First Disappointing Stay (July 14, 2024)

I have embarked on what I hope will be a 4 month, 17,000 mile motorcycle ride through the US and parts of Mexico and Canada to visit family and friends and to benefit Children International.  Please consider supporting me – learn more here Will's Charity Ride for Children International - PledgeIt

Gold Hill, Oregon
July 14, 2024

I've arrived in Gold Hill, Oregon 15,403 miles from home.  I left Christmas Valley later than the usual 6:00AM departure time that I had been employing for almost 2 weeks as I only had 190 miles to ride.  Piece of motorcycle pie!  And after riding most of that 190 miles through the Oregon back country, with literally nowhere to stop, I spent a few hours catching up on logistics (blogging, video processing, messaging potential hosts, writing thank you postcards, etc.) at a Starbucks.

Afterwards, by then the temperature was 100F, I mailed the postcards in Gold Hill and found a bar with a few motorcycles parked outside.  Since I had a few hours before I was to meet up with my local Bunk-a-Biker host, I popped in just in time for a local band to start up playing classic rock!  They were good and I again did some more logistics while enjoying the AC and some Boneyard IPA.   

Last night, I stayed with a Bunk-a-Biker host in Gold Hill, Oregon.  His home was up in the hills of Gold Hill with a super steep driveway that at first I didn't ride down as I didn't know what was at the bottom and what a “turn around" looked like for my 900lbs bike.  After a brief greeting and him showing me around his house that was surrounded by woods with his property sloping steeply away from the road such that you could not see his house from the road, I did ride down into an enclosed garage in the back.

Last night, we chatted about many aspects of life, marriage, retirement, Mexico, the wonderful personal experiences I have been having in my ride, essentially skirting around the topic of politics. I found this to be consistent with my experiences with all the other Bunk-a-Biker hosts around the country.  This allowed for us to find ways to connect, find common ground, and enjoy each others company.  He shared that his wife had passed way 2 years ago and he admitted that he still had grief work to do.  He worked for years at Firestone and Bridgestone and had retired here 25 years ago. 

However, this morning, almost as soon as we sat down at the local coffee shop in downtown Gold Hill, my host launched into a tirade about one of the presidential candidates and spent the rest of our time together denigrating this candidate and their family members and proposed various ideas about government and corporate conspiracies.

I was seriously disappointed, especially since just last night I had mentioned how I stayed with Bunk-a-Biker hosts all over the country and avoided discussing politics and found ways to connect. I had further stated that people are much more than their politics and that finding ways to connect was more important to me.

It's disheartening when such an opportunity for connection is overshadowed by divisive topics.  I made an excuse about having to go to the bathroom and then indicated that I had to get on the road.  All that said, as I have for every Bunk-a-Biker host, I will mail him a thank you postcard.