From Breakdown to Breakout: Larry Debenedictis and the Motorcycle Journey That Rebuilt a Life

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Break Fix Podcast is all about capturingthe living history of people from all
over the autos sphere, from wrench,turners, and racers to artists, authors,
designers, and everything in between.
Our goal is to inspire a new generationof Petrolhead that wonder how did they
get that job or become that person.
The road to success is paved by allof us because everyone has a story.

(00:27):
It was a crisp autumn day when our guest'sworld came crashing down around him.
He had been running his small businessfor years, pouring his heart and
soul into it, only to find out thatit was on the brink of failure.
To make matters worse, his heart hadbeen broken by the woman He thought
he was gonna spend the rest of hislife with feeling lost and alone.
Larry de Benedictus knew he hadneeded to get away from it all.
He needed to clear his head and figureout what his next move was gonna be, and

(00:51):
that's when he decided to embark on ajourney that would take him across the
country on the back of his motorcycle.
As he rode farther and farther west,something began to shift inside of him.
He started to feel the weight of hisproblems lift off of his shoulders,
and the road began to feel likea place of solace and healing.
The sights and sounds of the Americanlands landscape became its companions.
The vast open spaces of the Midwestto the winding roads of the west

(01:12):
Coast all became part of his journey.
Slowly but surely, Larry began tofind his own way forward, and he's
here to share his adventure with us.
That's right, mountain man.
Dan, you're here to help me.
Welcome Larry to break fix.
So Larry, welcome to the show.
Hey, how's it going?
Good.
So let's rewind the clock a littlebit before we talk about this epic

(01:32):
cross country journey that you took.
Let's talk about you andyour Petrolhead origin story.
How did you get into bikes?
Did it start as a kid or didyou come into it later in life?
Probably the most fondest memoryI can remember about bikes because
like, you know, like B M X bikes too.
But probably when I was eight myfather got a mini bike, and man, I
loved riding that thing all the time.

(01:53):
But the coolest thing I remember aboutthat is one time we let my little
sister, Devin, Take it for a rideand she whiskey throttle the throttle
right into like the woods, like intoa bunch of brush and like fell over.
And I was like wow, that was awesome.
And then ever since then I've justbeen like diehard about motorcycles.
So do you have a loyalty toone brand of bike or another?

(02:15):
Have you tried differentbikes over the years?
I like 'em all, like all different brands.
I actually got 33 bikes inmy personal collection and
they're all different brands.
I think motorcycles like women,you can appreciate 'em all and hate
'em all at the same time, you know?
Are there some that are better thanothers or are they all sort of the same?
I would say the Japanesereally have reliability down
more than the American brand.

(02:36):
But you know, the Americanbrand's always got like, you know,
Harley always get that sound.
It's always got that feel to it.
When you close your eyes riding downthe road, you always know you're on a
Harley, but you always know you're on aHarley 'cause you're working on it more.
So Japanese bikes are great.
I got, I think I have like 11 or 12vintage Hondas alone in my collection.

(02:57):
My daily ride has a B MW, now GS 1250 adventure.
That's awesome.
I love that bike 'cause uh, I don'thave to touch anything on it, man.
My other ones I get, I've got likea, a little shovel head chopper.
I love to ride as well.
Pretty much all over the board.
I get a few differentchoppers, some English stuff.
Just love them.
All.
Two wheels is two wheels.
I can find any of them likeinteresting and fascinating.

(03:19):
Is there one that's any betterto ride than the others?
Maybe from a handling perspective or froma comfort outside of the reliability?
Oh yeah.
The newer B M W I got, so it's a2020 G S A adventure, 1250 that
is hands down the best motorcycleI've ever ridden in my life when it
comes to handling power, comfort.
The Germans just, they're just amazing.

(03:40):
And that bike itself is totallydifferent if you really look at it
from an engineering perspective.
The front end, they have this thingcalled the tele lever front end.
I, it's actually crazy.
It's like a reverse swing arm on thefront end, and it's got a mono-shock in
the middle, and then it's got dampenerson the top, like mini dampeners, like
traditional forks, but only on the top.

(04:01):
It like takes a hard hit and absorbsit with the mono-shock with the
light, like little ruts in the road.
It takes the dampener so it's so smooth,but at the same time, so aggressive.
And then also the rear of that swing arm.
Also has a knuckle right before thewheel on it that pivots as well.
And then, I don't know, it'sjust a very balanced bike.

(04:21):
The motor is very low center of gravityon the frame and hangs out of it.
And they just really did agreat job engineering that bike.
And I've got 13,000 on now and Ihaven't had any problems at all.
And uh, I love that bike.
Well that's a considered likea sport touring bike, isn't it?
Yeah.
It's like, they call it an adventure.
It's almost like a,like a giant dirt bike.
It's a 1250, it's gotsome decent ccs behind it.

(04:43):
It's just so nimbleand it handles amazing.
It's like air over electronic suspension.
So you go into a corner and as soonas you get that apex of the corner
and you flick it up to get out of it,the bike like knows and it like pushes
you so hard through the corner andthere's so much confidence in the bike.
You're one of several people that'sbeen on the show now that is singing the
praises of B M W bikes and I never thoughtI'd see it happen, you know, versus a

(05:07):
lot of the other stuff that's out there.
But it also makes me wonder, sinceyou're a, a bike collector, are you
thinking maybe going backwards andgetting some vintage BMWs to add
to your stable, to your collection?
There may be some R sixties or Rnineties, some of the old airheads.
I would, but I'm also, I lovecustom stuff, so I'd rather get
one that's like in pieces andthen build like a chopper with it.

(05:29):
I either like buying bikes or all originaland just need fixing to get them running.
Or I like buying bikes or inpieces and I can customize 'em
and not feel bad about them.
So you're kind of basket cases?
Yeah, I, I like basket cases.
'cause you don't feel guilty whenyou wanna do something custom.
I feel guilty if you takelike a nice older bike and
then you want to chop it up.
You know what I mean?

(05:49):
I feel your sentiment greatly on thatfor the fact that even in the car,
what it's, if it hasn't been touchedand changed, leave it original.
Right.
But if it's already been toldapart, then it's, it's fair game.
Yep.
Because to restore them they get soexpensive and you're better off just
kind of like doing your own thing.
You know, this actually foreshadows alittle bit more of the conversation we're
gonna have about your journey across theUS and part of yours backstory is being

(06:15):
a fabricator, there's the whole part ofthe construction of the trailer you built
for your motorcycle for this adventure.
But let's talk a little bit aboutyour history as a fabricator and
some of the things you've done.
It's always kind of been custom bikes.
You know, I'm in cars to, I've got a93 trans Am I've had since high school.
I kept for like 18 years.
I recently just got it repaintedjust to keep it looking fresh.

(06:36):
But I wanna say that I've alwaysbeen in a customizing bikes.
I got a, I call it a Johnny Cash,you know, pick a year, CB seven 50
Honda Chopper that I built the framefrom scratch and that's changed
so many times over the years.
And I wrote to Sturgis likethree years ago with my buddy.
It's kind of like a hill climbslash like dirt drag bike.
Now.
I like keep knobs on it.

(06:57):
I love welding.
You ever see a Smithy mini lathe?
It's pretty cool.
If anybody ever finds one out there, it'sa lathe and a miniature Bridgeport all in
one that's like four feet, five feet longand it can just sit on top of a bench.
So it doesn't take up all the roomin your shop, but you can make like
spacers and, and like small axles andstuff with it and stuff like that.

(07:18):
I just love tinkering with, you know,speaking of Smithy one I've worked
with like grizzly bench top unit.
Yeah, I think it's similar, right?
Yeah, they're phenomenal.
It seems to use, I don't think I'mgoing into manufacturing with it, but
I mean as far as just being a tinkerer.
It's amazing.
Oh yeah.
You know, when you need to makesomething on the spot, you can
just do that instead of going tothe highway store with a grinder.
Definitely.

(07:39):
So I'm curious, you said buildingyour own frame for that Honda.
How do you get somethinglike that through the d o t?
How do you get itregistered in Street Legal?
It's kind of funny, like itjust started as a stock bike.
The more I like got confident,the more I chop it up.
And eventually I just ended up withthe neck in the front down tubes.
And then I built my own frame fromthere, I put it like on a table,

(08:01):
made my own jig, and then got likea harbor freight tube inventor.
Actually, I borrowed onefrom a friend of mine.
I just built up all tubes.
So it still stayed titled as likean 82 CB seven 50 down the line.
It's, it's now been a single overheadcam bike for, I don't know, like 10
or 11 years, and I'm on my seventhor eighth motor in that bike.
Let's talk about what caused thistrip to happen and got everything

(08:25):
in motion and obviously therewas a massive amount of prep.
You didn't just get on your bike and go,or did you build a trailer beforehand
or was the trailer sort of a knee jerkreaction to wanting to get on the road?
So a friend of mine wanted to move toFlorida for a little while and I had
a girlfriend at the time, but we wereup and down, great girl, but I wanted
to be single, so I moved to Floridawith him, break up with the girl.

