2024 Tour of Honor - Of High Hopes, Failure & Redemption - A Ride Report.
0face made a comment not long ago that included this, “There’s a bunch of unknown things around the country…”
April 6th, 2024.
Saturday, I spend some time visiting some of these places that are in my own backyard. This one stood out to me, specifically, this statement from a Medal of Honor citation, “To silence one of the pillboxes, he wrenched a light machine gun out through the embrasure as it was firing.” Just to frame it up, the barrel of a machine gun when pushed will glow red hot – kevlar oven mitt territory. This soldier snatched one out of a pillbox by the barrel. Reading such feats of courage and determination are humbling, to say the least. That soldier was John C. Sjogren of Rockford, Michigan. The memorial pictured below is in his hometown and is one of the 7 Michigan memorials in the 2024 Tour of Honor rally. There are stories like this in small towns all across this nation. They serve as a reminder of what each of us are capable of. There are heroes amongst us – both past and present..
Let me backup a few days – a week actually.
I typically spend time over the holidays doing maintenance on the FJR. Work can be slower and it’s the time of year to burn vacation time. As usual, life and stuff happens – I found myself near the end of March with FJR parts spread out across the garage and a pair of de-tired wheels on the bench. Thankfully there are very helpful individuals in this world of ours – like D-Eagle, who sent encouraging texts like, “when are we changing my tires?” and “should I bring my torpedo heater to warm up my tires before you put them on?”. There is Lumberg as well – “Can I go another 1400 miles on these crappy RS3’s?” and “I plan to be violent April 1st.”
April 1st? Oh – Tour of Honor. More helpful encouragement from Lumberg, “If you do it, you have to own it”. Stage is set, no pressure.
Why do I do all these maintenance things during the winter? Maybe a better question is “why haven’t I had a trip derailed or detoured because of some piddly nuisance thing? Fork service, brake fluid flush and bleed, clutch fluid flush and bleed, new tires, lube pivot points (all of them – clutch lever pivot, brake lever and pedal pivots, shift linkage, peg pivots etc), fluids (oil, coolant, final drive), ground spiders, etc, etc. and a “knock on wood” for a smooth riding season. And at 100k miles, it is the least I can do for my loyal chariot.
Friday, March 29th, 2024.
The shake down run was uneventful. Smooth, nimble, and ready. What more could we ask for? There may have been a grin, a giggle even – as I was running a short section of nearly curvy road for a second time. After driving the truck all winter, the FJR feels like a rocket.
Sunday, March 31st, 2024
We gathered for Easter dinner on Saturday this year as a means towards making early work schedules a bit less painful on Monday morning. Worked out well for me – having Sunday to pack the bike and get some rest early in anticipation of a pre-dawn launch. The bike was packed, tire pressure confirmed and filled with fuel before noon.
Monday, April 1st, 2024. Failure dripping with disappointment…
No other word stings like this for me. Like a sucking chest wound. I backed the FJR out of the garage at 4:30am – well after my planned departure time. Between 7pm Sunday evening and the moment I backed the FJR out of the garage I managed exactly zero minutes of sleep. I tossed and turned all night – this is not normal for me. Thoughts of work and the ride lobbied for equal time. The main concern about riding TOH on April 1st in Michigan is any memorial sites in the Upper Peninsula. Weather conditions can swing significantly near Lake Superior, or anywhere north and west of the Mighty Mack (Mackinac Bridge). Historical data on the TOH site indicates that there will be at least 2 memorials in the U.P. Last year’s memorial list included a site in Wakefield that is nearly 600 miles from my garage, let alone the fact that it was under 3’ of snow on April 1st. Nothing that any of the TOH participants in the northern tier states aren’t used to dealing with. Work stuff has been deep and heavy the past 6 months. Lot’s of things in the air and I let it get the best of me. Muther Truckers.
There was a memorial site 25 miles from the house – it was to be my first stop; if I was missing anything, I’d be able to stop on the way back past the house on my way west. Temps were hovering in the lower 30’s, rain showing on the radar on the short expressway blast. The memorial coordinates were right on target and had the bike parked with my rally flag staged smoothly – I snapped a close up shot for insurance and was back rolling in short order after submitting the details with the TOH app. Even with my liner and grips on full blast, the temps were cutting through.
