Day 296 Friday 26th August Richmond to Houston Airport via KTM 185km

Last night we went to Uncle Bobs family for dinner, its always nice and special to visit South Africans abroad on our travels, I always feel sad to see the quality of the people that left South Africa, its such a loss for our country, and last night was no different, a great Family who are not coming back to RSA. Their friends also joined us, also Ex- Sought Africans. Lloyd, the father of the house, spoiled us rotten, he had been smoking ribs for us for 6 hours, according to the 3,2,1 Method, (3 hours in cherry smoke with a rub on it, then 2 hours wrapped in tin-foil covered in Cider and apple juice, then 1 hour over slow heat to brown as it gets basted.

Milsy happened to know Lloyd from South Africa and Misly still does business with his dad back home. Tex drove up and joined us. Uncle Bob spent some time with his Grand Kids as we hid from the heat inside the kitchen, near the air-con, but as it cooled down around 19h00 we moved outside and sat around the pool and swam.

It was interesting to speak to Lloyd and his wife Adante, they emigrated 7 years ago and have two young daughters and a big old Labrador and they are very happy in Texas.

Their hospitality wont be forgotten, neither will we forget the spread they put on for us, thank you very much, hope we can spoil you in Johannesburg or Hermanus when you come to RSA for Holiday.

This morning was another early morning, the last day is always my worst of the trip as there is a deadline, the airport, not negotiable, we need to be there 3 or 4 hours before the flight, I was extra worried that Dad Ass was going to break down and the radiator would start leaking, leaving me next to the side of the road. We took on the morning traffic and rode the 100km to Tex’s factory where we proceeded to act like Maplotters (Red Necks) and striped off our steaming riding gear, scattered Tex’s neat parking area with clothes, bags and boots while we re-packed out bags, sorting out what stayed behind at the bike, what was going in the bag that gets checked-in for the flight and what goes in  the Hand Luggage. I think we scared poor Jess as there were men in underpants running all around the parking, even the receptionist was tested by me as I asked her for a “Trash Can” (Dustbin,) as I wanted to throw away my riding pants and boots, she offered a small little Office Waste Paper Basket which would work if I wanted to throw away 1 boot, but eventually I was pointed to a Skip at the end of the road, I returned to the shaded cover of the Carports drenched in sweat.

Tex gave us a spot inside one of the buildings where we stored the panniers and riding gear. Then we jumped on the bikes and had to ride to the other side of Houston to KTM to hand in the bikes for a service and prep for the long trip coming up in May, the bikes would probably not see a KTM dealer for about 25 000km. The only bike that was left in Tex’s building was Peens’s as his bike was serviced and fitted with a new clutch in Oklahoma and he needed nothing done to his bike.

Then we ordered the Uber and it was off to the airport.

And this is where the photos end and the long customary long section consisting of me typing and you reading, this has become customary at the end of a Leg, and this time its also the end of a Continent, so I know only the real Hard Core followers will continue and all the photo-watchers will stop here. (Bye bye to you traitors.)

The trip data for this leg:

Lets call it 6800km traveled on this Leg, the bike was using more than the past trips, 5,3lt per 100km, and the average speed of 89km per hour.

We started in 2017 on brand new bikes and to do North America, we traveled 47,727km, so by the time we cross over into Mexico it would be well over 48 000km, and all these kilometers for only two countries that we added to our list of 27 countries (which we crossed from London to Singapore.)

But I have now seen more of America than most Americans will ever see.

I have been to every corner of the North American Continent, we tossed a Mullet from Alabama to the state of Florida, rode an air-boat in the Everglades, walked down Bourbon street and listened to Country Musing in Nashville, scuba dived in the “Keys” and we slain the dragon and rode its tail in the Blue Ridge Mountain Pass Way, I bowed my head at Ground Zero and I ate a Pizza on Manhattan Island, we tried Putin and Seafood Chowder in Nova scotia, we sipped wine in Napa Valley, tasted the crab on Fisherman’s Wharf after we  rode over the San Francisco Harbor bridge, dodging the homeless and Rainbow Thieves. I got lost in the mist at Niagara Falls, I got lost in the dust in Death Valley.  We watched Fighter Jets being re-fueled above us at the Oshkosh Air Show, scraped our knees around the bends on the mountain passes at Sturgis, I touched the Glaciers and saw Old Faithfull blow its Sulphur water in the National Parks, I followed the Trans Alaskan Oil Pipeline all the way to the very tip of the continent in Alaska, I ate the pancakes made for us by old Sourdough Clutch, a legend in Northern Alaska, I caught a Wild Salon on a Fly, I looked into the eyes of a Black Bear feeding next to the road in Canada, crossed the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains several times, I won money in Vegas and shook Elvis’s hand, rode DaddAss to Chicken Corner  in Moab, broke bread and shared a beer with countless people who crossed our path, I sang Karaoke with Roy Rogers and stood in awe at the bottom of a Red Wood tree and looked down from the top of Pike Peak onto the most amazing bike-country of Colorado, I can cross North America off my list, truly done and dusted, thank you America and Canada, you are great people in great countries.

