jumps out at you, and you wonder why you didn’t see it at first glance. All good here, thanks. Hope the same is true where you are.
Great to see you scribbling again. Keep ’em coming. Even trips down memory lane – you don’t have to wait for new adventures. We’ve been starved for too long buddy.
Thanks, Vincent. Stay safe and hang in there with the online learning adventure (misadventure?). Now and again I gather a little intel on how these efforts are going at the university level through my friend the perfesser, at Brown.
Hey Tony,
It’s always good to read your stuff, keeping me in the loop with your latest edition! I want to say ditto on the new tire stuff; I spun the FJR sideways while low-siding it on a new Michelin. You are a lucky dude, at least 9 lives and many people caring about you. Be well and stay well, possibly we will meet on the road some day.
Regards,
Will
You bet, Will. Would you ride the MABDR on the Versys? It’s on my radar.
Good to hear from you again. I have to say 2020 was the best year ever to be laid up. The farthest I’ve gone this whole year is just across the Oklahoma border, and that’s not far. We’ve been bicycling locally in an attempt to keep from turning into big globs of adipose tissue. That’s probably as close as I’ll ever get to motorcycling. I can’t imagine bicycling across the country. We feel like we’ve really done something when we go 10 miles. Hope we can all get out in 2021.
Hey, Jim. Next time there’s no way I’ll ride within 100 miles of Wichita and fail to lean the iron piggy in your direction. It’s good to hear you’re getting out and seeing the scenery. Big adventure here today: The 19-month-old, very much the outdoor type, kept declaring Out! Out! This with a steady rain falling for the last two days, and 2 inches of water in the streets. I bundled her up in Pam’s raincoat and we wheeled around the neighborhood in the stroller. Six blocks was plenty for me, she beamed the whole way and could have been happy out there for six hours.
So good to hear from you, Tony, and that the chemo did the trick. March will be here before you know it. Congrats on your Phantom stories. I’m sure the late El Dentista character, the Trusted Man, will carry the day.
Thanks, Ellie. There was a time when I was writing almost two years ahead of the artists. Nowadays I’m a few weeks ahead, so it’s kind of interesting to see the story take shape as we go along. Mike and Jeff are so talented. Real pros and good people, easy to work with.
I know you must be disappointed/frustrated/angry/gritting your teeth because you’ve had to “stay put” for far too long, at least by your standards. BUT during that time the relationship you have developed with your spirited, sassy, fun loving granddaughters takes you and them in directions that are so vital and long lasting. Yup, you have truly (pardon the cliche) turned those lemons into lemonade…and those little girls are enthralled!! Come on, you know that you are feeling so good about helping out and making such an impact on their lives…Piggy will be waiting patiently for her turn!
Thanks, Marianne. The girls are fun to be around, no doubt. They’re learning and absorbing everything around them and developing so quickly. If I don’t see them over the weekend they’ve changed between Friday and Monday!
I can understand a 5-minute roll down your daughter’s driveway doesn’t make much of a road trip diary. Thanks for this catch-up piece. And a big shout-out of gratitude to your bride Pam for keeping your fans updated on you and your family via the dreaded Facebook.
Thanks, Tom. Alarmingly, I have no idea what she writes on FB…
Good you’re still kickin’ Tony. I never rode east like I planned this year due to the f’n plague. Hope to next year now. Maybe see ya then……..Bob
You’re going to enjoy riding Labrador and the Maritimes when you get there, Bob. It would be great to see you here in the east.
Yo, Tony! So glad to see a post! Maybe Tybee next summer? Love to see y’all. Cuck Fancer!
Wow, Tybee seems so long ago, amigo, and so outrageously normal. Cue Joni Mitchell. Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got…
Glad you are feeling and sounding better. It’s been a long summer for all of us but I can’t imagine what you have been through. We are planning to be in Dawson for the summer solstice and hope you can join us.
Sounds like fun. I was headed to Homer in 2013, a few days before the solstice, stopped at the REI in Anchorage and a guy who works there saw the bike, said oh no, don’t go south, you have to turn around, get to Dawson. I never did. And then last year I was in Tuk for the solstice. No Dawson yet.
Like they said…. Great to hear from you! Keep on keeping on.
That’s the plan! Thanks for reading, Chris.