The real issue that I had successfully ignored on the ride out was how exhausted I was. It gave me a reality check on the way back to the expressway in the form of crossing the shoulder rumble strips. That will wake you right the fook up, right? Nope – a misjudged closure rate on the highway sealed the deal. Being in that state at the beginning of what was a full day’s ride made it impossible to ignore – red flags, bells, sirens, etc. were all screaming at max volume and I knew the only reasonable choice. Sometimes the right and correct thing to do is the hardest thing. scrub the plan – as painful as that was – it was the only way to survive the day. So I rolled back into the garage by 5:45 a.m. I was back in bed, and asleep by 6. I woke up just after noon – WTF…
I followed Lumberg’s tracker that afternoon – he laid down a killer opening day ride and locked up the 1st place trophy for Georgia – well done, sir, well done.
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
I lost 3 days of vacation time (our “use-it-or-lose-it” end date is March 31st annually) in our fiscal year that just ended.. I took these 2 days off for me. I spent this second day enjoying some quiet time in the garage – some mindlessness with a favorite playlist on – some weapon’s maintenance time, and generally thinking about nothing. It was a day I didn’t know I needed. Lumberg’s day one dominance of the Georgia Memorials was certified. Legend level stuff there. The rider who earned the Michigan 1st place trophy put in somewhere north of 1100 miles that day and was on the road just after midnight.
The winter months have been difficult to find and manage an equitable work-life balance. During the summer, I have yard work at my folks place that provides the opportunity to tune out the world and carve some killer mower lines in the yard. I need to do better next winter with keeping active with things that unplug me from work. I lost focus of that this past winter. I realize all this talk has some of you scratching your head and thinking, “what the heck is this ‘work’ thing he’s bitching about…”
But all is not lost. The Tour of Honor event runs from April 1st through October 31st each year. A rider can earn “finisher” status by visiting the primary memorial sites (usually 7) for any given state. Beyond that, there are additional sites that fall into categories such as “Searching for the Lost Generation (Doughboys)”, “War Dogs and K9 Heroes”, “Huey Helicopters”, “Gold Star Family Memorials”, “9/11 Memorials”, “Veterans Cemeteries” and “Sea-to-Shining Sea Tour”. I was shoved down this rabbit hole by Mr. Lumberg. There are plenty of destinations that give a Sunday morning ride purpose and a potential history lesson.
Saturday, April 6th, 2024. Redemption…
The FJR settled into its warmed, steady state idle by the time I had backed it down the driveway and pointed it towards the street. It was 3:30 am. I was rested, focused, and ready to ride.
I decided to run west first; this would let the sun do its thing and bring temperatures in northern Michigan closer to tolerable ranges by the time I moved through. This strategy also reduced the potential for forest rat encounters since most of this first section would be on the expressway. It also met the return run south on I-75 in the dark – and put most of the two lane road travel during daylight hours. I mean, it sounded like a solid, reasonable plan.
First memorial stop was in Battle Creek (home of Kellogg), then a 90 minute hop north to Rockford (outside of Grand Rapids), then a long leg north to Gaylord. Temperatures hovered between 29 and 38 degrees during that first leg; sunrise pushed the colder air down and I felt it. My liner, gloves, and grips were set to max and they just barely kept the cold from cutting through. Taking inventory, my current Warm’n’Safe liner is pretty old – 10 plus years I think. Might be time for a replacement.
Sojourner Truth Memorial in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Sunrise in Kalamazoo Michigan – gas in the FJR, hot chocolate in the pilot…
Note to self – make sure you tell them to hold all the “foo-foo” add ons they think should be added to simple hot chocolate…
It was 12:30p when I rolled away from the Ironworkers Memorial. The time / distance puzzle in front of me was solved with about 7 hours on the north side of the bridge in the Upper Peninsula. The weather was fantastic at this point – 50 degrees and sunny. Time to burn some carbon off.
I ran north towards Brimley first. I dropped each memorial site into my Zumo as a favorite. I set up a route, but opted to navigate to each site individually. I selected MI2 and Go – Brimley is just south and west of Sault Ste. Marie, so I knew I’d drop off the expressway at some point. Normal settings in my Zumo for avoidances include “non-paved roads” and “tolls”. One would assume that “non-paved roads” include gravel roads. I was clipping along nicely on a rough, but paved 2 lane headed north when it changed to gravel. No sign, no indication and the color of it all blended nicely as well. When pressed, the FJR can be a halfway decent dual sport…
Brimley, Michigan.
Brimley site collected but not submitted (TOH has an app for that..) due to no cell service. South and West – 3+ hours or 200 miles. The Zumo’s ETA displayed 3:30p and I accepted that at face value. Making the turn by 3:30 (call it 3:45p) back towards the bridge meant I’d make Mackinaw before sunset. Mackinaw to home is about 4 hours of ride time. Rough math put me home between midnight and 1am (accounting for gas stops, etc). That was doable. I’d find a fast mover and tuck in to use them as a deer deflector.
