ALASKA OR BUST!

We would prefer not the bust part, but definitely the Alaska part.

Alabama was pretty, and so was Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Missouri is just Missouri, I have spent my fair share of time in Missouri so there is nothing special other than the ARCH in St. Louis. Our GPS navagator (TomTom) we named "Tilly" was kind enough to route us through downtown St. Louis at sunset so it was really pretty!

We stopped briefly in Louisville, Kentucky to visit with some dear friends of ours, Will and Rachel Lundy and their beautiful children. Some stops along the way make the trip very memorable and seeing them was definitey at the top of my list!!!

Our goal is to make it to North Dakota to see my brother Jerry and his family. I HAVE to put my arms around my niece Callie! We are also going to back track a bit and head south after ND to go to South Dakota to see a friend of my fathers, Dave. (he has new baby horses that were born recently!) Going back to South Dakota after ND will put us on the road to see Mt. Rushmore. Then we are planning to go NORTH! Straight up and out of Montana into Canada..

It was really nice to get up this morning to 76 degrees instead of 96 by 8:30 am! We can definitely appreciate the cold!

Maureen, thank you so much for the offer, your plants may have to suffer as we are not planning on going through Colorado.... now if you were there it would have given us a reason to go through there, but nope, you aren't so we are on route to ND!

Becky

Alabama!

750 miles later, laughter, fun and games in the car keep us occupied. Boy am I glad I don't live in this traffic all the time. The countryside is so beautiful down here and the farms and homes. The Alabama sunset tonight was fantastic, the heat and humidity are still stupid, but that just keeps us wanting to travel north!

We decided to bunk down just north of Birmingham? (spelling) and get a good nights sleep. Hopefully we will trek though Tennessee and then to Kentucky and visit some dear friends to Shelbe and I, The LUNDYS!

Jimmy called me today and first words out of his mouth: "You are in trouble! I see you going 72 miles an hour!" I laughed and had to explain that the speed limit is 70 and I was passing someone. We also learned that on the GPS tracking site you can push a button on the upper left corner by the direction arrows that is labeled BIRDS EYE VIEW and you can see EXACT locations and buildings and cars! There is no hiding with that thing in the car!

Well off to bed and early to rise to hit the pavement again!

Becky

Goodbye Florida!

Well, Plans change over and over when there is unexpected things that arise... We are on the road from Boca Raton and almost to Orlando while I type this...

We being, Cheryle, Shelbe and myself. We left Jerry in the capable hands of Denny and Lisa. Denny and Jerry will fly out to Alaska on Friday!

We have the motorcycle in the trailer behind us and we are trekking up Florida. I don't know where we are going to stop, I don't know if we are going to. I DO know that we are going to see Mt. Rushmore. I didn't want to go past it a second time and not get a look.

YOU CAN TRACK US!

We took the GPS tracker and put it in the van, so you can see where we are at and where we have been.

I will try to post pictures if we aren't too tired...

HOMEWARD BOUND!!! (we all will be so happy to be out of Florida's heat. Well maybe not the heat but definitely the humidity!

JERRY IS HEALING! He is surprising his Dr. Lisa Kelso with his wonderful healing. 24 hours makes all the world of difference in his wounds. He now has skin growing back on the injury on the back of the knee...

Track us home!

BECKY

Latest...CAUTION.. Not for the faint of heart...

Here are the injuries.. His arm and side are road rashed as well as a piece of his calf on the left leg. The left leg sustained most of the injury, (HE IS LAYING SO THE LEFT LEG IS STICKING OUT, WITH THE RIGHT CROSSED OVER IT SO WE COULD SEE THE BACK OF THE KNEE) the stapled picture is his left calf. The muscle was hanging out and they had to put it back. The laceration on the back side of the knee is REALLY deep. It is called a "dirty wound" because it was dirty for one, and secondly it is sooo deep and so long. There is a piece of skin flat out missing which is what made it a hard "sew". The muscles here were hanging out also.

He is in pain. Lisa got him to take a pain reliever finally. I think the cleaning of the wounds took it out of him and it is a lot of pain to bare..

He is going to be flying out on Friday back to Alaska. That is the ONLY confirmed plan as of now. The rest (Mom, Shelbe and Cheryle)of us are awaiting to hear from insurance company about the bike and from there we will make plans.

I am really sorry that I didn't provide an update before now, but it is a really stressful time for all of us. It is not easy for me to see my father in pain, he is usually really good about hiding it but this was a very tramatic event and he is coping the best he can, as well as the rest of us.

I spent the morning chasing down prescriptions for antibiotics, prescriptions for contacts and etc.. He lost his "diddy" bag (shower kit) in the crash and only has his really old pair of glasses and the contacts that were in his eyes.

