I Ate The Bear, Then The Bear Ate Me
 

“Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you.” (from THE BIG LEBOWSKI).


I’d managed to successfully complete a 6th ride around the globe without any major mishaps, even added an extra 3,000 miles at the end to wind down, stopping during the major eclipse of the sun in Wyoming in the 100% zone to get my mojo fully recharged.


A small bit of a seldom traveled jeep and horse trail near my base in the Big Horn Mountains of Montana had intrigued me for years. Once home I off-loaded my traveling luggage and went to explore the track. Even without the luggage, the motorbike probably pushed 500 lbs. The front wheel became airborne after I tried to power over a large rocky step, the result being I rolled off at about 2 mph and the motorbike fell on my leg. Having broken the same leg it before, I knew it was broken again.


150 miles took me home and found me self-medicating because the nearest clinic was closed and the hospital could not tell me how much the cost would be to set the broken leg.


Several cold bottles of beer were needed to loosen me up to the point of where I could try to work the foot out of my boot, not wanting to cut the boot off and destroy it. As I nine-beered the sliding processes some expired codeine was added to the mix for the final three of the 12-pack. After an hour I had painfully eased the swollen foot and leg out of the boot, and then applied a plastic brace to hold the bones in place. My neighbor said the sounds coming out of my house that night sounded like a cat had gotten its paw caught in a bear trap.


In town the next day for a meeting with my attorney over authorship and ownership issues and eventual sale of the blog: www.greataroundtheworldmotorcycleadventurerally.co m the decision was made to wrap up the blog and leave it rather than try to mold it into a book. So the blog and intellectual content for the time being will remain free. The only addition was an Epilogue and Table of Contents.



For my broken I began a top secret rehab program that included bicycling. My choice of bicycle was a Schwinn. I had a relationship with Schwinn, that being that Mr. Schwinn had owned the Henderson Motorcycle Company. It was a Henderson motorcycle that made the first global circumnavigation in 1912-1913 and I was lucky enough to own a 1931 Henderson, their last year of production.

The paparazzi had been hounding me and eventually caught me at my hideaway training ground. The photos below are the broken leg outside to boot and how I was captured by a pretty lady with a camera who asked me to stop and pose for a photo. I initially thought she was just a tourist but then the photos appeared on the Net and a fellow writer alerted me.



So I ate the bear, circling the globe, but when I was done the bear ate me, breaking my leg.


Regards,

“Dr. G”, Chief of the World Adventure Affairs Desk, CITY BIKE magazine

Finisher # 9 www.greataroundtheworldmotorcycleadventurerally.co m