Longhaulpaul's Chasing the Cure

There is no good excuse for not posting sooner,

But here goes my best shot……………..

If I can be honest with you (as opposed to all my other posts), things have been really busy since getting the new bike and getting it all set up for travelling. In the spirit of the note delivered many more times than my mother ever realized she had written,

“Dear Ms. Jones, please excuse my son Paul for not doing his homework or going to school yesterday, he had a wicked bad cold”;

here are my excuses why I haven’t posted:

• April 1st the MS5000 started and we had 45 riders sending me copies of gas receipts I needed to record. Also on April 1st, the stickers I had ordered for the riders were finally received and to my horror, and despite “STICK” actually being part of the word “sticker”, the ones delivered did not stick to much of anything. I was pissed! I expressed my disappointment with the printer, but ended up mailing out the non-sticking stickers with an apology, and staples, and tape, and in a few cases some rivets. The printer said he would make it right.

• April 8th the printer apologized profusely and explained he was having them made into magnets. after a deep breath, I explained most motorcycles are made of plastic panels, and then I hung up.

• April 12th I had an appointment at Twisted Throttle in Exeter, RI to start getting the accessories mounted to my completely stock bike. I was going to meet them about 5:00pm and Kevin and Adam would work after hours with me to install the luggage racks, luggage and other goodies.  It was 140 mile ride from NH, without traffic, so I planned to leave by 2:00pm. At noon we had a snow, sleet and slush storm that caused dozens of accidents across the state.  I waited an hour before carefully shoveling a path to the street, where the ice and slush had reasonably started to melt away. I was not going to miss this appointment.

Despite the snow, hail, and slushy highway, I was able to make my way south.  As soon as I hit the Massachusetts state line, it was mostly just sleet and rain. I managed to tweet out that I was running a little late, but I was not cancelling. We worked on the bike into the night, so I didn’t have time to write a new post.

• April 13th Twisted Throttle celebrated the Service Center’s Grand Opening and we were able to show off my new bike,  but I was way to tired to write a new post.

• April 14th I volunteered at the Manchester MS walk by riding around the route, assisting walkers and radioing for help when needed. As a storm rolled in and the weather took a toll for the worst, lost of walkers were looking for a ride back. I enjoyed helping out, and I was completely exhausted by Sunday night, definitely didn’t have the energy to write a new post.

•  The Spring Iron Butt Magazine arrived with my story in it.

• April 20th I found a brand new Valentine One radar for sale on Craigslist and after texting the seller, was told I could get it even cheaper if I were able to purchase it that evening. I did check the serial number with the manufacturer, and it was not reported  stolen. I rode the 100 miles to pick it up and as I left the vacant parking lot, I wondered what illegal substance I just paid for. I was up all night reading the owners manual.

• April 22nd was the deadline for the June ABILITY column, the one called “What the Farkle”, so I had to work on that after work instead of a new post.

• April 27th I volunteered for the Nutmeg 400 in Connecticut, scoring the riders as they finished. I rode over 400 miles myself, and made it home before midnight, but too tired to write.

• April 28th I spent the day at the National MS Society’s Spring Education Day, listening to speakers and passing out my brochures. Standing on my feet all day surely made me exhausted, too tired to write.

This picture has nothing to do with the story, but I wanted to put it somewhere………

• May 2nd I headed down to Twisted Throttle for part two of the accessory installation, and I spent the entire day with Jim the shop foreman as we installed the crashbars, driving lights and tons of other stuff. We wired all my electronics into an auxillary fuse panel. I now had heated grips, a thermostat controlled outlet for my heated jacket and gloves, two GPS’s, a SPOT tracker, V1 remotely mounted, LED dual power driving lights, and a wired tankbag to recharge or power my cameras and phone. We spent 8 hours working and only stopped for lunch. At 6:00 pm, I headed south, riding till midnight.

•  May 3rd I made it to DC to meet up with John Sims who was anxious to show me his patent-pending invention, a cooling and heating system for motorcyclists. I was able to test ride the system on his bike, and as promised, the system was able to drop my body temperature and then raise it in just a few minutes. Awesome! We discussed the timeframe for allowing me to actually mount a system on my bike and really put it to the test.

• I stayed in DC until May 6th for a training. 12 hour days were fun, but tiring and left no time to write a new post.

• May 7th  was a milestone for me, I was finally able to drop the daily needle habit, and began taking the brand new oral MS therapy drug called TECFIDERA. Oral means I get to stick it in my mouth. I did not experience any side effects other than a small amount of nausea the first week. I don’t miss the needles.

