2500 miles of mostly bliss

pcombe · Aug 19, 2013

I folks! :wave4:

I just got home from a two week and 2500 mile trip on my trike. :10:

ThumbUp I left Wyoming and headed into Montana's Glacier Park to ride the highway to sun, camping along the way.
My disability got me into the park for free and i even did a might of fly fishing within the park boundaries.

I then dropped into the Idaho panhandle and rode the Salmon River country.
The high and lonesome has a few fires going on, so i had to suck alot of oxygen to travel there.
I found campsites with electricity so i could run my portable oxygen unit at night and recharge the batteries so it worked out.

It was real cold up in the stanley basin where i camped one night and i didn't bother to get out of that sleeping bag and cot until the sun took the edge off the cold.
:Shrug: What the heck, I wasn't in a hurry and nowhere i had to be.

Traveling by myself i don't have to consider anyone's schedule but my own so i stopped at historic markers and such as i pleased.

I had a good look around the Salmon river country and it's worth slowing down for.

I laid over and visited my mom in Idaho for a couple days and got a cute picture of her riding on my trike at the age of 80 yrs.

I then made my way back via Jackson Hole and west yellowstone, Then just for good measure took in the wind river mountain range, so i have seen mucho pretty country.

I am really tired and need to take a few days to recuperate so will add just a few pictures for now

THERE ARE MORE PICTURES POSTED OF E, GLACIER ON PAGE THREE OF THIS THREAD!

Papa Zook · Aug 19, 2013

Paul, you make me very proud to have been the guy that sold you that Champion trike kit! What a fine job you did on the install, the paint and now this 2500 mile solo road trip (in a tent!)...Some guys build themselves a trike and it hardly ever leaves the garage and then there are guys like you. Well done buddy! ThumbUp

AZTriGlide · Aug 19, 2013

Wow, looks like you had an awesome time! Would love to do something like that but can't camp out anymore!

pcombe · Aug 19, 2013

Bazooka said:
Paul, you make me very proud to have been the guy that sold you that Champion trike kit! What a fine job you did on the install, the paint and now this 2500 mile solo road trip (in a tent!)...Some guys build themselves a trike and it hardly ever leaves the garage and then there are guys like you. Well done buddy! ThumbUp

I thought of you the day i sent you the photo.
I wish you could have been there!
I found a computer part way along the trip and sent ABBA a note also.

Thanks zook:
That trike makes it possible

Nana · Aug 19, 2013

BEAUTIFUL pictures, Paul! Thanks for sharing your trip

pcombe · Aug 19, 2013

AZTriGlide said:
Wow, looks like you had an awesome time! Would love to do something like that but can't camp out anymore!

I fooled myself into thinking i could so i did.

if you do this trip staying in motels or cabins, check the rates before you go. I could never have afforded it!

Campsites along the route i took ran to the tune of up to $40.00 per night and a cabin even in a KOA was around $200.00.
Good lord, i just wanted to stay there, NOT buy it!

In the salmon River country country there were plenty of sites for a self contained RV that were reasonable.
I could have pitched a tent in these areas but i needed that electricity for my oxygen concentrator!

I did stay in one of those one night because i had no choice and i had three batteries that last about 5 hrs, each and was able to make it through the night.
The next day i ran the concentrator off my cigarette lighter but couldn't run headlights at the same time.
I was lucky i didn't see a cops as all the states out here have a lights on law.

slick rick · Aug 19, 2013

,,,glad it all went well Paul ,,,, some beautiful pics ,,,,,and I truly wish you many more adventures as good as that one seems to have been . I think every man or woman should have the chance to get away and just clear the 'ol noggin

pcombe · Aug 19, 2013

Im glad to see your trike is finished and you are on the road.

pcombe · Aug 19, 2013

slick rick said:
,,,glad it all went well Paul ,,,, some beautiful pics ,,,,,and I truly wish you many more adventures as good as that one seems to have been . I think every man or woman should have the chance to get away and just clear the 'ol noggin

Amen Rick!

You know the thing that's tragic is that everybody elses chaos never seems to take a vacation when i leave?
I think i should stay away long enough so they no longer think i have all the answers?
Half the time i don't even understand the question!

slick rick · Aug 20, 2013

Yep Paul that's true ,,,but as long as they continue to come to us with these questions we have a purpose in life .