(08:47):
Best friend of mine up hereends up getting with her.
My mind was like a little bit in a spool.
I had a crazy girlfriend down there.
Thought it was a goodidea to move in with her.
Didn't work out, come back home.
I had a vintage motorcycle partsbusiness online, mostly all on eBay.
It was doing great for years,but then it was on the decline.
I saw the decline coming forvarious reasons and I was like,

(09:09):
I gotta do something else.
And before I wanted to do somethingelse, I was like, you know what?
I think I just wanna take a break andhit the road and just like clear my mind
of all this stuff that was happeningbefore I get into some other big venture.
So that's what like kinda sparked it.
Even when I was 16, when I got myfirst motorcycle, I always thought, I
was like, how cool would it be somedayjust to say, excuse my French, fuck

(09:30):
it, and just hit the road, not havea plan and not try to have a care.
Just see what the road like takes me.
I was 27 when I moved back home fromFlorida and I was like, well, I'm not
getting any younger and I'm single andI saved some money from the business.
So I'm like, I think this is the perfecttime to go out on the road and do
this thing I've always wanted to do.

(09:52):
So now you're back home in New England.
Yeah.
And you're thinking about settingupon this journey, but you gotta
take a bunch of supplies with you.
So is that where thetrailer was born from?
Exactly.
I don't wanna have to plan where to sleepbecause I don't know where I'm gonna be.
I was going through allthese different things.
I gotta get paid to stay inhotels, whatever, this and this.
But then my, my buddies is like, Hey,you should build a teardrop trailer

(10:14):
and pull behind your motorcycle.
Those look sweet.
And I started looking into'em like, oh, those are cool.
I could literally just buildsomething that I could sleep in
and carry all my gear and tools,which were like my biggest concern
because I was on an 89 F X R Harley.
It's gonna break.
That's where I really liked the traileridea, but I liked it because I could
just park anywhere, just jump in andit would be like kind of incognito

(10:38):
that I'd be sleeping in there.
Not many people think that you can sleepin this trailer because it's pretty small.
How did you come up withthe design for the trailer?
Did you just mimicsomething you saw online?
Did you buy a kit?
How does it all mount up?
How does it work?
How does it stay balanced?
I guess the general size, I was like,I just want it to be big enough that
I can lay down and then shut the door.
I basically laid on the floorand I just marked out how big I

(11:01):
was and I was like, okay, this isgonna be the base of the trailer.
I was like, oh, I'll just buylike a Harbor Freight trailer and
then build like a wooden teardropstructure off of that, and I was
talking to a guy at a trailer place.
He's like, don't do that because.
If you blow out like a wheel bearingon that trailer, you will not be
able to find another one becausenone of the parts are like regular.
They're all from like China.

(11:22):
So a guy convinced me and I ended upbuilding my own frame from the trailer and
everything, the whole frame from scratch.
And then from there I built the woodenbox, teardrop, put a metal roof on it.
I got that done.
And then I had to build atrailer hitch for the bike that
was like wicked heavy duty.
And I made a custom one of those.
'cause all the ones I foundonline, I didn't think they
were gonna be heavy duty enough.

(11:42):
So I'm like, I'll just build it.
I finally get like a prototypegoing and I take it down the
highway and oh my God, this trailerwas shaking my bike like crazy.
The front end, back andforth, the whole thing.
And I'm like, I couldn't get over like50 miles an hour without it shaking.
I'm like, why is this doing this?
So I started researchingand it's like tongue weight.

(12:02):
You need the right tongue weight.
I moved the axle like two or threetimes to get the right tongue weight.
Still wasn't really doingwhat I needed to do.
Then I started researchingagain and someone said, you add
weight to the front of the bike.
So I put these like one inch byone inch solid square tubing on
the front of the frame wheels andover the full brace of the bike.

(12:23):
That started really helping,like I'd get up to 55.
I was like, okay, let's addsome more weight, go back,
add more weight, get up to 60.
I finally got up to like 75, 80 atone point, and I let go of the bars.
And it was able to go straightand I was like, okay, that's good.
We're not gonna go over 80 at any point.
So counterweight on the frontof the bike seemed to be the
biggest thing that was helpful.

(12:45):
And I found out later on the heavierthe bike you use, 'cause I towed
the trail with an ultra classicone time, the better it would tow.
So as folks go online and lookat your social media, they can
obviously see pictures of how youbuilt a trailer and things like that.
So I'm still a little perplexed likehow does the trailer attach to the bike?
Where does the receiver go?

(13:06):
Did you go with the method ofwhere it ties into your axle and
comes back around the back tire?
Like most of the conventional ones?
Uh, no.
So I went from the top of thefender struts on the frame and
I built my mount from there.
So it still utilized the suspensionon the bike because I didn't go
from the swing arm, which I don'tknow if that would've been better.
The only reason I didn't go from theswing arm I think was because if the

(13:27):
trail like bounced, it'd be like pullingmy tire off the ground versus like
if we hit a bump with the trailer.
The suspension soaked up a lot of it.
Yeah.
And I, I had pretty nicesuspension on that F xr.
I had a set of OS on the back.
You mentioned as you were buildingthe trailer and everything, taking
it out, doing test runs, gettingup to speed, were slowing down.
Did you incorporate any sort of likehydraulic braking system on the tongue

(13:50):
of the trailer or were you just allowingthe bike brakes to slow you down?
Yeah, I was just allowingthe bike slow me down.
'cause I've been riding for quite a whileand I don't take unnecessary chances.
It was really crazy thoughbecause like, I think the trailer
probably weighed like 350 pounds.
400 pounds and the bike itself weighslike six to seven or eight with the rider.

(14:10):
So you like to 50% of your weight.
It's a lot of weight.
It really didn't have thatmany problems breaking though.
'cause I never was like in a hurry.
It wasn't like a race,you know what I mean?
That's something I've learned with,especially with bikes, is if you've
got extra weight on, you've gotta beaware of that while you're riding.
'cause a lot of people get out,put a lot of weight on their bikes.
Yeah.
And guys that get these baggers andstuff packed in the bags full of

(14:31):
weight and they get out there thinkingthey're gonna do like it's empty.
That weight makes effect on a bike.
It's not like a car or a truck.
The other thing that, like I alwaysget comfortable with your rear brake
on a bike versus your front brake.
If something bad happens, youcan lock your rear brake up.
But if you lock your frontbrake up, you're going down
'cause you can't steer anymore.
That front wheel's not spinning.
I just kind of step it slow.
When I would go down these like bigmountain roads, I'd like use the thing

(14:53):
like a semi what a Jake brake with thegears and like just really hammer the
gears down to do a lot of the breaking.
Yeah.
So when you measured it, it'syour height plus you know, some
length long wise, not width-wise.
'cause you don't wannaexceed the width of a lane.
Right.
So it's almost as long as thebike behind you, I think it

(15:13):
was only like three feet wide.
It wasn't a full sheet wide.
So the idea I always had is like, gottabuild this thing small and I knew I was
having a decent amount of tools in it.
In retrospect, wish I made it evennarrower to say, wait, but I forgot
to tell you another essentialimportant part of the trailer.
The back hatch of the trailer,I made an exterior hatch that

(15:34):
was just filled with tools.
Like I filled the whole thing withtools, so they were separate from
like my clothes and stuff inside.
And then even inside the trailer onlike the teardrop pot on the roof,
I made a shelf inside with a littledoor on it to hold all my clothes.
It's pretty closing and, and I'msure it was pretty strategic where
you placed those items because ofthe weight that you were trying

(15:54):
to keep in check with the bike.
I remember like.
The first day I went out,it was like terrible.
The bike was like swayingall over the place.
I actually just pulled over on the side ofthe road and just dumped a ton of self out
that I would consider that I really needlike a second, um, foam mattress thing.
I was like, all right, this isextra weight I guess I don't
need, and it actually helped.

(16:15):
It was funny, you know, it was if I feltlike the trailer wasn't heavy enough in
the front, I'd buy a case of water andput it in the very front of the trail on
the inside, like a, uh, tongue weight.
That would make all the difference.
Sometimes it was wild.
The thing was so sensitiveto like everything.
If the wind was reallyhard, that'd be an issue.
Pushing you from the back or thefront going downhill can be sketchy.

(16:37):
It was quite a learning experience, likereally driving with that thing sometimes.
So how long did it take you toget from a couple scraps of tubing
on the ground to a final product?
Probably a good like four or five monthsbecause I was working full-time too.
And it's like trial and error oflike moving the axle and stuff.
A lot.
Like I finally thought I got it right.

(16:57):
It worked with building a trailer.
Every state has their different lawswhen it comes to homemade trailers.
How difficult was it for you toget it registered where you're at?
I'm gonna be, honestly, I just threw ahomemade main trail plate on and call
it a day and just hope for the best.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,new England in general.
I've never been pulled overbecause of a trailer plate.
Seems like everybody, includingmyself, we all just kind of

(17:20):
swap trail plates whenever youneed it on a different trailer.
It could be different in other pots,but it, it never really was an issue.
I had a main trailer car plate on theback of this thing the whole time.
Alright, so you got the trailerdone, you got the bike sorted,
you got all your spares and allyour kit and everything you need.
And so now you're ready to set off.
You're based outta New England.
Where do you go from there?