• May 18th I rode with my Doctor and my brother to the open house event at Twisted Throttle where I was pressured into entering the slow race and pitted against the editor of ADV Moto magazine. At least I did not drop my bike like some others did….

No, those are not pictures of me, that is the crazy BMW  stunt guy Teach McNeil. My bike was on display, now sporting the custom fuel cell designed by Ernie Azevedo of EAZCycle.

• May 20th The MS 5000 ended. We had raised $23000 and 45 riders rode over 200,000 miles for MS. I had to finish all the paperwork and get the t shirts and plaques ordered. I printed all the finisher’s certificates as well, and promised to make the results public during the Mason Dixon 20-20 rally over Memorial Day Weekend. On top of a regular ten hour work day, I was putting in about another 5 or so during the week working on my Tour details and the MS5000. Definitely no extra time for writing a post.

• May 24th- 26th I volunteered at the 36 hour Mason Dixon 20-20 Rally in west Virginia, where I was actually a bonus in a cemetery signing mugs carried by the riders. The bonus said have your mug signed. Some riders assumed someone else was going to be at the cemetery, so as they arrived they asked me if the other person was there, then left!
• As all the beer was stored in my rooms refrigerator, I did not have time to write a new post.

I awarded the certificates, shirts and plaques to all the riders at the MD 20-20 that also rode the MS5000.

Anthony Mills, second place trophy!

John Cooper wins the MS5000 by raising $3000 and riding 5000 miles for MS!

• The week of May 31th my wife was away, and she put me in charge. I had to walk the dog and keep him alive for 7 days. It was not easy. The AC broke in the house and despite the $1000 spent to get it running, we still do not know where it is leaking. Ughh….

• I finally had to serve myself breakfast, and to my horror, the cereal I had been eating for sometime, was for girls. I cannot believe I had been fooled for so long. I am investigating any long term damage or hair growth in unusual places.

Free Frick’n nail polish?

Where’s the equality?
Where’s the free 1/2″ drive socket set?

• We had 5 cords of wood dropped on the front lawn and it wasn’t going to stack itself, but I spent many hours each  night working on my PowerPoint presentation for Americade, no time for a new post. I planned to be in bed by 9:00 pm on Thursday, and catch up on the sleep before my trip.

• Thursday June 6th I was notified a package was being overnighted to me, the first motorcycle HVAC prototype system from the inventor I met in DC.  I wanted to have it installed before heading to Americade. There was no sign of a package on my doorstep when I arrived home. I was a bit worried.  I had insisted no signature would be needed. I received a call about 5:15, John apologized and said FEDEX had made a blunder and the package never made the plane. “I’ll be there in a few hours”, He said. He drove the prototype the entire 500 miles to my house and we finished hooking it up about 2:00 am.  I left for Americade about three hours later in the dreary pouring rain. I definitely did not have time to write a new post, but at least I was well rested for my 10:00 am presentation!

• June 7th I did two presentations of my “Having MS is like Riding a Russian Ural in the Iron Butt Rally” at the Fort Henry Conference Center in Lake George, NY and spent the rest of the day at the Americade vendors with Twisted Throttle showing off all the goodies on my bike. I had an enjoyable dinner and was invited to crash with the Twisted crew.

• I spent Saturday June 8th at the vendor booth and  about 4:00 pm I headed out to volunteer at the  Minuteman 1000 rally in Northampton MA. Enjoyed a great steak dinner, and chatted with old friends into the night.

• Sunday June 8th, we all awoke to a fire alarm at 4:00 am, and then spent about 6 hours scoring riders as they returned from 24 hours of bonus hunting. A glitch in the scoring system left us scoring by paper, and it took quite a bit of extra time to do so. Very patient riders and staff! I had had less than 4 hours sleep every night for over a week, and certainly had no time for writing a post! I was finally able to wear the cooling system on the ride home form the Minuteman 1000, and I can report I was at a comfortable 70 degrees the entire ride home.

•  The 2013 Ride NH motorcycle guide was published and although my ass did not make the cover, my story did!

• June 9th  I had an industrial accident at work with a bedside commode, and I became Harry Potty Head.  Due to filing all the accident forms, I did not have time for a new post.

• June 15th spent the entire day stacking the 5 cords of wood.  The price of wood has gone up considerably, but even though firewood doesn’t grow on trees, it is still a lot less expensive than heating with oil. I did not let the kids know the wood was all stacked, so Father’s Day was extremely quiet around the house.

I have also managed to put about 9,000 miles on the bike and it is just about broken in.

As you can see, I have had no time for writing a new blog post.

This is my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Any day you can ride is a good day,

Longhaulpaul