How do I summaries  everything I experienced? Not everything was good,  I guess the things that stand out the most is that there is a huge shortage of staff, almost every business has a banner or sign outside saying “We Are Hiring.” The economy is growing to fast and there are not enough people to fill the positions. Nobody can have an excuse to go hungry here, if you are poor and hungry you are either lazy or there is some form of substance abuse in your life that has taken over and clouded your mind from making the right decisions. Unfortunately this shortage of staff has caused the level of service to plummet and I will never complain about service in South Africa again. To get the attention of a “Server” you need to almost rugby tackle the staff who will avoid eye contact. You have to plead and beg and shout and fight to get your order out of them, and in spite of no-service from them they add 20% onto your bill for “Service.”

Unfortunately this shortage of staff means that the real dregs of society gets promoted above their intelligence just because the company needs a body to be visible, and they have a body, but no training and no Common Sense. Like the night “Manager” at the Quality Inn in Denver near the Airport, what a twit. In the morning on my way to breakfast (all served in paper and polystyrene and plastic cutlery, the norm for the majority of citizens,) I asked to see the Manager and complained that our rooms were not made after the 1st night and we returned on day two to find our rooms not made, I told the guy who looked more like a kid on school holiday than someone that has come through the ranks in the Front Office Department of a hotel, that I have never heard of this policy of having to ask for your room to be made, he said it was due to Covid, which no longer exists in the USA, but then he remembered that Peens who left early that morning to fly back to Seattle to collect his bike was part of our group and Peens’s shuttle did not arrive even though he booked one, so the “manager” told me Peens was banned form all Quality Inns as he was rude to him. I then told him I was not at the front desk to speak about “my friend” but was complaining about the hotels poor service, he then said I was rude and was also banned from the hotel, he then called and old man that wore a security uniform and pointed me out in the breakfast room and he wanted the old guy to throw me out, I told the “manager” that I will leave after breakfast and if he wanted to become famous and have his face on that nights news he should try to throw 7  bikers out of the hotel where he used to be employed. I told him that we will never stay at a Quality Inn ever again, and we rode past many Quality Inns and booked our rooms next door at their competition. He was promoted way past his competency level, with his attitude he wont make it there for another month if you ask me.

But if you go to a restaurant or pup run by the owner and his family the service is on another level, like at a Chinese Restaurant or an Italian Restaurant. At  Fast Food Take Away the service is also good and there is a good wi-fi and the aircon works.

Oeps, got to go, out flight is boarding, have a 9 hour flight now to London, speak to you again tomorrow morning.

Back again, that was painful, they served us a late lunch, then switched off the cabin lights and wanted us to go to sleep, yet it was still only early evening in our minds, the next thing we get served breakfast even though its only just past Mid-Night on our body-clock.

Yes, so Peens and I don’t have a British Visa and we thought we could go out to London for the day like the others, but the Day Pass we heard about was not true, so now we are stuck inside Terminal 5 for 9 hours before our next flight, and the Lounge my Card gives us access to in in Terminal 3, and once you are in a terminal you don’t get to go to another terminal unless your Boarding Pass shows you are in the wrong lounge. So we are now sitting in a Noddle Bar eating Ramen Noodle and drinking beer, and its only 11h00 here in London, its going to be a painful day.

But the Canadian’s and Americans are friendly people and always wanting to chat and they drive with courtesy, I have the greatest respect for them, they can appreciate that we are tourist in their country, not like the Germans and French who thinks they are doing us a favour when they speak to us.