There are some wide open spaces in the U.P. Long sections of straight flat roads with long site lines where the forest has been cut back away from the road by 75 to 100 feet. It’s the “in-between” season up north. The snow has mostly melted and shut down the snowmobilers. It’s not yet warm enough for the OHV crowd to drag their UTV’s, dirt bike and quads up for spring and summer riding either. There were long stretches with no other cars in sight. I was not looking forward to any miles in the dark. The northern section of I-75 is a forest rat alley after sunset.
At one point, I think I went a solid 20-30 minutes without seeing another car on the road. It was eerily empty. I found myself dialing in a bit more throttle every now and then. I was reminded just how comfortable the FJR is at these velocities. It just purrs along, or rather, at a low scream that you realize was there when you close the throttle while you’re identifying oncoming traffic. Every state trooper or LEO I saw up there was in a Chevy Tahoe. Fortunately, none of them were in my mirrors or hidden. The last memorial on the list for the day was 30 miles west/northwest of Escanaba. That’s nearly cheesehead country!
I was floating along and revisiting the time / distance puzzle to see what the evening might shake out to be. That’s when the anomaly hit me. Arrival time on the Zumo stated 3:45p. That put me back at the bridge by 7pm. Then I noticed the current time on the Zumo screen – 3:25pm. And then the time on the FJR screen – 4:25pm. WTF? Destination was in the central time zone, an hour earlier. Well, that skews things a bit. I was east bound by 4:05p (which was actually 5:05p) after logging the memorial at Foster City and finding a OHV trail turnout to water the bushes at. Now Mr.Smartarse Zumo was stating ETA to Mackinaw City as 8:15pm. I was making good time trimming that ETA down. US2 is a 2 lane road, but they have added passing lanes on each side every few miles. The one trooper along that stretch already had a customer and made that known for miles in either direction via the illuminated signature red bubble on top of his Tahoe.
Foster City, Michigan – Oscar G. Johnson – CMOH
Link to citation – Medal of Honor Society – Oscar G. Johnson
The boss called just after my gas stop an hour from the bridge. A question and answer session ensued. The Spanish Inquisition seemed pale in comparison. The boss was not pleased with my plan to get home and said plan’s ETA.
“It will be dark soon, right?” – Yes.
“It’s going to get cold again?” – Yes.
“What time do you think you’ll be home?” – between midnight and 1am.
“That’s really late.” Probably.
“I am not waiting up wondering if you are coming home or carving up a deer you sliced in half…” – Ok.
“Why don’t you get a hotel?” – Hotels are expensive.
“There are plenty in Mackinaw City” – they are all probably closed until spring – it’s off season up here.
“That’s silly.” – Well, it’s not exactly simple or safe for me to googlemap hotels while I’m going this fast.
“HOW FAST are you going?” – The speed limit is 65.
“That is not what I asked you.” awkward silence…
Somewhere in my numb state, I managed to turn the tables.
“Hey – why don’t you look up hotels in Mackinaw City” Ok.
“If you make a reservation, it will force me to stop for the night.” – Done.
I had wanted to get further south, but once the sun set and the temperature started to drop off, I realized I was all out of piss & vinegar for the day. The Holiday Inn Express was a few hundred feet from the base of the Mackinaw Bridge on the right side of the road – sometimes the boss is on her game – it was just what I needed after 940 miles.
North side of the Mackinaw Bridge – it looks tiny, but that first tower is about 2 miles away…
Sunday morning arrived as another bright and sunny day. It also arrived with the realization that anything that had been occupying space and lobbying for processing time a week ago was absent yesterday. I was solely focused on the ride and challenge at hand. Right now, being on two wheels is that one single place in my universe where I can clear all the day to day complications out for a short period of time. It is my “fortress of solitude” – as oxymoronish as that sounds. I realize many of you reading this are already well past this point in life and career. That fact fuels me in pursuing advancement.
This is what a 900+ mile day looks like on a map. There were some long, lonely stretches of road out there…
The Great Lakes National Cemetery is a TOH site as well – and just a few miles off the expressway on my way south. I rode each loop within the cemetery. I stood there for a few minutes. The wind moving old glory. It’s an extraordinarily peaceful and humble landscape. Fitting final resting place for the heroes here.
There will be addendums to this ride – I plan on visiting more Tour of Honor sites through the summer here in Michigan as well as along the way when I head to the Ramble and EOM.