Passes & Canyons Blog

I was still in the hospital after my heart surgery and Bill came to see me. He figured I had a lot of time to read and brought me a copy of Two Wheels Through Terror. This is a book that tells the 2001-2002 motorcycle journey of the author, Glen Heggstad, down through Central America and South America. The big problem was that in Colombia he was kidnapped by guerillas and held for a month.

Bill was really wrong about me having a lot of time to read in the hospital because for the most part I didn’t have the strength and spent most of my time sleeping. But almost six weeks out of the hospital I have picked it up and started reading it. Oh my god, what a story! And this guy Heggstad is one tough guy.

During his month with the guerillas he was force-marched long distances over steep mountains while being almost starved to death. Then as part of his strategy to get released he took to starving himself deliberately, making the point to the bad guys that if they wanted any benefit from releasing this gringo they had better do so quickly while he was still alive.

He notes that, once safely with the Red Cross, he was brought a clean shirt. Normally he wears size XXL but this was a medium–and it fit perfectly. The guy went through some serious abuse.

Anyway, it really came home to me after he was released. Most people would have given up the trip and immediately flown home but Glen was determined to keep going, even though he needed a new motorcycle and all new gear. But first he had to recover. He had to battle back to the bike. Oh yeah, I can identify with this!

Here are a few of the things he said about his condition:

So physically weakened, it would take nearly a week just to be able to walk a city block without passing out, and several more just to build up the strength to balance a motorcycle.

Oh, yeah, I know. I was two weeks after surgery before I could go out and walk part of the way up the block and back.

Add to that, time with the ELN has left me weakened mentally and physically. After a brief trip to a local gym, I found myself too weak to bench-press an empty bar.

The good thing for me is that all along I have had the total support and never-fading smile of my saintly wife, Judy. Glen had guerillas deliberately trying to break him mentally. But that bit about pressing the empty bar: I started out doing curls with one-pound weights and was tired after a set with those.

The long miserable wait has ended. After pumping up the tires, I blast down the road for a two-hour, get-to-know-my-new-friend ride into the countryside, complete with rain in the darkness on the way back. Yet even the foul weather is a welcome relief as I’m just happy to be back in the wind under any circumstance. It’s as though life flows back into me again, while the excitement of being on the road permeates my being.

OK, this is what I’m still waiting for. It’ll be about another month.

Biker Quote for Today

Forget a knight in shining armor, I’ll take a biker in dirty leathers any day.