Tarquino immortalized as a Phantom character is the coolest tribute ever! I have to send this to Israel in Mexico City. He’ll be so happy to see his friend live on!
Ask Israel if he has the footage they shot of a teenage-girl superhero whupping Tarquino. I had it at one time. It’s a riot. He knew how to fall, how to roll. He had stuntman talent. It was so realistic. She kicked his ass all the way down the block, knocked him down a flight of stairs…
Missing my normal travel this year, too, although mine is by plane to NYC. 🙂
Right, forgot all about that… Funny, Pam hasn’t even mentioned the annual girls’ outing to every place in New York that has ever popped a wine cork.
I have definitely missed it, too, and can’t wait until we can do it again! Broadway lights will shine again and the Smith gals will pop corks across the city!!❤️
Hi Tony,
Good to hear all is well. Like others mention, your posts bring a sense of normal to things, so keep them coming.
My normally low mileage has been even lower this summer. Hopefully next summer might bring more miles, and possibly a new bike. Who knows, might try one of those adventure bikes. I’ve heard they’re pretty comfortable for longer rides.
Humble opinion, always ride on new rubber. And as I found out once, beware those first miles as they can be slippery out of the box. Yeah, I’m too cautious these days.
Take care,
Dennis in RI
Man, that’s the truth. I put new tires on the Road King in Chicago once, had been trying to make it back to RI from Alaska on the old skins but they were just gone. I very nearly wrecked on the new ones in Michigan before they were properly scuffed-in. Those things are so greasy right out of the mold. Thanks for reading, Dennis.
Tony, new email, find it below. I will send you 1st of three trip reports I finally got around to writing after I got back. We have sold house on MV, relocated to Franconia, NH.
Come visit. Spare bed room.
From an island in the Atlantic to inland mountains, not your everyday move. I look forward to your road reports, Duncan.
Glad you’re feeling good. How’s the teaching going?
Hi, Cynthia. My career as a kindergarten teacher lasted all of three weeks, then the school department figured out what it was going to do about distance learning, remote learning, herding cats, whatever they’re calling it. Instead, I’m minding the little sister so she doesn’t need to go back to the daycare petri dish. We have fun. We do driveway chalk, crayons, kick a ball around, read books. Often the same book over & over. Sometimes you know you’ll never make the 25th consecutive reading of “Moo, Baa, La La La,” and then somehow you just do.
“No, no you say that isn’t right. The pigs say oink all day and night.” Been there.
I used to recite the memorized books while looking at other ones to see how long they would take to notice.
“Rhinoceroses snort and snuff and little dogs go ruff ruff ruff.”
We gotta figure out a post-pandemic gathering. Give your family hugs from the West Coast!
Jenna and Jonny insist that Pam and I drive their new camper van to the Pacific. It’s a 2019 Ram Promaster, hi-roof type, 159″ wheelbase. The build is under way…
Nice to hear from you, may we meet again, possibly in Haines AK
bent over a can of beans.
You bet, Keith! That or on the Columbia River. Happy memories of your hospitality there.
Like Bill, I thought I’d missed a missive. (That was weird to type) Something you wrote reminded me of my testicular cancer ordeal back in the early 80s. Those were the days when cancer treatment was closer to cutting firewood than the molecular stunts they pull now. Anyway, after lopping off one of my boys, the doctor wanted to slice my chest open and look for spread to my lymph system. I could tell the cancer was gone… my body told me so. I was WELL and I did not let them cut me up again so quickly. Over time, turns out I was right. Stay safe and keep getting better, T.
So true, Brad. My mother’s treatment in the 80s was barbaric. Progress is so fast nowadays. Doc says by the time I need chemo again (six, seven, maybe eight or more years down the road) they won’t still be using this East German derivative of WWI gas warfare munitions.
True to your word! Stay in touch. ☺
Haha… Will do, Claire.
I was beginning to think I’d missed a missive or two but checked the other day and saw that I hadn’t. Then I began to wonder…. So it’s good to hear from you again! Hopefully we can all get back to normal? soon and likewise you can get back on the road again! Hang in there Tony!
Thanks, Bill. This must be the first year in quite a while that you and the family missed the annual camping trip to Idaho.
Nice to hear from you.
Thanks, Len. Still kicking!