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The Wall

Wilson Leslie ‘Jockey’ Johnson 1934 – 2020

Dad passed away just before midnight on a Thursday night. He was born 31,447 days ago – on a Monday – in a four room cypress wood , tin roofed house. I usually just call it a ‘shack’, but if my grandpa, who died in 1985, were to hear me call his house a shack he’d still cuss me out from wherever he now abides. He and family built that shelter after moving from Kentucky and it was nearly
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Why?

For me, motorcycles have become less about thrills and more about fellowship. If you like photography and you’re riding alone you end up with all of these pictures of your bike. Your bike goes here, your bike goes there. They seem kind of lonely to me. Photogenic? Maybe. But when they stand alone in a landscape, rider-less and static, and aloof; they’re disconnected from their soul. Add the partner and th
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Saga of 1* Interlude: Stress free days and the Klamath Falls ride (August 2019)

since you’ve all been so kind to listen to me carp these past weeks while i’ve been heavy laden with anxiety, i thought it only right to share about these past few days and how much better i feel, thank you all very much.  bob and marcia bertalot belong to a time share and generously planned out months ago this trip for 6 couples to go to a resort in klamath falls. ray and lesa, along with cmack and
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Saga of 1* 2015 Part VIII: The Wonderful Wizard

I want to tell you why I started calling Gordon “Wizard”.  Near the end of 2013 I ran into a garbage truck and totaled our suv. Gordon offered up his 2002 Honda Odyssey as a replacement gift, so in April of 2014 he further helped me wrangle a speaking gig and fly down to Houston and watched me drive away in my ‘new’ van. Skylar met me in San Antonio and we had the daddy/daughter trip of a
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Saga of 1* Part VII : Popeye and the Doctor

So Cmack and I are waiting in Sturgis, South Dakota for Greg and a guy named Mike. This was back in 2009 and our fabled trip to Sturgis would lead me to deciding that, after about 8 years of ‘surviving’, I needed to learn how to ride a motorcycle. But that’s a story you’ve already heard. This story is about learning what funny really is. Mike is funny. Cmack and I have already had a day to spe
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Saga of 1* Part VI: The Rooster and the Trail and Quantum Entanglement (Spooky Action)

Just skip this first part and scroll down to the picture to begin.Funny how we can come from such different places and end up on the same trail; end up knitted together in spite of our extreme differences and all. Funny? Or spooky?Have you heard of this thing called quantum entanglement? How one particle can instantaneously change another particle even if it’s light years away on the other side of the universe?
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Saga of 1* Part 5 “We need someone to take pictures so we can stop…stopping!”

Even in a group of some of the most creative and inventive men ever, Lance Tracy still stands out as maybe the most unique guy we’ve got. Lance can make just about anything including a real good time. He can even take apart a perfectly good old motorcycle and make an even better one; and I may be exaggerating about how perfectly good that r90/6 was to start with… Seriously, what you did is truly brilliant
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Saga of 1* Part 4 continued…

I got to Columbia, South Carolina on a Friday night, late and weary, but dry, and checked into my motel. Saturday was spent getting ready for Rick.  I went and got the Ducati from my friend’s house where it’d been sitting for a couple of weeks, and parked both bikes side by side proudly under the awning right there by the front entrance.  I had fun with a guy who was staring wistfully at the bik
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Saga of 1* Part 4: stealing Rick’s Harley…

Before our 2011 ride, word was just starting to get out, to all of you guys, what we were up to and that what we were up to wasn’t something to be easily dismissed. However, getting Rick’s attention and presence was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  I had no doubt he’d mesh with everybody who was already riding together, and I had no doubt that he really needed the fe
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Saga of 1* Part 3: Joel and the Daytona

2010 Mid March of 2010, we found out why Lisa was getting sicker and realized she was dying from a terminal and incurable cancer. I made friends with Ray before the year ended and he said ‘don’t worry about money, we’ll flip motorcycles!’… over the past 8 years we’ve bought and sold almost 30 bikes together and paid off nearly $50k in medical expenses that insurance won’
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