(17:40):
How did you just throw a dart at amap and say, I'm gonna head west?
Or did you do something like, I'm gonnahead south towards the mid-Atlantic,
the DC area, maybe grab 66 or Route50 and do something like that.
What was your plan?
The plan was to leave like mid-September.
I wasn't ready with the trailand I didn't feel comfortable.
So I actually left October 9th in 2014.

(18:02):
The plan was to get out of the cold,so to head south first and then west.
So that was kind of just thegeneral plan is south and west and
then see where I go from there.
So other than general direction of whereyou were planning to head, did you have
plans in advance of like, I wanna tryto stay off major highways and hit man
like side roads during those trips?

(18:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
That was my thing.
I'm like, I wanna try to do thistrip because I didn't have a
timeline when I had to be back.
I mean, I wanted it to be an open trip.
I wanna do all backroads as much as I can.
And because it's so boring onthe highway, you don't see much.
So I wanted to do back roads andhave like experiences and like I
actually had an idea in the beginningthat I was like, I like to work.

(18:44):
I was like, oh, like maybe I canlike end up on a farm and like
work for a week or something andsave some money and then take off.
That was the idea in the beginning.
Didn't really play out like that.
But you know, you're still in NewEngland and you have two options, right?
If you're going south, you're gonnatake route one or you're gonna go 95.
I literally would like get on myphone and put avoid highways and just

(19:05):
pick like a major city to get to.
Nice.
Because I always try to avoid thehighways 'cause it's pretty dangerous
on the highway with that thing.
And you don't see anything.
And I didn't have a timeline.
Once I got the trip going, I found outthat I was averaging like 300 miles a day.
So not much.
Okay.
But I was trying to see stuffnot get somewhere, you know.
So major cities down the east coastand then how far south did you make it

(19:27):
before you started to go west or didyou make it back to Florida before?
Really kind of setting off.
First night I just wentdown to Connecticut.
Second day on the road I made it downto New Jersey and it was like raining.
I remember.
That was my first hotel parking lot.
And that was, that was quitean experience that first night.
The funny thing is like I neverslept in the trailer before I was on

(19:48):
the road, and the most vivid thingI remember is car lights shining
in the windows of the trailer.
I didn't put shades.
So I remember I was sitting in thetrailer, thank God I had like a drill
on the, in whatever, and I actually tookan old pair of jeans, cut them up and
made some window shades out of the jeansjust so I could sleep for the night.
So what you're saying is itdidn't leak before, but then

(20:10):
you put some screw holes in it?
No, no.
It actually never, everleaked on the trip.
The windows were made out ofplexiglass, so I took out like,
it was like an inner frame on it.
Ah, and I took out the existing frame andjust put the cut up jeans in the window
into the back, into the existing pole.
So it wasn't in the roof.
It was like on the side.
When you were sleeping in theteardrop, was there anything

(20:30):
like a conventional tent wherecondensation would build up inside?
It was pretty good.
I mean, it was just, I remember when I waslike down south, it was hot, but I put a
vent on the top with a fan too as well.
I stole out of an RV that I put inthere and uh, that helped a little.
But I mean, the good thing is like Inever really stayed more than a night
in one place, so I was always likemoving, you know, from New Jersey.

(20:52):
I made it down to York, Pennsylvania thenext day 'cause I wanted to, uh, check out
the Harley Davidson factory down there.
I got there and it was aSunday and it was closed.
I met the guy leaving the factory andthis is like the first like pretty
crazy thing that happened on the trip.
You think it's okay if I sleepin this parking lot tonight?
He's like, yeah, you should be fine.

(21:13):
If you want, you can sleep in myhouse down the street in my yard.
I'm like, no.
I was like, next question,where are the bars?
And he, he's like, oh, there'slike a biker bar up here.
So I went to this biker bar andit was closed, but then there
was like a bunch of like patchedbikers outside and I was like, oh.
Against those guys, butI don't want any trouble.
Right?
I'm by myself.
I'm like trying to think smart.

(21:34):
They see me, I see them, they see onthe trail, they come over, they're like
talking all about the trail with me.
They're like, Hey, follow this other bar.
I was like, all right.
I guess like I didn't know whatpatch they were or whatever.
So we go to that bar and I'm talkingto one of the guys, his name is John.
Hey, I gotta ask like,what mc are you guys?
Or whatever.
He's like, MC.

(21:54):
He's like, we just ride together.
We're just military vets, and they'lllike change, like the whole vibe.
I felt like I could be more friendly withthem because it's no drama or whatever.
So then we're drinking at the bar and he'slike, Hey, you wanna do the shot with me?
And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever.
He's like, you have todo it if I buy it though.
I was like, okay.
He buys this shot of Patron.

(22:16):
I was like, okay, I'vedone the shots of Patron.
He's like, all right,so this is what you do.
They call it an infantry shot.
He goes, pour a little bitin the palm of your hand.
I was like, okay.
And then he goes, when I countedthree, you gotta sniff this, shot
up your nose, hold it for like 10seconds, and then pound the shot.
It's supposed to represent the pain thatthe, uh, infantry went on the front line.

(22:38):
I did that shot with him,like, oh, this is different.
We're talking and he'slike, you're a cool man.
He is like, come back to myhouse for an after party.
And he knew the owners of thebar and everything seemed cool.
He was with his wife.
And I was like, all right.
So we actually went back to his house,had an after party having a good
time, and he's like, you know what?
Don't sleep in that trail tonight.
Sleep on my couch.
You're gonna be sleepingin that trail a long time.

(22:59):
And I was like, yeah,I don't mind the trail.
I'll sleeping in.
I, you know, didn't really know this guy.
I figured he had a girlfriend.
Like he must be pretty harmless.
And so he puts me to sleep on his couch.
And then right before I go to bed,there's like a pit bull next to me.
He goes, You seem like a nice guy.
Just so you know, there's 10guns in that room, so don't
think you're gonna pull anything.
And I was like, oh man.

(23:20):
Oh boy.
Have a nice night and shut the light off.
And I woke up the nextday and I was alive.
Pit bull, like licking my face.
That was uh, the second night onthe road, so it was off to a bang.
You're still working your way south.
So how far south did you get beforeyou decided Turn right and go west?
From there I went to Gettysburg,which was actually that day with

(23:41):
them, which was really cool.
It's very peaceful, but somber.
I eventually made my way from thereto West Virginia, West Virginia.
All I have to say is like,it's such a pretty state.
There's like trash everywhere inpeople's yards in like the beautiful
country I made my way through there.
In West Virginia.
I took my first Planet Fitness shower.

(24:01):
That was like one of the thingslike where am I gonna shower?
I came up with this idea that PlanetFitness has a black card and there
was like 800 planet fitnesses acrossthe country and I could shower any of
'em as long as I had that black card.
Interesting.
That's a really smart way to do it.
Nice clean shower.
Every time I would kitchen a planetFitnesses are a little cleaner than the
random truck stops throughout the country.
Yeah.
You know what's funny though?
It's like they get the loves and the TAsand I think they're like seven bucks for

(24:25):
a shower and those are super clean too.
They go in right after you showerand clean 'em before the next
guy paid for those too as well.
It's, it's not a Bucky's though,that's all I'm gonna say.
And then Kentucky andthen down in Nashville.
'cause I had some friends in Nashville.
You're stair stepping your way down.
Okay.
Yep.
So you've made it to Nashville.
You've already said you've beendoing about 300 miles a day.

(24:47):
Kind of taking your time on this trip.
How often are you filling the bike?
How much extra is it costingto also pull the trailer?
Are you killing your fuel economy?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
I think I was getting like only20 to 25 miles to a gallon.
When you're probablyusually getting like 35, 40.
Usually it would fill up around like85, 90 miles, like just to be safe.

(25:07):
And the tank was like 3.2 or three gallontank, but I always carried an extra gallon
of gas on the front of the trail with me.
That's a good counterweight too, right?
An extra seven or eight pounds up there.
Up front.
Yeah.
A spare tire on the front too forthe trailer in Nashville, you know,
great city to be in, all that.
Where do you head from there?
I was staying at a friend'shouse there too, so it was nice.

(25:27):
I could sleep on his couch.
We went out drinking one day.
We shouldn't have done this,but this other guy was in a
motorcycle, was like, you everhave somebody ride in that trailer?
Is you going down the road?
No.
It sounds like it's not idea.
We were only a couple miles awayfrom my buddy's house, and uh,
he jumped in the trailer and wepulled him back to the house.
While I was driving inthe trailer, he made it.

(25:48):
I was like, how was the ride?
He is like, Oh, not too bad.
How bad did it shake the bike though?
All the weight was off.
Oh my God.
It was tough riding.
'cause he was like, you know, another200 pound guy in there or whatever,
you know, being a bike guy myself, Iknow when you have a passenger sitting
on the back seat, their movements willthrow off the, the gyroscopic of the
bike way it leans and things like that.

(26:09):
Was he a decent passenger in thetrailer lane still or was he moving
and could you feel every movementhe was making in the trailer?
No, I think he was fine.
It, it was just bad because it hit abump and the whole trailer would like
shake back and forth, you know, sway.
Now we're talking go from like400 to 600 and the bikeway is 600.
So it was like really swaying.
It was only like a mile or two.
Funny at the time.

