A Blast from the Past

Phil Tarman

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At the end of our first day of the "Ride to Alaska" leg of my Epic Ride, Jim Rau and i got to Lovell, WY, and checked into a motel. I just looked back at my blog of the Epic Ride to see what I had said about that day. I was kinda' surprised that I hadn't mentioned one of the most unusual characters we met anywhere. His name was Pete Chester and he was riding a TU-250 that he had turned into a mini-ADV bike. He had waylaid Jim while I was getting us checked into the motel. When I came out, I got waylaid, too.

Pete told us about his ride to Ushaia, also on a small bike and about how he was doing another long ride on this trip. His little bike was pretty neat. He'd made a windscreen out of a headlight protector and panniers out of a couple of small Pelican cases. He was having trouble with his fuel injection, which he had modified for some reason, and had had to be hauled into town.

As Jim and I went to our room, Pete followed us... not just to our room, but into our room. One of us finally invited him to leave. About a half hour later, as we came out to walk to dinner, there was Pete. He invited himself to join us for dinner and we didn't find a way out of that. As we ate, neither Jim nor I was able to get a word into the "conversation." [I understand that if you know me, you may find that hard to believe, but I think Jim will back me up on it.]

After dinner, Pete followed us back to and (again) into our room. We finally got him out. The next morning, we sneaked out early so he wouldn't invite himself to breakfast with us (although I think we could have ditched him because his bike wasn't running).

So, I opened this month's American Motorcyclist (the AMA's magazine) and there was a letter from good ol' Pete, extolling 250cc bikes as long-distance rides. Jim and I figured that the AMA editor must have seriously edited the letter since it was only about half a page.
 
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Sounds like this guy Pete had diarrhea of the mouth as my father called it. :rofl1:

Riding a 250 motorcycle cross-country can be lonely at a turtles pace. When he saw you Phil and your buddy and latched onto you guys like a leach.
 

junglejim

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I second what Phil said about Pete. He was a character for sure. I believe he was an engineer. He was very smart (in some ways) but really didn't have all his wires hooked up. And, he was a social idiot.

It was an excruciating experience for Phil to be totally excluded from a conversation. After all, Phil has a repuration to uphold. Pete failed to sense that and talked incessantly for hours. I couldn't tell where Pete's sentences ended (if they ever did), but then I wasn't paying that much attention after the first minute or two.

We have all met some interesting folks while motorcycle touring. It is fun to remember them and it is a shame we don't appreciate them more at the time we meet them. Phil probably left Pete out of his blog because of his next "disaster-of-the-day", Phil broke a tooth at breakfast which required an unscheduled trip to a dentist. After a superglue repair job we were back on our way to Alaska via Yellowstone Park.

After exiting Yellowstone Park we found no campsites available for the night. It was dark by then and we were still looking for a campsite. We finally found one and the office turned off the lights as soon as I completed registration. Next AM I met the new interesting person on the tour who was a chicken farmer from MO who had a good business marketing his chicken manure. Who would have thought. Then Phil woke up and found his cell phone which had been missing for two days. It had been rolled up in his tent. During the two days the phone was missing Phil spent much of his focus arranging for a replacement phone that he didn't need and later had to un-arrange.
 
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A few years ago I was on my way to Seattle to meet up with a buddy. We were going to spend several days riding the North Cascades passes and then up into the San Juan Islands. I stopped at a Carls Jr for some dinner when an older fellow popped into my booth. His name was Toby and he was from costal Mississippi. He said that he was 'ridin' round the countryside to see whats what'. His wife had passed about two years prior and his dog had had also passed about 6 months before I met him. He had left his home in Mississippi and ridden up to Rhode Island, down to Key West, across the southern part of the US to San Diego, up the coast to Oregon and had landed for the night in a cheap motel across the street from the Carls Jr. I was eating at in Tacoma. He saw my loaded up GL500I and came to chat. Oh, by the way, he was riding a flathead Harley Sportster (last year of the flatheads, about a '56) that he had bought brand new and was the only bike he had ever had. He had no windshield and leather saddle bags slung over the rear fender. He had come up from Ashland Oregon that morning, with a stop at the Harley dealer in Salem Oregon for an oil change. About 450 miles that day.

We talked for about 3 hours. Best part of the trip. He was heading out in the morning going the same way we were planning on going except that he was going to keep heading east when we swung north to hit the next pass. We saw him the next morning in Leavenworth Wa. I would never have believed it possible to stow everything he had on a bike with nothing but leather saddlebags but wow!

Toby is my hero
 

junglejim

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And then there was the asian guy I met in Casper WY. He was on his way home (Kalamazoo MI) from a month long trip through western US. He was a college professor riding a sport bike. Low handlebars, no windshield, and no storage. He had a duffel bag large enough for a rain suit and one change of underwear. I'm amazed at how some folks travel, but he was happy as a clam.
 

DirtFlier

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Generally speaking, people who talk incessantly have NOTHING to say! :-(
 
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A couple of years ago we were in Wyoming and the highway repair guys had traffic! stopped ..as I got closer I noticed this guy on some kind of motorcycle with flexible SS hose for exhaust pipes!.. and had to get a closer look...turned out the rider was coming down from Montana alone and was on his way to his home in Oklahoma. He had been to some kind of Holy seminar Buddist Monk...What floored me was the fact he was riding a homemade bike with a 20hp Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine!..He was quite confident that the Lord would provide and appeared to not have any worries in the world!...Jeesh, I wouldn't have ridden that thing to my local Mc Donalds!!...
 

Warren

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And why does it always have to be old guys. For a change it would be nice for a young lady to want to strike up a conversation.
 

junglejim

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And why does it always have to be old guys. For a change it would be nice for a young lady to want to strike up a conversation.
Well, we did have Nicole at Spearfish about 5 years ago on her NT.

I met a nice lady riding a Tiger last year in OH. I had parked my black Tiger and went to eat. Upon returning the lady had parked her white Tiger right next to mine so when I came out I saw a white Tiger where I had parked my black Tiger. Had me worried there for a while.

Actually, they have lots to say.... just nothing you want to listen to...
Mike is correct. I believe it is a characteristic of most humans.
 
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If you haven't take a look at tewster2 on youtube.

Riding a 250 motorcycle cross-country can be lonely at a turtles pace. When he saw you Phil and your buddy and latched onto you guys like a leach.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
 
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