Back in the late 70's through the 1980's, I had a Honda Sponsorship (along with a couple other sponsorships) and raced enduros for Honda. I had a team mate and we did pretty well for ourselves. Man-o-man, the stories I could tell! We were racing in Mexico when he had a bad crash in Rosarito Beach, I had to scoop him up and run him back up to San Diego to put him in the hospital with a pile of cracked ribs. He'd just finished a restoration on his old Chevy truck and the border agents thought we had the work done in Mexico, so they detained me at the border and figured my buddy (lying in the back of the truck) was faking to try bypassing the system. I had to run back down to Mexico the following weekend to meet with our attorney and bail his bike out of jail (literally ... long story). I remember a race where we had to go down Strawberry Slide ... it was so steep, my rear fender kept whacking me in the back of my helmet all the way down to the bottom (which was nothing more than a large collection of broken bodies and bikes). Did I say it was a long, STEEP downhill?! There was the time we slept in the back of my '75 Datsun B210 (try THAT with two large adults!) to keep from freezing to death and woke up the next morning with ice all over the windows ... then when we touched them, realized it was on the INSIDE (from our breath freezing). The time his Husky 390 wouldn't start at the beginning of the Barstow, CA. to Las Vegas race, so I pulled him with a rope to get it cranked. When I glanced back, all I could see was his bike being dragged on it's side and a huge cloud of dust with his head sticking out of it hollering STOP! STOP! (he lived) I remember kicking a rock while I was doing elebenty-bazillion mph across a dry lakebed. It folded my steel-toed boot into a perfect "V" and broke all my toes. While in the pits getting serviced for the next loop, one of my crew told me to take off my helmet and look at the back of it. There was a perfect imprint of the SOLE of my boot on the back of my helmet. To this day, I not only can't figure how I was flexible enough to do that ... but also did not CRASH ... OR break my frigging leg!! My buddy told me to bail out of the race, but I refused to pull my boot off or my foot would have immediately swollen up and I'd never get my boot back on. I finished the race! I remember the time I broke the oil slinger in my engine during a 200 mile race. I put word out to another racer who passed by to contact my crew and let them know where I was broken down. I curled up next to my bike and took a nap, then woke up that evening (still waiting to be rescued) with a dang coyote sniffing my face. I opened my eyes and screamed like a little girl thinking he was about to eat me! (He's prolly STILL running!) Heck, I could go on and on and prolly write a book, but I'll spare youse dufes.

Anyway, my old partner formed a new racing division with the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) and was given the AMA Outstanding Off-Road Rider Award a few years back.

The AMA Outstanding Off-Road Rider Award highlights the achievements of an individual who has contributed to the promotion of the motorcycling lifestyle and the protection of off-highway motorcycling. The award is presented to two deserving members of AMA District 37 in southern California, AMA Life Members Jim Pilon and Paul Flanders. Their dual-sport committee successfully organized and now maintains and promotes one of the world’s best known dual-sport events, the LA-Barstow to Vegas Dual Sport Tour, or LA-B-to-V. Launched in 1984, the 400 mile-plus tour typically starts after Thanksgiving and has routes for dual sport, adventure touring, vintage bikes, side-hacks and small displacement machines, so long as they are street legal.

“I am honored and humbled to be nominated and chosen for this prestigious award,” said Pilon. “I also serve as a California State Alternate of the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council and, along with the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Forest Service and various other agencies in four states, we’ve worked to create a responsible use of public land. I am proud to have others and the District 37 AMA Dual Sport Committee put forth their belief in dual sport as a national and international vehicle to enjoy what we love, to ride.”

We've always stayed in touch and he finally hit the age where racing motorcycles probably wasn't the smartest thing he could be doing, so he switched over to FOUR wheels ... a Jeep ... and is still into the off-roading thing. He called to let me know he's getting ready to take a month long road trip and will be pulling his Jeep behind his motorhome, to the 31st Maine Mountains Jeep Jamboree in Bethel, Maine.

https://jeepjamboreeusa.com/trip/31s...ountains-2021/

So, I've decided to pack up the ol' motorhome and meet him up there. Lynn and I went to Maine about 5 years ago and I tried to eat the state's whole supply of lobster, but I think I may have left a few behind. So, we'll spend a few days in the campground, then check-out and head for the coast to again attempt to put a hurting on this year's lobster supply. Then, we'll skirt the east coast on our way back down to Florida. They're going to continue on down to the Keys, but I haven't made up my mind whether we'll just stop when we get to the house, or continue on down with them. At any rate, it should be a fun time and I'm sure we'll have some VERY late nights reminiscing about our old racing days!