Saying goodbye to Thomas

Our group got smaller today.  You see we had picked up two other single traveling bikers.  Thomas has been traveling  with us 10 days and was like a member of the family. Brent was the other.  Both had similar bikes as Willie-the BMW GS1200 Adventure. It is the perfect bike for the trip up the Dalton Hwy. Similarity has the ability to create an instant kinship. We met Thomas early on our way up the Alaska Hwy.  After running into him 4 times, we laughed and said why don't you just join us? So we road together, ate together, and camped together for 10 days.  Brent was going our way on the Dalton. We met up with him about halfway up at Coldfoot Camp. He was with us two days and nights. He lives in Anchorage.  He is engaged.  We kidded him about being gone from his fiance but found out she just wanted him out so she could lock in some wedding plans. (No wonder he rode so fast!). Brent was mid 30s and an aircraft mechanic.

Thomas was also the same age and a mechanical engineer from South Carolina by way of South Africa.  He had finished some contract work and was on his way back to South Africa but was taking a couple of months to travel North America. He has a great personality and always contributes to the team, always willing to share his knowledge and wisdom.

I will tell you that riding in the extreme NW, one gets the chance to meet with other bikers. There are many riders on the road up here.  You generally meet each other at the gas stops since there are only a limited number of them. You sometimes see each other multiple times as with so few roads, everyone is typically following the same route as us.  For instance, there was the guy from Mississippi, also on a GS1200, that we ran into at McDonalds in Whitehorse and again at a restaurant in Hyder. Now he was a case of similarity without kinship. He was the type of guy that during the first 30 seconds you heard about all his multiple bikes, why they were the best and how he knows everything about every subject. I guess we know why he rides alone.

All that to say, if it is that hard to say goodbye to a fellow biker after 10 days, how hard is it to say goodbye to your own flesh and blood that you have raised from birth? I am in that phase of my life now. Two are out of the house, and my last one will leave for college in about 3 weeks.  I am lucky though because I get to see them often as they are living in town. 
It is these things that you get to think about when you have a lot of "helmet time".  Speaking of which, we got to make the run through Jasper National Park yesterday in Alberta, Canada. It was like Yosemite only it was 50 miles long. Today, we get to see Glacier National Park as we will be back to the lower 48. I'm looking forward to that.

Enjoy the pictures.