Buy the song on iTunes — http://bit.ly/JQnDDU—
Buy the song on Amazon — http://amzn.to/JQqv3V
This has been looming for a while now, but it’s time for me to leave Panama. Rather than just make a video announcing I was selling my bike I wanted to do something special. That machine and I have been through a lot together and I get strangely attached and overly sentimental about some things. Motorcycles are one of them. Part of me worries that when I sell her she will simply shatter into 100’s pieces like the Bluesmoblie near the end of Blues Brothers. If I’m honest the song makes me a little sad when I listen to it.
I began to sing this song to myself while riding one day, and had to pull over and jot down some notes before I forgot it all. Other than the occasional karaoke night I’ve never considered myself someone who sings. One reason I love YouTube is that it gives me the opportunity to try new things. As I push myself to be more creative some very strange videos might appear in your inbox, but once in a while I come up with something I’m proud of. I worked hard on this goodbye to my friend, the indestructible Kawasaki KLR650. We had some amazing adventures together. There was certainly no shortage of great footage for me to choose from when editing the video.
I have zero musical abilities, and was in over my head trying to make this into something decent. After writing the lyrics to the tune of “A Boy Named Sue” I approached JD Mader for some help with the music. He tweaked the lyrics a bit and came up with some great music that gave it more of a folk feel than the country feel it originally had. Something I was happy about because I love folk music.
JD and I have never met in person. I was lucky to find such a talented guy who would drop everything he was doing to help me with this project. JD is better known as Lockjaw in KLR circles. He is a talented singer/songwriter and author who has published several books. To hear more of JD’s music check out: http://jdmader.bandcamp.com/
Here are the links to his books:
Joe Café — http://amzn.to/JQoTqR
The Biker — http://amzn.to/JQoULh
Bad Book — http://amzn.to/JQoX9V
No idea how long it had been since my last oil change in the Kawasaki. So I decided to make a quick video showing just how easy it is to do a small job like this. As much as I beat on the bike I need to take care of it once in a while.
Not all of the steps I go over in this video are required, however I highly recommend them.
This is the final installment of the quest to find the hidden path connecting Portorillos to Boquete. I wasn’t at all prepared for the type of riding we ended up getting into on this day. I thought it was going to be a quick easy ride, and I didn’t take any water with me. We ended up muscling our way through the jungle on a small horse trail. My bald tire was giving me a very bad time on the trail. Our path was covered with leaves, that were hiding big exposed roots, and rocks. Once you got through the leaves the ground was a bit damp, so there was some mud to deal with as well. I had a very difficult time making any progress, Gary with is little 2 stroke had a much easier time.
The list of broken motorcycle pieces added up as our day went on. My KLR650 lost a footpeg, mirror, fairing, and the handle next to the seat. Gary’s Yamaha DT lost a mirror, and a rear blinker.
In the end we were dehydrated and exhausted, but we found our way through and had a pretty awesome adventure.
After Gary and I failed to find the path from Boquete to Portorillos we decided to attack the problem from a different angle. So we headed for Portorillos and tried to work out way back to Boquete. We stopped often and asked for directions, and found many helpful people to point us in the right direction.
I ended up with a lot of good footage for this video so once we found the little path we were looking for I decided to break it into 2 parts. The riding portion will be online soon.
Yesterday I was out riding with Gary trying again to find the route from Portorillos to Boquete. I’ll post that video when I finish editing it, but while we were riding I thought I’d try to make up for the True Story Sunday I missed the other day.
In 2008 I rode 7000 miles around the U.S. One leg of that trip I decided to to an Iron Butt ride. The Saddle Sore 1500 Gold is awarded for riding 1500 miles in 24 hours or less. It was horrible, and I vowed to never do it again but I am proud of that little pin on my jacket.
Go check out a few of the rides they have and start dreaming of becoming an official bad ass.
http://www.ironbutt.com/
Today I crashed my Kawasaki KLR650 during a river crossing. The river wasn’t very deep so I thought I could make it across no problem and zoomed into the water. But the rocks got the best of me and made me crash.
Our ride up to this point was pretty rough and I didn’t have any water. My legs were beginning to cramp up and I felt a little stroked out. Falling in this water was the best thing that could have happened to me.