The bike is totalled. (Well we will see if insurance totals it or not) But it looked pretty bad to me.

WHAT HAPPENED:

As you may know there was 2 separate wrecks 15 minutes apart on the same stretch of road.

The road was new and sand on it. Not a good combo. The men that wrecked before my dad, one of the men lost his leg. We are really fortunate that Wildman is alive. His injuries are serious, if he doesn't take good care of the back of the knee he could loose the leg. NURSE LISA, is doing a fabulous job taking care of him and cleaning. I have been doing all I can to relieve some of Moms stress while she tends to dad.

We are all doing well and he does like hearing from all of you, but if you could give him some time and space with the calls, or call Cheryle it would help. He isn't quite all there in concentration as he is trying to subdue the pain. Thank you all so much for caring so much and taking the time to check on him. I will try to keep you all updated...

BECKY

Check it out!

Thank you Maureen for the link to this article.. You are awesome!

This is a local paper in Alaska that did a little article..

Thank you Susanna LaRock!

http://www.turnagaintimes.com/current%20issue/2010-06-17/cooper-landing-news.html

Link to Hoka Hey start on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtoBhH0iJKQ

This is an amature filming of the start of the race.. enjoy

UPDATE

The latest:

THE LEG IS NOT BROKEN!!! YAY!!!

I don't know the status of the bike yet, but we are in the process of tracking it down and finding out if it is driveable.

He has road rash, he has a laceration on his leg and is getting windshield out of the cut, and they are stitching it as we speak.

Denny and Lisa our secondary support crew made it there to him and he is doing well and wants to get the status on his bike to find out if he can continue on!!! We are heading south to see him.

The checkpoint is in Daytona Beach so cross your fingers that we will be able to head north once again with the wildman on the bike.

:)

Will post more later when we can and know more!

Becky

:( Bad News

Sorry to have to deliver this to you, however around 10:45 am, Jerry called to let us know that all is okay and he was getting gas and a pair of sunglasses out, 5 min later we learned that he had 3 motorcyclists wreck in front of him and he too went down and has a possible broken leg. Right now we (Support Crew) are 544 miles away from him and we are back tracking to find him in Immokalee, FL... AS MUCH AS WE KNOW:

He may have a broken leg and the bike is wrecked. We will post more as we know. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Lisa and Denny are getting to him before us and like I said we will keep you updated as we know.

Sorry for the bad news.

Becky, Cheryle and Shelbe

Tomorrow is the Day!!!

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all of you Fathers out there!!!

Well as you can see we haven't been having any fun at all!

The race starts tomorrow and there have been some changes.

1. They are starting tomorrow morning at 6:43 a.m.- the exact time of sunrise.

2. The route will be handed out as they line up for the race.

3. They are "talking" about the grand prize being given in Sturgis, S.D. a week after the challenge ends in Homer.

Keep in mind they have changed their minds several times and this too may change.

Cheryle, Shelbe, Denny and Lisa and myself have left Key West (Wildman is on his own) and motored north. Denny and Lisa followed us to the Ft. Lauderdale exit and we continued North until we decided to bed down for the night in OCALA, FL.

We stopped in at a Cracker Barrel to have dinner and watch the thunder and lightening storm catch up to us, (we went through several large storm systems) this one however decided to drop a bolt of lightening about 1/4 mile from where we were eating and caused a HUGE fire. Luckily it was on the other side of the Freeway and we were heading in the opposite direction so it didn't impede our progress.

Yesterday we partied down at the opening ceremony with a band, Sam Little played a song he wrote called the Hoka Hey Challenge and then Coyote Ugly girlies danced for us. We were still able to be up and about early even with the drinks we consumed (we are rockstars!) Wildman got several questions asked about his "Harem" of women wearing "Wildman support crew" T-shirts. We even made them all jealous by taking Wildman to the dance floor and the 4 of us dancing around him while he boogied down. Nope, we aren't having any fun at all.

Well on that note, the fun has actually come to a screeching hault with our 10 hours of driving today. Tomorrow we are up at 4am and hitting the road for Panama City to visit with one of Cheryles friends and then we are aiming to meet Wildman at the first checkpoint. We don't know yet where that is but will by 6am!

UNTIL THEN.... HOKA HEY!

~Becky

GREAT NEWS!!

Great News! Wildman is checked in and all appoved.. The coin is given to all riders in the challenge. They are numbered to match what we assume is the starting position.. OURS IS 32!!

Thought you all would like the update and to see the coin. He has packed and repacked all his stuff and is ready to go!

Check back later! HOKA HEY!