(26:30):
Not smart in retrospect,but we made it whatever.
So you're in the Nashville area, whichisn't quite yet in the direct middle of
the country, but you're getting close.
So as you kind of look back overthe trip to that point, was the
novelty of it starting to wearoff or were you still excited and
enthusiastic about keeping going?
No, I mean it was, 'cause like everynight I didn't know where I was sleeping.

(26:53):
So I'd have like a plan.
Like I'd try to stay inmajor cities when I could.
I'd go out, go hang out atthe bars, maybe meet people.
Find local hotels that werenear them and I would just park
and sleep in hotel parking lot.
It never was like wearing off.
'cause every night you pull in,you're like, all right, shut the door.
The first couple nights itwas like nerve wracking sleep.
'cause you're like nervousabout what's gonna happen.

(27:14):
Eventually I was just like, you know what?
Just gonna shut the door.
Whatever happens happens.
If I'm gonna die in the middleof the night, there's nothing I
can do about it before right now.
So just.
Shut the door and go to sleep.
It was always that like exciting feeling.
And then the next day you'd wake upand never seen any of the road ahead.
So, and it's all back roads I was doingevery day felt like wicked interesting,

(27:35):
like a new adventure every day, you know?
Did it ever get to the point though,where it was just like, man, this is super
uncomfortable because, you know, likeyou can get uncomfortable in a car on
a long trip, but how about on the bike?
I mean, was it causing you any like,let's say saddle sores or anything
like that when not pulling a trailer?
I can do like five, 600 miles in a day.
On a modern bike.
So to do only half,300, it's not that bad.

(27:57):
I was getting on and off, Ithink like every hour and a half,
two hours I was getting fuel.
So it's not that bad.
The only sores you'd get, not to get alittle gross, but like, oh, it's been like
three or four days since I've showered.
I need to get to a shower.
And you get that like sweatannoyance or whatever.
But I mean, I wasn't hanging out withmany people, so I didn't like, it
was like, and things would happen, sotrying to get to like the next planet

(28:19):
of fitness, you know what I mean?
You like timing it out.
Right.
You know.
Well you were saying on a normal ridewithout the trailer, five or 600 miles
isn't a big deal, but did you ever getcomfortable with the trailer behind you?
Did it ever get to a point whereyou were like, you didn't even
notice that it was back there?
Were you always sort of on edgewondering what it was gonna do?
Yeah, I was personally always on edge justbecause like you'd get comfortable and

(28:43):
then you'd hit something in the road andit would like shake the bike like crazy.
And then you're like, all right,that's why you can't get comfortable.
I mean, you get used to it, butyou never like get comfortable.
But I always looked at the traillike it was like a necessary evil
because the trail allowed freedom.
Yeah.
If you think about it, you're not limited.
Just pull over and sleep.

(29:03):
The bike broke down a lot later onin the trip, which we'll get to the
trailer also allowed me the abilityto fix the bike with my own tools.
But the trailer never bit you hardenough where it took the bike down or
took you down or anything like that?
I did go down in Texas on the way home.
It was very low speed.
It wasn't a big deal going out throughlike Oklahoma and Texas and that section.
I've been out there andcrosswinds get crazy.

(29:25):
Oh my god.
Was it a major trailer?
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Like that's what I thoughtI was gonna blow my motor.
Going through New Mexico, Oklahoma,you go from like, you could always
cruise 65 to 70 comfortably.
I'd be screaming in 50 oronly going 50 miles an hour.
'cause that headwind is so bad.
That was like the worstriding of the whole trip.

(29:46):
It was taking like abeating on me for sure.
Yeah, you're right about those winds.
They're wild out there.
Did you have any sort of likefairing on your bike or were
you just riding open handlebars?
My bike is originally a 89 F fxr sp, whichmeans like higher suspension dual disc.
But I put an RD slash RT faring onit, so I actually had a faring and a
radio on it too, which made riding alot more enjoyable and saddlebags Nice.

(30:11):
So there in the middleof the country right?
You on top of the continental divide.
I went to that at some point.
You gotta keep going west andyou got across the mountains.
So what route did you taketo get out to California?
Well, that's not true.
I didn't really do that.
Uh oh.
Nashville.
Right.
And the next city I went to was St.
Louis.

(30:31):
This is like back in 14 or 15 whenthere was those like shootings.
Do you remember those?
Yeah.
I hate to say it, St.
Louis was like not the nicest citiesI've ever been to the United States.
I remember rolling through St.
Louis at like nine o'clock at nighton a Monday and there was just like a
hundred people barbecuing in the street.
It was like the craziestthing I've ever seen.

(30:52):
I don't think I'm gonna stop.
So like I kept rolling by.
I also couldn't find like a bar,which I thought would be like
safe enough to go to that night.
I ended up just sleeping in acondo parking lot, so from St.
Louis, Kansas City, Missouri.
Then that was totally different.
Power light district.
That was a Tuesday night,and that was pretty cool.

(31:12):
Kansas City Royals werein the World Series.
I couldn't find any hotels there,so I actually decided to sleep in
a Walmart parking lot that night.
That was the first one.
Was it a 24 hour Walmart?
Yeah, 24 hour Walmart.
Everything was fine.
All of a sudden in the middle ofthe night, well, early morning,
I wake up and I just, he had thisthing like circling in my trail.
I peek out the window.

(31:32):
And it was like a street sweepergoing around and around my trailer
and figured, I'm like, oh my God.
But I looked out the window.
I'm like, I'm pretty surehe doesn't know I'm in here.
So I'm like, whatever.
I went back to sleep and then a couplehours later I wake up that morning
and I pick out my window again andthere was a guy in an SS 10 truck
taking, get a picture of my trailer.
I was like, oh, it's time to get up.
Anyway, so I jumped out of thetrail and was like, ah, shocked.

(31:54):
The guy threw himself in.
He had no idea I wassleeping in the trail.
He's like, you sleeping there?
I was like, yeah.
Sometimes he's like, wow.
We had like a laugh and he took off.
Those were like the little thingson the trip that like still make
me laugh to this day, you know?
From there just keptheading west through Kansas.
Man, there's like nothing in Kansas.
Just kept going.

(32:15):
That was probably the mostdesolate before Denver.
I got gas at a gas station thatsaid no more gas for like 90 miles.
So that was like the only time Ireally got scared that I was gonna
run out, but I didn't run out.
Climbed up to Denver and got there.
Finally, that was a long day of riding.
I was so tired that night.
I literally just went to anotherPlanet Fitness, got something to eat,

(32:35):
and then I decided, you know what?
All my parking lot's not that bad.
We'll try it one more time.
Right?
This time it was quite differentwhen I woke up and I hear people like
talking and around my trailer earlyin the morning and I'm like, oh, maybe
it's just people getting out of a car.
Like, I don't know.
I'm just gonna ignore it.
They probably don't even know I'm in here.
Right?
So I went back to sleep for another houragain, hour later for people talking.

(32:59):
And this time someone bumped my trail.
I'm like, ah, someonemust know I'm in here.
'cause like I moved right.
So I was like on the defensive, I hadtwo giant knives, would be no guns, but
a giant knife in me and I had it in myside and I got ready to like jumped outta
the trail, like ready to like fight.
I don't know what I was walking into.
And then a bunch of like peoplejust standing there staring at me

(33:20):
and I'm like, what is going on?
Turns out I parked undera casino bus stop sign.
All these people were justgoing to work and I had no idea.
And they all looking at me.
I'm looking, I'm like, all get outta here.
Yeah, that was the lastWalmart parking lot.
I slept in on the trip.
Well, you're in Denver andyou're staring down the Rockies.

(33:41):
Actually went the next night to family,friend's sister in Denver that I never
met before and stayed at her housefor one night and then I came back
to Denver and went out in Denver.
I like to stop at like the local Harleydealers, not because I like Harley
dealers, but usually there's cool peoplethat work at Harley dealers, like the gear
heads that work there are pretty cool.

(34:01):
So I stopped at this one.
I was like, Hey, what's like agood place to park and sleep?
He's like, oh, you couldpark and sleep here.
We actually have anoutdoor bike storage cage.
I'll leave it dummy lock for youand you could park a trailer in
there and disconnect and go travelthe city on your bike and then
come back at night and sleep.
I was like, oh, that's awesome.
So I did that.
Went out in Denver, had some fun and whenI came back and went to go sleep in the

(34:24):
trailer, there was actually a homeless guysleeping on the other side of the fence.
He shocked me 'cause I didn't know hewas there and he like got up and left
and then the next day the guy let medo that, he is like, Hey, uh, turns
out there was a security alarm on thatfence and I didn't know about it and I
got a call in the middle of the night.
I said it had a, just a false alarmfrom there, though, I left down here.
I hate heights, like I'mterrified of heights.

(34:46):
How am I gonna get to the west coastwithout going over the Rockies?
Right?
I decided to go north, head up tolike Seattle and then I could cut over
when they're like not as big up there.
So that's what I did from there.
Wow.
Yeah.
So that takes you up into like Montanaand Idaho and all the, those states.
I wanted to see those states anyways.
What does that do timeline wise?

