My Neighbor is my Hero

My wife and I moved into a new house last August...great neighborhood and even better neighbors. Made quick friends with the guy down the stree who owns a 2003 BMW set up for highway cruising. After several months of curbside chit-chat he let me know he towed his "Mini Mate" trailer from St. Pete Florida to Alaska (!!!) last year...What??? OK, not a news-making trip...except....my neighbor, Jim, is 71 years old! He was 38 days on the road...round trip...and camped out 17 or so days in his trailer setup which he can sleep in...and heated when it's too cold.

Here's a YouTube account:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHgNqxMUpvE

Anyway, we were yakkin last week and he told me he's taking off on a Florida to New Mexico trip in two weeks...the guy is my hero! I'm only hoping I can do 50-mile blasts around Tampa Bay in ten years...and I'm only 57....sheesh...

Yeah man, lets take off and do it too, for decades!

I'm 49 and looking forward to being "one of those guys", gotta continue riding my pedal bike to keep in shape though as I can't really run any more! My makes some awesome food though, and that makes it harder and harder to keep the old spare tire in check. Cj

We had a regular (Metalflake Herb) at the BMOA rally in New Ulm, Texas for YEARS who rode a Goldwing from Florida pulling a trailer with 2 BIKES on it!!, he was a nice (and fast!) old man.

Edited to add this report from the 2002 New Ulm rally by Bill Bath:
Metalflake Herb rode up from Flordia on a Gold Wing towing a beautifully custromized Triumph twin on a neat little trailer. He said that the Gold Wing didn’t even know the trailer was back there and as proof, he dug a photo out of his wallet that showed the Gold Wing with a pop-up camper trailer hitched on back and the Triumph on it’s trailer hitched to the back of the camper. Now I have seen bikes pulling trailers before but I never saw a bike pulling two trailers! Of course, after seeing Metalflake in action during the field events, I have to say he is just the man who could do it. In the slow race, I saw him come to a complete stop, hold for several seconds, and then ease ahead as smooth as could be. And guess what, he did it more than once. Slow race or drag race, Metalflake and that Triumph were tough compatition.

This was when he was "only" pulling the 650 around the country.



Vince