TRACKER

For those of you following the tracker, we are in fact in KEY WEST, however we were calibrating it to where we are and decided to turn it off and save the battery since it had been on for over 24 hours.. So if you check the GPS Tracking site (mentioned and address is in previous post) and you notice that we are not in KEY WEST on the tracking site, it is because we turned it off half way down the "KEYS". Your computer is not making an error, it will be up and functional ON SUNDAY, JUNE 20. Happy Tracking!

Can you say "Hoka Hey"?

Photo: by Lisa Estes (Denny and Wildman)
The ride to Key West is really neat. Bridge after bridge after bridge and the Gulf on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The neatest bridge was 7 miles long!! The old bridge that stands (barely) next to it is where the movie TRUE LIES was filmed with Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold aka "the govenor"....Such beauty to watch the rain fall in the distance over the ocean and see the lightening bolts come down with a vengence and yet the sun was shining on us. We did go through a whole 3 minutes of rain (poor us :p ).

We are here at the southern most point in the continental United States of America. I have now been to the most Northern, the most Southern in Hawaii and the most Southern points of land in the USA!~!

CAN YOU SAY HARLEY DAVIDSON???

There are Sooooo many bikers here they make their own thunder. Indiana, California, West Virginia, Florida, Alaska (another fellow other than us) and on and on... the bikes are in every parking lot, all proudly showing where they are from, we even ran into the most dedicated couple I have seen yet, they have MATCHING Tattoos of the Hoka Hey emblem, their Harley license plate says Hoka Hy1 and they BOTH are entered to run!

EVERY time my father sees another biker for the race he yells "HOKA HEY" and they turn with big grins and yell back "HOKA HEY"!!! There is definitely some excitement building here at the Hotel we are in, there are (NO JOKE) about 75 bikes out here in the lot and SEVERAL support crews, trailers etc..

Tomorrow morning is the check in at 8am and from there the rest will go down in History!

until the next blog... "HOKA HEY!!!"

The Road to Key West

Last night was a pool party! Steaks, drinks, friends, drinks, pool, drinks, mosquitoes and yet, MORE DRINKS! Oh, if you could see the video's I have for blackmail in the future you would be proud of me!

Wildman cannon-balled into the pool, Shelbe followed, Mom suited up for the event and then of course I went in for some fun too.. Lisa surprised us by jumping in, clothing and all. We made some new friends, another Lisa, and then Mario and Debbie. We managed to talk Debbie into jumping in clothing and all! (did I mention that they were all into the drinks???) Wildman held Debbies hand and jumped in with her. I think when he said.. "come on you know you want to swim with the polar bear" she just couldn't resist the belly, hair and fun! LOL!!!!

Shelbe and I have managed to hit the Atlantic ocean 2 mornings in a row. Today we may have to bypass it so we can pack and prepare to drive south to Key West.

There has been work, shopping, swimming and fun. Tonight we will be on the island of Key West and hope to see some entertainment in Mallory Square.

PICTURES!!! I know you all would like to see some pictures, so I am going to have to tonight get everyone's cameras and compile pictures for you all.. Lisa has some great ones as well as Shelbe and myself. Sorry the post is so small today but I've got to get cleaning and packing! South bound today.

WILDMAN UPDATE: They have packed and set up and tore down EVERYTHING. He is 98% ready at this point, a few more odds and ends and we are set to drive to the Keys. HERE WE COME!

Hot In Florida

We made it to Florida! We traveled all day on Monday to get here but we arrived this morning safe and sound. The people, roads, masses of cars all is foriegn to poor Shelbe and she made it quite clear after going through traffic that she has no desire what so ever to drive here in FL and try to navigate the interstates and cars! (Can't say I blame her too much as going from little o'le Cooper Landing to this insane amount of people jam packed into this state!)

Wildman made some new girlfriends out of the stewardess' on the plane, which was quite entertaining from Anchorage to Seattle! Cheryle, Shelbe and myself sat in row 4 and watched Wildman entertain and meet everyone around him. I am not sure, but I think he is getting excited.

Denny and Lisa are wonderful hosts, good food, good company and an amazing home and pool! (yep pool)

Cheryle and Jerry were treated to a massage to loosen them up for the big journey, while Shelbe and I were content to go and swim in the Ocean and beachcomb.

The trailer is being prepped for the drive to be hauled behind the van we are driving up. Wildman and Denny just left for the bike shop to pick up Dad's Harley. Should I have mentioned that it is extremely humid here? 90% or something ridiculous like that. The temp was above 90 by 10am.