(35:07):
'cause you were leaving thenorth to get away from the cold.
Yeah.
And then so you'reheading back to the north.
I think we were like two weeks in atthis point, because I remember where I
spent Halloween, Spokane in Washington.
And so from here I go up to Wyoming.
It was really windy in Wyoming too.
And there's like nothingin Wyoming, so no.
Like really big city.
It's like even Cheyenne isn't that big.

(35:29):
Like I crossed through there and I endup landing in this little town, I think
it was called Glendo, population 200.
So like very small town.
I go to this bar and grab a drink andI'm sitting there with the bartender
and this girl came in, I rememberwith her dog kind of flirting with me,
whatever, but she had a puppy and itwas like pooping and peeing in the bar.

(35:51):
I'm like, this thing's not trainedlike I don't know about this.
I asked this guy, I was like, oh,where's a good place to sleep?
He was like, oh, you can sleep inthe parking lot out back of the bar.
I was like, all right, cool.
But this girl was like flirting with me,trying to get me to go back with her.
But I was like, nah, I don't know,I'm, I'm not going back to like a house
that's got like poop and pee in it.
So I chose the ladder and I, Islept in the trailer that night.

(36:12):
That was the coldest morning Iwoke up, it was 17 degrees out.
I got woke up by a freight train too.
I planned for the call 'cause I boughtheated gear from cycle gear if anybody's
ever looking for good plugin, heatedgear, cycle gear's got really good gear.
So with that on, it's not that bad.
Did their gear have adjustabletemperatures or is it just on off?
It's got like four settingsand it works really well.

(36:35):
At the time they had held a warranty on'em too, which was really nice 'cause they
broke once and I was able to just walkinto another one and grab a new jacket.
Cycle gear is a really good shop.
I kept headed north and I endedin a town called Thermopolis,
Wyoming and Thermopolis.
It's got all like thehot springs in it, right?
Doing some sightseeing there.
I found myself looking at thesewild buffalo walking towards him and

(36:58):
some guy in a car yells out to me.
He goes, you shouldn't get anymore closer to those buffalo.
And I was like, whatever.
What is this Taurus?
He's like, really?
They stopped eating.
They noticed you.
And I was like, all right,this guy might know something.
Right?
So I walk up to him andI start talking with him.
He just has a whole family and everything.
I told him, you know, I'mon my trip or whatever.
He goes, wow, that soundsreally interesting.

(37:19):
Would you want to come over for dinner?
Yeah, I don't, I don't care.
I seem harmless.
He had like a family and stuff.
I was planning to go to his dinner.
I'm like, I wanna go checkout these hot springs.
So I, I went to these hot springsand those are really cool.
It was like a resort from the seventies.
Worked it outdated, but prettycool to like swim in natural pools.
But they have like the hot spring come up.
So I ended up going over tothis guy's house for dinner.

(37:40):
I'm sitting there with him and his wifeand his kids were having dinner and he
ends up having kind of like a crazy story.
He was a Bosnian refugeeand lived in Chicago.
He was living, I guessin a bad area of Chicago.
Saw like kid get like shot cold blood inthe street and he just decided to move
his whole family to this like small town.
Thermopolis, Wyoming and get awayfrom all the crime and stuff.

(38:03):
'cause he like was trying to getaway from in Bosnia as well after
his family went to bed like, andlike really got stories going.
But I was like, all right, so I'mgonna go to bed in my trailer.
He is like, no, you'lljust sleep on my couch.
You sure?
He is like, yeah, so letme sleep on his couch.
Like I always think animals have like agood sense of like feeling good and bad.
His like cat laid on my chest and his dogwas like licking my hand in the middle

(38:25):
of the night and he's like, yeah, whenyou wake up in the morning, my wife will
make you breakfast and then you can go.
He's like, I'll be gone beforeyou get up to go to work.
So I woke up, his wife made me breakfast.
That was quite different to beingin the middle of nowhere and someone
like inviting you in, you know, lotsof nice people I met on this trip.
So you're working your way Wyoming tothe Montanas, Idaho, into Washington.

(38:46):
At this point, actually,I made my way from Opolis.
To a town called Bozeman, Montana.
Anybody that watches Yellowstonehas heard of Bozeman.
Yeah, so funny.
Pre Yellowstone days.
So Bozeman was a Tuesday night and itwas supposed to, I just wanted to chill,
sit at like a bar, just writing myjournals, trying to write my journals
every day, like what's happening?

(39:07):
And I was just gonna do that andcall an early night, go to bed or
whatever, and hit the road again.
And then I met these three guys.
This girl, all of a sudden, like myquiet Tuesday night turned into like
a full fledged party and we're goingfrom like bar to bar drinking and this
other girl they were with, she was byherself pretty well buzzed now she's
like, Hey, I'm having like a littleafter party, you should come by.

(39:28):
So I took her up on the offer andI had my journal with me still.
I ended up going to her houseand we're talking, she's like,
blah, blah, blah, my boyfriend.
And I'm like, wait a minute, youhave a boyfriend and you just dragged
me all the way here to somewhere.
I don't even know.
These guys end up driving me back tomy bike and I end up going to bed on
my bike and then as soon as I got backto my bike, I'm like, oh my God, I

(39:50):
left my journal at this girl's house.
So the next day I wake upand I'm like quite hungover.
I gotta find this journal.
So I like retrace my steps all the wayin town, trying to find out who knows
these people and trying to find thisjournal and I could never find it.
Fast forward to like years later, Ihad an idea how to find this journal.
I lost, I put an ad in the Bozeman.

(40:11):
Paper basically explaining what happened.
One of those guys from thatnight contacted me, said, I
know where your journal's at.
And I was like, no way.
He overheard some women in thehospital talking about this story
and laughing about it, and then hewas like, I was there that night.
Long story short, I nevergot the journal back.
He just lost touch and myjournal's still out there.
This girl, Rachel has it, I guess.

(40:33):
So Rachel, you're out there.
Send me back that journal.
Rewrite tons of stuffin journal number two.
From there, I go up to Spokane,Washington for Halloween, I
dressed like a homeless biker forHalloween, 'cause that's all I had.
I knew a girl that I used to gocamping with when I was younger.

(40:54):
Our families did, she lived in Seattle.
She put me up with her boyfriendin her place for like three days.
So that was cool.
I got to hang out inSeattle, get off the bike.
The best thing I remember fromSeattle was like the salmon.
I'm like, oh my God, I know thisother random girl I met in Sturgis
one time when I was there witha friend of mine years back.
I'm like, I still remember.
I was like, oh, let'ssee what she's doing.

(41:15):
And we met up with somedrinks and whatever and went
out a couple nights later.
From there, I left Seattle and I startedheading down and I went to Portland.
Great City.
I didn't think so.
You think so?
Or what?
It's more laid back than Seattle.
You know, a little less professional.
You can, you can have some fun there.
I was more like nervous, like so manyhomeless people, you know what I mean?

(41:36):
And like there's a cool motorcycleshop there if anybody ever wants
to go called CC Motorcycle Co.
And then Voodoo Donuts.
Yep.
I'm sure people know about Voodoo Donuts.
I went to this little divebar and I was talking to this
bartender, police was called ous.
I was like, Hey, I parked.
My bike on the street next tolike this church looking thing.
I'm like, you think it'sokay if I just sleep there?

(41:58):
It seems like I'm not busy street.
She's like, yeah, I thinkyou'll be fine and whatever.
I was like, all right, cool.
Have a good night.
I wake up the next morning, she sent me apicture of me sleeping in my trailer and I
didn't know it on the side of the street,so I thought that was kind of cool.
That's actually like thepicture you saw on my profile.
Yeah.
It's a beautiful shot too, ofgreat lighting there at night.
Yes.
Got woken up that morning to whatI thought was a tow truck, but was

(42:20):
another street sweeper sweeping there.
I was like, time to get up.
So hit the road south again.
I pretty much startedmaking my way to California.
Are you just following thecoastline the whole way down?
I did in Oregon.
It literally reminded me of the Goonies,you know, it was shot there anyways,
but I, that's all I kept thinking about.
So I followed the coastlinedown to California pretty

(42:40):
much to San Francisco area.
It started getting like really high.
I hate that.
The height thing.
So I went inland, but Iwent to San Francisco.
I was there for a little while.
I always find likeinteresting things at bars.
I guess.
I was at this other bar.
I was talking to this girl, you know, Ireally didn't think anything of it because
her father's name was Larry as well.

(43:01):
So I asked her, at the end ofthe day, I'm like, where should I
park and sleep in San Francisco?
Which was wicked hard tofind parking there to sleep.
She's like, there's no good spot.
So I was like, well, youknow, like I'll figure it out.
Nice meeting you.
She's like, No, I mean youshould like stay with me.
I ended up staying with her for likethree days and she like showed me
around the city and man, she was likea real like San Francisco hippie.