,,,,I look at my Father in law 87 years old ( GREAT MAN ) feeble , on oxygen thinks he;s a burden to others and I try to explain to him no way but he don;t seem to understand that we have somebody we can ask those questions of .

,,,So even though sometimes we don't have all the answers or understand the questions it's just good to be asked of .

,,,I'm sure you had plenty of time to reflect on all that with that alone time your trip granted you ,,hell I could use one of those myself and have talked to my wife about it .

........still out to jury on that one ,,,,,,

rmrc51 · Aug 20, 2013

I took a trip out to your corner of the country years ago and completely fell in love with it. I wanted to move there but my better half just couldn't tear herself away from all of our family and friends here on the East coast and I understood that. But I tell ya,,, if I ever win the lottery there's gonna be a house built in Wyoming! ThumbUp

pcombe · Aug 22, 2013

rmrc51 said:
I took a trip out to your corner of the country years ago and completely fell in love with it. I wanted to move there but my better half just couldn't tear herself away from all of our family and friends here on the East coast and I understood that. But I tell ya,,, if I ever win the lottery there's gonna be a house built in Wyoming! ThumbUp

If you come out here with attitude you will find yourself plenty welcome!

Besides, with more antelope than people it would give me someone to ride with and another set of eyes to watch out for them?

We only have about a million people in our entire state and the antelope could run us out if they set there minds to it!

AZTriGlide · Aug 22, 2013

Paul,
Glad you had a great time. When I worked, I didn't have the time. Now that I'm retired, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it

! Hate to have to be in the trailer category but at least I can still ride. Just have to wait for the other half to retire so we can take off

pcombe · Aug 23, 2013

AZTriGlide said:
Paul,
Glad you had a great time. When I worked, I didn't have the time. Now that I'm retired, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it ! Hate to have to be in the trailer category but at least I can still ride. Just have to wait for the other half to retire so we can take off

Its nice to hear from a friend Jamie!

with the blessings of my wife I normally saved a little out of every check and set it aside for a yearly trip on my bike but last year i spent it all ( and more)on the trike conversion.

I'm really lucky that the wife just told me to take some money and go even though she balked at the solo trip when my friends backed out on the trip and it came time to actually do it and enlisted my daughters in the efforts to talk me out of it.

When you boil it down to the brass tacks that's an improvement over last year when i was fighting everyone in my family to back off and give me some independance after all the heart attacks etc.
two months after the last hospital episode in july 2012 i got sick of the invalid treatment and just got on my old harley with a bag of clothes and a chest of medication and left amidst all the tears and anger.

Granted it was hard on me physically! And really didn't get more than 500 miles away.
I hated like hell to do it that way because i have spent all these years trying to consider their feelings and soothe their fears instead of adding to them but god, they were smothering me!

I guess my stubbornness last year to take my two wheeler for my annual ride paid off.
They no longer expect me to stay home and die where they can keep an eye on me.

My father had the same congestive heart failure and c.o.p.d that i do and he just gave up.
I watched my family members (out of love, concern and fear for him)talk him into being an invalid. It absolutely broke my heart and i could do nothing about it.
If i had succeeded perhaps his last years, would have been much different for him?

My brother is starting to have the same problems and i hope it's me that has inspired him to go through all the diagnostic procedures to head it off if and not have to go through to begin with?
Perhaps my refusal to lay down and die has shown him an alternative?

the other benefit to forcing my family to give me back my independence was that trip i took last year convinced me to build my trike and the efforts to do so gave me something to focus on and something to look forward to so that i could convince MYSELF I didn't have lay down and die!

Jamie, If at all possible, start setting aside just a little out of your monthly income to plan for the day your husband retires and make the trike trip a reward to celebrate retirement.
It will give you something to plan, something to do and something to look forward too and that is the secret to longevity, and facing life on lifes terms when we are dealing with disabilities of any form.
Somehow that makes the daily pain more easily born and accepted and it begins to lose its hold on us as a driving ( or limiting ) factor.

I am not about to lay in bed until i can no longer do anything else and let ten years. go by waiting for it.

bustedwing · Aug 23, 2013

I agree wholeheartedly. You need something to strive for, if you don't then you will just lie down and die. I applaud your fortitude, most people would not push against the whole family, but when you see what happened before, I can understand. But I can see the other side too, the family wants you to stick around as long as possible, not really understanding your side. It's tough. I'm glad you were able to make the trip and give yourself some recharging time. Take care.