I am sitting here cross legged on the carpet staring out the window at the pool (can you hear it calling me? I can!), with the sun beating down. Cheryle is napping, Lisa is napping, Shelbe is napping and me the "I can't nap" girl, blogging. (such dedication I give to you all as there has been NO sleep for anyone since Sunday night and here it is Tuesday at 3:40 Florida time. OUCH?) Okay Lisa just made a liar out of me as she got up and headed out the door for her turn at the Massage.. ( I will take the beach over a massage any day as I can get a massage when I get home!) AND as I have been writing this, the "boys" pulled up with the motorcycle and it is time for me to beg a ride on my dad's bike since he has YET to give me a ride on ANY of his bikes, so I may as well try and get a ride where I don't have to be wearing 20 layers to keep warm. T-shirt and shorts baby! OH YEAH!

Well you have the update, I had the time, so keep looking and reading, we have pictures to post at some point in time. Exhaustion will set in and we will all get a good sleep in before we start tomorrow's adventure!

~Becky

Track The Wildman

Here it is as promised, the website to be able to watch our GPS tracker take us from Florida to Alaska. We are leaving the day after tomorrow to fly to Florida. The tracker should show Cooper Landing Alaska until then.. Thanks again for the followers and support.. GO WILDMAN!

http://lightninggps.thruhere.net/vemap.aspx?name=176763

"The Final Countdown"

Photo: Wildman, his shirt says "Homeland Security" that is a real bear behind him, picture was taken at Russian River Ferry Parking.

Cheryle is in her riding "gear" and showing her smiling face..

The final countdown has begun! 6 days and counting. You can only imagine how hard it is to pack and organize for the "unknown". I have to say I feel for Cheryle with all the stress of having to situate her store, and get ready for the big event and deal with Wildman! (What patience she has!)

Wildman has to check, check and double check that everything is ready, not only here but in Florida as well. The motorcycle is there. Check in for the race for Wildman is on the 18th.. All I can tell you is that the drinks in First Class on the airplane are sounding soooo good right now!

Passports, helmets, batteries, chargers, GPS, inverters, lists that go on and on, number of bags to check, things to pack, these are the topics of conversation (underwear too!) that goes on when we get together to see if there is anything else we forgot, to see if there is an idea that is better or not.. Well, we don't know. We will know when we are back here and the race is over what we could or should have done differently. Until then... LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN.

Shout out to all you following the blog: THANK YOU! The posts will become more entertaining I am sure once we are on the road, but I just wanted to let you all know that Wildman is excited and pumped. We are all pumped. Have a great week and be sure to check the blogsite a week from now! JUNE 15 we are in Florida and let the posting begin!

Link to Hoka Hey

Photo: Cooper Landing and Kenai Lake.. one of the places the race passes through!
Hi friends and followers! First of all Thank you, it makes the blog not be in vain to know there are some friends out there that want to follow our progress. To inform you about the rules, and etc.. I am posting a link to the Hoka Hey Challenge website. Find out all the details about the trip, (as much as we know before the big event).

http://www.hokaheychallenge.com/

Secondly, some want to know what our route is and etc.. Check the website above for full details but this is as much information I can give you as of now from us: Wildman is about #427-ish on the startline, No he won't have Cheryle, Shelbe or myself there for the start, we are hoping some of Wildman's other children will be able to be at the start to support him, however we are hoping to get out of Key West before the 1,000 riders and their followers...

June 14 fly to Florida, arrive early in the morning of the 15th.

Spend a few days in Boca Raton with some great friends, Denny and Lisa, get acclimated and then journey to Key West a few days before the race to get "the feel" of the area and find out all the details.

Cheryle, Shelbe and I will be leaving Key West on the 19th to get out of the masses of people and be able to be on the road ahead of the Wildman. From there it is anyone's race and we will be trying to photo, and record and document and blog as much as possible to make you feel that you are in the race with us!

Check back for more details, I hope to have some pictures of Wildman and his Following crew posted before we leave, Time will tell.

UPDATE ON WILDMAN:

He is prepping for his race by giving the butt a long ride up north to Fairbanks this weekend, it isn't 7,000 miles, but it is about 485 from here. (one way)

I also need to include how proud I am of Wildman, he has 5 children and 8 grandchildren and one on the way, he is excited and motivated. He has years of driving under his belt and an opportunity like this is once in a lifetime event. Good Luck Daddy! Show them who the Wildman is!

First Blog...Ever

The countdown has begun with the Wildman over a year ago, however as of today we are less than 3 weeks away from embarking on history.

Jerry, A.K.A. Wildman has shipped his Harley south to Florida to participate in the Hoka Hey. For all you who don't know about this event, you will! ( Google: Hoka Hey for their official website and more details.) Follow this blog where Cheryle, myself (Rebecca) and Shelbe will post to you as often as possible from the road to share with you a 7,000 mile journey from Key West, Florida to Homer, Alaska. Our journey will begin on the afternoon of June 14 by leaving Alaska to fly to Florida. The race begins on June 20th.

Check back often after the 14th for more details. Hopefully I will learn how to post pictures also so you can have a look at we are seeing!