(43:22):
I remember like one night afterwatching a movie, she's like,
oh, you wanna have some popcorn?
Oh yeah.
And I was like, where's your microwave?
She's like, microwave.
She's like, I don't use microwaves.
She did like the Stovetop pubgoing and I was like, wow, you
really have like the old school,like San Francisco hippie thing.
So you had mentioned, you know,you're always fixing the bike kind

(43:42):
of par for the course with thatage of Harley and things like that.
But California is where you findyourself with your first big problem.
And I was gonna gosurprise one of my friends.
I think in Lancaster, California, whichis like a few hours outside of la and
I'm on my way there and all of a suddenI'm going up a big hill and the bike
starts like chucking like really bad.

(44:04):
I was like, oh man, something inmy tree or the clutch or something.
So I get to the top of this hill andI'm able to coast down to a town and
the next morning I, I do an inspectionof the bike and it turns out, I don't
even know how my belt didn't break, buta bunch of teeth on my belt had worn
off, so it was only grabbing every somany revolutions on the rear sprocket.
I call up my buddy who lives in Lancaster.

(44:26):
I was like, Hey, I was gonnasurprise you and just show up.
I just need to know before I get there.
Like, if you have a spot,I could work on my bike.
He's like, oh yeah, no problem.
So I was like, all right, cool.
I'll figure this out and I'll call you.
I came up with an idea.
I end up renting a U-Haul truck.
I put my bike in the back of theU-Haul and then put the trailer
on the back of the U-Haul, and Idrove to his house with the bike
and the, the back and the trailer.

(44:48):
And then I finally got thereand I returned the U-Haul.
Actually it worked out pretty good.
I get pitches of that as well.
I spent like a couple weeks at hisplace fixing the belt on my bike,
actually converted it to chain drive'cause this was like the second
belt I went through on this bike.
Yeah, I'm sure the extra weightin the trailer was definitely
hard on the teeth for them.
Uh, rails, you know, and 89 F XR doesn't leak any oil at all.

(45:09):
Right.
It stops leaking when it's empty.
Very true.
Combination of weight and oil on the belt.
You're all the way on the otherside of the country at this point.
Let's say by bird's flight, youknow, 3000 miles away from home.
How many tires did yougo through at this point?
The first tire I wentthrough, actually it was.
When I had the belt brake, I noticedI needed a tire, so I had the rim off.

(45:31):
So I got my first rear tire there.
So I think the ratio I went throughwas like two to one, two rears to
one front, because you gotta rememberthey had extra weight on the rear.
So it was really like making a curvedtire into a flat tire, you know,
even without pulling a trailer.
I noticed that with my bikes, I tend togo through two groups of extra one front.
Exactly.
It kind of goes that way.
Anyways, I suppose tire pressureand all that makes a difference.

(45:54):
So at this point, how many mileshave you clocked on your journey?
6,000.
Because you gotta remember I'm doingback roads and I'm not going straight
across, two thirds across the UnitedStates, and then I went all the way
up again, starting my descent down.
My next buddy was just in LA so hewas only like two or three hours away.
And then all of a sudden I'm drivingto LA and my bike stops going like,

(46:14):
tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
But not like a tick, like a knock.
Oh my God.
Like really?
I get to my buddy's house, I goto a couple shops and they're
like, oh, you got Pistons.
Slap in your bike.
Which means fortunately,you know, it's top end.
And I was like, no.
So I was like, what am I gonna do now?
So I came up with this like idea like,well, I can fix it myself, but I don't

(46:34):
have any way to work in it because hehad, it was at an apartment and I can't
work on it in the, in the apartment.
So you know what I did?
I actually rented out a storageunit to work on the bike.
The funny thing is the first month's free.
There you go.
Nice.
So I went to these people andI was like, are you sure it's
okay for me to work in there?
I'm like, once I start working in there,I'm like, it's gonna be torn apart.

(46:56):
They're like, yeah,just no sleeping there.
And I was like, why wouldI sleep in a storage unit?
Apparently lots of homeless people aresleeping in storage units in California.
I actually worked with a, uh, a shopout there called South Bay Customs.
That was wicked nice.
I gave him in my cylinders, he had newpistons to order, and then he was gonna
get a machine, I think it was like20 or 30 over to match the pistons.

(47:19):
And so I gave him to him.
Meanwhile, because of this hiccupand the other hiccups, I was supposed
to be like kind of in Arizona bythis time, and I booked a flight
outta Arizona to go back home.
But my grandparents had a 60thwedding anniversary party.
And I was like, I wanna go home no matterwhat, wherever I am for this party.
And it was like Thanksgiving andthen come back and continue my trip.

(47:40):
So I had a flight booked outta Arizonaat another like family, friend's place.
So I was like, how am Igonna get to Arizona from la?
I don't have a car or whatever, a bus.
So I was taking chanceson this trip already.
So I was like, let's uh,keep these chances rolling.
So I went on the old Craigslist andfound this thing called rideshare.
I jumped in with this guy.

(48:01):
It was like 40 bucks.
It was so cheap.
I was like, all right, if thisdoesn't kill me, this is a deal.
Like, yeah.
So I jumped in with this guyand like two other people.
He was driving me to Arizona andI was supposed to meet up with my
family, friend's, husband, and hewas gonna pick me up somewhere near
Phoenix in Arizona and then bringme back to his house and stay there.

(48:21):
And the bike is still instorage at this point?
In storage in la?
Yep.
And all torn apart, like you cansee pictures of it on my Instagram.
I'm getting close, I'm in contactwith this guy and then all of a sudden
my family friend goes, pick me up.
He goes, I'm not gonna make it, man.
I'm gonna fall asleep driving.
He's like, you're gonna have to geta hotel or whatever, or good luck.
I was like, are you serious?
Like two hours away fromarriving or an hour.

(48:43):
The driver of this guy goes to me.
No worries, my friend.
I know a woman who takes somefellow travelers like yourself.
What?
He's like, yeah, she doesn't havea problem with taking in travelers.
I was like, I guess it's eitherthis, so like a $200 hotel room.
So I guess why not?
Right?
At this point, what do you got to lose?
Oh yeah.
So I get out of the car.

(49:04):
Just take my stuff out, meetthis girl for like a second.
This as weird as you think it would be.
Walk in just lizards everywhere.
Well, it was a lizard lady.
Big lizards, small lizards.
It wasn't a dirty house or anything.
It was just lizards everywhere.
All right, here we go.
Here's another chance.
I don't know what I'm getting myself into.

(49:25):
She shows me your room.
She's like, yeah, youcan sleep in there for.
I'm like, oh, shut the door.
I was like, if I get out of thisone alive, there's nothing that's
gonna kill me on the strip.
Well, did you wake upthe lizards licking you?
Like you had the cats and dogs licking?
Man, I was so worried about that.
I woke up, she justshowed me all her lizards.
Took like a three footone, put it on my shoulder.
There's a good pictureof it on my Instagram.

(49:45):
And my guy showed up, finallypicked me up and I was like, I,
I'm happy to not go back there.
Let's put that right.
You may get to Phoenix,you fly home for the party.
Everybody's probably asking,what have you been doing?
You know, you're recounting thestories up until that point.
Yeah, and it's kind of fun.
You're res sinking in normal life, evenif it's for a weekend or for a couple
moments, but now you find yourself bookinga flight back to LA to get your bike.

(50:08):
I was just going back to Phoenix'cause I already made these flights.
So I get back to Phoenix and I waslike, well, what didn't kill me
once probably won't kill me twice.
Right?
You went back to the lizard lady?
No, so I went back toCraigslist to ride share, right?
So I was like, allright, here we go again.
Some woman comes to pick me up, goesto stop the cop breathalyzer on this

(50:30):
car, and then we're driving back tola It's me and like two other guys.
The guy in the front seat withhim, like turns out his mother
got hit by a drunk driver.
They're oddly enough, fine talkingin the front seat the whole way.
And then we get back to LA and Ipretty sure that they like stayed
friends, maybe even more than friends.

(50:50):
But I was a pretty crazy ride as well.
So I get back to la, get my bikeall back together and everything.
I start heading south again to San Diego.
Earlier you were staying off ofmajor Roads, but while you were out
there, did you hit the P C H A littlebit here and there, but again man,
I hate heights and no guardrails.
When something's like nervewracking for me it's not enjoyable
no matter how beautiful it is.

(51:11):
It was more about having experienceswith people, I guess on the strip, get
down to San Diego and I had anotherfriend there, I spent some time with him.
We're in a club one night Iseen him like eat something
and I was like, what was that?
An extracurricular SanDiego was pretty wild.
We end up in like a penthouse,just partying all night.
It was pretty fun there.

(51:32):
But anyways, like after San Diego,I left there and started headed to
Phoenix again, and I get to Phoenix.
You wanted to stop off andsee the lizard lady, right?
No, I was good with the lizard lady.
So I get to Phoenix at this point, and nowit's Christmas and then now it's January
15 was like a crazy winter back in Boston.

