- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 18,978
From Doug McQuire, lmcguire@ccgmail.net , who was back sided in traffic over a car off his Harley a couple mo's ago but still here recovering a spinal injury. --------
Dont know Dave? You should,,our good friend and world traveler.. Some people on the Bevel heads list (Ducati) asked about if Dave was still alive or where he was at, so i emailed Dave and a few others, here is his response.
For those who missed some of his earlier Blogs on travels here is one where he made like Bob Seger and went to Katmandu
http://www.nokilli.com/rtw/archives/000095.html
Part way thru be sure to click on the link where he gets bored waiting for the liquor store to open so marries a girl
You can go thru the archives, another good one to look for is the part in New Zealand called "World wars ate my Bowels" that one starts off slow with a bad decision for a resturant stop, but warms up nicely with a trip to an event where they race a Brough Superior and a Sopwith Camel among other things, plus Dave wrecks a MHR Ducati in an embarassing fashion, Not Hunter S Thompson Sausage Creature style,, but very embarassing so we can laugh about it. No mention of Kiwi Simons epic trip to the US and our adventures but thats another story.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dave Smith
Date: Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: Circumnavigation on a single?
To: Bevelheads <bevelheads@micapeak.com>, "DOUG & MCGUIRE, LINDA TOWSLEY" <lmcguire@ccgmail.net>
Hi Howard and the rest of you all!
I'm still alive. I wear the belt buckle, of course. It's got a nice chip out of it from when I was in Saudi Arabia. I don't think I have bad luck except for with the original build on the Duc. But that helped in the long run. I spent time with Ian Gowanloch and Bob Brown (who built me a much faster replacement engine after I detonated it in New Zealand). I've seen some crazy stuff because of this 10 year round the world trip on a narrowcase and I've only done a third of it so far.
I stopped updating when I was in Korea. I was working and if you piss off Koreans, there's enough of them that will find what school you work for and will get you fired. I watched it happen a couple times. In Korea, I met Klaus and Tormod, the 2 guys from Norway who were riding round the world on a pair of 1937 Nimbuses with sidecars, when I was there.
After Korea, I was going to move to London with an American girlfriend. I couldn't get a work visa, so I got a job in Saudi Arabia next to the province where most of the 911 high jackers came from. It was a "great" day to be teaching when the US killed bin Laden. I was at the Yemeni border the day we droned the American citizen (who wasn't allowed to get a court hearing for trial). At some point, I dropped my belt buckle on the floor and chipped off part of the chrome. I also lost a screw, but I get along great with loose screws. I still wear it every day.
Saudi was a bit unsafe (40 miles from the Yemen border), so I didn't post anything from there. At a previous point in my life, I worked for the Dept of Homeland Security and the school posted that on their site. I asked if they'd remove it, but they didn't. I did some volunteer work with the US Consulate in Jeddah and they said the school was in a location they couldn't help with, so if anything happened, "Good luck and head north". Great advice!
Saudi drivers are worse than Indian drivers if you can find that possible.
I had to go to Cairo for my Saudi work visa. Visiting Cairo during the revolution was great. No lines at the pyramids or at the museum! And going through a police roadblock with a can of beer hidden between my legs reminded me of high school. I missed meeting the Norwegians on the Nimbuses again though. They got out before I got there.
After Saudi, I was going to ride across the US, get to the UK and spend a year or so in Turkey saving money and waiting for the weather to make a ride across Russia doable. The ride went from Sacramento to Estacada, Oregon to Portland.
I don't know how many have met Doug the Internet Annoyance, but I spent some time at his place re-arranging motorcycles. Mostly old Brit stuff. I met a ton of folks through Doug including Kenny Dreer, Tom Young, Tom Ruttan, Cliff Majhor and Dave Friesen. Hopefully most of them don't have me confused with Doug. I have enough problems with my own outtake on life.
I met a new girl in Portland and stuck around a year spending King Abdullah's money. Also through Doug, I met Sir Eddy Bilton-Smith in Canby, Oregon. Eddy asked if I'd ride his Norton at Bonneville. I said I had zero experience and Eddy said so what. He had died and I've been left for dead a couple times (including one that really should've killed me). It makes an odd bond after you've gone through that. If you've died or been seriously left for dead, you should know that. It also comes into play when I'm hanging out with old folks who know how short time is. So much stuff to do and so little time to do it.
I was really looking forward to riding Bonneville because who in the hell asks some guy he's just met a couple times, "Want to try to make a land speed record on my bike?". Sir Eddy died the 2nd time (this one took) in a freak accident last winter.
I spent the rest of my money buying 3 NSU project cars (Sport Prinz with the standard 2 cylinder, Sport Prinz with a 4 cylinder, and a Typ 110) up in Oregon. I almost took the Duc on the Velocette Rally in Volcano, California but I had just non-opped it and took it off insurance because I signed a Korean contract. That school backed out so I should have gone. One of my life's regrets.
So totally broke after moving the NSUs into storage in California, I got another Korean contract. I've been here almost a month. After this, I'll go back to California with enough money to ride to the UK. Maybe with the Oregon girl. She's still undecided and she'd have to learn how to ride. Or I'd have to figure out how to go 2-up on a Duc 250. I also picked up dual citizenship with Portugal, so working in the UK/EU shouldn't be a problem.
