Jan 6: Continued vein treatment on legs, through February 7.
Jan 22: Finished reading "Riding Soul-O" by Debi Tolbert Duggar. Debi was a 53 year old woman that made her first long distance motorcycle ride in 2008 from Florida up the east coast to Canada on a Harley Davidson Heritage. Later she bought a Road King and toured the lower 48 states, Alaska, and six Canadian Provinces. The book is part memoir, part travelogue.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
April 8: Finished reading "They’re Lying: The Media, The Left, and The Death of George Floyd" by Liz Collin. This book states that Derek Chauvin was not responsible for the death of George Floyd, that Floyd died of a drug overdose or some underlying health condition, and that the trial was tainted by perjury and manipulation of evidence. Liz Collin is a former reporter for WCCO, a CBS affiliate serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. She is married to Bob Kroll, former police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department. The Chauvin trial revolved around whether Floyd was suffocated by Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck and back for more than nine minutes or if Floyd died from drugs and poor health. An important part of the trial was whether Chauvin used an approved police technique known as the Maximum Restraint Technique (MRT), or if the technique was not approve. Collin also implies that the county medical examiner originally listed asphyxia (lack of oxygen) as a cause of death, and cited Floyd’s pre-existing health conditions, including coronary artery disease, in his autopsy. Collin also implies that the medical examiner findings changed after meetings with prosecutors and the FBI, and his final report stated that Floyd’s death was a homicide due to "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual restraint and neck compression.”
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
April 10: Started weekly service with Priority Pools, monthly cost to be $129.
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May 10: Finished reading "ADVENTURES ON BORROWED TIME: Old bikes, Distant Places" by Nick Adams.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
May 18: Finished reading "Pre-Territorial Boating in Arizona, 1541-1863" by Jon Fuller.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
May 22: Finished reading "A Motorcycle Memoir: My 10,000 Mile Journey into the Soul of America" by Neal Toulan. Toulan was a 62 year old single-man that made a cross-country motorcycle ride from Massachusetts to California and back in 2018, over a 3 month period. He rode a BMW 2015 R NineT 1200cc Boxer engine motorcycle. The book contains lots of good photos, route information, names of places where he stayed overnight and the places where he ate. He details a lot of conversations with people he met on this trip. The book was published August 2020.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
May 29: Gave 30 day notice to Priority Pools to cancel their weekly service, for reference only the monthly charge was $129. Service lasted less than 2 months.
June 10: Finished reading "Arctic Drift" by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. Book gifted to me by friend Diane Waller on June 6. I also ordered the Kindle version. The plot of the novel is that scientists and politicians are trying to find a way to stop Global Warming, and the secret may lie in finding one of the old ships from the 19th century Sir John Franklin expedition that was mentioned in the prologue. The ship may contain the location of the rare mineral Ruthenium. Ruthenium would be used as a catalyst in an artificial photosynthesis process that would convert carbon dioxide into something less harmful. Discovery and control of Ruthenium was the central conflict of the novel.
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| Above: Book cover. |
July 11: Went to the Eric Ramsey, Hans Olson, and Chuck Hall Blues in the Round concert at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) Music Theater in Phoenix.
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| Above: L to R: Hans Olson, Eric Ramsey, & Chuck Hall. |
July 22: Finished reading "The: Phoenix Sound: A History of Twang and Rockabilly Music in Arizona" by Jim West.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
July 26: Finished reading "North to Wrigley: End of the Summer Road" by Troy L Ramsell.
This was a 3,750-mile roundtrip journey from Portland, Oregon to Wrigley, Northwest Territories in Canada, on a single-cylinder motorcycle, a water-cooled 2008 Kawasaki KLR 650. Ramsell rode up through British Columbia but came back via Alberta. A very interesting read, I read the Kindle version, but felt the book should have had more of the many photos he mentioned taking.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
September 1: Finished reading “Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road” by Rush drummer Neil Peart. In 1997 he lost his only child (daughter) in a car accident, less than a year later his wife passed away (cancer), and as a way of coping with their deaths he went on a solo motorcycle ride of about 55,000 miles, through Canada, USA, Mexico, and Belize, took him about 14 months. He started his ride on August 20, 1998. Many years later in 2020, Peart died of cancer. A very interesting book, Peart was an excellent writer.
His bike was a red 1994 BMW R1100GS.
His first loop (Book 1) was 30,748 miles and ended in December 28, 1998 (4 months later) when he flew back from Mexico City to Toronto, Canada, with a connection to Montreal.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
September 15: Finished reading “Riding Route 66 - Bringing Boris Home” by Stephen Mason. After completing his motorcycle trip around the world Stephen Mason stored his bike in Boston for a few months, with plans to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway later. The COVID pandemic changed that plan. After two and a half years Stephen returns from his home in Scotland with a new plan where he would ride to Chicago, meet some friends, ride Route 66 then head up to Canada to ship the bike home. A short book, only 89 pages. He has 3 other books at this writing.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
October 10: Jean and I got our flu and COVID-19 vaccines.
October 17: Went to the Hans Olson "Arizona Troubadour" book signing at the Tempe History Museum. See photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/sFZymhFEYMzZRVz3A.
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| Above: Photo from the book signing. |
November 9: Finished reading “Arizona Troubadour” by Hans Olson. This book is an account of the life of an Arizona musician, filled with stories of his life in California, Arizona and touring in the US and Europe.
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| Above: Cover from book. |
November 18: Finished reading “Solo Motorcycle Moments from the American Road” by Neal Toulan, his second book. Toulan was then a 65 year old single-man that made his second cross-country motorcycle ride from Massachusetts to California and back in 2021, in about a month and a half. And different routes this time from his first trip. He rode his 2015 BMW R NineT 1200cc Boxer engine motorcycle. The book contains lots of great photos, route information, names of places where he stayed overnight and the places where he ate. He details a lot of conversations with people he met on this trip, much like his first book. This second book was published August 2025.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
December 02: Finished reading “Rural America An Old Man and a Harley - A Memoir” by David Rickerson Sr. On the road for almost the entire summer. Camping, sofa surfing and staying at some pretty strange places. The inspirational story about a fella that bought his first Harley (Harley Softail Slim with 4,170 miles on it) at age 65. A total of 9,021 miles in seventy-three days, during which I spent approximately $4,000, including tires and oil changes.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
December 30: Finished reading “Three Stories” by Ernest Miller Hemingway.
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| Above: Cover from Kindle book. |
December 31: Jean's CT Scan performed at Southwest Medical Imaging Fountain Hills, Jean sent to Emergency Room at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center.