(51:52):
My luck struck me that I was in Arizonaand it was a family friend, and I was
like, yeah, I guess I'm gonna keep headinghome now just because I'm traveling.
I was like, I don't want this toobstruct things I normally do in life.
Anyways.
I had some friends back home andthey were planning a trip to Punana.
I was like, all right, I'll takeanother break and I'll go to Punana.
So I actually flew outta Arizona,went to Punana for a wild, crazy

(52:13):
vacation, and then came back there.
So what'd you do with the bike?
Did you leave it in the airportparking lot at that point?
No, at my family friend'shorse ranch in Arizona, I was
ready to leave to go back home.
Now they're like, you're gonnadrive home in the winter.
I.
I don't know, whatever.
I'll get through it.
It's gonna be miserable atpoints, but I'll get through it.
They're like, why don't you just hangout here for the rest of the winter

(52:34):
and then go back in the spring?
Well, you know what,that sounds pretty good.
While I was there, I learned towork a horse ranch, learn to ride
horses, and then I also got part-timejob as a server at a restaurant.
Since I'm like always been likean entrepreneur, I came up with
an ad on Craigslist and I didmobile mechanic work out of my
motorcycle 'cause I had all my tools.

(52:55):
So I made like some decent moneydoing that on the side as well.
How did people respond when youshowed up with the bike and trailer
behind it to work on their stuff?
Well, I wouldn't show up with the trailer.
I'd just show up at the bike 'causethey had like hard saddle bags on it.
Just filled with tools.
Got it.
But I wouldn't ask for any money upfront or any, and then like I'd get into
working on things I wouldn't take on jobs.
I wasn't confident and I couldn'tfix, you know what I mean?

(53:17):
Yeah.
And that worked out pretty well.
And what did I really have to lose?
I was kind of just hanging outanyways, so the time finally
came, first week in April.
I was like, all right, it'stime to hit the road again.
And from there I headed to New Mexico.
Climbing up to those mountains is likegoing from like 75 degree, 80 degree
weather in Phoenix, and then headingup to Flagstaff four hours away.

(53:39):
It dropped to like 40 degrees.
Never realized like how much of adifference it would be up there.
Stayed there one night andthen from there I headed east
to Amarillo, the top of Texas.
But I ended up meeting somepeople at a bar there, and
they let me crash to the place.
It was always crazy how many peoplewere like so easily willing to let you
stay at their place as long as you, theythought you weren't gonna kill them.

(54:01):
I kept rolling east andthen I got into Oklahoma.
Mom.
And when I got into Oklahoma, all of asudden my bike starts cutting out again.
I'm like, oh my God, what's going on?
So I pull over and Ipull out my multimeter.
Now my stater alternator went.
This guy pulled up while I wasbroken down on the side of the road.
He went by too tall, this giant tall guy.

(54:21):
He is like, you're all right?
And I'm like, I don't know.
He's like, well, if you needsomething, gimme a call.
He gave me his card.
I end up calling him.
I was like, Hey, I don'tneed any money or anything.
Like I just need a place to parkmy bike and like work on it and
I'll figure it out from there.
And he's like, yeah, I got a propertyup the street, some trailer or whatever.
He let me park in the drivewayand tear apart my bike.
Him end up being pretty good friendsand it was such a crazy thing.

(54:44):
So where I was living in Arizona wasthis place called Apache Junction, and
he has a winter house out there andhe usually stays there, but he didn't
go there this winter for some reason.
He would've been staying where Ijust came from and I just met him
in the middle of the Oklahoma,getting the bike back together.
He's awesome.
Driving me around all thesedifferent parts, places and
getting parts for the bike.
Put it back together.

(55:04):
But I did notice the motive wasmaking another ticking sound before
I was putting it together, beforeit broke down, sleeping in my trail.
The night before I was supposed to leave,I was like, if there is a guard, if you
can just get me home on this bike inone piece and safe and the bike not blow
up, I don't know what I can do for you.
I'll be ever feel like you're serving.
And the next day I wakeup, go stock the bike.

(55:26):
Still make this ticking sound.
I look over the bike one more time.
There was just a choke cablerattling on top of the motor.
I took a zip tie and tied itdown and the thing sounded mint.
What so crazy.
You know, because I fixed the chargingissue, but I was like hearing him.
Oh my God.
And then that day thebike just like ran great.
So I get down to Dallas, Texas fromthere, and then I shot over from Dallas.

(55:50):
I did a short John toAustin, down to San Antonio.
Nothing happened there.
Then I shoot up to Houston.
That's when I took alittle spill on the bike.
I went down, I was going to a red light.
I went to come to a so, and it waslike big ruts from a tractor trail,
and it put me down, but luckily Iwasn't heard and I was able to fix
whatever I needed at an auto zone.
It wasn't too bad.

(56:11):
From there, I went to New Orleans.
That's another weird city in the UnitedStates that I had a good time there,
but it was so sketchy that I decidedto pay to asleep in a parking garage
that night with the trailer just tofeel like it had some safety to me.
So I paid like 20 bucks to sleep ina garage, and I was happy to do it.
I leave and I go to Memphis, butthen I tracked back to Nashville

(56:33):
to see all my friends again, hangout with them for a couple days.
Do you ever do Tail of the Dragon?
Yeah, I did that with the trailer andthat was, oh my God, that was phenomenal.
That was really awesome.
I'm amazed you were able to do,are you, I'm sure you weren't
flying up the tail of the dragon.
I actually got another tire there atthe base of it and everybody's like,
you can't bring the trailer up there.

(56:53):
It's crazy.
And the guy doing my tires like,I think it'll be all right.
I was like, yeah, I thinkI'm going with your advice.
Well, the thing with the tail, onceyou get up there, you gotta go back
down 'cause there's nothing youcan do once you get to the top.
Yeah, I know.
But I was lucky because I thinkit was in like the middle of
the week, like a Tuesday orsomething, so it wasn't as crowded.
So up to Asheville, stay there for a nightand then now I'm back down in Charlotte.

(57:15):
So Richmond was my last night on the road.
That day was like a pretty good stretch.
That was 666 miles.
I remember that day was wicked sketchy.
Even from like the morning I woke upthat morning, somebody almost hit me
in the parking lot of the hotel I wasstaying at and like, oh boy, riding home
over some crazy bridge, a tractor trail,like almost pushed me off the road.
I remember my father get home andyou know, me and my father met up.

(57:38):
We cracked a beer and a shot together,and I was just glad to be home.
The craziest part about the storyhappens the next morning, and this
is gonna sound like a country song,but I let my mother borrow my car.
She blew the clutch out in it, soI had a running car before I left.
Then I had a truck and I had aflat tire, so I couldn't take that.
So all I wanted to do is see mygrandmother and drink a coffee with her.

(58:00):
I got on the bike very reluctantlyand I got an iced coffee and then
I pull outta this iced coffee shop.
Going down the road nice andslow, not to spill my coffee.
And somebody I know from high schoolhit me on my bike and in a bad
accident, pretty much totaled the bike.
And I went flying over the handlebarsand I smashed out the windshield of a
car and I'm like laying there in shock.

(58:22):
From the accident, but also from like,you gotta be kidding me, I just did
15,000 miles and seven months on the bikeand this happened two miles from home.
Hence the title of the bookthat you're writing, right?
The Traveling Larry.
Two miles too many.
I'm laying there, right?
These people come from like ahairdresser salon helping me out.
I felt my back and it was all cutup and I had blood on my hands.

(58:45):
I was like, just tell it to me straight.
It's my spinal cord hanging out.
Like am I gonna be paralyzed?
And they're like, no, Ithink you're gonna be okay.
You just have some scratches.
So I start telling 'em allabout the trip and they must
think I'm like out of it, right?
My dad's friend live right thereas well, and he heard something
and he came over and he seemed likeon social media what I was doing.
And he was like, you'renot gonna believe this.

(59:06):
This guy just got backfrom traveling the country.
These people's faces, I'llnever forget their face.
They're like in shock that I wasreally telling them the truth.
That was it, but it reallymade me question some things.
That's a hell of a journeythat you went on there, Larry.
Would you do it again?
Have you made any plans to doanother trip like this in the future?
Yeah, I would definitely do it again, butI wouldn't do it across the U S A i'd.

(59:27):
I'd wanna do a different country.
Maybe like Europe or Africa, knowingthat people in general seem to be
very nice wherever you go makesdoing a trip like this a lot easier.
You know, mentally I wouldn'tdo it with a trailer again.
I would try something else.
I would try to be more adventurousin planning out a route to maybe stay
with like strangers or something.

(59:47):
Like they had this thing called couchsurfing.com or something where like
people would randomly take you in.
But actually another guy, thatguy too tall told me about this
book called the Gold Book, whichis a gold wing member's book.
They have like stages in the bookfrom like letting someone fully stay
in your house to like letting themwrench on your bike in their driveway.
And it was like people all overthe country we're in this book.

