Iron Butt Eric Rides Again

[truk4u]

Eric, where's the cooler?

Be careful, have fun and beware of the cages.......

[rickdesilva]

Eric
Ride safe and keep the bugs out of your teeth.

[Loc]

Eric,

How was the trip? Knowing you and your riding habits you probably got home yesterday afternoon. Tennessee to Utah and back - in Eric motorcycle terms that is a drive to the convenience store.

Loc

[Coloradobus]

Have Eric and be safe!

When traveling up north, be on the lookout for 5 Prevosts traveling together. One will be Alan and Diane heading to Alaska for the summer in Marathon H3, #634.

[tdelorme]

Eric, Eric, Eric, be safe, have fun, ect.ect. What about Deb?? She gets left behind to look out for things on the home front. You know, clean the house, feed the teenager, wash the dishes, ect. ect.
Not only that, Eric more than likely left her a list of work to do on the bus while he's away. Wash the bus, change the oil, clean out the bays and don't forget to polish the slack adjusters.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Mel,

That was way harsh, but right on the money.

I hope Eric has a fun time. I know this is a short jaunt to prep him for his month long trip across Canada in a little while.

While he is gone I will teach Deb how to drive the bus, off road of course. After all it is four wheel drive. She already has polished the slack adjusters, and that is no joke.

[hobobimmer]

Mel,

While he is gone I will teach Deb how to drive the bus, off road of course. After all it is four wheel drive. She already has polished the slack adjusters, and that is no joke.

Eric is back home as of Friday night 9:15. Bus is polished. Slack adjusters beautiful. Dinner tasty. Everything just as I instructed prior to departure. Deb sitting next to me watching me type this and just punched my arm. Everyone of you who knows us already know that she takes care of everything anyway, so my temporary departures do not disrupt anything that happens at our house (except the dogs wonder where their boss went, and they begin to fight since Deb doesn't rank in their minds).

I thank each of you for such nice comments. You are all kind, and I really do appreciate.

My two week trip to Utah only lasted a week. My riding buddy told me we would not be riding "Iron Butt Style." Well, it wasn't Iron Butt Style, but not too far off. We did 3600 miles in 6+ not quite full days of riding. I hate to think what we would have done if we'd been riding Iron Butt Style. Might have been a 3.5 day trip. It was a shake down run for trip to Canada starting 6/4/09 through whenever (guessing a month or so). First destination is Goose Bay on east end of Canada, then out to Inuvik, NWT and Prudhoe Bay, AK. That's the plan.

Two years ago, my riding buddy (Harold Brooks from Forest, VA) rode his Suzuki V-Strom 650 from Prudhoe Bay, AK to Tiera Del Fuego (not sure spelling), South America. Age 67 then, and he did it solo. Has competed in 7 Iron Butt Rallies (Google Search that - 11,000 miles in 11 days). I've done 2 of these Rallies. Harold has ridden over 1,000,000 miles on Honda Goldwings, in addition to all his other riding on other bikes. I'm a lightweight in comparison. I tell you all a little about Harold so I can appear more sane to my fellow POG members.

He's taking it easy on me so far, I think, since I pay half the hotel bills. Utah was our warm up for big Canada trip and I guess he has concluded that I'm suitable as a riding companion for him across Canada.

More than you can know, I appreciate the comments and well wishes. Thanks to each of you.

Eric Faires
Huntsville, TN