Road Less Traveled - A Documentary by James Beatty

Day-16

July 22, 2006

Vance finally gets to ride with the boys...

After having to cancel a planned ride the day before because of bike maintenance, Vance was up early and ready to go. Even though we all had a good nights rest, the guys didn’t get on the trail until around 1:00 pm.

The plan was for Vance to ride the stretch of the trail from Bartlesville, Oklahoma to Newkirk, Oklahoma with James, Steven and Michael. This trek would take the guys through the beautiful Osage Nation - miles and miles of open land with a mountainous backdrop. Mathew, Chris, and Lori (Vance’s wife) also went through the Osage Nation on more main roads. It was beautiful and amazing for both the riders and the chase vehicles. Some of the more interesting things that the riders saw on the trail were a flock of large white birds, possibly Egrets, and Vance found some crude oil that was bubbling out of the ground. James also got a kick out seeing somebody’s front yard in the town of Elgin that had six horses fenced grazing on their front lawn. “It’s something you don’t see everyday” he said.

Another monumental sighting during their trek to Newkirk was Michael’s first crash. Just when it seemed like he might make it to the half way point of our trip across America without a mark on his record, he and his BMW finally went down. Distracted simultaneously by the bike-cam record button and the helmet communications talk-button, Michael didn’t notice the deep tire ruts in the dirt road which turned out to be a little deeper than anyone expected. Drifting into it at around 40 mph, the front tire got crossed up throwing Michael over the handlebars. It was a scary sight to see Michael go down, but don’t worry, with full riding gear Michael was just fine, and surfaced without a scratch - although parts on his bike needed to be bent back into position in order to continue.

Late in the day the riders finally surfaced over a hill on the dirt road where Chris, Mathew and Vance’s wife Lori were to meet the guys. Unfortunately Vance would have to turn back to get home. It was sad to say goodbye to Vance and Lori but as James said, “It was a perfect ending to our time with him.”

After the goodbye’s, the crew hopped over to Sonic for a quick dinner and then headed on to Boise City Oklahoma (pronounce “Boys-City”). Tomorrow it’s on to New Mexico with a final destination of Trinidad Colorado.

Photography Copyright © 2006 Motorrad Media and Chris Rankin. All Rights Reserved.

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