(01:00:07):
So you could probably like callup these people and say, Hey, I'm
gonna passing through, could I likesleep in your yard with a tent?
In retrospect, knowing that people arelike nicer than I thought to believe.
I would probably take morechances with staying at different
places and ditch the trailer.
Would you do it with a bikeagain or with something else?
No, I'd love to do it with a bike.
Again, I'm a little older now,so definitely like the newer

(01:00:29):
B M W and like the B M W couldallow you to go off road as well.
So on this trip, were there any keysections of the journey road wise that
were some of your favorite roads to be on?
West Virginia was absolutely beautiful.
And then Montana was awesometoo because Montana, I feel like
you're always riding a river.
The roads kind of like Fall Riversfor some reason, from what I

(01:00:50):
remember, Northern Idaho with thelakes like coming up on the mountains
on quarter d'Alene and stuff.
So it sounds like you only have a handfulof states, at least on the continental
US that you haven't been to yet.
I actually have only three left Arkansas.
I was right near, I put 'em like, Ijust couldn't see why I needed to go
to Arkansas, so I didn't North Dakota,which I should have been to, 'cause I've

(01:01:11):
been to Sergi like three or four times.
It's right above it.
And then Alaska.
Even Hawaii though, I made it apoint, I went there one time, I
rented a Harley to say I rode amotorcycle in that state as well.
Very cool.
Are there any like key locationsthrough this trip you took that you
would recommend to people to visit?
I'm sure what Bozeman is gettingblown up because of Yellowstone,
but Bozeman was pretty sweet.

(01:01:32):
That Thermopolis place inWyoming was really cool too.
That's like a hiddengem the way to Amarillo.
Do you ever hear Cadillac Ranch?
Yeah.
That's sweet.
I actually did.
I actually painted on theresomething like the traveling Larry.
Nice because it just getscovered up with spray paint.
But the Cadillac ranch is pretty trippy.
It's literally in the middle ofnowhere and it's just like there.

(01:01:53):
Then also if you go to Mount Rushmore andmake sure you check out Crazy Horse right
next to it that nobody ever checks out.
That's another cool.
You got Deadwood outin Wyoming too, right?
Deadwood's cool too.
Yep.
Costa State Park.
That's awesome.
That's great riding.
It's been about eightyears since the trip.
You're looking back over yourcopious notes, your journals,
everything, all jokes aside.

(01:02:14):
That really is the title of the book.
You're working on the Traveling Larry,two miles Too many, and you've embarked
on this journey of 80,000 words.
Is that the new challenge for you istrying to chronicle all this to get all
the details in and put the book together?
How's that going?
Yeah, the hottest partis nothing for nothing.
I went to a tech school, right?
Taking the journals and writingthe journals was easy because I

(01:02:36):
just wrote down what happened.
It wasn't a big deal.
Right?
Whereas there was something as mundaneas eating a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich to staying with the lizard lady.
So I'm voicing the journals speakinginto the computer and putting 'em
in the computer now, but I gottago back grammatically fix 'em.
That's the tedious part, and I hate it.
So if anyone out there has a bettersolution, a way to do this, I'm all ears.

(01:02:58):
But what I think I wanna take from here,I got the physical journals in front of
me, but I'd like to give it to somebodyin the raw form and have 'em cut it up
and say, you know, who cares about this?
No one cares that this happened,but like take the good stuff out and
make it more like a readable book.
It's kind of similar to a bookthat was just published recently.
It was Alan Rickman, the actorthat passed away, who played Snape

(01:03:21):
on Harry Potter, if you recall.
He is been in a bunch of films.
He was also in the original Die Hard.
He would write journals every daywhile he was on the movie sets and
whatnot, and they turned it into a book.
Oh, really?
Absolutely fascinating to look at hishandwriting and his doodles and all
this kind of stuff that's in the book.
It's the worst coffee stainsand all the stains on the, but
it gives it that originality.
Yeah, it gives it that uniqueness.

(01:03:42):
Right.
It's pretty cool.
I lost that first journal, so I got smartand I wrote a note on the next journal
and wouldn't you know it, I lost anotherjournal, but because I wrote that note,
some girl shipped it back to me and shewrote like an excerpt in the journal.
As I was writing, I would take like apause and write, be like, Hey, I'm in
a Starbucks right now and wherever.
So, and I'd like put in my ownthoughts as I was writing and maybe

(01:04:05):
things that were going on at the time.
I finished the physical writings back inMay of 2020, so it took me like five years
just to get caught up in the journals.
You know how it is just life's busy.
I run two businesses and try to focusthis on much as I can, but it, you know,
you're still gonna make a paycheck.
I got like an end date.
Everything should be in the computerand ready to hand off to somebody.

(01:04:27):
I don't know who that somebody is.
If anybody else is listening andis an editor and you want to get in
contact with me free to give themthe wrong stuff and edit it down.
Probably August 1st, I should be done.
I've actually put it on atimeline where it's realistic now.
Like any journey, it all startswith that first turn of the
wheel or that first step.
So you're well on your way for sure.
So what would you say is maybe thebiggest thing you learned from the

(01:04:50):
trip when you leave New England?
People are super nice.
I mean, people are nicein New England too.
Everybody's super nice and it's weirdhow the media like will make it seem
like we live in such a harsh world.
But then you really get out thereand start meeting all new people
and everybody's super nice.
People are so willing tohelp just for nothing.
The other thing, money and happiness,they don't exactly correlate.

(01:05:13):
They're not linear.
You know?
I've had more money and I've hadless money, but this trip definitely
had less money and living less.
And I was more happy sometimes onthis trip than other parts of my life.
I would say experiences can bring youmore happiness than money sometimes.
And then the other one is getting backto the end of the trip when I got hit.
I'm a spiritual guy.
I don't know how religious I'd say Iam, but it proved to me that God exists

(01:05:35):
because when I said those prayers inOklahoma, he did exactly what he said.
He got me home safe.
After that you were on your own.
And then after that I was on my own.
And then I had a cousin who'spretty spiritual and religious,
and she goes, that's the thing.
I was like, what do you mean?
That's the thing.
She's like, you try tomake a deal with God.
If you just had asked him tohelp you, he would've helped you.
And I do.

(01:05:55):
I do feel like God was saying, whyare you trying to make deals with me?
Just should have asked.
Because that accident, I could have died.
It was really bad.
Like my head smashed out thewindshield of the car and I was
so lucky that I was wearing a fullface helmet and saved my life.
I think that it waskinda like a nudge to me.
People should be more spirituallyaware of God in this life and just

(01:06:16):
be happy for what you have too.
You know?
Because like I said, I didn'thave a lot on that trip, but I was
generally happy from the momentyou set everything in motion.
There was that turmoil, the business,the girlfriend, all that kind of stuff.
And then let's say almost ayear later you come back home.
Were you a different person?
Oh yeah.
You know, I'm much differentthan most of my friends.
Like I can walk up toanybody and talk to them.

(01:06:37):
Even now sometimes, like I still havethat yearning to be in like a place
where I don't know anybody and be alittle uncomfortable just because you
have better experiences sometimes.
Being on the trip made me realizethat the materialistic things we
have aren't as important as peoplereally make them out to be, you know?
To get that next iPhone or whatever.
That next one up doesn't really matter.

(01:06:59):
There's like way more importantthings if you just look what's
in front of you and be grateful.
I think life will treat you better.
So Larry, we've come to that point ofthe episode where I'd like to ask the
final question, which is any shout outs,promotions, or anything else you'd like
to share that we haven't covered thus far?
Just I guess if anyone wantedto follow me, follow me on
Instagram at the traveling Larry.

(01:07:19):
Anybody who does publishing orediting or anything of that matter
might want to help me with my story.
I would be happy for that and, and maybeanybody who's in film or something.
'cause I feel like this would make likea great Netflix series or something.
I don't know.
I just wanna tell my storyand get it out to the world.
Shout out to everybodyon the trip that I met.
They were really nice people andif anybody hears this, I'd love

(01:07:42):
to hear from anybody I met on thetrip, and, uh, Rachel, if you've
got my journal, please send it back.
So Larry realized that his journey wasn'tjust about getting away from his problems,
it was about discovering something newwithin himself and putting the courage
to face his challenges, his head on.
And with that newfound strength,he knew that he could take on
anything life through his way.

(01:08:03):
We've said it many times before.
It's not about the destination,it's about the journey.
And the story is a great exampleof that motto, big times.
Lessons learned, lessons learnedand spiritual maturity are captured
in the stories surrounding his epicadventure found in the pages of the
Traveling Larry, two miles Too many.
You're interested in learning moreor picking up a copy of Larry's book?
Sure.
To follow him on social mediaat Larry that Benedictus on

(01:08:26):
Facebook or at the Traveling Larryon Instagram for more details.
That's right.
And Larry, I can't thank youenough for coming on Break Fix and
sharing this story with everybody.
And I tell you what, you know, we didn'treally talk maybe too much about the
bike, but the bike is what broughtyou on all these adventures and it's
really a story about man and machine andlike Dan said about spiritual maturity

(01:08:48):
and that whole cycle of when you lefthome and when you came back and how it
changed you and the bike did all of that.
Good, bad, and indifferent.
I admire what you did and I'm gladyou're gonna keep doing it and
maybe doing it in other parts of theworld, you know, congratulations and
you know, let us know how it goes.
Thanks Eric, appreciate it.
I love being on here.
And if you know I can help you guysout in any way, feel free to reach out.

(01:09:15):
If you like what you've heard and wantto learn more about G T M, be sure to
check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
You can also find us on Instagramat Grand Tour Motorsports.
Also, if you want to get involved or havesuggestions for future shows, you can call
our text us at (202) 630-1770 or send usan email at Crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.

(01:09:38):
We'd love to hear from you.
Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
We really hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Break Fix, and we wanted
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