Dave
Still thrilled that I haven't worked in a cubicle in years! Never again!
Dont know Dave? You should,,our good friend and world traveler.. Some people on the Bevel heads list (Ducati) asked about if Dave was still alive or where he was at, so i emailed Dave and a few others, here is his response.
For those who missed some of his earlier Blogs on travels here is one where he made like Bob Seger and went to Katmandu
http://www.nokilli.com/rtw/archives/000095.html
Part way thru be sure to click on the link where he gets bored waiting for the liquor store to open so marries a girl
You can go thru the archives, another good one to look for is the part in New Zealand called "World wars ate my Bowels" that one starts off slow with a bad decision for a resturant stop, but warms up nicely with a trip to an event where they race a Brough Superior and a Sopwith Camel among other things, plus Dave wrecks a MHR Ducati in an embarassing fashion, Not Hunter S Thompson Sausage Creature style,, but very embarassing so we can laugh about it. No mention of Kiwi Simons epic trip to the US and our adventures but thats another story.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dave Smith
Date: Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: Circumnavigation on a single?
To: Bevelheads <bevelheads@micapeak.com>, "DOUG & MCGUIRE, LINDA TOWSLEY" <lmcguire@ccgmail.net>
Hi Howard and the rest of you all!
I'm still alive. I wear the belt buckle, of course. It's got a nice chip out of it from when I was in Saudi Arabia. I don't think I have bad luck except for with the original build on the Duc. But that helped in the long run. I spent time with Ian Gowanloch and Bob Brown (who built me a much faster replacement engine after I detonated it in New Zealand). I've seen some crazy stuff because of this 10 year round the world trip on a narrowcase and I've only done a third of it so far.
I stopped updating when I was in Korea. I was working and if you piss off Koreans, there's enough of them that will find what school you work for and will get you fired. I watched it happen a couple times. In Korea, I met Klaus and Tormod, the 2 guys from Norway who were riding round the world on a pair of 1937 Nimbuses with sidecars, when I was there.
After Korea, I was going to move to London with an American girlfriend. I couldn't get a work visa, so I got a job in Saudi Arabia next to the province where most of the 911 high jackers came from. It was a "great" day to be teaching when the US killed bin Laden. I was at the Yemeni border the day we droned the American citizen (who wasn't allowed to get a court hearing for trial). At some point, I dropped my belt buckle on the floor and chipped off part of the chrome. I also lost a screw, but I get along great with loose screws. I still wear it every day.
Saudi was a bit unsafe (40 miles from the Yemen border), so I didn't post anything from there. At a previous point in my life, I worked for the Dept of Homeland Security and the school posted that on their site. I asked if they'd remove it, but they didn't. I did some volunteer work with the US Consulate in Jeddah and they said the school was in a location they couldn't help with, so if anything happened, "Good luck and head north". Great advice!
Saudi drivers are worse than Indian drivers if you can find that possible.
I had to go to Cairo for my Saudi work visa. Visiting Cairo during the revolution was great. No lines at the pyramids or at the museum! And going through a police roadblock with a can of beer hidden between my legs reminded me of high school. I missed meeting the Norwegians on the Nimbuses again though. They got out before I got there.
After Saudi, I was going to ride across the US, get to the UK and spend a year or so in Turkey saving money and waiting for the weather to make a ride across Russia doable. The ride went from Sacramento to Estacada, Oregon to Portland.
I don't know how many have met Doug the Internet Annoyance, but I spent some time at his place re-arranging motorcycles. Mostly old Brit stuff. I met a ton of folks through Doug including Kenny Dreer, Tom Young, Tom Ruttan, Cliff Majhor and Dave Friesen. Hopefully most of them don't have me confused with Doug. I have enough problems with my own outtake on life.
I met a new girl in Portland and stuck around a year spending King Abdullah's money. Also through Doug, I met Sir Eddy Bilton-Smith in Canby, Oregon. Eddy asked if I'd ride his Norton at Bonneville. I said I had zero experience and Eddy said so what. He had died and I've been left for dead a couple times (including one that really should've killed me). It makes an odd bond after you've gone through that. If you've died or been seriously left for dead, you should know that. It also comes into play when I'm hanging out with old folks who know how short time is. So much stuff to do and so little time to do it.
I was really looking forward to riding Bonneville because who in the hell asks some guy he's just met a couple times, "Want to try to make a land speed record on my bike?". Sir Eddy died the 2nd time (this one took) in a freak accident last winter.
I spent the rest of my money buying 3 NSU project cars (Sport Prinz with the standard 2 cylinder, Sport Prinz with a 4 cylinder, and a Typ 110) up in Oregon. I almost took the Duc on the Velocette Rally in Volcano, California but I had just non-opped it and took it off insurance because I signed a Korean contract. That school backed out so I should have gone. One of my life's regrets.
So totally broke after moving the NSUs into storage in California, I got another Korean contract. I've been here almost a month. After this, I'll go back to California with enough money to ride to the UK. Maybe with the Oregon girl. She's still undecided and she'd have to learn how to ride. Or I'd have to figure out how to go 2-up on a Duc 250. I also picked up dual citizenship with Portugal, so working in the UK/EU shouldn't be a problem.
Dave
Still thrilled that I haven't worked in a cubicle in years! Never again!
