2020 COVID TOUR
Tuesday, October 20, 2020 at 1:06PM 2020 COVID TOUR
It seems the Summer of 2020 will go down in a lot of people’s minds as the summer they would rather forget. With the introduction of the Wuhan Flu better known now as COVID-19. It is something I certainly would like to forget. It will have a lasting impression on how quickly things can change in our lives.
We started out our summer tour a bit late because of the Garage Mahal build with the time it took just to collect all of my things that were in storage and get them relocated. I had stuff in my old garage, courtesy of DJ Schul, some of it was at MJ’s house in a shed and a fair amount was over in Recon’s garage. Thanks boyz for your patience. Once most of it was collected up and brought to the Garage Mahal it was time to hit the road as it was getting very hot. Too hot to ride, that is a definite indication it is time to look for cooler riding spots! So once the mountain bikes, motorcycles and required armament were packed up it was time to roll.
The first stop was in Emmet, Idaho to see a long time buddy, Todd “Shade” Martin. Shade had gotten married and retired since I had seen him or ridden with him probably more than 12 years ago. His wife’s name is Dawn and they have now relocated to Emmet on a large property with a newly constructed house. Beautiful place with great views in an awesome small town. The most outstanding feature I noticed when I drove up was a Huge detached garage! Beautiful! Oh and the house was nice too, lol. The second best feature is that he had graded off and graveled an RV parking spot next to the garage. I think he needs a sign to designate it “Shade Tree RV Park”. Once we secured our reservations we commenced to fixin’ and wrenchin’. It seems Shade had not ridden his mountain bike in those 12 years since I last saw him. He had a couple of little 4 wheelers that needed to run so we worked on those and got them going. He is planning on grandkids showing up and they will need entertaining.
While there I had a chance to explore the local motorcycle riding area, many local back roads and the local shooting range. Shade and I went to the range a couple of times to work on our shooting skills. I went exploring the local riding area and had a great time on my 500 XCW. Strange thing occurred in that I broke a bead on the rear tire and had it come off the rim. That was a first, but I was fortunate it happened before I got too far out and could call for a spare rear wheel. Yes, I do take spare wheels with me on the road! Also on this ride I came across an eagle that seemed to have a broken wing as it crossed in front of me on a singletrack trail. I stopped to take a look and could tell his wing was broken by the way he moved and could not fly away. I sat and watched him for a while and took a couple pictures of him. I thought about it and was a bit sad when it dawned on me there was nothing I could do to help.
We also found out that Bruce Young of Hi Point Racing fame from Back in The Day was a resident of Emmet. He lives there now with his wife Cheryl, whom we had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with. It was great to see Bruce after all these years. As luck would have it Shades house is about a mile up the road from Bruce. Wow, talk about coincidence. We met up with Bruce at a car show in the city park. It was quite the show for such a small town. There were literally hundreds of cars in town and the park was wall to wall cars in the park. Nothing quite like a small town car show, everyone goes. I believe the town of Emmet would be one of my top 3 choices of places to live. Fantastic community.
A few days later Shade and Dawn took us on a trip up the hill to an area above McCall that Shade goes to hunt. He took his side by side and we took our V-Strom. Shade trailered his side by side up and we rode the V-Strom. We went up over a long climb on a mountain range that descended down a gnarly rocky road, that deteriorated enough that Shade stopped to turn around because he thought we wouldn’t be able to make it on the V-Strom. We told him we could hang so we continued on down to where someone with too much money had started to build a Mansion. The project was stopped and everything was just left, stacks of wood, out buildings, everything. What a colossal waste of money! By our estimates there was probably a quarter of a million dollars there left unfinished. Shade had heard rumors/stories that it was the result of divorce. I guess life changes………. The area was beautiful and the views at the top were very scenic. Thanks Shade!
We had a great time and were getting ready to head toward Orofino but unfortunately found out the road was closed due to a landslide on Rt. 95. That meant the long way around and a much longer drive. Oh well, there was probably something we hadn’t seen going that way. So we packed up and headed out to see just what that might be!
#33
‘Learn to listen, opportunity sometimes knocks very softly’
Reader Comments (1)
I liked the flag in the background on top of a hill over looking something. I hope he's reelected or I might be headed to Emmet myself.
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