Tag Archives: Dad

Dad Visits

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Last Tuesday, my dad finally arrived in Seattle. He’s been on the road since August 26th. Total road miles = ~4500. His vehicle = 2000 Harley-Davidson Road King plus a trailer. It’s an impressive trip. From his home in Minnesota her rode to Pheonix, AZ for a family reunion. From Pheonix he went to High Voltage Tattoo in Los Angeles, CA to get a new tattoo. This shop is run by Kat van Dee, tattooist from LA Ink on Discovery Channel. Dad tried for months to get an appointment with Kat, but was unable to get a reply from anyone. So he settled on one of the staff tattooist and a walk-in. That tattoo looks great and he walked away with a free hoody from the shop.

The big part of his trip was traveling up Highway 1 from LA to Legget, OR. It’s something that he’s wanted to do for years. The drive took about four days. He camped a couple of nights along the way. Drove through the Giant Sequoias in California, Big Sur, San Francisco. It finally arrived in Seattle late Tuesday September 9th.

We did the usual tourist things – The Space Needle, rode the Ducks and Mono Rail, the Underground tour, and the Smith Building. So he got a bit of Seattle city flavor. One night, we took in the SinnerSaint Burlesque [link]. I made an extra $120 bucks at the ATM. I never realized that the machines are part slots. And we were comped seats by the MC. All in all, a great night.

The only rough patch of the whole visit was our aborted trip to Mt. Rainier. We wanted to take his motorcycle for a ride through Mt. Rainier park. In Puyallup, we missed a turn. A block later we made a u-turn and dumped the motorcycle. Neither of us were hurt, but his motorcycle’s clutch handle was broken. We gerry-rigged it with a shoestring and rode back home. Dad has been riding motorcycles since before I was born. In all the years that I have ridden bitch this was our first accident.

Dad left this week on Wednesday morning and made it home this afternoon. It wasn’t a spectacular vacation full of adventures, I know. This visit is just about family. My family does great job of hanging out together. We BS, kid, and catch up. If the narrative wasn’t exciting for you, then check out the pics below.

The Mom & Pop Tour 2006: Week 1

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The Mom and Pop tour is about visiting family. You might ask “Ted, why the hell would you take vacation time to visit family? Why don’t you go to an exotic locale with equally exotc women that refuse to wear more than a square foot of material?” Now that I read that question from the comfort of my Mom’s glider rocker I have to ask myself the same thing. Truth be told, I don’t see my family all that much. I have lived in Germany, Japan, both US coasts and points in between. Travel for the sake of seeing something different was a job for my family. Vacations were used to remind relatives what we looked like.

The first week of the tour was spent with Dad. Alexandria, MN doesn’t offer much in entertainment or unique scenery. I do miss the open fields and rolling hills. The big event for us was participating in escorting the the Traveling Wall from St. Cloud, MN to Long Prairie, MN. We rode with a group of forty bikers from the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of veterans. The ride was about eighty miles total and lead by local highway patrol, sheriff, and fire department. Riding bitch offered me a perch to capture images of the countryside.

Seattle is a deceptive city. Full of trees. Access to open water. Lots of parks and nature friendly pathways. It’s still a city cluttered with concrete and glass. Sure everything I want is a walk away. However, I scuff my knuckles on facades when I try to spread my arms wide. Minnesota is a prairie state. Once away from the Cities, the landscape opens up. It’s cornfields, lakes, ponds, and the occasional farmsteads a’la Rockwell. From the back of a motorcycle (“ridin’ bitch” if you didn’t already know) affords the traveler an unobstructed perch like no other. No vertical roof supports to dice the horizon. No glass blocking the Sun and wind. It might have been only a day in a life, but the seven hours on the back of Dad’s bike is worth seven in the sun anywhere else.