"The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men..."

Written July 6, 2012, at a campground in Healy, AK, next town north of the entrance to Denali National Park.

My NH-PGR friend Bert and I had been talking about a ride to Alaska for a year or more.  We'd e-mailed and IMed each other a hundred times, or more.  We are both old riders, he a few years younger, but on a Yamaha Royal Star whose total miles far exceed those of my 1982 Honda Silver Wing, and Bert rode almost all of those miles.  He is a respected fellow oldrider.  But, after meeting on 23 July in Great Falls, MT, and riding together through Glacier National Park, camping for one night and spending two in motels, we learned that our touring styles were incompatible, and parted ways.  Such things happen.  I greatly respect Bert, and hope he, too, has made it to Alaska.  I even hope that we bump into one another up here.

Bert: If you read this, thank you for keeping the idea alive for a year, and for helping to make this trip happen.  I am sorry that you reacted negatively to having me on your wing, but such is life.

As Robbie Burns once wrote,

"The best-laid plans, 

Of mice and men,

Gang aft aglay."

There are no hard feelings on this side, and I hope none on yours.  But, you were right.  It was not working.

Ride safe, my friend!