I was amazed that even the smallest little towns had a Nail Bar and a Tattoo shop. I am jealous of how everything works here, like the Postal service and the trains. I am not so sure about the way Cannabis is legal in most states, I still believe Dagga is a Gateway drug that leads to stronger drugs, maybe the reason there are so many Meth-labs and Crack-heads in some states?

But the strangest of all to me are the Californian’s, most of them are Ponytails, (artistic and very liberal) in California being gay is fashionable. I heard last night that a new law was passed in California making it legal to Shop-Lift, as long as you don’t steal more than R800-00. I was told some shop-lifters walk around with calculators adding up what they are going to walk out the shop with to make sure its not over $800-00. One National Pharmacy Chain has closed 17 stores and blames the closures on this new law. The tax in this state is also so high and as a result they are driving away business  who are moving to other states where the tax is lower. San Francisco pays the homeless that stays in the city, they give them a limited amount of drugs and the tools to use the drugs, and now, to get them off the streets (the homeless are flocking to San Fran from all over the USA,)  they are now giving accommodation to the homeless in the empty buildings after the businesses has moved out to other states. This surely cant last, something has to give, its not sustainable.

We saw the police doing arrests or searching vehicles and they work following procedures, hands on weapons, approaching from the passenger side, ready for action, not guys you mess with, so why would you resist arrest? Why are the people angry with the police every time a person who the police was trying to arrest gets killed? Just don’t resist the police, if you are innocent as you believe you are, then just go with the police and the misunderstanding will be resolved and the police will let you go. How many of the people who end up dead because they resisted the arrest were actually high and drug fueled? The police stopped Peens twice for speeding far above the speed limit and I once got stopped, each time we managed to act confused with our inability to calculate the speed limit in Kilometers per hour and each time the police let us go with a warning, they were professional and not polite, but it was business like and they also had hands on guns when stopping us. I have no doubt that a situation that escalates will leave me wishing I behaved. And the Americans are so proud of their Service Men and Women and even Fire Fighters are hero’s, wish we could have cops back in South Africa we could be proud of instead of afraid as you know the bribe is going to be asked for in a few minutes.

Look, I am not crazy about the way that everyone is extra careful they might hurt another persons feelings or not being political correct, so things like Happy Holidays are said instead of Merry Christmas.  I understand the African Americans are only about 12% of the population but it seems to me they are riding the whole “hurtful to us” Band Wagon too much, like the tail wagging the dog if you ask me, but I am only a visitor, maybe I am wrong. Our great grand mothers were thrown into British Concentration Camps where a lot of them died under the hand of the British in the Anglo Boer War, and yes its hurtful to me as well, but it happened many years ago and I am not jumping up and down blaming our Colonisers for what they did, hell, they took the biggest diamond ever mined and shipped it to England and stuck it on the Queen’s crown, no compensation paid, just taken as we were their subjects.

The American people are very polarized, and half hate Biden and the other half loves Trump, and they honestly believes the elections were rigged and that Trump actually won. They also blame the high oil-price on Biden as well as the high inflation. But the way I see this is that they don’t have real issues, their issues are 1st World Issues, in Africa we have real “Bread and Butter” issues and the things we worry about in the 3rd World are real stuff and real fears, but if you don’t have real big issues then other issues become very big, but they are actually not that big, just gives us something to complain about and get angry about.

I also cant understand how some states makes it legal to ride without a crash-helmet, if you fall off then you die if you don’t wear a helmet, so why not make it law to wear one? I would also look at tightening the Gun Laws, there are far more shootings than gets reported in the media as only Mass Shootings get the attention, so put more checks in place and Automatic weapons should almost be impossible to own.

Please don’t think I am complaining or bringing you down, its just observations, and the rest of our group does not agree with everything I say.  It took us 6 Legs to complete this Continent, so I only spent about three month in total in North America, but in this time I saw far more positive things than negative things, I am not criticizing, our problems in South Africa are much bigger.

We are honored to have been in your country and experience everything it has to offer, I hope to  bring my family to some of the highlights I experienced in due course, you are a great nation and should be proud of what you have achieved.

I hope you will all join us in May when we point our bikes South and continue our Adventure of a Life Time. I am truly blessed to have come this far and it would not have been possible without the guys riding with me, they are good guys, they have my back, we are truly lucky to have one another. Lots of people has the money, or the time to do what we do, but they dont have the friends to do it with, how truly lucky we are.

Regards

Fleisch