In the U.S. Army there is a “Culture of Cowardice.” It feels like everyone has been trained to cover their asses and lay low for 20 years so they can get out and collect their pension. This really bothered my while I was in Nicaragua, because I was young and wanted to just get things done. So when I would get in trouble for working hard in the name of safety, and no one would care when I went and sat down for the rest of the day it didn’t make any sense to me. Especially when I knew that I could raise my hand at any moment and volunteer to walk around the roads of Iraq with a shovel looking for IED’s. Don’t tell me you care about my safety when you would send me to die without a second thought out in the desert.
The day after I was kicked out of the fork lift I was sitting in the motorpool office waiting for them to print me off a slip of paper which would become my license. Even though I was never tested on the machine, I would have a slip of paper saying I could drive it. While I was waiting a soldier came in and said there was an 18 wheeler blocking the road outside. He wanted to know if anybody could move it. I raised my hand and said I could do it. I had never driven an 18 wheeler before. He asked if I had a license, and I told him, “No, but if you need it moved I can do it.” And I stood up to walk outside and move the truck, when another soldier in the waiting room chimed in and said, “Dude I wouldn’t I heard some kid got pulled out of a forklift yesterday for operating it without a license.” I replied, “Yeah that was me. Do you need the truck moved or not?” They found someone else.
It was this “Culture of cover my ass” that would have the Army and I on a collision course that ended in a rather dramatic fashion. But I’ll save that story for another day.
It seems like the audio got a bit out of sync when I was editing, but I was too lazy to do anything about it, so deal with it!
Not long after posting my “Marchmas” video one of my subscribers contacted me to ask if I could help more people if he sent me a little money. He paypaled me $20 noting that he wished it could be more. I had heard that there were people living at the dump in David. It isn’t far from my house, so I suited up and went for a ride. I was shocked when I arrived. It’s a real eye opener to see where all that trash goes I set out by the street. The smell was bad but not unbearable, and I swore I would never use plastic bags again when visiting the grocery store. Having seen the small shacks around the dump site I knew I could make my video, and headed to McDonald’s. Part of me felt bad about taking the people food from McDonald’s. It was like saying sorry you live at a dump, here is the worst food humanity has ever developed. But for them it would be a special treat because I doubt they eat there often if ever.
When I returned and started handing out the food I noticed that some of the guys working obviously didn’t live at the dump. They were too clean, and too fat to be homeless. But I didn’t feel bad giving them the food, they have a rough job and deserved a little thank you. Everyone was grateful for the food, there was only one guy who turned it down. He kept a shirt over his head so I couldn’t see his face, most people here don’t realize the black thingy on my helmet is actually a camera. When asked about it before I’ve gotten away with telling them it’s a flashlight. But this man may have realized what it was and didn’t want to be on camera.
After the burgers were handed out one of the workers approached me to ask what organization I was with. I told him I wasn’t with any organization but “Only a friend who saw some other friends that needed help.” I asked him if people lived in the shacks around the dump. He told me that some people live there, but he didn’t and goes home at night.
It feels strange living in a comfortable house, and knowing that less than 10 minutes away there are people living in that filth.
In 2005 I spent four months living on a dusty, hot tent city in Northern Nicaragua. I enjoyed most of the deployment, but no matter what your job is or where you’re working everyone has those days that send you off the deep end. I had a lot of days like that in Nicaragua, and my story today is about one of my, “very fed up with being in the Army” moments.
Asked to patrol the base, and guard the blackhawk helicopters, but refused a weapon to stand guard with I report for duty with a home made weapon.
I filmed and edit this video month ago, but wasn’t really happy with the way it turned out. It did take a lot of time to film so I decided rather delete it I would share. Hey it’s just youtube not like I’m going to get cancelled or anything.
The road I filmed this on is one of my favorite in Panama. It’s a new road and still in great shape, no holes and very little traffic. It’s also at a higher altitude which keeps things cool.
There is a shoutout at the end to the guys at http://www.mypov360.com/ they hooked me up with the Drift HD so I could review and use it. Fellow youtuber 808yewtube helped me make the connection with them.http://www.youtube.com/user/808yewtube So I owe both of them for the fancy new camera.
